Budget44 vs Spending Tracker

Quick answer

Spending Tracker by MH Riley Ltd is a manual expense and income log. It has been on the App Store since 2012, with 4.78 stars from 19,411 US ratings. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Android, and you pay for it once rather than monthly. The free edition is the catch. Its App Store age rating carries a Contains Advertising annotation, and its privacy label declares Device ID used to track you.

Budget44 logs five kinds of transaction, keeps asset and liability accounts that roll up into a net worth total, and runs per-category budgets, recurring bills and income, saving goals, a calendar and stats. It is free to download, needs no account, works completely offline and shows no ads.

If you want one payment, a watch app and a Mac app, pick Spending Tracker. Budget44 is the pick if you want accounts and net worth, transfers between them, and a free tier with no ads.

Side-by-side

Where Spending Tracker wins

It goes where your phone is not. The App Store lists Spending Tracker for Apple Watch and Mac alongside iPhone and iPad. The Mac build requires macOS 12.4 or later, and the watch app dates to version 2.11 in October 2020. Version 3.0 added home screen widgets for viewing a summary or adding an entry, and version 3.2 put Add Expense and Add Income actions in the Shortcuts app and on the Lock Screen. Budget44 is iPhone, iPad and Android, and its listing mentions none of that.

You pay once. The Pro Upgrade is a single $2.99 in-app purchase on the US App Store. There is no subscription and no trial anywhere on the listing, and 19 of 500 recent reviewers say the one-time price is the reason they stayed. On Google Play the same purchase shows as $3.49 per item, so quote each store on its own. Budget44 Pro is listed as a $2.99 weekly subscription.

19,411 ratings behind it. Spending Tracker has been on the App Store since 2012 and has 4.78 stars from 19,411 US ratings, against 5.00 from 2 ratings for Budget44. Two ratings is not an average anyone should lean on. Reviewers say the appeal is speed and a lack of clutter. Of 500 recent reviews, 254 name simple, fast entry, and another 34 describe years of continuous use.

Your data moves between devices. Automatic Dropbox backup arrived in version 2.5 in February 2016, and sync fixes run through version 3.2 in November 2025. Reviewers say sync is worth having once it is configured; 22 of 500 mention sync or backup, though some describe the Dropbox setup as fiddly. Budget44 has no cloud sync at all, which makes a lost or replaced phone a risk. Spending Tracker also exports to PDF and CSV behind the Pro Upgrade, which Budget44’s listing does not mention.

Where Budget44 wins

Money that moves between accounts. Budget44 logs five transaction types: expense, income, transfer, charge and payment. Charge and payment are built for credit cards and loans. Spending Tracker’s listing describes expense and income only, and one reviewer asks for a transfer type. Budget44 also keeps asset accounts such as cash, checking, savings and investment next to liability accounts. The balances roll into a net worth total, and the app charts net worth over time. Net worth is not stated anywhere on the Spending Tracker listing.

Budgets per category, not one number. Spending Tracker’s Budget Mode sets a fixed budget amount for a time period and carries any remainder forward, which is a good fit for a single spending target. Budget44 sets a monthly limit per expense category and can renew those limits with recurring templates, so groceries and fuel get their own ceilings. Recurring bills and income run on six cadences with an optional end date on every series. Spending Tracker’s repeat transactions cover daily, weekly and monthly, and they sit behind the Pro Upgrade or a rewarded video ad.

No ads on the free tier. Budget44’s listing states no ads and no account required, and its privacy label declares no data used to track you. Spending Tracker’s App Store age rating carries a Contains Advertising annotation, and its privacy label declares Device ID used to track you along with identifiers and usage data for third-party advertising and analytics. Reviewers say the ads get in the way; 17 of 500 recent reviews complain about ads on the free version, 7 of them about full-screen ads they could not close.

Planning ahead, not just recording. Budget44 adds saving goals with a target, a deadline and a progress ring. Its calendar marks recorded entries differently from projected recurring ones and shows a projected end-of-month balance. It also ships 28 hand-built themes and a daily reminder with quiet days. The Spending Tracker listing mentions no saving goals, no calendar view and no theme set.

Pricing

• Budget44 is free to download with no account, and the description covers the whole feature set without naming a cap. Pro is listed at $2.99 a week with a 7-day trial. What the free tier limits and what Pro unlocks is not spelled out on the store page.
• Spending Tracker by MH Riley Ltd is free with ads. The Pro Upgrade is a one-off $2.99 on the US App Store and shows as $3.49 per item on Google Play. The description gates exactly two things behind it (repeat transactions and export), and free users can unlock those by watching a rewarded video ad.

Fifty-two weeks of Budget44 Pro at the listed $2.99 weekly price adds up to about $155. Spending Tracker’s Pro Upgrade is $2.99 once, so on price alone this is not close.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Spending Tracker if you want one payment and no subscription, you enter spending from an Apple Watch, a Mac or a widget, you want Dropbox backup across devices, or you want PDF and CSV exports and can live with ads until you upgrade.

Pick Budget44 if you track more than expense and income, you want asset and liability accounts adding up to a net worth figure, you want a limit per category instead of one budget number, you want recurring bills and saving goals without a gate, or you want a free tier with no ads and no tracking identifier.

Either way, you can do the arithmetic before you install anything. Our free net worth calculator adds up what you own against what you owe, and the monthly budget calculator splits a paycheck across categories. Both run in the browser. If you want the wider field first, start with our best budget apps roundup.