Quick verdict
Stay on Splitwise if you mainly settle IOUs at home or after a short outing. Switch to TripBudget if the “expense” is actually a multi-day trip with a shared pot, several currencies, and a plan per destination.
Stay with Splitwise if
- You need a simple shared ledger for housemates or recurring bills
- Bank-style settlement in one country is the main job
- Nobody in the group cares about a travel budget or stages
Choose TripBudget if
- The group is actually travelling, not just splitting a restaurant
- You carry a shared cash envelope / card pot in more than one currency
- You want a budget per city or travel stage, not one lump total
Feature snapshot
| Feature | TripBudget | Splitwise | Tricount | TravelSpend |
|---|
| Free core when every traveler on the trip is identified | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited / paid |
|---|
| One free Premium trip activation per person | Yes | No | No | No |
|---|
| One payment can unlock Premium for the whole trip | Yes | No | No | No |
|---|
| Personal Premium plan for all of your trips | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|---|
| Group expense splitting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|---|
| Multi-currency expenses | Yes | Limited / paid | Yes | Yes |
|---|
| Shared multi-currency common pools | Yes | No | No | No |
|---|
| Stage / city-by-city trip budgets | Yes | No | No | Limited / paid |
|---|
| Calendar spending heatmap | Yes | No | No | No |
|---|
| FIFO pool exchange-rate tracking | Yes | No | No | No |
|---|
| Offline logging with later sync | Yes | Limited / paid | Limited / paid | Limited / paid |
|---|
21 September 2026. Verify current Splitwise limits on their official site. TripBudget is our product. www.splitwise.com/
What Splitwise does well
Splitwise popularised group balances. People join a group, add bills, and the app reduces the mess to “who pays whom”. For a household or a weekend, that is often all you need. Independent round-ups in 2026 still list it as the default US-centric splitter, especially when people already have accounts there.
If your pain is “six friends, twelve receipts, one currency”, Splitwise remains a reasonable tool. The comparison is not “Splitwise is bad”. It is that travel adds extra jobs — shared cash, FX, and destination budgets — that a pure IOU ledger was not designed to own.
Where a travel group outgrows an IOU app
On a real trip the money does not only flow person-to-person. The group often holds a common pot: cash withdrawn in euros, leftover baht, a shared card. Someone pays a hostel in the local currency from that pot. Someone else tops it up in their home currency. An IOU app can still record “Alice paid 40€”, but it does not model the pot itself.
TripBudget’s common pools are built for that: contribute in any currency, exchange between pools, and pay from the pool that matches the expense. FIFO rate tracking keeps the cost of those conversions honest instead of inventing a single average rate.
- Shared multi-currency pools with automatic pay-from-pool
- Trip stages with a budget per destination
- Calendar heatmap of daily spend
- Offline logging, then sync when you are back online
Pricing: personal Pro vs a trip the whole group can unlock
Splitwise’s free tier covers basic splits. Several travel features people expect on the road — including some currency and receipt tools — have sat behind Splitwise Pro in public store copy and third-party reviews. Always check Splitwise’s current pricing; it changes.
TripBudget is freemium, not “everything forever for €0”. The core stays free when every traveler on the trip is identified. Each person also gets one Premium trip activation included. After that you either pay to unlock Premium on a given trip — and everyone on that trip gets Premium — or you take a personal Premium subscription for all of your own trips. That is the contrast with a typical per-person Pro plan: one trip unlock covers the group.
How to move a group without drama
You do not have to migrate years of household history. Create the trip in TripBudget, invite the people who are actually travelling, and start from day one of the itinerary. Keep Splitwise for the flat if that is still useful.
Universal invite links open the trip on the right store (App Store or Google Play) and then into the shared trip, so you are not sending two URLs in the WhatsApp group.
Questions
Is TripBudget a Splitwise clone?
No. Splitwise is an IOU ledger. TripBudget is a travel budget app: common pools, stages, heatmaps, and group collaboration on a trip. Both split expenses; they are built for different moments.
Can we still settle who owes whom?
Yes. TripBudget still calculates participant balances and who should pay whom. Settlement sits next to the trip budget, not instead of it.
Is TripBudget completely free?
It is freemium. Download is free. The core is free when every traveler on the trip is identified. Each person can activate one Premium trip at no charge. Extra Premium trips are paid per trip (the whole group gets Premium on that trip) or via a personal Premium subscription.
Also see: Tricount alternative for group trips · TravelSpend alternative for group budgets