Choosing the right expense tracker can be a tedious task. In our previous post, we outlined the five most important aspects we consider in evaluating the countless expense trackers out there. Today, let's have a look at the two apps we personally use to track our cashflows.
Daily Budget Original
Daily Budget Original is one of the most popular apps to track daily expenses manually, without having to link bank accounts or credit cards (we are not great fans of automated applications that soak in data from financial institutions; firstly because it comes with various security risks and secondly, expenses are often incorrectly categorized). Hence, in our view the good old-fashioned way of inputting data manually is preferable.
Back to the Daily Budget Original app now. Sorry for deviating.
Advantages
The user-interface is very nice, simple, and easy to handle. With the premium version, you will get access to a wide selection of cash flow categories. Data input is very fast and efficient, so much so that you won't even be noticing the expense tracking habit anymore. Trust us – opening the Daily Budget Original app after every purchase will seem completely natural within a few weeks. Furthermore, Daily Budget Original offers a good data export function and can also store your cashflow history in the cloud via automatic cloud-backups.
Disadvantages
As already mentioned, you need a premium version of the app to access all expense tracking categories and app functions. This will set you back a painful 6 to 9 USD, depending on where you live. However, at least the pricing is a one-off fee and not a monthly or annual subscription. You could also just start using the basic version and see how you like the app and how far you can go without having to pay a premium. Nevertheless, Daily Budget Original's biggest drawback is the missing multi-currency-functions. In other words, you can't specify the currency for individual cashflows separately; once you change your base currency, all existing/permanent cashflows in the app also change nominally. Example:
You grew up in a small town in Nebraska and have lived in the US all your life. In your Daily Budget Original app, you have recorded all your cashflow streams (income and expenses) in USD. Now, you would like to go on a study exchange program in Germany. Hence, you change the app currency from USD to Euro so that you can simply track your daily expenses in Germany in Euro without having to convert the value every single time to USD. Problem: The app now changes all your previous data entries from USD to Euro. If supposedly, you are earning 4000 USD a month in perpetuity, you will now earn 4000 Euro a month in perpetuity according to the Daily Budget Original app. This is NOT COOL. In fact, it's really annoying.
Spendee
Hence, for people who travel often and/or have an international outlook, we would like to recommend another app: Spendee.
Advantages
Spendee also has a great user-interface, good backup and export functionalities, powerful charts, and an easy data entry mode. Most importantly, though, Spendee lets you specify the currency for each individual cash flow stream. This will save you a ton of headaches when traveling or living abroad.
Disadvantages
Although beautifully designed, data entry on Spendee might be slightly less intuitive to some users than on the Daily Budget Original app. However, we think this disadvantage is negligible. Unfortunately, though, the premium version of the app requires a monthly payment plan and not a one-off-fee like Daily Budget Original. It will provide you with the option to link bank accounts and credit cards, or share your data with friends.
Conclusion
If you can do without the Spendee premium features (as we do), Spendee is the better choice for people who travel frequently and plan to study/work abroad one day. If you like to stay at home 95% of your life, Daily Budget Original will serve you well.
Comentarios