Tricount alternative — Split The Bill

Why Tricount fans look at alternatives

Tricount's core idea — make a "tricount" (a shared expense ledger), share the link, everyone adds their expenses, the app computes who-owes-who at the end — is one of the cleanest in the category. No friend graph, no signup gate for guests, just a simple ledger anyone can contribute to. That's why it has 9M+ users in Europe and a near-perfect App Store rating.

Where it falls short for power users: typing every expense by hand. There's no receipt OCR. If you're on a trip with 5 dinner receipts, you type each one in. Splits inside a single bill are limited — Tricount handles "X paid €100" cleanly, but "I had the salad, you had the steak" requires you to manually break the bill into multiple expenses. Exports are PDF-only with no CSV, which makes downstream analysis (expense reports, year-end "how much did we spend on the trip") harder.

Users who hit these walls usually stay loyal — Tricount is genuinely good — but search for "Tricount alternative" or "Tricount with photo" looking for something closer.

Core differences at a glance

The table above lists every row. The big strokes:

Both apps share the lightweight, no-friend-graph philosophy. Make a group, share the link, anyone can join with one click. We didn't reinvent that — we copied what works.

We add AI receipt scan. Snap a photo, every line item + tax + tip extracted. For a 5-night trip with one dinner per night, that's 30 minutes of typing saved. Tricount has no equivalent — you type or you don't track it.

We add item-level splits within a bill. "Restaurant bill: 6 people, but only 3 had wine, only 2 had dessert" works as a single bill in Split The Bill. In Tricount you'd split that into 3 separate expenses (or live with the imprecision).

We add settle-up deep links. Tap "Pay Pavel €30" → opens Venmo / PayPal / Revolut / Cash App / Wise / SEPA QR with the amount prefilled. Tricount shows a balance + "settled" checkbox; the actual money movement is on you to remember.

Tricount wins on user base + mobile polish. They've been around longer, their iOS / Android apps are more refined, and most European travelers already have it installed.

Who should pick Tricount

Tricount remains the right choice if:

You're happy typing every expense. For small trips (3-5 expenses) the typing overhead is negligible. The simplicity-is-feature argument applies — no AI, no surprises, just "type in what you paid".

Your group already uses it. Switching ledger apps mid-trip is an unnecessary fight. If everyone's in Tricount, finish the trip there.

You want a phone-first app and you're fine with PDF-only exports. Tricount's mobile apps are excellent — better polished than ours today. If you don't need CSV / item-level / receipt OCR, Tricount is genuinely solid.

Who should pick Split The Bill

Switch if any of these match:

You're tired of typing every receipt. AI receipt scan handles this. Open the camera, snap, edit if needed, split. Per-bill time goes from ~2 minutes (typing) to ~20 seconds (snap-review-split).

You need item-level splits inside a bill. Restaurants where some people had alcohol and some didn't, grocery runs split by who bought what. The "single bill, different shares per item" flow is native here, not a workaround.

You need to settle up actually. Tap → Venmo / PayPal / Revolut / Cash App / Wise / SEPA QR opens with the amount prefilled. No "I'll Venmo you later" that gets forgotten three weeks later.

You need exports for taxes / reimbursements / your own bookkeeping. Our deep CSV (one row per item, expense, share) drops cleanly into a spreadsheet. Tricount's PDF export needs manual extraction.

How to migrate from Tricount

Tricount has a CSV export that includes all your expenses with payer and amount. Once you've closed out a tricount (everyone settled), the migration to Split The Bill is straightforward:

Step 1: Settle up the existing tricount — close out balances using whatever payment method you and your group prefer. Don't try to carry forward historical balances; start fresh.

Step 2: Recreate active groups in Split The Bill. For ongoing groups (your roommate group, your dinner crew), create a new group + invite members by email. The invite link auto-joins them when they sign up.

Step 3: For new bills going forward, use the photo flow. Skip the typing entirely.

Most migrations take ~10 minutes per active group. The savings on the next 10 bills more than pay it back.