Comparison

Budget Planner vs Spendful

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

Head to head
About

Budget Planner

This expense journal helps you build healthier spending habits and eliminate unwanted expenses. Track daily expenditures, reflect on spending decisions, and monitor your financial journey with visual progress reports. Organize expenses into customizable categories for easier pattern identification.

Highlights
  • Track daily expenditures
  • Reflect on spending decisions
  • Visual progress reports
  • Customizable expense categories
  • Secure data storage
  • User-friendly interface
Features
Read full description

Transform Your Spending Habits with Sponder! Sponder is the expense journal designed to help you build healthier spending habits and eliminate unwanted expenses. With Sponder, you gain full control over your financial journey through daily reflections and insightful progress tracking. With Sponder, you can easily record your daily expenditures, maintaining a clear overview of where your money is going. Each day, you can take a moment to reflect on your spending decisions, helping you understand and improve your financial habits. Visual progress reports make it easy to monitor your financial journey, highlighting your achievements and areas for improvement. You can organize your expenses into customizable categories that fit your lifestyle, making it simpler to identify spending patterns. Your data is securely stored, ensuring your financial information remains private and protected. Sponder’s user-friendly interface makes it easy for anyone to start tracking and reflecting on their expenses. Gain valuable insights into your spending habits with detailed analytics and visualizations. Foster a healthier relationship with money by regularly reflecting on your financial choices. Download Sponder now and start your journey to healthier spending habits! EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Spendful

This app offers a minimalist approach to tracking your expenses, focusing on privacy and manual entry. Visualize your spending habits with intuitive charts and organize purchases into custom groups. It's designed for users who want a clear, ad-free overview of their financial activity.

Highlights
  • Manual spend tracking
  • Visual spending charts
  • Custom spend groups
  • Inflation adjustment
  • Siri Shortcuts integration
  • CSV import/export
  • iCloud sync
  • Privacy-focused
Features
Read full description

Spendful is a minimalist, privacy-first spend tracker. Log purchases manually to become more mindful of your habits. Then, visualize your data with clean, intuitive charts to spot patterns over time. It’s that simple—no bank connections, no ads, no one peeking at your data. Just clear charts, seamless data entry, custom categories, and data you fully own—secure in your personal iCloud account. Features: • Visual summaries: Understand your spending at a glance with clean, beautiful charts and simple category breakdowns by week, month, quarter, or year. • Spend Groups: Organize expenses into separate collections — personal, business, household, travel (anything!) — each independently synced in iCloud. • Inflation adjustment: Understand real changes in your spending habits by adjusting for inflation, powered by IMF economic data. • Siri Shortcuts: Track purchases hands-free — just say "Hey Siri, track spending." • CSV import & export: Bring your existing data in and take it with you anytime. • iCloud sync: Your data lives exclusively in your iCloud account, synced automatically across all your Apple devices. • Privacy by design: Your data is safe. All data is stored securely in iCloud, belongs entirely to you, and is never collected or shared. • Ad-free: Focus on understanding your spending without distractions—no ads, no clutter. • Sharing: Collaborate with household members or travel companions on shared expenses. Make a spend group for each use case and share them independently (one time in-app purchase required). • Multi-currency: Log expenses in any currency and convert automatically using daily exchange rates across 30+ currencies (one-time in-app purchase required). • Recurring expenses: Track rent, subscriptions, and other repeating costs (one-time in-app purchase required). ~ How much do you spend?  Where does it go?  The more you track, The more you know. ~

Screenshots

Budget Planner4 screens
Spendful4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Budget Planner at fortnightly against Spendful's every 4 months. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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

Both are free to download. Budget Planner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Spendful sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Spendful holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 5 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Budget Planner ships an update fortnightly, Spendful every 4 months. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Budget Planner versus Spendful: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBudget PlannerSpendful
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (12 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings12 — better5
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMihail KuznecovsAllegra Laro

Customer experience

Budget Planner

All ratings12 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Spendful

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Budget Planner

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Annual3 Days trial$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$19.99
2 purchases

Spendful

One-time2
  • Full versionFree
  • Full version$9.99

Questions

Is Budget Planner free?
Budget Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Spendful free?
Spendful is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Budget Planner or Spendful?
Spendful is rated higher. Budget Planner averages 4.8 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Spendful averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Budget Planner or Spendful have ads?
Neither Budget Planner nor Spendful shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Budget Planner or Spendful?
Budget Planner ships an update fortnightly, and Spendful every 4 months. Most recently, Budget Planner was updated on October 30, 2026 and Spendful on October 30, 2026.

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