Comparison

Lifely vs BudgetBox Envelopes

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

Head to head
About

Lifely

Features
Read full description

Split the month into envelopes, log what you spend in two taps, and see what is left in each one. No bank account to connect, no ads, and none of your figures leave the device. ENVELOPES, BECAUSE THAT IS HOW MONEY MAKES SENSE Food, rent, going out, the unexpected. Each envelope holds an amount and empties as you spend, so at any moment you know what is left for a thing without doing any arithmetic. It is the method your grandparents used, minus the paper. TWO TAPS AND IT IS IN Adding an expense is the thing you will do most, so it is the fastest thing in the app. Amount, category, done — straight from the widget, without even opening it. NO BANK, AND THAT IS THE POINT Lifely does not connect to your bank, never asks for credentials, and sends nothing to a server. There is no account to create and no password to remember. Your spending, budgets and receipts stay on the device, and they stay there when you have no signal. WHEN THE COST IS SHARED A flatshare, a trip with friends, a dinner. Log who paid for what and the app keeps the balances: who owes whom, and how much. No groups, no invitations, and nobody else has to install anything. TRIPS AND EVENTS, KEPT SEPARATE A trip has its own spending and should not muddy the monthly budget. In Lifely every trip, move or event is its own context, with its own total and its own split, and you can close it when it is over. THE THINGS THAT COME EVERY MONTH Subscriptions, bills, standing costs. Enter them once and they appear on their own each month, so the budget accounts for them before they land instead of after. RECEIPTS WITHOUT TYPING Photograph a receipt and Lifely reads the amount on the device itself. Neither the photo nor the text goes anywhere: the recognition is local, with no cloud involved. ALSO - Savings goals with visible progress - Debts and loans, with what is paid and what is left - Reports by category, month and context - A weekly close and a monthly review - Home Screen widgets and quick actions - Manual exports and backups, kept by you Lifely carries no ads, sells no data and talks to no bank. Your data stays yours. LIFELY PRO Recording, reading, editing and exporting your transactions is free forever, and anything you have already created stays as it is. Pro removes the three-envelope cap, opens the full history in reports, and adds shared expenses, spending contexts and receipts. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://techy.eus/lifely/privacy

About

BudgetBox Envelopes

Features
Read full description

Keep monthly spending organized with a simple envelope-style budget. BudgetBox lets you create one budget plan and divide it into boxes, each with its own name, icon, color, and planned monthly amount. SEE YOUR MONTH • Check planned, spent, and remaining amounts for every box, with a progress bar and an “Over planned” tag when spending exceeds the plan. • View income logged this month, total planned expenses, spending so far, and remaining in the month summary. • Tap a box to see its entries for that month. LOG BY HAND • Record expenses, income, and refunds with an amount, date, box, and optional note. • Use “Repeat last transaction” to refill the entry form. • Swipe to delete an entry. Refunds reduce a box’s spent amount; income appears in the month summary. MAKE IT YOUR OWN • Choose from four starter templates with editable example amounts: Family Basics, Student, Cash Envelope Lite, and Freelancer Lite. • Try a sample budget with four boxes and three entries. • Drag boxes to reorder them, or swipe to archive a box. • Check the Review tab for this month’s planned-versus-spent figures and top five boxes by spending. The review is descriptive only. • Turn on an optional weekly or monthly check-in reminder. PREMIUM — ONE-TIME LIFETIME UNLOCK • Add as many boxes as you want. • Browse any past or future month. • Export all entries as CSV through the iOS share sheet, or import CSV entries in the same format. Without Premium, your plan supports up to eight active boxes, and the Month tab lets you browse the previous, current, and next month. YOUR DATA STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE All budget data is stored only on this iPhone or iPad. There’s no account, sign-in, tracking, or data collection, and no cloud sync. BudgetBox is for personal organization and recordkeeping, not financial advice or official guidance.

Screenshots

Lifely4 screens
BudgetBox Envelopes4 screens

Verdict

The call

Lifely and BudgetBox Envelopes are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Lifely sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and BudgetBox Envelopes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lifely ships an update every 3 months, BudgetBox Envelopes every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Lifely versus BudgetBox Envelopes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLifelyBudgetBox Envelopes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdrian GarciaCosmic Production d.o.o.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Lifely

Subscriptions2
  • Lifely Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Lifely Pro Yearly$22.991 Year
1 purchases

BudgetBox Envelopes

One-time1
  • BudgetBox Premium$6.99

Questions

Is Lifely free?
Lifely is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BudgetBox Envelopes free?
BudgetBox Envelopes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Lifely or BudgetBox Envelopes have ads?
Neither Lifely nor BudgetBox Envelopes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lifely or BudgetBox Envelopes?
Lifely ships an update every 3 months, and BudgetBox Envelopes every 2 months. Most recently, Lifely was updated on October 31, 2026 and BudgetBox Envelopes on November 5, 2026.

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