Tabby vs Splitwise
Last reviewed August 20, 2026
Splitwise has been the default expense splitter for over a decade, and it earned that. It’s reliable, flexible, and the app your group is most likely to already have. What changed is the free tier: since late 2023 it caps how many expenses you can add per day, shows ads, and keeps search, charts, receipt scanning, and currency conversion behind Splitwise Pro. The backlash on its store reviews is easy to find.
Tabby’s position is simple: the things you need every day (adding expenses, balances, search, charts, settling up) are free without caps or ads, and the paid tier exists only for AI. The assistant adds an expense from a sentence like “84 dollars for dinner, Jordan had the wine,” answers “who still owes me?”, and drafts settle-ups. It proposes, you confirm.
The verdict
If your group already lives on Splitwise and you split a bill a week, staying put is reasonable. The network effect is real and the web app is genuinely useful. But if you split often enough to hit the daily cap, or you’re tired of ads and paying $4.99 a month for search, Tabby gives you the everyday features free and reserves its subscription for AI that Splitwise simply doesn’t have. Moving a group over takes a CSV export and a few minutes.
Prices and limits checked August 2026 (Splitwise Pro pricing from its US App Store listing; the daily cap is confirmed by Splitwise’s help center but the exact number is unpublished). Check the current listings before deciding.