Tricount alternatives compared: what each free app adds — and what it gives up

Tricount is usually the app a group already has. It is free, you can start a tricount without making an account, everyone joins by link, and it has carried a great many European trips and flatshares without anyone paying a cent. So when someone goes looking for an alternative, it is rarely because the app broke. It is because they wanted one more thing — the receipt read, or the person who skipped the wine not paying for it — and found that Tricount does not do it.

The short version: if your group only ever splits equally, there is little reason to move; if you want receipts read and bills split item by item without paying for the privilege, Donget covers both — and Splid, Settle Up, Splitser and Splitwise each win a specific situation.

What Tricount already gets right

Any alternative has to clear Tricount’s own bar first, and it is not a low one. Expenses are free and uncapped. You create a tricount without an account, send a link, and the others start adding. Multi-currency is included and sync is realtime. It has 21 million users, and in much of Europe it is the default. The only routine complaint is the ads; everything else people miss is something Tricount does not attempt.

The gaps people go looking to fill

Two features drive most searches for an alternative; two smaller ones decide between the alternatives.

Receipt scanning. Tricount has none. Every expense is typed — amount, description, who paid, who shares it. Fine for a weekend; on a flatshare where three people shop every week, it is why the group quietly stops logging.

Item-by-item splitting. A tricount expense is divided as a whole: equally, or by amounts you work out yourself. There is no way to say “the starters were shared, Lea had the fish, Tomás had the wine” and let the app do the rest.

Accounts and recovery. No-account convenience lasts until a phone is lost or a group needs to outlive it. Our comparison page lists Tricount’s secure sign-in as partial; if you want a group attached to an account you can get back into, weigh that.

Right-to-left layout. Of the apps below, only Donget lays Persian and Arabic out right-to-left.

A dinner that shows the difference

Four friends — Inês, Marco, Lea and Tomás — eat out in Lisbon. Marco pays the €124 bill.

Split equally, Lea pays €31 for €17.25 of food — €13.75 of other people’s wine and dessert. Split by item she pays €17.25, and Marco is owed €32.25 from Inês, €17.25 from Lea and €43.25 from Tomás: €92.75, exactly the €124 he paid minus his own €31.25.

In Tricount you can reach the right numbers, but only by doing that table on a napkin and typing four amounts. In an app that reads the receipt and lets you assign lines, the table is the app’s job. How to split a restaurant bill covers the hybrid cases: shared bottles, service charges.

The alternatives, one by one

Donget — what it adds, where it loses

Donget keeps everything on Tricount’s list — free, no cap, multi-currency included, realtime sync, join by link — and drops the ads. It adds the two features people leave over: Scan receipt with AI turns a photo into a draft expense with its lines listed, and Items and Costs assigns each line to whoever had it. There are five ways to split — Equal, Amount, Percentage, Multiplier and item by item — and Settle up proposes the fewest transfers that clear the group. Persian and Arabic lay out right-to-left.

Where it loses: mobile-first, with no mature web app, so reconciling on a laptop is a real gap. Its network is smaller than Tricount’s. And beyond a guest mode that covers a couple of groups, you sign in with Google or Apple — more than Tricount asks for.

Full breakdown: Donget vs Tricount.

Splid — no accounts at all

Splid goes further in the direction Tricount is known for: no sign-up of any kind. One person creates the group, shares a code, and everyone joins. Free, no cap, no ads, multi-currency, no data selling.

Where it loses: the code is also the ceiling. Sync is code-based rather than truly realtime, there is no receipt scanning and no item-by-item split, and there is no clean way to recover a group if a phone is lost. Ideal for one weekend; thin for a flat you keep for years.

Settle Up — solid fundamentals, plus voice

Settle Up does the basics well: group expenses, running balances, optimised settlements, multi-currency, realtime sync, joining by link. Its distinctive addition is voice entry, quick at a till with a bag in each hand.

Where it loses: you can attach a receipt photo, but nothing reads it, so amounts are still typed. No item-by-item split, and some ads — on the two features that send people away from Tricount, it does not move you forward.

Splitser — clean and familiar, strong in the Netherlands

Splitser is a tidy, Splitwise-style splitter with a strong following in the Netherlands: flexible splits, balances, settle-up, multi-currency and realtime sync, free with no ads and no data selling.

Where it loses: no receipt scanning, item-by-item splitting only partial, and a narrower language range than Tricount’s.

Splitwise — the web app, at a price

Splitwise has two things none of the free options match: a mature web app and a very large existing network. Receipt scanning, currency conversion and item-by-item splitting are all there.

Where it loses: the free plan gives you around three expenses a day and ads between screens — a step backwards from Tricount’s uncapped free tier — and the features you wanted sit in Pro at $4.99 a month. Splitwise vs Tricount takes the two head to head.

At a glance

Pick by situation

• A weekend away, equal splits, nobody wants to sign up for anything. Stay on Tricount, or use Splid to drop accounts entirely — what “no sign-up” honestly means covers the trade-off.
• Restaurants, a flatshare, anywhere receipts pile up. Donget: scan the bill, assign the lines, settle in the fewest transfers — how AI receipt scanning saves you time shows what the scan produces.
• You add expenses on the move and talk faster than you type. Settle Up.
• A Dutch group that already uses it. Splitser.
• Your circle lives on Splitwise, you want a web app, and you will pay for Pro. Splitwise.

Still undecided? Expense splitting apps compared walks through the same six apps from an unbranded start.

Where Donget comes in

Take the Lisbon dinner. Marco adds an expense and chooses Scan receipt with AI rather than Enter manually; the bill comes back as a draft with its lines listed. Under Items and Costs he puts the starters on all four, the fish on Lea, the wine on Inês and Tomás, the dessert on Tomás, and saves with Paid by set to himself. Balances now shows the €32.25 / €17.25 / €43.25 the table worked out by hand, Settle up proposes the three transfers to Marco, and each payment is recorded as a Transfer.

The group gets in by Invite link; whoever opens it previews the group and picks their name. Other expenses use whichever split fits — Equal for the taxi, Percentage for rent on unequal incomes, Multiplier for a trip with uneven nights. The five ways to split an expense explains when each is the right tool.

Switching from Tricount without losing a balance

Leaving any splitting app is the same short procedure, and it is about balances, not history:

1. Settle up in Tricount first, while everyone still has it installed.
2. Recreate only the groups that are still live — the flatshare, the trip that is not over.
3. If a balance cannot be settled yet, log it in the new app as the group’s first expense: paid by the person who is owed, split among the people who owe.
4. Log the next real expense the same day, so the new group has a reason to exist.

The full walkthrough is written for Splitwise, but every step applies to Tricount unchanged: how to switch from Splitwise.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tricount free, or is there a catch?

Tricount is free with no cap on expenses, and multi-currency is included. The trade-offs are some ads, no receipt scanning and no item-by-item splitting — every expense is typed in and divided as a whole.

Which Tricount alternative can read a receipt?

Donget includes AI receipt scanning free: photograph the bill and it becomes a draft expense with its items listed. Splitwise has scanning on Pro only; Settle Up attaches a photo that nothing reads; Splid, Splitser and Tricount have none.

Can any Tricount alternative split a bill item by item?

Donget can, free — assign each line of the bill to whoever had it. Splitwise can on Pro. Splitser offers partial item splitting. Tricount, Splid and Settle Up divide the whole expense.

What is the closest alternative to Tricount if nobody wants an account?

Splid: you share a code, everyone joins, nobody signs up. The cost is code-based rather than realtime sync and no clean recovery if a phone is lost. Donget’s guest mode covers a couple of groups.

Is Splitwise a good Tricount alternative?

Only if you will pay for Pro or your whole circle is already there. The free plan allows around three expenses a day and shows ads; Pro, at $4.99 a month, adds scanning, currency conversion and item-by-item splitting, plus a web app.

Can I move my Tricount groups to another app?

There is no import tool and you do not need one. Settle up in Tricount first, recreate only the live groups, and carry any unsettled balance across as the new group’s first expense.

The bottom line

Tricount is a good free app, and if equal splits typed by hand are all your group needs, nothing here is a reason to leave. The alternatives earn their place when you want one specific thing Tricount does not do: Splid to drop accounts, Settle Up for voice entry, Splitser for a Dutch group, Splitwise for a web app if you will pay, and Donget when you want the receipt read and the bill split item by item — free, with no cap and no ads.

Download Donget free and scan tonight’s receipt instead of typing it.