Tavala vs Spendee

Bank sync, or by hand

Spendee's Premium plan connects bank accounts in the 50 countries its supported-banks page lists, from the United States, Canada and Mexico to the UK, most of Europe, India, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Its privacy policy names Salt Edge and Plaid as processors. Bank sync is Premium only: Basic and Plus are manual, and a wallet linked to a bank cannot be shared yet.

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 or $39.99 a year per bank, and the first import goes back up to about two years. If you bank in the UK, Europe, Australia or India and want transactions to arrive on their own, Spendee reaches your bank and Tavala does not. For a US or Canadian bank feed Spendee is also cheaper: Premium is $35.99 a year with bank sync included, where Tavala Plus with one bank is $39.99 plus $39.99 a year.

Everywhere else Tavala is used by hand, and the capture bar is built for that: you type one line, such as taxi 1200 MKD, in any of six languages, and Tavala reads the amount, currency, date, category and wallet. Spendee adds receipts with Magic AI Scan on Premium. Tavala has no receipt scanner and no AI categorizing.

Currencies and exchange rates

In both apps a wallet holds one currency and totals add up in a main currency. In Spendee a wallet's currency can be changed only while it has no transactions, and changing the main currency recalculates all transactions. When you add a transaction in a currency other than its wallet's, you can set your own rate for it; Spendee's help does not say where its automatic rates come from or how often they change, and its pages do not give a number of currencies.

Tavala holds 155 currencies and 96 cryptocurrencies. It fills in a daily reference rate on every entry and stores it there, so last month's spending does not move when the rate does, and you can type your own rate on any entry to match a card statement. The owner of a space changes its main currency in Settings at any time, and past entries are re-valued at the rate of each entry's own date. On Tavala's free plan a space holds 2 currencies, counted from its wallets; Tavala Plus holds every currency.

Free plans, sharing and price

Spendee Basic is free with one cash wallet and one budget, export of the last 365 days, and no shared wallets or bank sync. Tavala's free plan has no cap on wallets, budgets or entries, keeps all history, holds 2 currencies per space and 2 private spaces, and syncs one device with a free account, or runs on any device as a guest. Someone who tracks a bank card, a credit card and cash separately gets one cash wallet on Spendee Basic, and as many wallets as they need on Tavala's free plan.

Sharing is close in spirit. In Spendee only the owner of a shared wallet needs Plus or Premium, and invited guests use the free version; guests can add, edit or delete any transaction, only the owner edits categories, budgets stay personal, and no member limit is stated. In Tavala a shared space holds up to six people, each on their own account; the owner's Tavala Plus covers everyone, and the people who join never pay. A Group pass ($4.99 once, bought in the apps) opens one space to six people for 60 days without Plus. Every member sees and edits everything, there is no read-only role, and entries do not show who added them.

On price Spendee is cheaper. Plus is $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year and Premium $5.99 a month or $35.99 a year, after a 7-day trial, bought in its mobile app; Spendee says prices may differ by country. 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. Tavala has no trial: the free plan is the trial.

Offline, devices and your data

Spendee's pages do not say whether it works offline or whether it can be used without signing up; its setup guide starts with the sign-up process, by email, Google, Facebook or Apple. Every screen in Tavala works offline, in the apps and in the browser after the first visit, and 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).

Spendee's web app imports files and edits in bulk, but its budgets are on iOS and Android only for now, and export is not available on the web. Tavala is the same app on iPhone, iPad, Android, a native Mac app and the web. 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.

Spendee exports transactions as CSV or XLS from its phone app, with the free plan limited to the last 365 days. Tavala exports everything as a JSON file on every plan and every device, and reports as CSV or PDF (the current month on the free plan, any period on Plus).