The Best Manual Expense Tracker Apps (No Bank Account Needed)

Most budgeting apps start by asking for your bank login. The best manual expense tracker apps don't. You type what you spent, and that's it. People choose this for different reasons: they don't want to hand their banking credentials to a third party, they spend in cash or across cards one bank feed can't see, or they've noticed that typing a purchase makes them think about it in a way an automatic import never does.

All six apps below run on iPhone and work without a bank connection. We make one of them, SpendPal, and we've put it on the one job it genuinely does best. Each pick is listed by the job it suits, not ranked.

Best for a free, no-fuss tracker with a budget: Spending Tracker

Spending Tracker by MH Riley is the classic in this category, with a 4.8 average from more than 19,000 US ratings. It does what the name says. You log expenses and income, pick a weekly, monthly or yearly period, and optionally set a budget for it, with whatever's left carried over to the next period. Categories are editable, and the reports show where the money went. There's no bank connection anywhere in it.

It's free, and a Pro upgrade adds repeating transactions and export. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and MH Riley also publishes it for Android and Windows.

Skip it if you want your data synced to a partner's phone. It's built for one person's budget.

Best for sharing with someone on Android: Monefy

Monefy is built around speed. You tap a category on a ring chart, enter the amount, and you're done. Its own FAQ says it doesn't connect to your bank: you import statements yourself or add expenses by hand. Where it stands out is sync. It goes through your own Google Drive or Dropbox rather than a Monefy account, and it works between iPhone and Android, so a couple on different phones can keep one log.

The core app is free, and an optional Premium subscription adds the deeper budgeting features. It also has multiple currencies, recurring records, a passcode and a built-in calculator.

Skip it if you'd rather not have your spending in a cloud drive at all.

Best for privacy across iPhone, iPad and Mac: Expenses

Expenses by Blue Comet Labs (4.8 from about 1,800 ratings) has a privacy pitch: no sign-up and no personal data collection, with your data kept on your device or in your iCloud. It syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. It handles any currency with automatic exchange rates, and tracks spending by merchant as well as category. It can also scan a receipt to save typing. You can share a sheet with someone for a trip or a household, and import or export CSV whenever you like.

Skip it if anyone you share money with is on Android. It's Apple-only.

Best for tracking every account in detail: Money Manager

Money Manager Expense & Budget by Realbyte (4.8 from about 19,600 US ratings, and over 20 million downloads on Google Play by its own count) is the most thorough app here. It keeps separate accounts for cash, cards and savings and uses automatic double-entry bookkeeping. You get a calendar view, budgets by week, month or year, sub-categories, multiple currencies and a passcode. You still enter everything yourself.

The free lite version is limited to 10 accounts. Realbyte sells a separate paid Full version with no account limit, no ads and the option to manage your data from a PC over Wi-Fi. Its Data Sync Service is an extra subscription, listed at US$2.49 a month or US$19.99 a year.

Skip it if you only want to know what you spent this week. All those accounts are more than that needs.

Best for starting manual and adding bank sync later: Spendee

Spendee is the only app on this list that can connect to your bank, and that's exactly why it's here. You can begin with cash wallets you fill in yourself and turn on bank sync later if you want it. It also has shared wallets for partners or flatmates, budgets, labels, multiple currencies, an AI receipt scanner and a web version.

Its pricing page lists a free Basic plan with one cash wallet and one budget. Premium, at $5.99 a month or $35.99 a year in the US, adds bank sync and unlimited wallets and budgets. Every plan has a 7-day free trial, and Spendee notes prices differ by country.

Skip it if the whole point for you is never having a bank connection on offer. The app is designed around one.

Best for one line a day you'll actually keep: SpendPal

SpendPal is the one we make, and it's narrower than everything above on purpose. It looks like a paper notebook. You type a line in plain words, such as tacos 11.40 or bus 2.75, and press enter. SpendPal reads the amount off the end, files the category, and writes it onto today's page. It learns your regulars, so the second coffee goes in the right place without you telling it. There's one monthly number, a bar that fills as you spend, and widgets for the Home Screen and Lock Screen that open the app with the keyboard already up.

There's no bank login, no account and no server of ours. Your data stays on your phone, synced through your own private iCloud if you leave that on. There are no ads. It has 34 currencies and works in 10 languages. It deliberately doesn't scan receipts, import statements or remind you about bills.

To be straight about the price: the free version is a taste, not a plan. You get your first five lines in all, not five a month, with the five built-in categories and day, week and month trends. Premium lifts both limits and adds custom categories, year and all-time trends, and CSV import and export. It's a weekly or yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase.

Skip it if you want budgets per category, multiple accounts or a free app to use long term. Spending Tracker or Monefy will suit you better.

Manual expense trackers compared

	SpendPal	Spending Tracker	Monefy	Expenses	Money Manager	Spendee
Bank connection	None	None	None (manual statement import)	None	None	Optional (Premium)
Account needed	No	—	No (sync uses your Drive or Dropbox)	No	—	Yes
How you log	Type one line, e.g. “tacos 11.40”	Quick entry form	Tap a category, enter amount	Entry form or receipt scan	Entry form, payment profiles	Entry form or receipt scan
Sharing	—	—	Yes, iPhone and Android	Shared sheets	—	Shared wallets
Free version	First 5 lines in all	Free; Pro adds repeats and export	Core app free	—	Lite, up to 10 accounts	1 cash wallet, 1 budget
Platforms	iPhone	iPhone, iPad, Watch, Android, Windows	iPhone, Android	iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro	iPhone, Android, PC (Full)	iPhone, Android, web

A dash means the app doesn't publish that detail, so we haven't guessed. Details come from each app's App Store listing and website as of October 21, 2026. Prices vary by country and plans change, so check before you buy.

Which manual expense tracker should you pick?

• You want it free and simple: Spending Tracker.
• You share money with someone on Android: Monefy.
• You want it private and on your Mac too: Expenses.
• You track several accounts and cards: Money Manager.
• You might want bank sync one day: Spendee.
• You've quit trackers before because they felt like admin: SpendPal, one line a day.

For more apps that cover what a bank feed misses, such as split bills, receipts and loyalty cards, see 5 apps for the money your bank app can't see. If the problem is simply not knowing where it all went, there's also apps for when you can't say where the money went.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best expense tracker app without linking a bank account?

For most people on iPhone, Spending Tracker by MH Riley: it is free, has no bank connection at all, and keeps to the basics of logging what you spent against a weekly, monthly or yearly budget. If you share money with a partner on Android, Monefy syncs through your own Google Drive or Dropbox. If you want a private app across iPhone, iPad and Mac with no sign-up, look at Expenses.

Is there a free manual expense tracker app?

Yes. Spending Tracker is free, with a Pro upgrade for repeating transactions and export. Monefy's core app is free, with an optional Premium subscription. Money Manager has a free lite version limited to 10 accounts, and Spendee's free Basic plan gives you one cash wallet and one budget. SpendPal lets you write your first five lines free before Premium.

Which expense tracker app doesn't need a login?

Expenses (by Blue Comet Labs) and SpendPal both work with no account at all and keep your data on your device or in your own iCloud. Monefy doesn't use an account of its own either; it only asks for your Google Drive or Dropbox if you turn on sync. Spendee is the one on this list built around an account.

Why track expenses manually instead of syncing your bank?

Three reasons come up most. You don't hand a third party your banking credentials. You see cash, shared bills and money from other cards that a single bank feed misses. And typing each purchase yourself makes you notice it, which is often the point of tracking. The trade-off is that you have to remember to do it.

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