Purpose Budget vs Paykeep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Purpose Budget
Take full control of your finances with zero-based envelope budgeting. Assign every dollar to a purpose, track spending, and gain insights into your financial health. Link bank accounts, categorize transactions, and monitor your net worth with detailed reports.
- Zero-based envelope budgeting
- Assign income to categories
- Track spending and goals
- Link bank accounts (Premium)
- Automatic transaction import (Premium)
- Net worth and spending reports
- Multi-currency support
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Purpose Budget gives you full control of your finances with zero-based envelope budgeting. Every dollar gets a purpose — assign your income to categories, track your spending, and know exactly where your money goes. Purpose Budget is a subscription service. New subscribers start with a 2-month free trial; an auto-renewing subscription is required to keep using the app after the trial. BUDGETING MADE SIMPLE • Assign every dollar to a category — rent, groceries, savings, and more • Set monthly targets and track progress toward your goals • Move money between categories when plans change • Get alerts when you're overspending or underfunded CONNECTED ACCOUNTS • Link your bank accounts securely with Plaid (Premium) • Transactions import automatically — no manual entry needed (Premium) • Add manual accounts for cash, investments, or anything else • Reconcile balances to keep everything accurate TRACK EVERY TRANSACTION • See all your transactions in one place across every account • Categorize, split, and approve transactions with a tap • Search, filter, and bulk-edit to stay organized • Smart rules auto-categorize recurring purchases REPORTS & INSIGHTS • Net Worth — watch your wealth grow over time • Spending Analysis — see where your money goes • Income vs Expenses — track your monthly cash flow • Category Breakdown — drill into group-level spending BUILT FOR MOBILE • Quick-add transactions on the go • Dark mode support • Multi-currency support for 20+ currencies • Works alongside the Purpose Budget web app at purposebudget.com SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Purpose Budget requires an auto-renewable subscription to use. Choose Essential or Premium, billed monthly or annually: • Essential — zero-based budgeting, unlimited accounts and categories, reports and net worth tracking, and multi-user spaces. • Premium — everything in Essential, plus bank account synchronization, auto-bill detection, and priority support. New subscribers get a 2-month free trial. After the trial, your subscription renews automatically at your plan's price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account on confirmation, and you can manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://purposebudget.com/privacy
Paykeep
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Paykeep gives you two numbers that matter: what is safe to spend this month, and what is still to come out of your accounts. Both are calculated from your real pay stubs, not a hopeful guess. Tap in each pay stub as it arrives. Paykeep averages what your months really paid and helps you budget off a steady share of that, say 70%. It deliberately expects less than your average, so a surprise can only ever be a good one. A steady salary gets the same honest plan, and pay that moves around, overtime, tips, shift differentials, invoices, is exactly what the math was built for. Your month runs payday to payday, and every bill knows its day. At any moment you can see what has already gone out, what is still to come, and what that leaves you. WHAT IT DOES - One steady number to live on: everything above it is a bonus - Always know what has come out this month, and what is still to pay - Months run payday to payday, so the bills reset the day you are paid - Optional weekend and bank holiday rule: pay that is due on a Saturday arrives the working day before, and bills leave the working day after, the way your bank really moves money - Pay stubs pre-fill from the last one: entry is a check, not a chore - Variable bills like groceries and electricity learn from what they actually cost - Bills sit on the accounts they leave from, and a shared joint account is tracked without touching your own totals - Group yearly expenses like tax, insurance and the service into one savings pot with one monthly amount, and the pot pays each bill when it lands - Savings pots and loans on honest bars: the goal, the plan, and the truth - A plain-words summary that reads your month back to you SET UP ONCE Ten or fifteen minutes, one sitting: your last few pay stubs, the bills, any loans, your savings. After that, about two minutes a month. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no server, no analytics. Your figures stay on your phone and in your own iCloud, and nowhere else. Paykeep cannot see your pay. ONE MONTH FREE Every plan starts with one month free: time to add as many pay stubs as you like, old ones included, and live with the prediction. After the trial, Paykeep Pro keeps the app working for 2.99 a month or 24.99 a year, cancel any time. Without Pro everything you entered stays safely visible, read-only. Paykeep is a planning tool, not financial advice. Every figure is an estimate built from your own pay stubs. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://brambleapps.com/paykeep/privacy-policy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Paykeep at every 3 days against Purpose Budget's every 2 months. Paykeep also leads on device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Purpose Budget sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Paykeep sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.39 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Purpose Budget ships an update every 2 months, Paykeep every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Purpose Budget | Paykeep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Purpose Budget | Ruth McCarthy |
In-app purchases
Purpose Budget
- Essential Monthly2 Months trial$2.991 Month
- Premium Monthly2 Months trial$8.991 Month
- Essential Annual2 Months trial$24.991 Year
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- Premium Annual2 Months trial$69.991 Year
Paykeep
- Paykeep Pro Monthly1 Month trial$3.391 Month
- Paykeep Pro Yearly1 Month trial$26.491 Year









