Comparison

Buddy vs Blocks

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

Head to head
About

Buddy

Manage your finances by creating budgets, tracking expenses, and viewing detailed overviews of your income and savings. Collaborate on shared budgets with friends and family, and easily settle up any shared costs.

Highlights
  • Budget creation and tracking
  • Expense and income monitoring
  • Shared budgets for groups
  • Bank account transaction import
  • Detailed spending overviews
  • Transaction splitting and settlement
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Buddy helps you set up a budget and keep track of your expenses, either by yourself or together with your loved ones. Here’s what is waiting for you inside: BUDGETS Buddy will help you not to overspend on your well-earned salary by setting up a budget plan that fits you. Do you want a shared budget with your partner? Or keep the expenses between you and your mates fair on the vacation? No problem, just invite them and get a clear picture of who spent what. CONNECT YOUR BANK Import all transactions from your bank account into Buddy and see how your budget is doing. OVERVIEW We'll give you a beautiful & detailed overview of your spendings, income, and savings. SPLIT Split lets you know who paid what, and how to settle up. And much more for you to find. Take control of your finance today! Buddy offers a $9.99 monthly renewing and a $49.99 yearly renewing subscription to unlock Premium functionality. The purchase will be charged from your iTunes account if you choose to buy the Buddy Premium subscription. You can manage or cancel your subscription through the user settings in iTunes after the purchase. The subscription period ends with the same kind of subscription you already bought to the same price unless you turn off your subscription 24 hours before it renews. It is not possible to cancel your current subscription during the time your subscription is active. Privacy Policy: https://buddy.download/privacypolicy/ Terms & Conditions: https://buddy.download/terms-and-conditions/

About

Blocks

This app helps you manage your personal finances without subscriptions or ads. It automates bill payments, tracks income, and provides a clear overview of your spending and savings. Your data is kept private and stored locally or synced via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Automated bill payments
  • Income tracking
  • Private data storage
  • Customizable paychecks
  • Variable bill reminders
  • Automatic savings sweeps
  • Quick purchase logging
Features
Read full description

I built Blocks for myself. I get paid every two weeks. Most of my bills are monthly. Every budget app I tried wanted a subscription, my bank login, or both. So I made the app I actually wanted, and now I'm sharing it. Blocks is truly free. No ads. No accounts. No subscriptions. No locked features. No "premium" tier. New features ship to everyone, free, forever. Blocks collects nothing. No sign-up, no analytics, no tracking. Your budget lives on your device and syncs through your own private iCloud. Nobody else can see it, including me. Blocks does the work for you. • Paychecks appear automatically on payday, whether weekly, biweekly, or monthly, including 3-paycheck months • Recurring bills post themselves, labeled with who was paid • Variable bills (like electricity) remind you and carry an off-season cushion for expensive months • Month-end surplus can sweep to savings automatically, and the app tells you exactly how much to move at your bank • One glance shows what you can actually spend, with upcoming bills already set aside Blocks stays out of your way. • Whole dollars only, with no cents and no clutter • Log a purchase in two taps with a swipe, the Action button, or "Hey Siri, log groceries in Blocks" followed by "50 tacos" • Payee suggestions learn from your own history • An annual view shows income, spending, and savings across the year • Clean black-and-white design, native to iOS, beautiful in dark mode I keep improving Blocks for my own budget, and every update ships to you too. If it helps you, that genuinely makes me happy.

Screenshots

Buddy4 screens
Blocks4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Blocks at none against Buddy's 10. Blocks also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Buddy's advantage is ratings volume (9.6K vs 1) and chart position (#73 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Buddy sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Blocks asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Blocks holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Buddy has 9.6K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Buddy ships an update every 9 days, Blocks weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Buddy versus Blocks: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBuddyBlocks
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (9.6K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews48.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings9.6K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
Best chart rank#73 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size159 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBuddy Budgeting ABHirthik Bhojwani

Bugs and requests

Buddy

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Recurring transactions not working as expected
  • Balance not carrying over to next month
  • Syncing issues between devices
  • Transactions disappearing or resetting
  • Inability to edit categories without creating new ones

Requested features

8 requests
  • Calendar view for transactions
  • Bill reminders and due date tracking
  • Ability to hide/exclude certain transactions
  • Savings/investment tracking
  • Multi-currency support
Show 3 more
  • Ability to reorder categories
  • Weekly budget view
  • Ability to split transactions

Blocks

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Buddy

Subscriptions9
  • Buddy Premium7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Buddy Premium$4.991 Month
  • Premium$9.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Buddy Premium$9.991 Month
  • Buddy Premium7 Days trial$16.991 Year
  • Buddy Premium7 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Buddy Premium7 Days trial$34.991 Year
  • Buddy Premium1 Year trial$34.991 Year
  • Buddy Premium7 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year
None

Blocks

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Buddy free?
Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Blocks free?
Blocks is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Buddy or Blocks?
Blocks is rated higher. Buddy averages 4.7 out of 5 from 9.6K ratings, while Blocks averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Buddy or Blocks have ads?
Neither Buddy nor Blocks shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Buddy or Blocks?
Buddy ships an update every 9 days, and Blocks weekly. Most recently, Buddy was updated on November 12, 2026 and Blocks on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons