Compare Splitwise and Tricount for shared family caregiving expenses

The short answer

Both apps can track who paid for a shared care expense, how the cost is divided and who still owes whom. Neither one wins for every family, so the choice depends on what your family needs most. Tricount is the lower-friction choice when relatives won't create accounts, when the group is large or when you want free expense tracking with shared receipt photos. Splitwise is the stronger choice when you need detailed split methods, an export you can run yourself or optional paid receipt scanning, and when a limit of four new expenses per day on the free plan won't slow the coordinator down.

This comparison covers only the money side of care coordination. That includes groceries and household supplies bought for the person receiving care, pharmacy and copay receipts, rides to appointments and repayments between relatives. Neither app manages medical information, and neither should hold it.

Decide whose expenses these are before picking an app

Caregiving expenses usually involve three different parties, and an expense app only reflects their roles if you set it up with them in mind.

• The person receiving care may pay some costs from their own funds. Those payments are not debts between siblings, so record them in a way that keeps them separate from what relatives owe each other.
• The family coordinator usually enters expenses, keeps receipts and tracks repayments. That person bears most of the app's daily workload.
• Healthcare providers send bills and receipts but do not use the app. Their documents are the source records. App entries are only summaries of them.

Side-by-side comparison

Criterion	Splitwise	Tricount
Getting started	Signup required; you invite members	Can be tried without signing up
Free use	Free accounts are limited to four expense entries per day	Expense tracking is advertised as free
Group size	No cap stated in its help pages	Up to 50 people, including you
Uneven splits	Equal, exact amounts, percentages, shares, adjustments, itemized	Unequal shares and unequal amounts
Receipts	Receipt scanning and itemization with Pro; Pro lists 10GB of high-resolution receipt storage	Shared receipt photos; members can download selected photos
Who can change records	No admins or special permissions; group members and people involved in an expense can view, edit or delete it	Anyone with the sharing link gets read and write access; removing participants works only on Android
Recording repayments	Settle-up records payments made outside the app; built-in transfers depend on country	Enter a reimbursement as a transfer or mark it as paid; optional bunq payment services carry separate fees, eligibility and terms
Export	Spreadsheet export per group or friend on web and mobile; Pro adds a JSON backup	No in-app export; CSV or ODF copies are requested from support by email
Paid tier	Pro: individual monthly or annual plans cover one subscriber; an annual Duo plan covers two	Premium was discontinued

Entering expenses and splitting them fairly

In Splitwise, each invited member can add an expense with the payer, amount and date. Split options include equal, exact amounts, percentages, shares, adjustments and itemized splits. Itemizing directly from a scanned receipt is a Pro feature. These options help when siblings have agreed to unequal contributions, such as one sibling covering half and two others splitting the rest. They also help when a single receipt mixes items for the person receiving care with personal purchases.

The free plan's limit of four expense entries per day matters most for the coordinator. Someone catching up on a week of pharmacy runs, grocery trips and parking receipts may hit the limit in one sitting.

In Tricount, participants add expenses that sync across everyone's devices. Uneven shares and amounts are supported, and transactions can be edited later. Because the app can be tried without signing up, it works well for relatives who will only log the occasional expense.

Receipts

Tricount lets members attach receipt photos that the whole group can see, and members can download selected photos. Uploads are checked through Google, and members can report images.

In Splitwise, receipt scanning and itemization come with Pro. Only the subscriber needs Pro to scan, and other members see the resulting expenses. Pro also lists 10GB of high-resolution receipt storage.

In either app, a receipt photo shared with the group is visible to everyone in it. Think about that before uploading pharmacy or provider receipts that show medication names or service details.

Who can see and change the records

This criterion often settles the choice for families with tension over money. Splitwise states that groups have no admins or special permissions. Any group member, and anyone involved in an expense, can view, edit or delete it. If your family needs only the coordinator to be able to change entries, Splitwise does not meet that requirement.

Tricount's terms say a sharing link grants read and write access to anyone who has it, and its help pages describe no single-editor control. Share the link only with the people who should be in the group. Removing a participant later works only in the Android app, so families who all use iPhones should plan membership before sharing.

Repayments and money actually received

Splitwise's settle-up feature records payments made outside the app, such as a check or a bank transfer. Whether you can send money directly inside the app depends on your country.

Tricount lets you enter a reimbursement as a transfer or simply mark it as paid. Its optional payment services come from bunq and have their own fees, eligibility rules and terms, separate from the free tracking.

In both apps, a person's allocated share is what they owe, not what they have paid. Neither app's help pages describe a field for the source of funds, such as the care recipient's own account versus a sibling's card. If that distinction matters to your family, track it separately, as described below.

Exports and long-term records

Splitwise lets you export a spreadsheet for a group or friend from the web or the mobile app. The export includes each transaction's cost and how it affected each person's balance, and Pro adds a JSON backup. The export documentation does not say whether receipt images are included, so download any receipts you need to keep.

Tricount discontinued its Premium tier along with the CSV and PDF export it offered. To get a CSV or ODF copy now, you email bunq support. That route does not tell you how long delivery takes or whether the file will include everything you need.

Both companies' terms frame the app as a convenience rather than an archive. Splitwise describes its records as informal, and Tricount advises against treating the app as storage for expense history. If your family may later need a formal accounting, keep original receipts and a periodic export outside the app.

Cost

Tricount advertises free expense tracking and no longer sells a Premium tier. Only the optional bunq services cost money.

Splitwise is free within the four-entries-per-day limit. Pro is sold as individual monthly or annual plans that cover one subscriber, plus an annual Duo plan that covers two people. Prices vary by plan and country, and the exact amount appears at checkout before you pay. Usually only the coordinator needs Pro, since other members see the expenses the coordinator scans. To avoid an unwanted renewal, cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date.

Privacy

Splitwise's privacy policy, dated May 26, 2026, says shared receipts and expense details are visible to the people you share them with. The company collects registration, device and usage data. Its receipt-processing vendors may use submitted receipts to train their text-recognition systems where the law permits.

Tricount's privacy policy, dated March 7, 2025, covers financial, identity and usage data, outside service providers and processing outside your country. Shared expense records remain after you delete your personal data, with your identity replaced by a pseudonym. The policy also contains advertising clauses alongside a qualification limiting advertising, so read the current version if ads matter to you. Tricount's terms are written for personal use among family and friends, set a minimum age of 16 and advise against entering confidential information.

In either app, use plain category labels such as "pharmacy," "groceries for Mom" or "appointment parking" rather than diagnoses, medication names or provider details. That keeps sensitive health information out of a shared financial record that other people can edit.

When each app fits better

• Choose Tricount if some relatives won't create an account, if the group is large (up to 50 people), if you want free shared receipt photos or if a teenage grandchild aged 16 or older will log expenses.
• Choose Splitwise if you need percentage, share-based or itemized splits, if you want a spreadsheet export you can run yourself at any time, or if the coordinator would pay for receipt scanning and receipt storage.
• Avoid Splitwise if your family requires that only one person can edit or delete entries, since it has no admin controls.
• Plan around Tricount's limits if you need regular exports, because exports require an email request, or if everyone uses iPhones, because removing participants requires Android.
• With either app, keep originals elsewhere if records may matter later, since both companies describe the app as an informal record.

A quick way to decide

List your family's requirements and mark each one essential or optional. For each app, mark every requirement as meets, fails or unverified. Drop an app when a documented feature fails an essential requirement. If an essential requirement is unverified, test it with a small trial group before committing. Compare optional conveniences and cost only after the essentials are settled.

• Who will enter expenses, and does everyone need an account?
• How many people will be in the group?
• Must only one person be able to edit or delete entries?
• Will you need uneven, percentage or itemized splits?
• Do receipts need to be shared, stored or scanned?
• How will repayments be made and recorded?
• What columns and receipt files must an export contain, and how often do you need one?
• Who would pay for any paid plan, and how many people would it need to cover?
• What information should never go into the app?

Keep a separate contribution record

Neither app documents a way to record where money came from or what the family formally agreed. A simple spreadsheet next to the app fills that gap. Use one row per shared expense, and copy in the payer, amount and shares from the app.

Column	What to record
Expense ID	A short label matching the app entry
Agreement date	When the family agreed how to divide this kind of cost
Participant	Each person sharing the cost
Agreed amount	That person's share
Payer	Who paid the merchant or provider
Funding source	For example, the care recipient's own account, a sibling's card or a shared account
Repayment amount and date	What has actually been paid back, and when
Remaining balance	Agreed amount minus repayments

Here is an illustrative example with invented figures. Sibling A pays $120 from their own money for supplies for a parent. The family agreed that A, B and C cover $60, $36 and $24 of such costs. B therefore owes A $36, and C owes A $24. If B sends A $20, B's remaining balance is $16, and C's is still $24 until C pays. The app shows the shares. The spreadsheet shows that the money came from A's own funds rather than the parent's, and how much has actually arrived.