Free Splitwise alternative with receipt scanning

If you want a Splitwise alternative that reads the receipt for you, PayUpp was built for exactly that. Receipt scanning, item-by-item splitting and currency conversion are Splitwise Pro features. In PayUpp they come with the free plan, and there are no ads. For a quick split, your friends pay from a link without making an account.

We make PayUpp, so read this with that in mind. We have stuck to what Splitwise says on its own pages, as of September 2026, and we will tell you when staying put is the better call.

Why do people look for a Splitwise alternative?

We don't think Splitwise is a bad app. If you're looking elsewhere, it's probably because of one of these four walls, and they tend to show up halfway through a dinner or a trip.

Receipt scanning and item picking are Pro

On Splitwise, automatic receipt scanning and splitting a bill item by item are Pro features. Without Pro, you type in the total and choose how to divide it. That's fine for rent or the electricity bill. It's less fine when one person had a salad, another had the steak and three of you shared the wine. Somebody ends up doing maths on a napkin, or everyone pays the same and the salad quietly subsidises the steak.

Currency conversion is Pro too

Converting between currencies is also part of Pro. If your group travels, or has members living in different countries, it's the feature you will miss first. We go deeper on that in our guide to splitting travel expenses with friends.

Ads and a daily limit on the free plan

The free plan shows ads and limits how many expenses you can add each day. Pro removes both. A flat that logs rent once a month may never notice. A group on the first day of a trip, adding coffees, taxis and museum tickets as they go, is more likely to.

Everyone needs an account

To use Splitwise, everyone needs an account. So a friend who only wants to see what they owe has to sign up first. For flatmates, that's a one-off job. For a birthday dinner with a friend of a friend, it's a lot of friction for an €18 debt.

What does Splitwise do well?

Plenty, and it's worth saying before we compare.

• Your data isn't locked in. You can export a spreadsheet (CSV) for free on the web. That's more generous than some: Tricount handles exports on request through support, and Splid sells Excel export as an in-app purchase.
• It has reminders. Splitwise lists monthly summary emails and manual reminders.
• Pro is optional. If the free plan does what you need, you never have to pay. If you want more, the Pro subscription adds features and removes the ads.

If your group is already happy there, that counts for a lot. We come back to it in when to stay on Splitwise.

PayUpp vs Splitwise: how do they compare?

The Splitwise column comes from Splitwise's own help and feature pages, as of September 2026.

Spreadsheet export is a draw: both apps give it to you free. The real difference is where each app draws the line between free and paid. Splitwise puts scanning, itemising and conversion behind a subscription. PayUpp gives you all of them in your free group and charges once, only if you want more groups.

What makes PayUpp a free Splitwise alternative?

The hard case is always the same: one bill, several people, nobody sure who had what. Here's how PayUpp handles it.

One photo of the receipt

Take one photo of the receipt and every item lands in the list, ready to check. No typing out twelve lines of tapas.

Split by what each person had

In a quick split, choose "Let everyone pick" and each friend taps their own items from the link. In an ongoing group, whoever paid assigns the items. Either way, shared items are split among the people who shared them, and the split is exact to the cent.

Say four friends spend €84. There's pasta (€14), a pizza (€12), a steak (€24), a salad (€9), a €21 bottle of wine for three and €4 of water for all four. Split evenly, everyone pays €21. Split by what they had, the pasta eater pays €22, the pizza eater €20 and the steak eater €32, while the person who had the salad and skipped the wine pays €10. That's €11 less than an even split, for someone who just wanted a salad. Our guide on how to split a restaurant bill covers more tricks for the table.

Or just split it evenly

Not every bill needs itemising. Enter the total, add your friends, and you're done. You can split equally, by exact amounts, by percentages or by shares.

Friends pay from a link

With a quick split, you send a link in the group chat. Your friends open it, see their share and pay you. They need no account, no install and no bank connection.

PayUpp never holds your money

People pay you in their own banking or payment app, using your payment details: Revolut, Wise, PayPal, bank transfer, Bizum, Pix, Venmo or Zelle, for example. PayUpp shows who owes what. The money goes straight from them to you.

The extras are free too

Currency conversion is free. Spreadsheet (CSV) export is free. Payment reminders are free, automated and customisable, so you don't have to be the one chasing. "Simplify group debts" shows the fewest payments that clear the group. Every change is visible to the group, and balances say in plain words who owes what.

What it costs

One ongoing group is free forever, with every feature, plus unlimited quick splits. PayUpp Pro adds unlimited groups for a one-time $9.99 or €9.99. No subscription. No ads, ever, and your data is not sold. The details are on our pricing section.

How do you move a group from Splitwise to PayUpp?

There's no import tool, so moving is a manual job. For a group with a handful of open balances, it's quick.

1. Note the open balances. Open the group in Splitwise and write down who owes whom. If you want a full record, export the CSV on the web first. It's free.
2. Start a PayUpp group at app.payupp.fun. Your first ongoing group is free forever.
3. Add each open balance as an expense. Say Leo owes you €30. Add a €30 expense paid by you and put the whole amount on Leo, using the exact amounts split. Repeat for each balance.
4. Share the link in your group chat, so everyone can join and check the numbers match what they saw before.
5. Add new expenses in PayUpp only. Two apps with half the expenses each is how groups lose track.

The cleanest move is often to settle up in Splitwise first and start PayUpp with a clean slate. Then there's nothing to copy at all.

What about other apps like Splitwise?

Splitwise isn't the only option. Two others are worth knowing, as of September 2026.

• Tricount is free, with no monthly fees and no cap on expenses, and it converts currencies for free. Participants use the app, and you can attach a photo of a receipt for reference. It's linked to bunq banking. Our Tricount alternative post compares it with PayUpp in detail.
• Splid is a free app, and groups work without anyone signing up, which is a real plus. Currency conversion is free. More groups and Excel export are in-app purchases.

For the whole field side by side, see our roundup of the best apps to split expenses.

When should you stay on Splitwise?

Switching has a cost, even a small one. Stay put if one of these sounds like your group.

• Everyone already has an account and it works. Moving a happy group for the sake of it isn't worth the fuss.
• You mostly split evenly. Rent, bills, a shared streaming account: if nobody needs item-by-item splits or conversion, the free plan may be all you need, as long as the ads and the daily limit don't bother you.
• You already pay for Pro and like it. Then scanning, itemising and conversion are already yours.
• You want an installed phone app today. PayUpp works in the browser at app.payupp.fun right now. The iPhone and Android apps are coming, and you can join the waitlist.

Bottom line

If Splitwise works for your group, keep it. If you keep reaching for Pro to scan a receipt, split dinner by what people ate or convert currencies, or you're tired of asking friends to sign up just to pay you back, PayUpp does all of that on its free plan, with no ads and no subscription. Try it on your next dinner and see whether anyone misses the napkin maths.