Comparison

Jotter vs Quick Expense Tracker

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

Head to head
About

Jotter

Manually log your expenses to understand your spending habits and save money. Offers custom categories, budgeting tools, and data export. Your financial data stays private on your device.

Highlights
  • Manual expense logging
  • Customizable categories with emojis
  • Daily, weekly, and monthly budgets
  • Per-category budgets and savings goals
  • Clean charts and data export (CSV/PDF)
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Full offline support
Features
Read full description

Jotter is a small, quiet expense book for people who want to know exactly where their money went, and who would rather type it in themselves. Free to download. No ads, no bank logins, and your spending never leaves your phone. WHY TYPE IT IN YOURSELF Most money apps connect to your bank and do the work for you. The trouble is that you stop noticing. Jotter takes the opposite line. You log each spend by hand, it takes about ten seconds, and it makes you actually look at the number. Noticing is most of the trick. FREE, FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIKE • Unlimited expenses, no cap and no nagging • Built-in categories with icons • Recurring bills and subscriptions that log themselves • The spending calendar, with daily and monthly totals • CSV and PDF export, any time, so your data is never stuck • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets • Works fully offline, on a plane or underground • Multiple currencies for travelling • Private sync through your own iCloud JOTTER PRO Pro turns the log into something that tells you things. Start with a free trial and see all of it before you decide. • Eleven spending insights: needs versus wants, category breakdown, forecast, biggest day, weekend versus weekday, time of day, small purchases, top expenses and more • Budgets you can set and edit • Savings goals with progress you can see • Streaks and milestones • Your own categories, in your own colours • Saved motivations for why you are doing this Pro is a subscription, and you can cancel any time in your Apple account settings. Everything you have already logged stays yours either way. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No bank connections. No Open Banking. No account to create. Your spending never touches a server we run, because there isn't one. It lives on your iPhone and syncs through your personal iCloud, and that is the whole architecture. Two things do leave the phone and neither is your money: a subscription check with the App Store, and an anonymous crash report if Jotter ever stops working. The usage analytics that used to be in the app were removed in this update. Built by one person on the Gold Coast. I read and answer every email. alex@appnerd.com.au Jotter Pro is an auto-renewing subscription, offered monthly or annually with a 7-day free trial. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel any time in your Apple account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://theappnerd.github.io/privacy.github.io/

About

Quick Expense Tracker

Read full description

Track every expense in seconds. No bank account, no linking, no surveillance. Expense Tracker is built for people who want to see where their money goes without handing over their bank login to a third party. Log a purchase, pick a category, done: the whole thing takes less time than finding your card. WHY MANUAL, ON PURPOSE Bank-linked apps are convenient until they're not: outages, security scares, endless "reconnect your account" prompts. Expense Tracker skips all of that. Your data stays on your device, nobody's servers, nobody's ads, nobody's business but yours. Take it with you any time: Pro exports everything you've logged as a spreadsheet. FREE, FOREVER, FOR REAL • Unlimited expense logging • 7 built-in categories • This month's spending at a glance The core never expires and never asks for a card. Every new install also gets 21 days of Pro to try; when that ends, the free core keeps working exactly as before. Nothing you already logged ever gets locked away. GO PRO IF YOU WANT MORE • Unlimited custom categories • Advanced reports & spending trends • Home screen widget • Extra themes • Export everything as a spreadsheet Pro is a one-time purchase. Pay once and it's yours on this Apple ID, forever, because we don't think a budgeting app should nag you with a subscription if you'd rather not have one. Simple. Private. Yours. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://digitaldoctorltd.com/privacy.html

Screenshots

Jotter4 screens
Quick Expense Tracker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Jotter at daily against Quick Expense Tracker's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Jotter sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Quick Expense Tracker sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Jotter ships an update daily, Quick Expense Tracker every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Jotter versus Quick Expense Tracker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJotterQuick Expense Tracker
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlexander ThompsonDigital Doctor LTD

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Jotter

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Annual Pro Subscription7 Days trial$12.991 Year
3 purchases

Quick Expense Tracker

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Pro Annual$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is Jotter free?
Jotter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Quick Expense Tracker free?
Quick Expense Tracker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Jotter or Quick Expense Tracker have ads?
Neither Jotter nor Quick Expense Tracker shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Jotter or Quick Expense Tracker?
Jotter ships an update daily, and Quick Expense Tracker every 2 weeks. Most recently, Jotter was updated on October 11, 2026 and Quick Expense Tracker on October 18, 2026.

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