Splitwise vs Tricount
Both track who paid what and both do the maths. They part company on the free-tier limit, on currencies, and on what happens when it is time to pay each other back.
The short answer
Pick Tricount if your group is in Europe, adds a lot of expenses, and spends in more than one currency. Nothing caps its free tier and it converts currencies without a subscription.
Pick Splitwise if you want a web app as well as a phone app, if everything is in one currency, and if expenses arrive a few at a time rather than a whole trip's worth in one sitting.
The rest of the page is what each one's own site says, quoted, so you can check the working. The table has a third column and it is ours, which normally settles the outcome in advance. It loses the offline row.
What each one says it is for
Keep track of your shared expenses and balances with housemates, trips, groups, friends, and family.
tricount helps you keep track of who paid what. Invite your friends, add your expenses, focus on the fun.
Same job, described the same way. The tracking is not the decision.
1. The free tier, and the number nobody agrees on
Splitwise caps how many expenses a free account can add in a day, and says so itself:
Splitwise has introduced a daily expense limit for our free tier.
That page does not give the number. The help centre does, inside the description of the Pro feature that removes it:
Add as many expenses as you need without hitting a limit (free users can add up to 4 expenses each day).
Splitwise's own advice, if you hit the cap mid-trip, is to wait or hand the job to somebody else:
Alternatively, you can add more expenses as soon as the daily limit resets, or ask a friend to add the expenses on your behalf.
Tricount has no equivalent cap and says so on its comparison page, where it marks its own free tier "No ads, no limits" and Splitwise's "With ads and limits". Its homepage repeats the claim:
Experience the easiest way to track group expenses, 100% free!
Splitwise lists "A totally ad-free experience" among its Pro features, not its core ones.
Who this decides it for: anyone who enters a week of expenses in one evening. On the last night of a trip that cap is a wall.
2. Currencies
This decides more groups than the cap does, and most comparisons skip it.
Splitwise's homepage lists "100+ currencies" under core features and "Currency conversion" under Pro. Those are two different things. Its help centre spells out which one you get:
Only Pro subscribers can convert, but all group members will see expenses in their converted form.
The feature that tidies the balances does not cross currencies either:
If your group uses more than one currency, Simplify Debts works within each currency separately. It does not combine or convert balances across currencies.
A free Splitwise group that spent in euros and baht settles two sets of debts, not one.
Tricount converts on the free tier:
tricount automatically converts expenses into a single currency for easy tracking.
Who this decides it for: anyone whose trip crosses a border. On the free tier, this row is Tricount's.
3. Accounts, apps and who has to join
Splitwise wants everyone in the group to have a login:
We think it's important that everyone in a Splitwise group can log in and see their balance.
There is one way round it. You can add someone by name only, as a placeholder friend, from the web app. An unclaimed invite does not get chased forever:
We'll send one invite, one reminder, and then leave them alone.
Tricount marks itself "No Registration" on its own comparison page, and shares by link:
Share your tricount link with your friends. Everyone can add their own expenses, see what's already been added.
The other half of this row is where each one runs. Splitwise's homepage says "Free for iPhone, Android, and web." Tricount's buttons say "Download for free" and "Download tricount now".
Who this decides it for: anyone whose group contains one person who will not install anything. Neither solves that cleanly. Tricount wants the download, Splitwise wants the login.
4. Settling up
Both stop in the same place. They give you the number and hand you to a payment rail.
Settle up with a friend and record any cash or online payment.
Send a payment request straight from the app and get paid directly to your bank account.
Splitwise records whatever you did. Tricount names the rail, a bank account, and sells a card next to it:
Pay with your bunq card and the expense gets automatically added to your tricount.
Tricount is owned by bunq, a bank, and the card-based automatic tracking runs in some countries only. Its own comparison page qualifies that row "in NL, FR, DE, ES and IT".
Who this decides it for: nobody, mostly. Neither one moves the money unless your group already shares a rail.
Side by side
| Splitwise | Tricount | Peanut Split | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free expenses per day | A daily cap on the free tier, lifted by Pro | no cap; "No ads, no limits" | No cap |
| Ads on the free tier | "A totally ad-free experience" is a Pro feature | "100% free" | No ads, and no paid tier |
| Currency conversion | Pro: "Only Pro subscribers can convert" | free: "automatically converts expenses" | 158 currencies, converted at the day's rate |
| Netting debts | "Simplify Debts", but not across currencies | "fair, simple, and smart suggestions to settle up" | A short payment plan, across every currency in the room |
| Accounts | "everyone in a Splitwise group can log in and see their balance" | marks itself "No Registration" | None. A room is a link |
| Where it runs | "Free for iPhone, Android, and web." | download | Any browser, nothing to install |
| Offline | "Offline mode" listed as a core feature | "add expenses that sync later" | New expenses queue on the phone; recording a payment needs a connection |
| Settling up | "record any cash or online payment" | "paid directly to your bank account" | However the two of you pay; one of you taps to record it |
| Behind it | "Made with :) in Providence, RI, USA" | "tricount by bunq" | Peanut |
Quotes taken from splitwise.com, kb.splitwise.com, feedback.splitwise.com and tricount.com on 31 July 2026.
The case where neither answer is right
Both of the above assume two things about your group. Read them as a test.
If both of these are true, either app is fine
- Everyone will make an account or install an appOne asks for a login, the other for a download. Somebody does one of those before anybody can add an expense.
- You share a way to pay each otherA transfer that reaches everyone, or cash in the same room. Tricount's settle-up names a bank account. Splitwise records whatever you managed on your own.
If one of them is false, you are not choosing between Splitwise and Tricount. You are choosing between a spreadsheet and giving up.
What Split does instead
That group still owes each other money, and the money does not stop mattering because neither app fits. What happens instead is that nobody keeps a list, everybody remembers a different total, and the person who paid the most decides it is not worth the argument. Send that group a Split room instead.
A room is a web link. It asks for neither the login nor the download: you send it, and the people who open it are in. The link is the key, so it belongs in the group chat rather than in one person's browser.
A room counts in one currency and takes expenses in any of 158, converted at the day's rate. The balances net down to a short payment plan.
Settling up is where Split is smallest. Two people settle however they settle, and one of them taps to record it. Split does not check with a bank and cannot. It takes your word for it, the way a shared note does.
When Splitwise or Tricount is the better tool
Take Splitwise if somebody wants receipt scanning, charts of what the group spends, or search back through old bills, and take it if your group is already there and never comes near the cap.
Take Tricount if you are in one of the countries where the card files the expense as you pay it, and if everybody banks somewhere a payment request can reach.
Both are bigger products with more in them, and a group that would have been happy with either should use either. Split has no card and no bank behind it.
Good to know
Split is free forever, with nothing to upgrade to. Peanut makes it to introduce people to Peanut, which is how Split gets paid for, so there is no second version to sell you and no plan to build one.
For the group that fits neither
Paste a link into the group chat. Nothing to download, nothing to sign up for, and nothing counting how many expenses you add.
Start a splitQuestions
- Does Splitwise limit free expenses?
- Yes. Its help centre states a daily cap on the free tier and says a Pro subscription removes it. The figure is quoted above, from Splitwise's own page. Tricount's comparison page gives a different one, which is why the source matters more than the number.
- Is Tricount really free?
- Tricount's site says "100% free" and lists no paid tier. It does market a bunq Credit Card next to the splitter, and its settle-up step sends a payment request to a bank account, so the free splitter sits in front of a bank.
- Which one handles several currencies better?
- Tricount, on the free tier. Its site says it converts expenses into a single currency. On Splitwise, currency conversion is listed as a Pro feature, and its help centre says Simplify Debts works within each currency separately and does not convert across them.
- Does everyone in the group need to sign up?
- For Splitwise, mostly yes. Its help centre says everyone in a group should be able to log in and see their balance, though you can track a placeholder friend by name only. Tricount's own comparison page marks itself "No Registration". Both still need an app or an account for the people doing the adding.