SplitterUp: The Splitwise Alternative Built for How You Actually Split Bills

If you have ever split expenses with a group of friends, there's a good chance you have used Splitwise. For years it has been the default recommendation whenever someone asks "how do I split bills with my roommates?" And for a while, it deserved that reputation. It was simple, it worked, and there wasn't much competition.

But the experience has changed. The free tier keeps getting more restrictive, the interface feels like it hasn't been updated since 2018, and the subscription pricing keeps creeping up. If you have found yourself frustrated with Splitwise lately, you aren't alone. There's a reason "Splitwise alternative" is one of the most searched expense-app queries in 2026.

SplitterUp was built from scratch to address the exact frustrations that drive people away from the incumbent. Not as a clone with a different name, but as a rethinking of what an expense splitting app should be in 2026.

Why People Are Looking for a Splitwise Alternative

The most common complaint about Splitwise is the daily expense limit on the free tier. You can only add a handful of expenses per day (commonly reported as 3) without paying for Splitwise Pro. If you're on a group trip and splitting breakfast, lunch, groceries, an activity, and dinner, you hit that limit before noon. For an app whose core purpose is tracking shared expenses, putting a hard cap on the number of expenses you can log makes the free version feel more like a demo than a real product.

Then there are the ads. The free version of Splitwise now shows ads throughout the interface, including banner ads on the main balance screen. When you're trying to quickly check how much your roommate owes you, getting served a banner ad for a credit card you don't want isn't a great experience.

Splitwise Pro removes the limits and ads, but at around $3 per month or ~$30 per year (pricing varies by plan and region). That adds up fast for an app that tracks who owes what. Many users feel that's steep for a utility app, especially when the same features are available elsewhere for a one-time purchase.

The interface itself feels dated. Navigation is clunky, there's limited dark mode support (Android system-level only), and the iPad experience is an afterthought. Receipt scanning with item-level OCR exists in the Pro tier, but it requires an ongoing subscription to access.

Finally, there's no concept of smart re-splitting. If someone joins your group trip late and you want to retroactively include them in past expenses, you have to manually edit every single expense. With a large group and a week-long trip, that's a serious pain.

How SplitterUp Solves These Problems

SplitterUp was designed by people who experienced every one of these frustrations firsthand. Here is how it addresses them:

No daily limits. Add as many expenses as you need, whenever you need to. Whether you're logging one expense or fifty in a single day, there's no artificial cap. Expense tracking only works when you can actually track all your expenses.

No ads, ever. SplitterUp is a privacy-first app. There are no ads, no tracking pixels, and no data selling. Your financial data stays between you and your group.

One-time purchase instead of a subscription. SplitterUp Pro is $4.99 once during the launch period. Not per month. Not per year. One payment, and you own it forever. Compare that to Splitwise Pro at around $3 per month (~$30/year) and the math speaks for itself.

Modern, clean UI. SplitterUp was designed and built in 2025-2026 with modern design principles. It includes full dark mode support, a native iPad-optimized layout, four types of home screen widgets, and a navigation structure that makes sense.

AI-powered receipt scanning with item-level OCR. Point your camera at a receipt and SplitterUp extracts not just the total, but every individual line item. Then you tap to assign items to the people who ordered them. The app calculates each person's exact share, including tax and tip proportionally distributed. No more "let's just split it equally" when you ordered a side salad and someone else had the surf and turf.

Smart Re-splitting. When someone joins your group late, you can retroactively add them to past expenses with a single tap. The app recalculates everyone's share automatically. No manual editing of dozens of expenses.

Smart settlement optimization. SplitterUp calculates the minimum number of transactions needed to settle all debts within a group. Instead of everyone paying everyone else, the app consolidates payments so you make the fewest transfers possible.

Feature Comparison

Here is a direct comparison of what you get with each option:

For a more detailed feature-by-feature breakdown, see our full comparison page.

What About Receipt Scanning?

Both SplitterUp and Splitwise Pro offer item-level receipt scanning with OCR that can detect individual items and let you assign them to friends. The key differences are access and cost.

Splitwise's receipt scanning is locked behind the Pro subscription (around $3/month). Free users have no access to it at all. SplitterUp includes the same capability in its one-time $4.99 purchase. When you scan a receipt, the app extracts every individual line item, including the item name, quantity, and price. You then see a clean list of everything on the receipt and can tap each item to assign it to the person who ordered it. Multiple people can share a single item, too.

Once all items are assigned, SplitterUp automatically calculates each person's subtotal and proportionally distributes tax and tip across everyone based on what they ordered. The result is a mathematically fair split where everyone pays for exactly what they consumed.

This matters most at restaurants, grocery runs, and any shared purchase where people bought different things. The "just split it equally" approach works sometimes, but it breeds resentment when the amounts are meaningfully different. Item-level scanning removes that friction entirely.

Making the Switch

Switching from Splitwise to SplitterUp is straightforward. Download SplitterUp from the App Store or Google Play, create your account, set up your groups, and invite your friends.

There's no complex data migration process to worry about. Most people settle up their existing Splitwise balances and then start fresh in SplitterUp for new expenses going forward. Since SplitterUp has a free tier with a 7-day trial of Pro features, you can test the full experience before committing.

The hardest part of switching any group app is getting your friends to join. But once one person in the group makes the move and sends invitations, the rest usually follow quickly, especially when they see the difference in receipt scanning and the lack of daily limits.

Pricing That Makes Sense

Let's do the math. Splitwise Pro costs around $3 per month or ~$30 per year (pricing varies by plan and region). Over three years, that's ~$90. Over five years, ~$150.

SplitterUp Pro is $4.99 once. That's it. About the same price as a single month of Splitwise Pro gives you a lifetime of SplitterUp Pro. Every feature, every update, forever.

Even if we set aside the cleaner interface and the broader platform support, the pricing alone makes the decision straightforward for most people. You're paying the cost of one month for what would take Splitwise years to match in value.

SplitterUp can offer this pricing because it doesn't rely on advertising revenue or data monetization. The business model is simple: build a great product and charge a fair price for it. No recurring fees, no upsells, no hidden costs.

Think about what an expense splitting app sees: your spending categories, amounts, who you split with, where you eat, where you travel. That's valuable data. Some free apps use it for targeted marketing or to cross-sell financial products. SplitterUp's one-time fee means your financial data stays yours — it's never sold, shared, or used to build an advertising profile.

Curious how SplitterUp stacks up against other alternatives too? Check out our roundup of the 7 best expense splitting apps in 2026 for a broader comparison. You can also see receipt scanning in action on our travel & dining page.