Splitwise has been splitting bills among friends for over a decade. The app does what it set out to do in 2011: figure out who owes whom when a group puts cash on a dinner, a trip, a moving day. For a couple living together and sharing rent, groceries and utilities every day, that model falls short fast. Rent and groceries are not debts between two people who sleep in the same bed. They are household expenses.
The problem is not Splitwise. The problem is using Splitwise for something it never set out to solve.
Key takeaways
- Splitwise is built for one-off groups (trips, dinners), not for ongoing couple finances.
- It has no automatic income-based proportional split.
- It has no monthly category budget, shared savings goals or split between personal and shared spending.
- A couple with uneven incomes ends up tracking debt instead of running a household budget.
What Splitwise was built for
Splitwise showed up in 2011 to solve a very specific case. Four friends travel, one pays the hotel, another the dinner, another the Uber. At the end of the trip someone has to settle who owes what and minimize how many transfers it takes. The app keeps a ledger of debts between people and shows the smallest set of payments that closes the books.
That model is great for one-off groups. For a couple living together, the question of "who owes whom" stops being interesting: they share an account, they share expenses, they share a life. The numbers that matter are how much went to rent, how much to utilities, how much to savings. Splitwise answers a question the couple no longer has.
What Splitwise misses for couples living together
Four gaps show up over and over in Reddit threads and App Store reviews:
- Automatic proportional split by income. Splitwise lets you set manual percentages (60/40, 70/30) but does not recalculate by itself when someone gets a raise, switches to freelance or loses a job. The work to keep it fair lands on whoever is willing to sit down and redo the math.
- Monthly budget by category. Rent, groceries, transport, entertainment. Splitwise logs transactions but does not show how much went into each bucket or whether the couple is close to its monthly cap.
- Shared savings goals. Saving for a trip, a down payment, an emergency fund. Splitwise does not track this. It is a splitter, not a budget app.
- Personal vs shared spending. A coffee at work is not shared. A private clothing purchase is not shared. Splitwise mixes everything in the same feed and leaves the user deciding each time whether to log it.
The paywall change and why it hit daily users harder
Splitwise added limits to its free plan and offers Splitwise Pro as the paid tier, which removes the daily expense cap and the ads. For a group that opens the app twice a year that is fine: the free plan covers the annual trip and that is it. For a couple logging groceries, transport and lunches every day, the free-tier limits start to bite quickly.
The current Splitwise Pro price varies by region and gets updated often. It is worth checking the in-app price before deciding whether the cost is worth it compared to alternatives built for couple finances from day one, several of which keep an unlimited free tier.
Comparison table: Splitwise vs couple-focused apps
| Feature | Splitwise | Finanple | Tricount | Honeydue* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50/50 split | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manual percentage split | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic income-based proportional split | No | Yes | No | No |
| Monthly category budget | No | Yes | No | Limited |
| Shared savings goals | No | Yes | No | Limited |
| Personal vs shared expense separation | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Multi-language (ES / EN / PT) | Yes | Yes | Yes | English only |
| Unlimited transactions on free plan | No | Yes | Limited | Free (limited support) |
| Bank account connection required | No | No | No | Optional |
| Original use case | Groups | Couples | Groups | Couples |
*Honeydue was a popular couples-focused app that has been winding down its service. Anyone choosing it today should check current availability before signing up.
When to stick with Splitwise
If the couple:
- Is not living together yet and only splits a dinner or a trip now and then.
- Opens the app fewer than 5 times a month.
- Does not need to budget or save together.
Splitwise stays simple, well known and good enough. Switching apps adds no real value.
When to switch
If the couple:
- Lives together and shares daily expenses (rent, groceries, utilities).
- Has uneven incomes and wants a proportional split without redoing math.
- Wants to save toward something shared (trip, apartment, emergency fund).
- Is tired of arguing about who paid what and would rather see the house picture instead of a peer ledger.
That is where Splitwise stops fitting and a couple-first app starts to.
What Finanple does differently
Finanple starts from three different assumptions:
- The couple is the unit, not the sum of two people. Shared expenses are household expenses, not debts between members.
- Income determines contribution. The proportional split is calculated automatically. If one partner earns 3,000 USD and the other 1,500 USD, the percentages land at 67% and 33% on their own.
- Spending and saving live in the same app. Shared goals, category budgets and private personal spending coexist without bleeding into each other.
To try the proportional split without installing anything, the expense calculator runs the math instantly with both incomes and the total of shared expenses.
Frequently asked questions
Did Splitwise stop being free?
Splitwise still has a free plan with usage limits, alongside Splitwise Pro as the paid option. Exact conditions vary by region and have changed over time. It is best to check the in-app price before deciding.
Do I need to export my Splitwise data to switch?
Splitwise lets you export the expense history to CSV from the web version. Finanple does not yet have a direct importer from Splitwise, so the usual approach is to start fresh with the current month and keep Splitwise around to look up older history.
Does it work if we do not live together?
Yes. Finanple works for couples sharing a home and for couples that share expenses without living together (a weekend rental, pet costs, regular trips). The proportional split helps in any case where the two incomes are uneven.
Do I need to connect my bank?
No. Finanple does not connect to bank accounts. Income and expenses are entered manually. For couples who prefer not to hand over banking data to a finance app, that tends to weigh in favor of the manual approach.
Is Splitwise still good for trips with friends?
Yes. For one-off groups (trips, dinners, events) Splitwise is still the best-known and simplest option. The point of this post is not that Splitwise is bad: it is that using it as a daily couples app is the wrong tool for the job.
What if we only care about splitting and not about budgeting?
Tricount covers splits similar to Splitwise with a more generous free tier, though it also lacks automatic proportional split and budgeting. If splitting is the only thing the couple wants, a splitter is enough. If the goal is to run the household money, a couple-first app fits better.
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