Splitting tonight's dinner? Use splitty. Tracking expenses with roommates for months? Use Splitwise.
The real question isn't "which app is better"
It's "what problem am I actually solving?"
Picture this: You're at a restaurant with seven friends. The check arrives—$247.83 including tax and tip. Sarah had the salad. Mike ordered two cocktails. Three people split the truffle fries. And someone has to figure out who owes what before the waiter comes back.
This is not a "track expenses over time" problem. This is a "calculate seven different totals in the next 90 seconds" problem. The tools are different because the problems are different.
Splitwise is built for ongoing expense tracking—the kind you need with roommates, couples, or travel groups where you're logging dozens of expenses over weeks or months. It's a ledger. It keeps running balances. It remembers who owes whom across many transactions.
splitty is built for right now—the receipt sitting on your table. Hold your phone over it and tap capture. Every line item appears. Tap to assign items. Send Venmo requests. Done before your card comes back.
Both apps are good at what they do. The question is: what do you actually need?
What makes splitty different
The core difference is simple: you don't type anything.
Hold your phone over the receipt and tap capture. Every line item appears on your screen—the "Grilled Salmon $24.00", the "Diet Coke $3.50", the "Side of Fries $5.00 (add bacon +$2)". Even the modifiers. Even the 8.875% tax. Even the tip if it's printed.
With Splitwise, you'd need to type all of that manually. Or, if you pay $40/year for Splitwise Pro, you get receipt scanning—but even then, Splitwise doesn't support item-by-item assignment. It just scans the total. You still can't assign the salmon to Sarah and the cocktails to Mike.
A real example: 12-item dinner receipt
Let's say you have a receipt with 12 items, 3 shared appetizers, 8.875% NYC tax, and a 20% tip. Here's what each app requires:
splitty
- Capture receipt (3 seconds)
- All 12 items appear automatically
- Tap each item, assign to person (15 seconds)
- Mark appetizers as shared
- Tax and tip auto-calculated per person
- Send Venmo requests (10 seconds)
Total time: ~30 seconds
Splitwise
- Open app, navigate to group
- Tap "Add expense"
- Enter total amount manually
- Choose split type (equal only)
- Can't assign items—everyone pays equally
- Switch to Venmo separately
Total time: 3-5 minutes
(And the person who had salad subsidizes the steak.)
The difference isn't just speed—it's fairness. With splitty, the person who ordered a $12 salad pays for a $12 salad. The person who ordered $45 of sushi pays for $45 of sushi. Tax and tip are proportionally distributed. No awkward "just split it evenly" compromises.
The Scorecard
Feature-by-feature. No spin. Just facts.
splitty 
Splitwise Getting started: No account vs. full setup
Splitwise requires you to create an account before you can do anything. Email, password, confirm email, create a group, invite friends to the group, wait for them to accept... By the time you're set up, the waiter has already cleared your table.
splitty asks for nothing. Open the app. Point at receipt. Start splitting. No email, no password, no group creation. The first time you use it can be 30 seconds after you download it.
This matters because friction kills usage. How many times have you said "I'll Venmo you later" and then forgot? The harder it is to split the bill in the moment, the less likely anyone gets paid correctly.
Reading your receipt: Camera vs. keyboard
Splitwise's free tier doesn't include receipt scanning at all—you type everything manually. Splitwise Pro ($40/year) adds receipt scanning, but it only captures the total, not individual items. You still can't assign specific items to specific people.
splitty's scanning is free and reads every line item. "Margherita Pizza $18.00" becomes a tappable item you can assign to one person or split between three. The "8.875% Tax" line becomes the actual tax amount that gets proportionally distributed. No guessing percentages.
On a 12-item receipt, this difference saves 2-3 minutes of typing. More importantly, it eliminates transcription errors. You're not squinting at faded thermal paper trying to figure out if that's a 3 or an 8.
Splitting fairly: Item-by-item vs. even split
This is the fundamental philosophical difference between the apps.
Splitwise assumes everyone pays equally. It's designed for expenses like rent (which is usually split evenly) or groceries (which roughly even out over time). The app doesn't know who ate what—it just divides the total.
splitty knows exactly who ate what. You tap to assign "Filet Mignon $52.00" to Mike and "House Salad $12.00" to Sarah. When someone shares the appetizer, you mark it as shared and splitty divides that item among the sharers.
The result: fair splits, not equal splits. The person who ordered water and a side salad doesn't subsidize the person who ordered three rounds of drinks and a porterhouse. This isn't just about money—it's about avoiding the awkward "should we just split it evenly?" conversation where someone always loses.
Getting paid: Venmo integration vs. separate app
Both apps integrate with Venmo, but the integration depth is different.
Splitwise tracks balances and shows you who owes whom, but you still need to switch to Venmo to actually request money. You copy the amount, open Venmo, find the person, paste the amount, write a note, send. Repeat for each person.
splitty sends Venmo requests directly. After assigning items, you see each person's total (including their share of tax and tip). Tap "Request via Venmo" and the request goes out with a pre-filled amount and note. One tap per person. No switching apps, no copying amounts.
This matters more than it sounds. The moment between "calculating what everyone owes" and "actually getting paid" is where most splits die. Make it frictionless and people actually pay you back.
Where Splitwise wins (and we mean it)
We're not going to pretend splitty is better at everything. Splitwise genuinely does some things better. If you need any of these, use Splitwise:
- Ongoing expense tracking with roommates. If you're splitting rent, utilities, and groceries with the same people month after month, Splitwise's running balance makes sense. splitty is designed for one-time splits, not ledgers.
- Currency conversion. International travel with expenses in different currencies? Splitwise handles currency conversion and keeps everything balanced. splitty supports 180+ currencies but doesn't convert between them.
- Android. Splitwise works on both iOS and Android. splitty is iOS-only (for now). If you're on Android, Splitwise is your option.
- Web access. Need to check balances from your laptop? Splitwise has a full web app. splitty is mobile-only.
- Large groups with history. If you have a "Beach House Fund" group that's been tracking expenses for three years, Splitwise's group management makes sense. splitty doesn't maintain long-term groups.
The honest take: Use Splitwise for your roommate situation. Use splitty when the dinner check arrives. They solve different problems. You can have both on your phone.
Real scenarios: Which app for what situation?
Birthday dinner at a steakhouse (12 people, $800 bill)
Use splitty. Someone orders a $65 ribeye. Someone else has a $15 chicken sandwich. Three people split the $80 seafood tower. This is exactly what splitty is built for—scan the receipt, assign items, calculate each person's share including their portion of tax and the 20% auto-gratuity. Done in under a minute. Venmo requests sent before anyone leaves.
Monthly rent and utilities with two roommates
Use Splitwise. You're logging the same expenses every month—rent, electric, internet, cleaning supplies. You need running balances that carry over. Splitwise tracks that Sarah paid for groceries last week and Mike owes her $47 from the utility bill. This is ledger work, not one-time splits.
Work lunch where one person is expensing
Use splitty. Your coworker is putting the whole lunch on their corporate card. They need to expense it, but also collect from the four colleagues who aren't on expense accounts. Scan the receipt, assign their items, send them Venmo requests. Clean record for the expense report.
Week-long vacation with college friends
Use both. Splitwise for the big stuff—the Airbnb, the rental car, groceries. splitty for dinners out. When you're at a restaurant in Barcelona with 8 items on the receipt and everyone ordered something different, splitty handles that specific moment. Splitwise handles the trip overall.
Weekly brunch with the same 4 friends
Probably splitty. Even though it's recurring, each brunch is a discrete event with different orders. You're not tracking a running balance—you're settling up each time. splitty's speed makes it the right tool.
Pick the right tool
Different situations call for different solutions
Use splitty when...
- Tonight's restaurant bill
- One-time group dinners (birthday, holiday)
- Fair item-by-item splits
- Speed—settled before leaving the table
Use Splitwise when...
- Monthly rent and utilities with roommates
- Week-long trips with many shared expenses
- Running balances over months
- Android users (splitty is iOS-only)
Questions & Answers
Everything you need to know about splitty vs Splitwise
01 Does splitty work without an account?
Yes. splitty requires no account, no email, no signup. Open the app, scan a receipt, split it. That's it. Splitwise requires you to create an account before you can do anything.
02 Can I split a bill if my friends don't have the app?
Absolutely. Only one person needs splitty. You scan the receipt, assign items to people by name, and send them Venmo requests directly from the app. Your friends don't need to download anything.
03 How accurate is splitty's receipt reading?
Very accurate. splitty reads every line item, modifier, tax, and tip from your receipt automatically. On a typical restaurant receipt, accuracy is 99%+. You can always edit any item if needed—but you rarely will.
04 Does splitty work with Venmo?
Yes—and better than you'd expect. After assigning items, splitty calculates each person's share (including their portion of tax and tip) and lets you send Venmo requests directly. One tap per person. No copying amounts, no switching apps.
05 Is splitty really free?
splitty offers 3 free workflows to try—scans or manual entries. After that, it's $9.99/year or $24.99 lifetime for unlimited splits. All features are available during the trial. Payment integrations like Venmo are always free.
06 What's the difference between splitty and Splitwise?
Different tools for different jobs. Splitwise is for tracking ongoing expenses with roommates over months—rent, utilities, groceries. splitty is for splitting tonight's dinner in 30 seconds. Splitwise tracks. splitty settles.
07 Why would I choose splitty over Splitwise?
Speed. If you're at a restaurant and the check just arrived, splitty gets everyone's totals calculated and Venmo requests sent before the waiter brings back your card. Splitwise is overkill for a one-time dinner—it's designed for ongoing expense tracking.
08 Does splitty support group trips?
splitty is optimized for single-meal splits, not multi-day trips. For a week-long vacation with dozens of shared expenses, Splitwise or Splid are better choices. For dinner during that vacation? That's where splitty shines.
More comparisons
See how splitty stacks up against other bill-splitting apps.
