Marlo vs Spend Pal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Marlo
This app calculates your 'safe to spend' amount by subtracting fixed costs, budgets, and savings from your income. It provides a clear, guilt-free number for discretionary spending, with budgeting and savings goal features. All data is stored locally for privacy.
- Calculates 'Safe to Spend' amount
- Budget tracking by category
- Savings goal setting and tracking
- Recurring income and bill setup
- Optional daily logging reminders
- Private, on-device data storage
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Know exactly what's safe to spend — before you spend it. Marlo does one honest calculation: your income, minus fixed costs, minus your budgets, minus what you're saving. What's left is your Safe to Spend — the money you can enjoy right now, guilt-free. No spreadsheets. No shame. Just a clear number. Most budgeting apps tell you what you spent. Marlo tells you what you can spend. That's the difference between anxiety and permission. SAFE TO SPEND, FRONT AND CENTER Open the app and the first thing you see is one big number: what's genuinely free to spend this month. It updates live as you log. Green means go. In the red? The app sits with you — it never scolds. BUDGETS THAT MAKE SENSE Give any category a monthly budget and watch a simple, colorful card fill up as you spend. Rent, groceries, coffee — see where you stand at a glance. SAVINGS JARS FOR THE THINGS YOU WANT Name a goal, give it a target, and add money whenever you can. Set a monthly amount and Marlo shows you the exact date you'll hit it. A trip, a home, a safety net — turn a dream into a plan. SET IT AND FORGET IT Add your paycheck and fixed bills once as recurring items. Your Safe to Spend works from day one — no re-entering the same numbers every month. A GENTLE DAILY NUDGE One optional reminder a day. Ten seconds to log keeps your number honest. That's the whole habit. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything lives on your device. No account, no sign-up, no cloud. Your money is nobody's business but yours. — FREE FOREVER — Logging is never capped. The free plan includes: • Unlimited transaction logging • Your live Safe to Spend • Recurring income & bills • 2 category budgets • 1 savings goal • Daily reminder — MARLO PRO — Upgrade when you want more room: • Stats: spending trends, month-over-month, kept-rate, weekly review, and your full category breakdown • Browse any past month • Unlimited category budgets • Unlimited savings goals • Create your own custom categories • Custom themes, colors & icons • Export all your transactions to CSV • Every future Pro feature Pro pricing: • Monthly plan • Annual plan (best value) Spend wisely, not blindly. Marlo is the calm, honest money app that shows you what's really yours to enjoy. — Subscription details: Marlo Pro is an auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions in your App Store account settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial, if offered, is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Privacy Policy: linked in-app (Settings › Legal) Terms of Use: linked in-app (Settings › Legal) Support: contact@theanicca.com Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Spend Pal
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By the end of the month, you know where it went. Not roughly — actually. That costs you one line a day. Type tacos 11.40 and press enter. SpendPal reads the amount, files the category, and writes it onto today's page. A paper notebook that happens to do the arithmetic. One line, then you're done Write in plain words and let the app sort out the rest. It learns your regulars, so the second coffee lands in the right place without being told. Tap any row to fix it. Tap the date to flip back and write into an earlier day. Drawn by hand, not by a spreadsheet Every page is handwriting on paper, and a small mascot called pal keeps you company in the corner. It's the rare money app you don't mind opening. A month you can read at a glance Set one monthly number. A single bar fills as you spend, next to what you spent last month and where it went. No alerts, no red screens, no charts you didn't ask for. Two seconds from the lock screen The widget shows today's total and a line to write in. Tap it and you land in the app with the keyboard already up. Home Screen and Lock Screen sizes included. Nobody asks for your bank No account, no sign-up, no bank login, no server of ours. Everything lives on the phone, and iCloud sync — on by default, one tap to stop — goes to your own private database. Keep a backup file wherever you like. Deleting the app deletes the data — that's the point. Also inside 30+ currencies · dark mode that actually looks like paper at night · works with no connection, ever · no ads, no tracking, no email asking you to come back. What Premium opens The first five lines are yours to write, with five categories and day, week and month trends. Premium lifts both limits, adds year and all-time trends, and turns on CSV import and export. Weekly, yearly, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Privacy: https://elevenapril.com/privacy Terms: https://elevenapril.com/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
Marlo and Spend Pal are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Marlo sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Spend Pal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Marlo | Spend Pal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Anicca LLC | 帅 陈 |
In-app purchases
Marlo
- Marlo Pro Monthly$6.991 Month
- Marlo Pro Annual Intro$24.991 Year
- Marlo Pro Annual$29.991 Year
- Marlo Pro — Lifetime$39.99
Spend Pal
- SpendPal Premium Weekly$1.997 Days
- SpendPal Premium Yearly$8.991 Year
- SpendPal Premium Lifetime$12.99





