Minimal Expense vs Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Minimal Expense
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Minimal Expense: Travel, Split — daily, travel and shared ledgers in one app. And when you're done logging, a finance report written just for you. ■ Journal design - Warm paper tones, a terracotta seal, soft Japanese-inspired colors, dark mode retuned page by page. Logging feels like keeping a quiet journal. ■ Everyday logging & splitting - Custom categories and payment methods: your own colors and icons; cash, card and e-payments tallied separately. - Recurring entries: set rent, subscriptions, salary or that annual insurance once, and they post themselves — monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. - Income and expenses tallied separately, with a budget that shows what's left. - Everyday splitting: no trip needed — build a dinner or household event and add saved contacts as a group in one tap. - Multiple accounts & net worth: bank, cash and e-payments tracked apart. Transfers never count as spending, and the main ledger shows total and net worth at a glance. ■ Why Minimal Expense? - Three kinds of ledger, kept apart: daily, travel and shared each get their own book. Trip expenses file themselves. - Split with companions: who paid, how to split, who's in — three taps. Settlement reports work out who owes whom; mark as settled and share. - Treemap charts: the bigger the block, the more you spent. Understand your spending at a glance. - Multi-currency with locked-in rates: log in local currency abroad; the exchange rate is locked at entry time, so reports never shift. - Voice logging: "Lunch ramen 250" — one sentence logs category and amount. Works offline, completely free. - Transaction search: notes, categories, payment methods, amounts — find any entry in seconds. - Daily reminder + streak: a gentle knock each day to keep the habit going. ■ Weekly, monthly and yearly reports (Premium) - Weekly report: appears by itself every Monday — where last week went, how many days you logged. No waiting for month end. - Monthly Report: published on the 1st — spending trend, category ranking, a rhythm calendar, and a one-line summary. - Year in Review: a once-a-year page-flip ritual — seasons, top categories, records — shareable as a beautiful card. - Insights: see where you are this month (compared with the same day in your own past months, not with strangers), and which charges are still due before month end. - Trip Recap & Trip Report: statistics and share cards worth keeping. ■ Shared ledgers: one book, two people - Send a link and you're in: family, a friend, or your partner. No account, no friend requests. - Every entry shows who logged it, and syncs over iCloud to both phones. - Shared money is kept apart: it never mixes into your own ledger, so your reports and budget stay as clean as before. - Shared fund: each put some in, then spend from it — or let one person pay first and settle later. ■ Built for travel - Trip list: ongoing, upcoming, and finished trips at a glance; keep multiple trips. - Pre-trip expenses: log flights and hotels before departure for complete trip costs. - Travel footprint map: countries and cities light up on the map with per-trip spending (Premium). - Currency converter: quick conversions on the road, cached for offline use. ■ Subscription - Free: full main ledger + 1 travel ledger + 1 shared ledger + 1 account + splitting & settlement + voice logging + ledger search + charts. No ads. - Premium: weekly reports, monthly reports, year in review, insights, trip recap & footprint map, unlimited travel and shared ledgers, unlimited accounts, iCloud backup, export (CSV / JSON / PDF). - 3-day free trial; monthly or yearly (yearly saves more), cancel anytime in Settings. ■ Contact - Website: https://www.miniexpense.com - Privacy Policy: https://www.miniexpense.com/privacy-policy - Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.miniexpense.com/eula Thank you for choosing Minimal Expense — let's keep daily, travel and shared spending clear, together.
Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker
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One book, shared with the people in your life. Budget+ helps you organize everyday spending, household costs and travel expenses. Track on your own or together, and see where your money goes. 【Track together】 • Sign in to create or join a book. Invite family, a partner or friends by link. Shared records sync while online. 【Different phones, one book】 • Everyone records on their own phone, with shared household and travel spending in one place. 【Speak instead of typing】 • Hold the mic and say an item and amount, such as “Lunch 12”, then check the result, choose a category and save. Requires mic and speech recognition permissions and device speech support. 【Keep frequent items on your Home Screen】 • iOS 17+: save up to 5 items from the past 30 days, then add a Home Screen widget and select your preset. Medium shows up to 3; large up to 5. Tap to open its book with the category and note filled in, then enter the amount. 【Categories that fit your life】 • Add, rename, delete and drag to reorder income and expense categories, subject to book permissions. 【See where your money goes】 • Review income, expenses and balance. Bar and pie charts show category totals and shares. 【From totals to details】 • Switch between all records and categories. Open a category for details; swipe to view another. 【Track together, view separately】 • Filter the overview and search by who recorded each entry, or view everyone's records. 【Choose how you collaborate】 • Book owners can remove members and decide whether members may edit the book name, categories, currency and all records. 【Pick your period】 • View today, this week, this month, last month or a date range. Overview ranges over one month require Premium. 【Find that expense】 • Search notes or categories; filter by income, expense, category and author. Free search covers the past month; Premium adds more date ranges. 【Sort by date or amount】 • Sort category details to see recent records or larger expenses first. 【Batch entry (Premium)】 • Set a start date, an interval in days, weeks or months, and 2–30 entries. Create rent, subscription or regular income records in one batch. 【Adjust a batch (Premium)】 • Edit or delete one entry, or apply the change to that entry and later ones in the same batch. 【A book for each part of life (Premium)】 • Separate personal, household and travel spending. Create or join up to 10 books in total. 【Reuse your categories (Premium)】 • Copy an existing book's income and expense categories when creating a new book. 【Choose your book currency】 • Search by currency name or code and pin favorites. Changing a book's currency does not convert saved amounts. 【Automatic currency conversion (Premium)】 • Automatically convert between your book and preferred currencies as you enter amounts. Switch the overview's display currency for a familiar view of travel costs. Online rates are for reference and may differ from bank or card rates. If a rate is unavailable, record in the book currency. 【Review longer periods (Premium)】 • Review more than a month at once. Search the past 6 months, past year or a custom period. 【Export your selected period】 • Export all records in the period as CSV for Excel, including date, note, amount, type, category and author. 【Make it your own】 • Choose free themes such as Milk Tea, Warm Tones of Dusk and Countryside. 【Custom colors (Premium)】 • Unlock more themes, make a palette with the color picker or Hex codes, preview it and share its link. 【Free and Premium】 • Free includes ads and one book you create or join, for solo or shared tracking. • Premium removes ads and adds up to 10 books in total, batch entry, currency conversion, more themes, custom colors and longer review and search periods. See the app for plans and prices. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Minimal Expense at none against Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker's shown. Minimal Expense also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, in-app purchases, 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
Both are free to download. Minimal Expense sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Minimal Expense ships an update every 3 days, Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Minimal Expense | Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.2 | 16.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | POEN HSIEH | Kevin Chiu |
In-app purchases
Minimal Expense
- Premium Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Premium Yearly3 Days trial$7.991 Year
Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker
- Budget+ Premium$1.991 Month
- Budget+ Premium7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Budget+ Premium1 Year trial$14.991 Year
- Budget+ Premium$19.99
- Budget+ Premium$29.99
Questions
Is Minimal Expense free?
Is Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker free?
Do Minimal Expense or Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Minimal Expense or Budget+ Shared Expense Tracker?
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