Comparison

Simple Envelope Budgeting vs Digital Budget

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Simple Envelope Budgeting

Digitize your financial efforts with this straightforward budgeting app. It uses a color-coded envelope system to help you track spending, set savings goals, and avoid going over budget. Syncs across devices without ads or in-app purchases.

Highlights
  • iCloud Sync
  • Savings Goals
  • Color-Coded Envelopes
  • Budget Overspend Indicator
  • Search Function
  • Ad-Free Experience
Features
Read full description

All The Features You Want: - Syncs Via iCloud to All of Your Devices - Goals for Savings - Color-Coded Envelopes - Supports iPhone and iPad - Search Function to Quickly Find Envelopes - Filters for Viewing Specific Transactions and Expenses - Indicates When You Are Over Budget None of the Features You Don't: - No Ads - No In-App Purchases to Unlock Full Functionality - No Syncing with Your Bank Account (I've never found an app that does this in a useful manner anyways) Creating a budget is a crucial element of financial success. Without tracking your spending, even the fanciest of excel sheets are deemed useless. Simple Envelope is the easiest, quickest, and most efficient way to monitor and execute your budgets. Based on the physical envelope method, Simple Envelope is here to help you digitize your financial efforts so you can easily track your spending habits. Tracking family allowances? Instead of making trips to the bank, leave everyone's allowance in the bank and keep it all in digital envelopes instead! Simple envelope strives to make tracking your budgets as easy as 1,2,3! Simply create new “envelopes” with your budget's desired name and monetary amount. As you spend, add in your expenditures to see where and how you spend your money - Simple in and Simple out.

About

Digital Budget

Manage your finances with a personal budgeting app that allows you to track income, expenses, and set aside money for specific purposes. Plan for future 'what-if' scenarios and visualize your spending habits with helpful charts. Syncs data across iCloud-enabled devices.

Highlights
  • Monthly budget planning
  • Envelope spending tracking
  • Scenario builder for future planning
  • Graphical spending trend analysis
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Apple Watch companion app
  • Siri Shortcuts integration
Features
Read full description

Digital Budget is your own personal hassle-free go-to budgeting app. Budget without any external accounts and have all your data sync across iCloud-enabled devices. PLAN YOUR MONTHLY BUDGET Track all of your income, expenses, and envelopes to plan your monthly budget. Mark items as paid, or see them warn you when the due date is upcoming or past. Quickly see a variety of totals and know how well you’re sticking to your budget. TRACK DAILY ENVELOPE SPENDING* Your envelopes are a representation of money set aside for a specific purpose in the month (i.e. groceries). However, we don’t always spend exactly that much per month. So, you can add spending expenses quickly to track how much of the envelope has been spent, or how much needs to be reassessed and/or moved to compensate for over spending. PLAN WITH THE SCENARIO BUILDER* Life is full of what ifs. What if I bought a new car? What if I moved? What if I changed jobs? Now, you can create Scenarios that don’t touch or affect your official monthly budget. Plan for the what ifs and know if you can afford to make changes to your budget. VIEW GRAPHICAL TRENDS* Numbers on the screen are just text. View the graphical trends of your spending habits monthly or in a custom range. Are you spending more per month than you expected? Have you spent more than you budgeted in your envelopes? See where there are anomalies in order to try and fix it before the next month’s budget starts. WIDGET SUPPORT* Various Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets allow for quick updates to your budget without opening the app. Quickly see budget metrics for the current month, see expenses that are due in the next week, and see envelope progress for the current month. (The envelope widget is customizable to which envelope you want to see for the current month.) WATCHOS COMPANION APP* View your current month's budget straight on your Apple Watch in the companion app. See the status of all budget items along with the status of your envelopes (amount and all expenses). Includes various watch face complications for quick glances throughout the day. SIRI SHORTCUTS INTEGRATION NEW! Two preconfigured shortcuts are available to be run from anywhere (Spotlight Search, Shortcuts, asking Siri, etc.). The first is Due Soon, which shows you which budget items are coming due in the next week without opening the app or the widget. The second is Record Expense* (this is exclusive to subscribers to record an envelope expense). These shortcuts can also be utilized in the Shortcuts app to automate your budget and make it work for you. *Always ad-free and free use to create a simple monthly budget (using a limited number of envelopes and budget items). Additional app features require Budget Pass. DIGITAL BUDGET PASS Purchasers of the Digital Budget Pass gain these benefits over free users: -Unlimited budget items (income, expenses, and envelopes) -Track daily envelope spending -View graphical trends -Plan with the Scenario Builder -Access home and Lock Screen widget -Access the watchOS companion app and watch face complications -Access to the Record Expense Siri Shortcut Subscribe with your Apple ID and manage in your Apple subscriptions, or pay once and unlock forever. All data is processed on device, stored in your private iCloud container and shared securely between all your personal devices signed in to the same Apple ID. Budget on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Silicon Mac and have your data sync automatically. No data is collected from you, ever. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Simple Envelope Budgeting4 screens
Digital Budget4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Digital Budget at 100% against Simple Envelope Budgeting's 38%. Digital Budget also leads on price (Free vs $2.99) and rating (5.0 vs 3.7). Simple Envelope Budgeting's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ratings volume, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Digital Budget is free to download; Simple Envelope Budgeting costs $2.99 up front. Digital Budget sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Simple Envelope Budgeting asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Digital Budget holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of Simple Envelope Budgeting's written reviews are positive against 100% of Digital Budget's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simple Envelope Budgeting ships an update monthly, Digital Budget every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Simple Envelope Budgeting versus Digital Budget: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple Envelope BudgetingDigital Budget
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating3.7 (11 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings11 — better6
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFrank HerringBryant Foster

Customer experience

Simple Envelope Budgeting

All ratings11 ratings
Positive63.6%
Neutral9.1%
Negative27.3%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral25.0%
Negative37.5%

Digital Budget

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Simple Envelope Budgeting

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Digital Budget

Subscriptions2
  • Budget Pass - Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Budget Pass - Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$39.99

Questions

Is Simple Envelope Budgeting free?
Simple Envelope Budgeting costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Digital Budget free?
Digital Budget is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Simple Envelope Budgeting or Digital Budget?
Digital Budget is rated higher. Simple Envelope Budgeting averages 3.7 out of 5 from 11 ratings, while Digital Budget averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Simple Envelope Budgeting or Digital Budget have ads?
Neither Simple Envelope Budgeting nor Digital Budget shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simple Envelope Budgeting or Digital Budget?
Simple Envelope Budgeting ships an update monthly, and Digital Budget every 5 days. Most recently, Simple Envelope Budgeting was updated on September 10, 2026 and Digital Budget on June 1, 2026.

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