Skip to main content
Save 30% on your first year

Smartbills vs Splitwise

Both keep track of who owes whom. The difference is where the bill comes from: in Splitwise someone types it in, while at a connected restaurant or store Smartbills already has the itemized receipt when you pay.

Get started freeGet the app

At a glance

Smartbills vs Splitwise, in one screen

Splitwise is the best-known app for tracking shared expenses between friends, housemates and travel groups. You add each expense, choose how it's divided, and Splitwise keeps a running balance for everyone in the group, with an option to simplify a group's debts into fewer payments. Scanning a receipt and splitting it line by line are part of its paid Pro plan.

Smartbills

Best for

Friends and roommates whose shared costs are mostly restaurant bills and store receipts, who want to split by what each person actually had without typing anything.

Where it's stronger

  • The bill is already itemized when it comes from a connected restaurant or store. Nobody retypes it.
  • Splitting by item, with tax and tip following, is free.
  • Everyone in the group sees the same itemized receipt behind the split.
  • The same receipts stay useful afterwards for returns, warranties and tax time.

Splitwise

Best for

Groups whose shared costs are mostly amounts with no receipt behind them, like rent, a cabin or gas money, and whose friends already use it.

Where it's stronger

  • Your friends probably have it already, and in a group app that matters more than any feature.
  • More than a decade of polish on groups, balances and simplifying a group's debts.
  • Works just as well for costs with no receipt at all, which is most of what roommates share.
  • Handles groups that spend in several currencies on a trip.

Every comparison on this site names what the other product does better. If we couldn't think of anything, we didn't publish the page.

Side by side

Smartbills and Splitwise, feature by feature

These are structural differences, not plan checkboxes. Capabilities change, so check the vendor's own documentation before deciding on any single row.

Where the bill comes from

SmartbillsThe store's itemized receipt, or typed in
SplitwiseTyped in by a group member

Splitting item by item

SmartbillsIncluded on the free plan
SplitwisePro plan, from a scanned photo

Tax and tip divided by what each person had

Smartbills
SplitwiseWith itemizing on Pro

Balance clears when the money arrives

SmartbillsMatched from a connected account
SplitwiseMarked paid by hand

Receipts kept for returns, warranty and tax

Smartbills
Splitwise—

Fewest payments to settle a whole group

SmartbillsOne running balance per person
SplitwiseBuilt in, and a real strength

Moving from Splitwise

No need to switch everyone at once. Settle what's open in the old app, then start the next shared bill in Smartbills.

  1. Settle open groups first

    Close out your current Splitwise balances before starting new ones, so no debt lives in two apps.

  2. Set up your groups once

    The apartment, the Thursday dinner, the ski trip. Groups stay saved, so you only do this once.

  3. Connect the card you pay with

    That's how a store that uses Smartbills's receipt finds you, and how a friend's transfer clears their balance.

  4. Split the next dinner

    Send the receipt to the group. Friends see it in their free Smartbills account and tap what was theirs.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before they sign up.

Splitting is free on the Smartbills free plan, including item-by-item splits with tax and tip divided by what each person had. The pricing page lists what the paid plans add.

Yes, a free account. They need one to see a split and respond to it. If someone hasn't signed up yet, you can still text or email them their share.

For a flat amount with no receipt behind it, the two work much the same way, and Splitwise has years of polish on that. Smartbills pulls ahead when the cost comes with an itemized receipt, like groceries or takeout.

Keep comparing

More comparisons

The products people evaluate alongside Splitwise.

All Splitwise alternativesBest bill splitting and receipt apps

The products that do the work.

Each product works on its own, and when you run two, the same record carries from the receipt to the ledger entry.

Get started

Split your next bill from the receipt

Get the app for free, pay as usual, and tap what you had. Your friends see their share in their own free account.

Get started freeGet the app