The closest comparison on this site. Both keep your finances off a company server. Spendle is cheaper and runs on more devices. We think CroSum plans further ahead.
Read this knowing who wrote it. CroSum is our own app. We built it, we sell it, and this page is on our website — so read the CroSum column as an interested party talking.
Everything in the Spendle column comes from spendle.eu and their support site. Prices and features checked on 26 July 2026. Both apps change, and prices may have changed since — check their own site before you decide.
Spendle is a Dutch household-budget app and the successor to Penningmeester, a Windows program with fifteen years behind it. Its administration is stored locally, encrypted, and unlocked with a password only you hold; sync between your own devices is optional and encrypted. A PSD2 bank connection is available but not required — you can import CSV, Excel or OFX files instead, or type it in. It costs €22 a year after a 14-day trial, and runs on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, Android, iOS and the web. Consumentenbond's Geldgids featured it among Dutch household-budget apps in 2025.
That is a genuinely privacy-respecting design, and we are not going to pretend otherwise to make ourselves look better.
CroSum is narrower and more opinionated. Phone only. No bank connection of any kind, not even optional. In exchange it puts its weight into forward-looking maths: a Safe to Spend figure that accounts for bills that have not landed, proper loan amortisation, savings goals that check whether they fit, and a twelve-month what-if planner. There is a free tier you can stay on indefinitely.
Both apps will tell you what you spent. CroSum's focus is the next twelve months rather than the last twelve: what is safe to spend once the unpaid bills and budgets are accounted for, what a loan really costs and when it ends, and what happens to your cash flow if the rent goes up or the job changes.
The planner, the recommendations engine and full PDF reports are Premium. Budgets and Safe to Spend are free.
Where CroSum simply does not do something, the cell says so with a dash rather than a hedge.
| CroSum | Spendle | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier, or Premium at €3.99 a month / €35.99 a year. | €22 a year — cheaper than CroSum Premium. Spendle states there is no automatic renewal; you pay each year yourself. |
| Free tier | Yes. Unlimited transactions, categories and budgets, Safe to Spend, widget, reminders, backup and CSV export, plus one loan and one savings goal. | No permanent free tier — a 14-day trial, then a licence. |
| Free trial | 14 days on both Premium plans, one per store account. | 14 days. |
| How transactions get in | You enter them yourself. There is no bank connection to switch on, by design. | Your choice: an optional PSD2 connection, a CSV, Excel or OFX import, or manual entry. Two PSD2 connections are included; extra ones cost €4 each. |
| Where your finance data sits | On your device. Optional backup to your own Google Drive or iCloud. Our billing server sees a subscription receipt and nothing else. | Locally encrypted on your device, unlocked with a password you choose. Sync across your own devices is optional and encrypted. |
| Platforms | Android, live on Google Play. An iPhone version is on the way. No desktop or web version. | Windows, Mac, Chromebook, Android, iOS and a web app. |
| Automatic categorisation | — you pick the category as you enter it. | Yes, with rules you can define. |
| Loans | Annuity or linear amortisation schedule, real payoff date, and extra-payment what-ifs. One loan free, unlimited on Premium. | Debts are tracked in a personal wealth planner alongside accounts. Spendle's site does not describe an amortisation schedule. |
| Safe to Spend | Yes — one number, after unpaid bills, budgets and the cash you actually hold. | Forecasting from budget versus actual spending, rather than a single safe-to-spend figure. |
| Twelve-month what-if planner | Yes. Change a rent, a job or a loan and see twelve months of cash flow before you commit. Premium. | Forecasting based on budgets and actuals; the site does not describe scenario what-ifs. |
| Home-screen widget and reminders | Both, free on every plan. | Biometric unlock on mobile; the site does not describe a home-screen widget. |
| Receipts and attachments | — | Digital receipt storage. |
| Reporting | A monthly PDF report. Free users get a pace insight; the full report is Premium. | Summary, budget, transaction and cash-flow reports, plus a dashboard and an achievement system. |
| Export | CSV export, free on every plan, permanently. | Search, filter and export are listed features. |
| Languages | Ten. | Dutch, English and German. |
| Track record | Independent Dutch business, KvK 42069368. | Successor to Penningmeester, a Windows app of fifteen years' standing; covered by Consumentenbond's Geldgids in 2025. |
Where Spendle's site does not describe something, we have written exactly that rather than putting a dash in their column. Absence from a marketing page is not proof a feature is missing. If anything here is out of date, write to support@crosum.app and we will correct it.
If two or more of those matter to you, buy Spendle rather than us. It is a good app made by people who clearly care about the same things we do.
Only at the margin, and we would rather be straight about it than oversell. Both keep the administration on your own device rather than on the company's server, and Spendle goes further than we do: it encrypts that store behind a password only you hold. CroSum does not encrypt its local data. The difference is that CroSum has no bank connection at all, optional or otherwise, so there is no path by which a bank feed could ever exist. If you would never switch on a PSD2 link anyway, the two designs end up in much the same place.
Because that is what it costs us to run and keep improving, and there is no second revenue stream making up the difference. It is a fair question and Spendle's answer is better on price. Ours is that the free tier is real, so you can find out whether the planning tools are worth €35.99 to you before you spend anything.
Not automatically. CroSum has no Spendle importer, and it does not import CSV history either — export is one-way. You would start from today. That is a real cost of switching and we would rather say so up front.
No. CroSum is a tracking and budgeting tool, not a regulated financial adviser. Its recommendations are general suggestions derived from the numbers you entered yourself — not personalised financial advice. For decisions that matter, speak to someone qualified.
No card, no bank login, no ads. If it is not for you, your CSV export leaves with you.
Coming to iPhone