Settle Up vs Splitwise
The flexible underdog with fairer pricing against the splitter your friends already have installed.
The short answer
Settle Up and Splitwise are the two most complete pure expense splitters, and the honest gap between them is smaller than either fanbase admits. Settle Up wins on pricing (Premium is about $3.49/month or $19/year as of August 2026, plus a one-time Group Premium the whole group can share) and on flexible split math: multiple payers, weighted shares, and itemized bills. Splitwise wins on ubiquity, polish, and its friends-based model that tracks balances across every group you share. Choose Settle Up for trips and cost-conscious groups; choose Splitwise when the network effect matters. CashWise is a third option that adds a personal budget to the split.
Settle Up, built by a small Czech team, has quietly become the power user's splitter. It runs on iOS, Android, and the web, works offline, supports every currency with live exchange rates, and handles the messy real-world cases: two people paying one bill, weighted shares for the couple in the master bedroom, splitting individual items off a long receipt. Groups are shared by link, so not everyone has to install the app to be counted.
Splitwise's edge is different: it's the one people have. A friends-and-groups model tied to accounts means your balance with a person carries across every context you share, and thirteen years of iteration show in the polish. The costs are the now-familiar ones: a free tier capped at a few expense adds per day with ads, and a Pro subscription (roughly $40 to $50 a year as of August 2026) to lift them. Here's how the two actually stack up.
| Feature | Settle Up | Splitwise |
|---|---|---|
| Premium price | ~$3.49/mo or ~$19/yr | Pro ~$40–50/yr |
| One-time purchase option | Group Premium, one-off for a whole group | None; subscription only |
| Free tier | Full core features, ad-supported | A few expense adds per day, with ads |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, and web | iOS, Android, and web |
| Works offline | Yes | Needs a connection to sync |
| Multi-currency | All currencies, live exchange rates | Conversion requires Pro |
| Multiple payers on one expense | Yes | Limited |
| Weighted / itemized splits | Weights, incomes, bill items | Shares, percentages, adjustments |
| Everyone needs the app | No; groups shared by link | Members need Splitwise accounts |
| Debt simplification | Yes | Yes |
| Moves money | No | No |
Settle Up Premium costs about $3.49 a month, or roughly $19 a year, less than half of Splitwise Pro. Better still, Group Premium is a one-time purchase that upgrades a single group for everyone in it, and since 2025 there's even a cheap two-week version aimed at vacations. One person buys it, the group splits the cost inside the app. That's a pricing model designed by people who use their own product.
Two people covered dinner? Both payers go on one expense. The couple takes the bigger room? Weight their shares. One person only had a salad? Split items off the bill. Settle Up handles the cases that force Splitwise users into manual adjustment gymnastics, and free currency conversion with live rates covers international trips without a paywall.
Groups are shared objects joined by link, and every platform including the web is a first-class citizen. Not everyone has to install anything for the ledger to work, which in practice is the difference between a complete ledger and a half-abandoned one.
Splitwise's install base is its moat. Suggesting it requires zero explanation, your new roommate probably has an account with history already, and shared vocabulary ("just Splitwise me") is worth more than any feature. Settle Up usually needs a sales pitch first.
Splitwise tracks people, not just groups. Your balance with a friend aggregates across the apartment group, the ski trip, and one-off IOUs with no group at all, then simplifies across all of it. Settle Up's group-centric model keeps each ledger separate, which is cleaner for trips but weaker for entangled long-term friendships.
Receipt scanning on Pro, spreadsheet export, US payment links out to Venmo and PayPal, and interface refinement from processing billions in IOUs. Splitwise's core add-an-expense flow remains the smoothest in the category, and for a daily-use app that friction difference compounds.
For a vacation, a shared house weekend, or any group that balks at subscriptions, Settle Up is the better buy. The one-time Group Premium (or its two-week trip version) upgrades everyone at once, the split math handles multi-payer and itemized reality, and currency conversion is free. Power users get more tool for far less money.
If your circle already runs on Splitwise, switching costs more than Pro does. Its friends-based balances suit long, tangled financial relationships, roommates plus trips plus random IOUs, better than per-group ledgers. Heavy users should just pay for Pro (about $40 to $50 a year as of August 2026) and stop fighting the daily cap.
Feature for feature, Settle Up is arguably the stronger and certainly the cheaper app. Splitwise is the safer social default. Pick based on which pain is bigger: paying more for software, or persuading six people to try something new.
Both apps above stop at the same wall: they know the group's math but nothing about your money. Whether you owe $60 or are owed $600, neither Settle Up nor Splitwise can see your bank account, so the number that actually matters, can I afford this?, lives somewhere else.
CashWise, our app, puts both on one screen. It's a personal budgeting app first: read-only bank sync through Plaid (12,000+ institutions), a live safe-to-spend number, subscription tracking, and AI spending insights. GroupVault adds the shared ledger, tracking who paid what and settling through Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle. CashWise never holds or moves the group's money; it does the math and records the handoff, so covering the group dinner shows up in your own safe-to-spend immediately.
Joining GroupVaults and tracking payments is free, in the spirit of Settle Up's whole-group pricing: one organizer, no paywall for participants. Pro is $9.99/month or $78/year and unlocks bank sync, safe-to-spend, AI insights, and vault creation. CashWise is in early access.
| Feature | Settle Up | Splitwise | CashWise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group expense splitting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Personal budgeting | No | No | Yes |
| Bank sync | No | No | Plaid, 12,000+ institutions |
| Live safe-to-spend number | No | No | Yes |
| Settlement | Tracked manually | Tracked; links to Venmo/PayPal | Via Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle |
| Free tier | Core features with ads | Daily expense caps, ads | Join vaults and track payments free |
| Paid plan | ~$19/yr or one-time Group Premium | Pro ~$40–50/yr | Pro $9.99/mo or $78/yr |
The free version covers the core splitting features and is supported by ads. Premium removes ads and adds extras for about $3.49/month or $19/year as of August 2026, and Group Premium is a one-time purchase that upgrades one group for every member, with a cheaper time-limited version for trips.
Premium is a personal subscription that follows your account into every group. Group Premium is a one-off purchase attached to a single group: everyone in that group gets the premium features, and the buyer can split the cost with the group like any other expense.
With Settle Up, no: groups are shared by link and work in a browser, so one organizer can track everyone. Splitwise expects each tracked member to have an account, though one person can still enter expenses on others' behalf.
No. Both are pure ledgers: they compute who owes whom and simplify the debts, but settling happens outside the app by cash, bank transfer, or a payment app. Splitwise can link out to Venmo or PayPal in the US to smooth that step.
Settle Up, in most cases. Currency conversion with live exchange rates is free, it works offline, and the one-time Group Premium suits a two-week trip better than an annual subscription. Splitwise handles currencies well too, but conversion sits behind Pro.
CashWise pairs a group expense ledger with a real personal budget. Join the early access.
Competitor pricing and features referenced on this page are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of August 2026 and may change. Always confirm on the competitor's own site.