Travel Splitter vs Splitwise, side by side
Getting your friends in
Cost
Exchange rates
Settling up
Install
No app download for your friends
Splitwise needs everyone on the trip to create an account and install the app to add expenses or see balances. That's a reasonable ask for people you split bills with every month, but it's friction for a one-off trip with people who will delete the app the week after you get home.
Travel Splitter runs as a link. Whoever you're traveling with opens it in their browser, adds expenses, and checks the balance, no account and no install required. Anyone who wants the home-screen-icon convenience can install it as a PWA, but it's optional.
A real trip, not a hypothetical
Picture four friends flying into Reykjavik for a week, two from Taipei and two from Amsterdam. Within the first two days there's a rental car paid in euros, a grocery run paid in krona, and a round of hot dogs someone covers on a card that's still charging in New Taiwan dollars. That's Formula Hell: three currencies, one spreadsheet, and nobody agreeing on tonight's split until someone pulls out a calculator.
With Splitwise, every one of those four people needs an account before the first expense gets logged. With Travel Splitter, whoever books the rental car just opens the trip link, adds the expense, picks who it's split between, and moves on. By the time the trip ends, the app already knows the fewest payments needed to clear everything, instead of four people reconstructing a week of receipts from memory.
- EUR · rental car
- ISK · groceries
- TWD · hot dogs
Pricing: free is free
Splitwise's free tier caps how many expenses and groups you can track before it nudges you toward Splitwise Pro, a recurring subscription. That makes sense for a tool you use every month, but it's an odd fit for a trip you take once or twice a year.
Travel Splitter is completely free to use right now, no subscription, no premium tier, no monthly fee to remember to cancel after you're home.
Exchange rates you control
Splitwise pulls live exchange rates, which sounds convenient until the rate shifts mid-trip and the balance you agreed on yesterday doesn't match the balance today.
Travel Splitter supports 37 currencies and locks the exchange rate when you create the trip. The trip owner can update it any time, but it never moves on its own. Everyone is always looking at the same math, because the math isn't quietly changing in the background.
Built to close, not to run forever
Splitwise is designed around standing balances that persist indefinitely, which is exactly right for a shared apartment. A trip has a start and an end, and Travel Splitter's settlement screen reflects that: a minimum-transfers plan that tells each person exactly who to pay so the trip closes cleanly, instead of a running tab that outlives the vacation.
Which one should you use?
If you're splitting rent, utilities, or groceries with the same people month after month, Splitwise's subscription model and persistent groups are the right tool for the job.
If you're planning a group trip, with people juggling multiple currencies, who don't want to install another app, and who want the tab closed cleanly when you land, Travel Splitter is built for exactly that, and it won't cost you anything to try.
Quick answers
Is Travel Splitter really free?
Yes. It is completely free right now, with no subscription and no premium tier.
Do my friends need to create an account?
No. They open the trip link in their browser to view balances and add expenses. Installing it as an app is optional.
How many currencies can I use in one trip?
37 currencies. You set the exchange rates once when you create the trip, and the trip owner can update them manually at any time.
The short version
Start a Trip