owed vs Chara
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
owed
Easily track money lent and borrowed among friends and family. Manage multiple debts per person, add contacts directly, and set reminders. Send email or SMS notifications to ensure you get paid back.
- Track multiple debts per person
- Use contacts to add people
- Set notifications
- Send email/SMS reminders
- Update contact information
- View transaction history
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Version 2 is here! What is new in this version? In a nutshell, everything! Do you borrow money? Do you lend money to your friends? Maybe your family is on your mobile family plan ( you know that mobile plan that no one actually knows what they owe the plan owner each month). If one or all of these fits you, then you're going to love owed! Here is just a sample of some key features: • FREE to use and no sign-up requirement. Seriously who doesn't like free? This also means you should limit your list of demands on what the app needs to do. Remember, it's FREE. • Keep track of multiple entries for each person. If you're like me, you have that one friend (Carl) that is constantly borrowing something. Now you can keep tabs on Carl and what he owes you. • Use your contacts to create new people. Now it's super easy to add Carl's information to the owed app. (Thanks Apple Contacts) • Set Notifications. I promise this time they work! • Send email or SMS reminders. Email not your thing? No worries. Send that person a text message directly from the owed app! • 3D touch enabled Maybe you have it, maybe you don't. But if you do, good for you, as owed is now using 3D touch! • Update person's information. You know, like if Carl tries to change his legal name to Chuck. Well bad news, Chuck. Owed makes it really easy to update a contact's name. • View the history of your statements. If Chuck tries to argue that he didn't borrow more money on top of what he already owes you for lunch, now you can show him the exact day he borrowed money for that Happy Meal. If you like what you see, please rate the app! Thanks for checking out the app, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Chara
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Split expenses with roommates, partners, and friends without the awkward math. Chara is a private, open-source bill splitter that's free forever. No ads, no subscriptions, no paywalled features. Add an expense, pick who's in, and Chara handles the math. See who owes who at a glance. Settle up when you're ready. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Create groups for roommates, trips, couples, or one-off events • Split equally, unequally, by percentage, or by shares • Snap a receipt and pull out the line items automatically • Track balances per currency, with no sketchy auto-conversion • Settle up with a tap and keep a clean history • Get notified when someone adds an expense or pays you back PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No trackers. No ad SDKs. No third-party analytics. Your group's expenses are visible to your group, and nobody else. SELF-HOST IT Chara is open source. Run it on your own server if you want. The app talks to your server the same way it talks to ours. Keep accounts on multiple servers at once and see everything in one place. FREE, FOREVER The core app is free. No subscription. No paywalled features. Chara is what bill-splitting should have been all along.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Chara at every 4 days against owed's every 3 months. owed's advantage is iOS requirement (12.4 vs 16.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
owed ships an update every 3 months, Chara every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | owed | Chara |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (52 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 68.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 52 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Josh Gdovin | Lucas Dow |
Bugs and requests
owed
Reported bugs
17 issues- Debit/credit history not ordered
- Cannot edit notes
- Editing a debit brings up another debit
- App crashes when adding new person/money
- Glitch showing 'NaN' for amounts
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Cannot save entry after editing
- Settings descriptions trail off screen
- Cannot input values on new iOS
- Cannot change owing/owed direction
- Crashed after adding data
- Message 'No changes were made' when saving notes
- App crashes when trying to add money
- App crashes when adding a new person
- Update removed totals by person
- Update made app useless for some
- Writing $20 shows $2,000.00
- New update has no total display
Requested features
20 requests- Add date & time field for debts
- Display 'total' within 'person' view
- Summary of money owed/owing on home page
- Support for multiple currencies
- Debit/credit history in date order
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Ability to save data backups
- Ability to share lists with others
- Ability to change notes in history
- Ability to delete entries in history
- Ability to share each debt/loan with someone
- Ability to mark debt as paid
- Ability to reorder payments via drag and drop
- Option for recurring payments
- iCloud sync for cross-device totals
- Split an expense between all people
- Ability to change currency symbol
- Partial payment option to reduce total balance
- Backdate entries
- Edit debtor name
- Add date to loan name
Chara
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
owed
No in-app purchases
Chara
No in-app purchases









