Envelopes vs Emma
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Virtual envelope budgeting
- Unlimited envelope creation
- Quick budget setup
- Track deposits and withdrawals
- Passcode and biometric security
- Customizable themes
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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.
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.
- Consolidate all accounts
- Track subscriptions
- Set budgets
- Weekly spending reports
- Overdraft alerts
- Bank-level security
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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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
Envelopes ships an update every 3 months, Emma every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Envelopes | Emma |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (127 ratings) | 4.7 (1.4K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 87.6% of reviews — better | 38.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 127 | 1.4K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #98 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 161 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | emdentec ltd | Emma Technologies LTD. |
Customer experience
Envelopes
Emma
User reviews
Envelopes
From 127 App Store ratingsWhat 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 ratingsWhat 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
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- 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
Envelopes
No in-app purchases
Emma
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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









