Buddy vs Tael
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Budget creation and tracking
- Expense and income monitoring
- Shared budgets for groups
- Bank account transaction import
- Detailed spending overviews
- Transaction splitting and settlement
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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/
Tael
Effortlessly track expenses as they happen, with automatic logging from Apple Pay and local payment systems. Organize spending by custom categories like trips or projects, and gain insights into where your money truly goes without manual data entry.
- Automatic logging from Apple Pay
- Customizable project and trip tracking
- Smart rules for recurring merchants
- Multi-currency support
- Export to Excel, CSV, or Markdown
- Offline functionality
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Every tap, already logged. Pay with Apple Pay and the charge is in Tael before your phone is back in your pocket. The merchant, the amount, the card. You did not open the app. In Hong Kong that includes Octopus — the MTR, the 7-Eleven counter, the ferry. No bank login. No account. No setup evening. Two minutes once, then it runs without you. For money Tael cannot see — cash, a market stall, a transfer — one press of the Action button, Siri or a widget logs it. YOU TEACH IT ONCE, IT STOPS ASKING Label a shop one time and a rule is written. Every later charge from it files itself. Rules are rules, not guesses. You can read every one in plain language, and nothing runs until you say yes. You could do all this in a spreadsheet. People do, for about three weeks. This is the version that survives a busy fortnight. IT TRACKS WHAT YOU ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT Not Shopping. Not Miscellaneous. The Japan trip. The kitchen renovation. Sundays with your dad. How good it felt. One purchase can belong to several at once — that supermarket run was part groceries, part the dinner party, part the trip — so you never have to pick. SO YOU CAN FINALLY ANSWER - What the whole trip cost, flights to the 1am souvenir - Whether this client is worth it, once the lunches and the software are in - What the hobby actually costs over a year, and whether you'd miss it - Which purchases you're still glad about Not after a weekend of reconciling. On a Tuesday, in four seconds. NOBODY SEES THIS BUT YOU Your transactions, merchants, amounts, cards, notes and rules never leave your iPhone. No server holds your ledger and no cloud model reads it. Backup goes to your own iCloud, and only if you turn it on. Tael fetches exchange rates and sends anonymous usage counts — never an amount, a merchant or a card. Which is why you'll actually record that the dinner was a 3 out of 10, or that you're still annoyed about the jacket. That's the honest version, and it's the one worth having. WHAT'S IN IT - Automatic logging from Apple Pay, and Octopus in Hong Kong - Quick logs from the Action button, Siri, widgets and Shortcuts - Rules suggested from your corrections, or written by you - Dimensions: your own lenses, as many as a purchase needs - Budgets, splits, and repeats that log themselves - Pay in yen, log in yen: 159 currencies, one ledger - Export to Excel, CSV, or Markdown written for an AI assistant - App lock, privacy screen, optional iCloud backup - Works offline, always WHO IT'S FOR People who tap to pay many times a day and want to know where the money went without doing bookkeeping. Not for people who want an app to drain a bank feed and budget for them with no involvement. Tael asks a little of you early on, and gives a lot back later. Tael is free, with no ads. Tael Pro is one payment, for life — there is no subscription. See the app for what it unlocks. Requires iPhone, iOS 18.4 or later. Automatic logging depends on Apple Wallet and Shortcuts. Apple Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Tael Terms of Use: https://usetael.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://usetael.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Tael at 100% against Buddy's 49%. Tael also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days). Buddy's advantage is ratings volume (9.6K vs 6) and chart position (#84 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Buddy sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Tael sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Tael 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 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of Buddy's written reviews are positive against 100% of Tael's.
Buddy ships an update every 9 days, Tael every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Buddy | Tael |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (9.6K ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9.6K — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #84 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 18.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 173 MB | 43 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Buddy Budgeting AB | Tael Technology, LLC |
Customer experience
Buddy
Tael
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 moreShow fewer
- Ability to reorder categories
- Weekly budget view
- Ability to split transactions
Tael
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Buddy
- Buddy Premium7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Buddy Premium$4.991 Month
- Premium$9.991 Month
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- 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
Tael
- Tael Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
- Tael Pro Annual$29.991 Year
- Tael Pro$14.99









