Tavala vs PocketSmith
PocketSmith is a forecasting app: a budget calendar projects your balances from 6 months ahead on its free plan to 60 years on its top plan, with bank feeds through local providers in many countries, from $9.99 a month billed yearly on 25 October 2026. Tavala looks 30 to 90 days ahead, connects only to banks in the United States and Canada, and is built for daily tracking by hand on every device, offline, free to start, with Plus at $39.99 a year. Choose PocketSmith for long-range forecasts or a bank feed in Australia, New Zealand, the UK or the EU; choose Tavala for phone-first tracking, offline use or a lower price.
What Tavala is
Tavala is a private, offline-first personal finance app for budgets and expenses in any currency, on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and the web. It starts with no account and no bank: you type what you paid in one line, in any of 155 currencies and 96 cryptocurrencies, and every entry keeps the exchange rate of its day. Budgets show what is left, bills feed a safe-to-spend figure, and debts get a snowball or avalanche plan. It is free to start; Tavala Plus is $39.99 a year on the web for every device, every currency and spaces shared with up to six people. A read-only bank connection is an optional add-on for banks in the United States and Canada.
What PocketSmith is
PocketSmith is a subscription budgeting app from PocketSmith Ltd, built around cash-flow forecasting: a budget calendar, a cash-flow statement, dashboards, reports and a projection of your balances. It runs on the web, with companion apps called PocketSmith Sidekick for iPhone, iPad and Android, which its help says are not designed as a standalone interface and do not include every feature, and a desktop app in beta (v0.5.0) for macOS, Windows and Linux. Multi-currency is on every plan, with bitcoin, gold and silver too. Bank feeds come with the paid plans, through Yodlee worldwide, Plaid in the US and Canada, Salt Edge in the UK and EU, Akahu in New Zealand, and Basiq and Mastercard in Australia under the Consumer Data Right.
Forecasts in years, or in weeks
Forecasting is PocketSmith's reason to exist, and it goes far beyond anything in Tavala. You place budgets and bills on a calendar, and it projects your balances 6 months ahead on the free plan, 10 years on Foundation, 30 years on Flourish and 60 years on Fortune. If you want to see whether a house deposit is within reach in three years, PocketSmith is built for that question and Tavala is not.
Tavala looks weeks ahead, not years. The Plan tab draws a cash-flow forecast of your spending wallets from your recurring income and bills: 30 days on the free plan, 60 and 90 days on Tavala Plus. It starts from What's Left, leaves out budgets and one-off spending you have not set up as a rule, and uses today's rate for amounts in other currencies, because future rates are unknown. Safe to spend subtracts the bills due before your next income. For longer what-ifs Tavala has calculators (savings goal, compound growth, loan, FIRE and others), but they are separate tools, not a projection of your accounts.
Bank feeds, and the countries they reach
PocketSmith's feeds are on paid plans only, capped by plan: Foundation connects 6 banks from 1 country, Flourish 18 banks from all countries, and Fortune any number. Its tour page says all the major banks in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and the UK are supported, through Akahu in New Zealand and Basiq and Mastercard in Australia among others; it counts over 12,000 institutions in 49 countries there, and over 14,000 on its plans page. It also imports OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV files, though not PDF statements.
Tavala's bank connection is an optional add-on to Tavala Plus, for banks in the United States and Canada, read-only through Plaid, at $3.99 a month per bank, with up to about two years of history on the first import. It reaches no bank in Australia, New Zealand, the UK or Europe, and it imports no transaction files; the one file it reads is a CSV of debts. Everywhere else you type what you paid in one line, which is how Tavala is meant to be used.
Phones, offline and your data
PocketSmith is web first. Its phone apps are companions without every feature, collaborators cannot manage a shared account in them, and the desktop app is a beta. You need an account before you start, and its pages do not say whether it works offline. Its security page says data is encrypted at rest in a data centre, and does not name the country. It says it makes money from subscriptions, not your data, and shows no ads.
Tavala is the same app on iPhone, iPad, Android, a native Mac app and the web, and every screen works offline. It can be used with no account, with nothing about your money leaving the device until you create one; with an account your records are stored in the European Union (Ireland). Tavala shows no ads either. One honest limit: the App Store and Mac App Store listings are not public yet, so on Apple devices Tavala runs in the browser today, with the same ledger.
Currencies, sharing, AI and price
Both convert at daily rates. PocketSmith turns multi-currency on as soon as you add an account in another currency and stores the rate for each day; its pages do not mention a rate of your own or give a number of currencies. Tavala holds 155 currencies and 96 cryptocurrencies, keeps the rate on each entry and lets you type your own. PocketSmith's free plan allows 2 accounts in any currencies; Tavala's allows any number of wallets in 2 currencies per space, and Tavala Plus holds every currency.
PocketSmith's collaborator access, on every plan, gives another PocketSmith user full permissions on your account, in the web app only. Tavala shares a space with up to six people, each on their own account, on every device; the owner's Tavala Plus covers them and the people who join never pay. Each person keeps private spaces beside the shared one; there is no read-only role, and entries do not show who added them.
PocketSmith has AI categorizing and its own MCP server, which connects assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT to your account. Tavala has no AI categorizing; its assistant, Ask Tavala, is off until you turn it on, works out the figures on your device, and never sends an amount from your ledger to the AI model.
PocketSmith Foundation is $9.99 a month billed yearly ($119.88 a year) or $14.95 billed monthly; Flourish is $16.66 or $24.95 and Fortune $26.66 or $39.95. It offers a 14-day money back guarantee and mentions no free trial. Tavala is free to start, with no end date, and Tavala Plus is $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month on the web; the free plan is the trial.
| What | Tavala | PocketSmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Plus $39.99 a yearor $6.99 a month on the web | $9.99 a month, billed yearlyFoundation; $14.95 billed monthly; 14-day money back |
| Free plan | Free forever1 synced device, 2 currencies per space, 2 private spaces | Free plan2 accounts, 12 budgets, 2 dashboards; no bank feeds |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, webA native Mac app; the web at app.tavala.io | Web, iPhone, iPad, AndroidPhone apps are companions; a desktop beta (v0.5.0) |
| Budgeting method | What is left, per budgetPlus safe to spend before payday | Forecast and budget calendarProjection from 6 months (free) to 60 years |
| Currencies | Every currency in one space155 currencies and 96 cryptocurrencies; 2 per space on the free plan | Multi-currency, all plansA base currency; gold, silver and bitcoin too |
| Bank connections | Optional add-onBanks in the United States and Canada, through Plaid, $3.99 a month per bank | Paid plans, capped by plan6 banks in 1 country, 18 banks, or unlimited |
| Works offline | Every screenChanges sync when you are back online | Not stated |
| Start without an account | YesAn account adds backup and sync | NoSign up first; the phone apps need an account |
| Sharing | Up to 6 people per spacePart of Plus; people you invite never pay | Collaborators, all plansFull access, web only; a free account can accept |
| Export and import | CSV, PDF and full JSON exportNo import from other apps yet | CSV and XLSXImports Toshl, MoneyWiz, YNAB, Monarch and more |
Choose Tavala if
- You track day to day on your phone and want the full app there, not a companion to a web app.
- You want every screen to work offline, and to start with no account.
- You want a space shared with up to six people, each on their own account and device.
- You want a lower price: Tavala Plus is $39.99 a year, against $119.88 for PocketSmith Foundation.
Choose PocketSmith if
- You want long-range cash-flow forecasts, years ahead, from a budget calendar.
- You want bank feeds in New Zealand, Australia, the UK or the EU through local providers.
- You want a free plan to try the forecast, with two accounts and manual file imports.
- You want to give an advisor or partner full access through a collaborator login.
Switching from PocketSmith
Tavala imports nothing from PocketSmith. PocketSmith exports transactions as XLSX or CSV from the Transactions page (all of them, or a search result), and a full CSV of every transaction from Settings, User preferences, Export data. Keep that file as your archive. PocketSmith's own importers bring data in from 15 apps, from Mint, Quicken and YNAB to Toshl, MoneyWiz and Monarch Money; Tavala has no importer for any app, so there is no one-step move in this direction.
Start Tavala from today: pick your main currency, add one wallet per account with today's balance in its own currency, and re-create your recurring income and bills as recurring rules, which feed safe to spend and the 30 to 90 day forecast. Loans are the exception to starting fresh: Tavala imports a list of debts, a lender's amortization schedule or past loan payments from a CSV file, with a preview before anything is saved. If you bank in the United States or Canada, the bank add-on imports up to about two years of history from each connected bank.
Tavala publishes this page and is one of the apps on it. Facts about PocketSmith are from its own pages, checked on 25 October 2026. Corrections are welcome at the address on the about page.
- PocketSmith: plans
- PocketSmith help: 6a6x8ssedbewr46ebzlaoz
- PocketSmith: download
- PocketSmith help: mobile apps
- PocketSmith help: multi currency beta features in PocketSmith
- PocketSmith: security
- PocketSmith: automatic bank feeds
- PocketSmith help: shared access on your PocketSmith account
- PocketSmith help: exporting your transactions
- PocketSmith help: preparing your bank files accepted file types
- PocketSmith: 6a6x8ssedbfacv7jf4oemu
- PocketSmith: PocketSmith mcp server
Questions
- Can Tavala forecast years ahead, like PocketSmith?
- No. Tavala's cash-flow forecast looks 30 days ahead on the free plan and 60 or 90 days on Tavala Plus, built from your recurring rules. Its calculators handle longer what-ifs, but they do not project your accounts.
- Does Tavala connect to banks in Australia or New Zealand?
- No. Tavala's bank connection is an optional add-on to Tavala Plus, for banks in the United States and Canada. In Australia and New Zealand Tavala works fully by hand, in any currency.
- Are Tavala's phone apps the full app?
- Yes. Tavala is the same app on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and the web, with the same tabs and screens. The App Store listing is not public yet, so on an iPhone it runs in the browser today.
- Does Tavala have a free trial?
- No. The free plan is the trial, and it has no end date. Tavala Plus is $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month on the web.
- Can I import my PocketSmith data into Tavala?
- Not yet. Tavala imports debts from CSV but not transactions. Keep PocketSmith's CSV export as your archive and start Tavala with today's balances.
Go further
- For expatsA budget that moves countries with you.
- Budgets and billsWhat is left, and safe to spend before payday.
- Offline-firstEvery screen works with no connection.
- CalculatorsSavings, loan and compound what-ifs, free in the browser.
- Tavala vs Lunch MoneyAnother multi-currency app with bank feeds, web-first.
- The Plan tabThe Plan tab looks ahead: a cash-flow forecast built from your recurring bills and income, the debt payoff planner and the calculators, and what is Plus.
Start with what you spent today.
There is no account to create and no card to enter. Pick your currency, add what you paid, and Home shows what is left.