Comparison

Envelopes vs Emma

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

Head to head
About

Envelopes

This app helps you manage your finances using the envelope budgeting method virtually. Easily track spending, distribute income, and secure your financial data with passcode or biometric authentication.

Highlights
  • Virtual envelope budgeting
  • Unlimited envelope creation
  • Quick budget setup
  • Track deposits and withdrawals
  • Passcode and biometric security
  • Customizable themes
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Envelopes is a virtualisation of the envelope budgeting method. It is simple to use and allows you to keep a close eye on where your money is being spent, but without the need to keep paper envelopes filled with cash around. ∙ Create unlimited envelopes and order them to your preference. ∙ Set up a budget with Quick Deposits and distribute your income to all your envelopes at once. ∙ Create withdrawals, deposits, and transfers with custom memos to track your spending. ∙ Secure your data with a passcode, and use Touch ID or Face ID if supported by your device. ∙ Choose from two themes (red or blue) to suit your preferences.

About

Emma

Consolidate all your financial accounts in one place to track spending, manage subscriptions, and set budgets. Receive weekly reports, daily balance notifications, and overdraft alerts. Offers bank-level security with SSL encryption and biometric authentication.

Highlights
  • Consolidate all accounts
  • Track subscriptions
  • Set budgets
  • Weekly spending reports
  • Overdraft alerts
  • Bank-level security
Features
Read full description

Meet Emma, your financial super app ● All your accounts in one place ● Find and track your subscriptions ● Set budgets ● Weekly reports ● Analyze your spending & expenses ● Daily balance notifications ● Overdraft alerts BANK LEVEL SECURITY Worried about sharing your data? We hear you. ● Emma uses SSL 256-bit encryption - the same security protocol that banks use - to ensure that your sensitive, personal information is fully encrypted and securely stored. ● Emma uses biometric security authentication for an added level of protection. CUSTOMER REVIEWS “This app is amazing! I used to manually track my expenses using a notepad or a spreadsheet but always used to make mistakes and never found time to update it. This fixes all my budgeting issues and saves me so much time as well as money!” Sarah “I love the fact that I can do everything within this one app. I mainly use it for tracking my expenses but have also started using it to instantly send/receive payments which makes things super easy. Also, the money I’ve saved from using this app is used to invest in my favorite companies using the investment feature!” Mike OUR MISSION We believe everyone deserves a financial advocate to help with money management and budgeting. Someone who watches our back no matter who we are and where we come from. We provide a great experience, which relies on a basic principle - caring about our customers’ financial well being. This is who we are and what we stand for. We have received amazing feedback from the finance community and have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, Politico, The Sunday Times and CITY A.M. MORE FEATURES? GO PLUS, PRO OR ULTIMATE We have 3 subscription upgrades available in Emma to power charge your finances. Here’s what is available in each subscription upgrade: Emma Plus True Balance - preemptively see the balance of your bank account after your subscriptions are removed Fraud Detection - find out whether your personal details have been part of a known data breach Bill Reminders - get reminded about your upcoming bills so you never miss a payment Cashback - get cashback from your favorite brands Emma Pro All the features in Emma Plus Custom categories - so you can customize your finances to your heart's content Rename transactions - for easier reference Export data - to understand your finances on excel Create Offline Accounts - to manage your cash expenses and any accounts you can’t link to Emma Create Smart Rules - to automate your Offline Accounts. Look, no hands! Split your transactions - into multiple categories for more flexibility Legendary Pro Icon - because you are a Pro Emma Ultimate All the features in Emma Plus & Pro Spaces - group together different accounts to see separated analytics and budgets Ultimate Icon - so you can show them who's boss ----------------------------------- If you choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma Pro or Emma Ultimate, payment will be charged to your iTunes account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Subscriptions are managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Apple ID. Emma subscription prices start at $4.99 CAD/USD/month with 1-month and 12-month packages available. Prices are subject to change without notice. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. If you don’t choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma or Emma Ultimate, you can simply continue using Emma for free. Emma Technologies LTD is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for the provision of payment services. Reference no. 794952 Company Registration Number: 10578464. Terms and Conditions: https://emma-app.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://emma-app.com/privacy

Screenshots

Envelopes4 screens
Emma4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Envelopes at 88% against Emma's 38%. Envelopes also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 11) and ads (none vs shown). Emma's advantage is price (Free vs $6.99) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months). On 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

Emma is free to download; Envelopes costs $6.99 up front. Emma sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Envelopes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Emma holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Emma has 1.4K ratings behind it against 127, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 88% of Envelopes's written reviews are positive against 38% of Emma's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Envelopes ships an update every 3 months, Emma every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Envelopes versus Emma: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEnvelopesEmma
Price$6.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (127 ratings)4.7 (1.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.6% of reviews — better38.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1271.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#98 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB161 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeremdentec ltdEmma Technologies LTD.

Customer experience

Envelopes

All ratings126 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral4.8%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews97 reviews
Positive87.6%
Neutral4.1%
Negative8.2%

Emma

All ratings1,422 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral1.4%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews716 reviews
Positive38.3%
Neutral8.5%
Negative53.2%

User reviews

Envelopes

From 127 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Extremely simple and intuitive user interface
  • 💰 One-time purchase instead of subscription model
  • ⚡ Quick deposit feature for fast money allocation
  • 📱 No bank account connection required (manual control)
  • 🎨 Clean, minimalist design without unnecessary features

Room to improve

  • 📱 No cloud sync between devices
  • 👥 Cannot be shared between multiple users/family members
  • 🎨 Limited color options for envelopes
  • 📊 No visualization or pie charts for spending analysis
  • 🔄 No recurring deposits or automatic resets

Emma

From 1.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for budgeting and tracking spending
  • 🚀 Efficient at categorizing transactions
  • 💡 Useful for detecting subscriptions and recurring payments
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 👍 Provides good financial insights and analytics

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Concerns about data privacy and security
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model, features locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Syncing issues, transactions not always accurately categorized
  • 🔍 Difficult to cancel subscription or delete account
  • 📢 Aggressive upselling and notifications

Bugs and requests

Envelopes

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App crashes when transferring money between envelopes
  • Data loss after iOS updates
  • Failed data import from legacy version
  • App not downloading after purchase
  • Compatibility issues with older iOS versions

Requested features

20 requests
  • Cloud sync and cross-device synchronization
  • Multi-user/family sharing capabilities
  • Recurring deposits and automatic monthly resets
  • Spending visualization (pie charts, graphs, reports)
  • Transaction categorization and tagging system
Show 15 more
  • Envelope grouping/folder organization
  • Custom color wheel for envelope customization
  • Export to PDF or Excel functionality
  • Search feature across all transactions
  • Activity/transaction history log
  • Backup and data export options
  • Notes/sticky pad feature for each envelope
  • Goal-setting with target dates and progress tracking
  • Print summary of envelope balances
  • Multiple account support
  • Bank account connection (optional)
  • User guide with search function and FAQ
  • App tutorial for new users
  • Ability to hide total balance display
  • Recurring withdrawal/payment automation

Emma

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes frequently
  • Transactions not syncing properly or showing incorrect balances
  • Issues connecting to certain bank accounts
  • Recurring payments not being tracked accurately

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more banks and financial institutions
  • Improve budgeting features with better categorization and goal-setting
  • Provide more customization options for categories and reporting
  • Integrate with investment accounts and track net worth
  • Offer a more affordable pricing model or free tier with core features

In-app purchases

None

Envelopes

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Emma

Subscriptions8
  • Emma Plus Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Emma Pro Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Pro Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Emma Ultimate7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Emma Plus Yearly7 Days trial$41.991 Year
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$83.991 Year
  • Subscription7 Days trial$83.991 Year

Questions

Is Envelopes free?
Envelopes costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Emma free?
Emma is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Envelopes or Emma?
Emma is rated higher. Envelopes averages 4.4 out of 5 from 127 ratings, while Emma averages 4.7 from 1.4K ratings.
Do Envelopes or Emma have ads?
Emma shows ads; Envelopes does not.
Which is updated more often, Envelopes or Emma?
Envelopes ships an update every 3 months, and Emma every 6 days. Most recently, Envelopes was updated on October 29, 2026 and Emma on October 29, 2026.

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