Splitwise Reviews

by Blakbirdy

When using Splitwise on my phone, anytime I switch over to my calculator app to crunch some numbers, it closes out of an expense I’m working on. This drives me 100% absolutely nuts because there’s no way to save a draft, your progress, nothing. I had to redo one expense 4 times. That aside, it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to split a simple lunch bill among four people because (1) the UX is a real problem; (2) what in this good Earth is this “shares” feature that has little to no use in real life because no restaurant designs their menus this way and nobody orders this way; (3) not enough development is put into the dollar amount entry feature and why does it give me so many problems about the sum not adding up when I clearly know that it doesn’t and am trying to fix the issue but Splitwise won’t let me leave without deleting everything… I literally needed to find out what the tax rate was for certain restaurants (ones that charge hidden taxes, a fight for another day) and it wouldn’t let me do that without restarting completely. I literally would rather pull out all my hair and an abacus than deal with Splitwise another time and any friend of mine who suggests using Splitwise is disinvited to future hangouts until they learn the error of their ways or Splitwise fixes its problems.

by Carquah

This UX is terrible. You can’t see your individual payouts from each person, nor how much they owe you. If someone deletes the expense you charged them, it deletes it for everyone else and then you have to charge everyone again. You cannot see how much you paid all together, nor how much in total you owe. The list of payouts they present is very messy and disorganized. Also, the group and non group expenses are confusing, because apparently you have to choose the group and then unclick names, if you do non group expenses, it doesn’t show on the other users end. Referring to a UX such as Venmo is something you guys should do. It comes second nature to people and would be an easy experience to have a similar UX to Venmo that is more clean and will be an easier transition for new users to understand.

by Holly Nog

Every single month you guys split my bills so erratically. Your app constantly makes mistakes.. my inquiry is whether I’m
Being blocked from portions of my group account because I feel like either your app is absolutely pointless and flaw or absurdly that it does not do its task properly in any way other than the clean look of it. Every single month there have been comically large mistakes on your part. I need to know whether your app is the most inefficient algorithm or program I have ever used in my entire life OR my roommates are trying to hide real bill prices? If it is the latter than your app is cleverly designed to be fair and is difficult to alter with and so a great tool or (I’m being very sincere and not intentionally malicious) Splitwise is so pointless I would suggest to anyone who is thinking of using it that they would be better of PAYING for a remedial calculator rather than downloading this for FREE.

by Bazzoonboy

I love the purpose and thoroughness of Splitwise! Desperately needed, saves so much math headaches.

But when I just wanted to split between a few camping trip peers, Splitwise required unique, verified, real contact info for every single person, just to split costs for one trip. Many people need to split costs with those they may not know well, but even knowing all these people—it’s really inconvenient and sleazy to require verified contact info (clearly to try and spread Splitwise more), but it turned the whole group off to Splitwise and now all these potential future users associate Splitwise with being sketchy in its user data requirements.

Please, don’t give in to tacky behavior or “dark UX patterns”. Only require user data when it’s actually necessary. Thank you!

by Dezi-party

I use this for shared expenses amongst roommates. This apps features cater more to sharing a restaurant bill rather than rent and utilities. This doesn’t breakdown the charges that people owe, it only shows a lump some. Even after inputting future charges, it shows one whole amount. I tried the pro to see if the extra charts would provide more information, but the groupings by category aren’t helpful unless your splitting many kinds of expenses. The grouping by person show breakdowns but are inaccurate because there’s no way to connect a payment to one particular bill. So between not needing the receipts feature and unhelpful charts, the pro isn’t worth it.

by Word+up

Here’s my use case: I live with my girlfriend and we split all our bills in our household

If you delete a bill that’s been already paid: now the person who paid the bill owes the other person an amount equivalent to their half. Changing a recurring charge date or amount is truly a nightmare and will always result in a 1-2 month confusion period.

I’ve had an error that has occurred after coming back from Venmo a number of times where it says the transaction has failed. It’s a trap! If you manually mark it paid, it will just say that the other person owes you money once it figures it out later. I don’t know if it’s their systems reconciling it or Splitwise itself gets into a weird state that requires a restart.

I hope the people who work on Splitwise dogfood it because it is so painful to use.

The moment that there’s an alternative to Splitwise, I’m sold. To use this app, you have to be a forensic accountant and the tools they provide don’t help because they lack any real granularity.

I have the pro version. It’s offers almost no additional help.

by Linuxchick

I sent an email to the developer to find out why expenses that that were settled up weren’t moved under the settled up area within the group. They were quick in responding and very clear in the it explanation.

It turns out though that individual expenses won’t move under the settled up section until the entire balance reaches $0. This is confusing for users because let’s say you have a running total of $245 for three different expenses $45, $120 and $80. Person A pays person B $45 dollars on the 5th, then $120 on the 10th. Both expenses will still show in the ledger until the remaining $80 is paid. BUT!!!! If you add another expense before the remaining $80 is paid all of those expenses remain showing in the ledger until the balance reaches $0. What if the balance never reaches $0 because you’re constantly adding expenses that aren’t paid immediately? You end up with many many expenses showing and everyone asking you why they still show up when they have been paid.

We need a way manually move expenses off the main screen for the group!

If this enhancement is made to Splitwise , I will gladly pay for Pro. Until then, it doesn’t quite feel worth the money when I have people in the group annoying me with questions about why expenses are still showing.

by Lyss72222

Splitwise makes it super easy to split up expenses. You can create a group and choose who paid and who you want to split it from in that group if all were not involved. I wish it would give an option for the payer to say the bill was settled and have it close out without deleting the expense. I use it to split things with my roommates and it can get confusing sometimes keeping track when expenses don’t close. I have to make sure to add comments on them to keep track. It would be such a great feature if they would add something that would allow you to settle the bill so it would remove itself from the screen.

by Frogurt P. Wilsonburroughs

Found this app very useful for settling a
group cost for a wedding trip among 17 people, with numerous couples.

It was ok adding costs using the "split by shares" feature for couples, however it would be better to be able to set the share amount on a per-person basis, as all couples were paying jointly. Without that feature it was annoying adding each cost, and when we had to add another party to the group I had to update all of the costs again.

Also, at the end two people were owed money (myself and one other), however it was easier for me to act as the "bank" so all owed money would be sent to me and I would pay back the one other person owed. this app has the "simplify group debts" feature, but that still produces a more complicated array of who owes whom. It would be simpler to communicate the final tally if there was an option to set one person as the "bank", especially since most of the people are not signed up (nor want to) to this app, and I am communicating the costs to them.

Otherwise it was very useful and I'd use it again and recommend it to others!

by VivekKumarBatra

I have been using Splitwise for 3 years now and it is very simple and intuitive to use. Payment option using PayPal is great and the balance reminders a boon.

Deducted 1 star because I really hate the settle all feature. Instead of creating a borrowing entry it should record a payment entry in the groups/no Group where money is owed to other person and give the sender option to record any extra amount after all balances as borrowed amount in any one of the groups the individuals share. This helps us keep track of the expenses that have been settled instead of reflecting a borrowing and then balancing all groups.

by IceSk8rCA

this app is a super cool idea and my friends and I used it for my bff’s bachelorette party. I have some feedback.

-I was able to pay through PayPal but half the girls didn’t have PayPal so now we’re trying to figure out how they get their money. Don’t offer a payment until someone puts in the email associated to the account that way if they don’t put in the email for PayPal, I can’t pay them through PayPal bc now we need to figure out how she gets the money and it’s literally been taken out of my PayPal already and she still can’t figure out how to receive it.

-I didn’t see anywhere that explained what to do so as soon as someone added a dollar amount and split it between us all, I paid it. Needs be more intuitive or have some kind of pop up like wait until all your friends add the amounts before you pay so you’re not having to pay people in multiple transactions. That just wasn’t clear to wait until all transactions were added until you “settle”. Make that more clear somehow. Hope that makes sense?

Thank you!! Cool app idea, can’t wait to see it be more intuitive.

by XxiAnGeL

I use Splitwise for tracking bills in a multi family home. It helps me a lot ! but what I would like to see is for example in a group, if it says Mary owes $100, I would like to know what EXACTLY $100 is owed in (such as a utility, cable, etc). It doesn’t show specifics once you put the bill in, just the total amount owed. Also, I would like the option of the user disappearing off the owed bill once they have paid. This would make it SO much easier to keep track of who paid what, instead of me typing in a note every time when a payment submitted as to what bill the payment is applied for. Thanks for reading for my suggestion. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong and these options already exist. - Jennifer

by Maven802

Myself and my roommates have used this app for years to keep track of splitting utility and other costs. It’s been very helpful. It’s a little uncomfortable putting all that detailed info into an app and I’m not totally sure how much they analyze it/mine it for data, which is why the 4 stars. I should look more into their privacy policies but I’m guessing they analyze it as much as they want for their own business purposes. Also, it would be neat if they had some kind of graph so you could see how much the group or you are spending on different categories over time.

All in all, though, keeping it simple and uncluttered is probably the best approach.

It’s also useful because it links with Venmo and Paypal or you can record a “cash” payment between you and someone else.

by LanaRou

The best application for sharing and splitting cost and bills with the group. We often travel in the group, and always challenged how to properly keep track of the bills, who pays, who owes. also being able to manage it in different currencies was a challenge. We tried many applications, none non-worked well until I just found a this app. it’s really doing the job! it’s great! we use it for trips and also manage other shared finances. it allows to settle the bill at any time. it allows to do different currencies and it allows also to attach the picture (of the bill) and add notes. It is awesome. I hope it will stay this way. love the application!
Simple and provides all needs functionality. Kudos to designers and developers!

by Wineenthusiast

I have used it twice. The first time with good results. Second time was not effective. You have to have everyone participating to be effective.
The first time a friend was the person who entered the amounts owed for each of 4 people. I didn’t do the work just paid out what I owed.
The second time was between 2 people-myself and another. The other person was to be entering the amounts owed each day. She (my adult daughter) didn’t ask me for receipts/I didn’t offer receipts so at the end of our 12 day European trip, we only had entered the first day of travel. By the end of 12 days, many countries with foreign currency, we called our expenses even.

by Jalencar08876

I travel 5-8 times a year all over the world
and my friends come along too. I highly recommend Splitwise because no matter where in the world i am, i can add expense on the go and even take pics of the receipt. I then can split it right there between my friends. Sometimes we i’ll split the charges on our credit card if we’re dining but most times we split on this app especially when you friends are on a budget but didn’t have enough $ to enjoy other fun activities at least i can loan them and track it then be repaid in time. it’s a great app and i always use it as my go to app!

thanks so much for this.

by One Of The Mels

I love and use Splitwise constantly, to the point that it would make sense for me to use the pro version. So I did the 1 month free trial (thank you) but it didn’t seem worth the money. Specifically because I still can’t itemize transactions on the phone app, only the desktop, and the charts aren’t really helpful. In regards to the charts, if I could tap on a section of the pie chart and have every transaction that’s in that category shown - that would be Very helpful. Also, it’s not very clear on the charts if the total amount shown is the total of what Both people spent (and then split) or if it’s what I specifically spent after splitting expenses (again, would be very helpful to know/have both options). Last feedback is that it would be great if when using the itemized feature, that items could be split by a custom % instead of only 50/50 or 100/0. Fingers crossed these updates are doable! I tell people about Splitwise all the time and it makes my like So much easier by removing the stress of remembering debts, but the above would really help a lot.

by MScott_23

This is the MOST convenient app for dividing payments amongst multiple people or groups. I’ve used Splitwise twice now while traveling internationally, and it’s never been so easy to record and remit debts on the go. My favorite part is that Splitwise tallies up what everyone owes each other, and at the end of the trip when you’re ready to settle up, it does all the math for you in order to reduce the amount of transactions going back and forth. So easy.

Upgrading to Pro, so you can convert currency with one click, amongst other perks, is definitely worth the upgrade. Especially if you frequently travel internationally with others. It’s not really necessary if you don’t leave the states though in my opinion.

I can’t recommend this app enough!! And this is coming from someone who very much dislikes unnecessary smart phone apps.

by Clayton78

I recently tried this app for the first time for a trip with a group of friends. Some friends wouldn’t log into this app. Some friends wouldn’t check their emails. And a couple of friends couldn’t understand how everyone could be settled up if they didn’t pay back the person who originally paid for a specific item. Guys, this app tells you how to settle up to reduce transactions so that everyone comes out the same. Minds were blown. I could literally sense that smoke was about to come out of their ears. Of course, it would have helped if they logged into Splitwise , or checked their email or paid attention by the 2nd or 3rd or 5th time I told them, “Guys, open this app! It literally breaks it all down for you!” Minimum transactions are not for the faint of heart.

Bottom line: this app is great! But after that trip, I may have lost a little bit of faith in the human race.

by 13579frog

My friends and I went on a trip to France. We used Splitwise . it exceeded our expectations. It is very easy to split expenses and adjust for personal increases. It allowed all of us to not worry about evening out bills and instead to take turns paying so that at the end of the trip we were almost all settled app. Splitwise is very flexible in that it allows you to split costs between which ever group members have incurred the cost and it allows you to adjust the splits if necessary. For example, if one person’s share was $20 more than the others Splitwise will account for that.
It was also great to chose the currency. Since we where in France we used euros. Really great app even the non tech group members liked it.

by Cafedonut

Man this is such a great app! I'm using it to split the living expenses with my roommates! We used to keep all our receipts and I would manually calculate at the end of the month, but Splitwise allows us to keep track as we go. So long mountain of receipts!

One thing that will make this better is if there is like the ability to create some commonly use expenses. Im just lazy and didnt want to keep tying in "grocery" and electricity etc. Would be nice if the "Type in description" part starts to auto fill with these self created expenses, or maybe just recent descriptions, or an option for a pulldown that type of thing ovok~

by Mapplesmith

AND IT IS SO GOOD. The simplify expenses setting and ability to add receipt photos aren’t absolute favorite features. We went to brunch and they hand wrote a receipt and if we hadn’t added the photo to Splitwise we may not have caught that they accidentally charged us 25$ over! This is perfect for any trip where more than two people are spending money for the group. Less time worrying about being fair and more time just having a nice time with friends and/or family. Would highly recommend Splitwise and we use it any time the crew takes a trip now!

by ConnerJolly

We are traveling to South America and wanted a way to split up costs considering that there were a lot of things we couldn’t split. Splitwise keeps track of who owes the other, how much, gives the ability to pay them back and more. Since I wanted to keep track of all the finances (and not just stuff we split,) it let’s me keep track of things that we don’t split too. Also (though this might be something that just I am really stoked about,) they export everything to excel with categories, times, costs, who paid, what currency, etc.