CentoCento vs Splitwise: which one for shared money?
Splitwise keeps track of who owes whom. Cento tracks what a couple or family spends, together or separately. How they differ on sharing, receipts, currencies and price, and when each one fits.
Splitwise and Cento both help people who share money, so they often come up in the same search. They answer different questions, though. Splitwise answers “who owes whom?”. Cento answers “where does our money go?”. This page compares them feature by feature, so you can pick the one that fits how you share.
The short answer
- Choose Splitwise if you share costs with friends, housemates or a travel group and mostly need to settle up: who paid, who owes, and how to make it even.
- Choose Cento if you are a couple or a family who wants to see your spending, shared or separate, and budget it month by month, with receipts read item by item.
- Use both if you do both. Many people settle up with friends in Splitwise and track their own household in a budget app.
How they work
Splitwise records shared expenses and keeps a running balance between people. You add who paid and how to split it (equally, by exact amounts, by percentage or by shares), and Splitwise tells everyone what they owe. It is built for groups: trips, flatmates, couples and friends.
Cento is an expense tracker and budget app. You type an expense or scan a receipt, and every item goes into a category. A couple or family can share one household, where each expense is either shared or belongs to one person, so you see the household total and each person’s own spending. Budgets, trends and trips sit on top of that.
Side by side
| Splitwise | Cento | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Settle up: who owes whom | See and plan what you spend |
| Free version | Up to 4 new expenses a day, with ads | Unlimited typed expenses, no ads, 3 receipt scans in total |
| Receipt scanning | Pro: reads the items so you can assign each one to a person | AI reads every line and puts each item in its own category |
| Splitting a bill by who ate what | Pro, from a scanned receipt | Premium: Split the bill, from a scanned receipt, with the tip |
| Sharing | Groups of any size, for trips, flatmates, couples and friends | One household for a couple or family, up to 5 people on the Family plan, Android and iPhone together |
| Budgets and spending trends | Not its focus | Budgets, pockets, trends by person and category |
| Currencies | Any currency; converting to your own currency is Pro | Any currency; a receipt from abroad is converted |
| Bank connection | Pro, card import in some countries | None: nothing is read from your bank |
| Export | Spreadsheet export free; full backup Pro | CSV export and full backup, free |
Sharing: groups or a household
Splitwise is the better tool for a group that changes: a weekend away, a shared flat, a dinner with friends. The balances between people carry across all your groups.
Cento is built for people who share a home and its costs every month. A couple or a family joins one household. When you add an expense, you mark it as shared or as yours, so the rent and groceries count for both of you, while your own coffee stays yours. You can see the whole household’s spending or one person’s. On the Family plan one subscription covers up to 5 people, and the others join for free. It works across Android and iPhone, so a mixed couple is no problem.
If your question is “how do we split money as a couple?”, the three common ways to split money as a couple all work in a shared household.
Receipts and the restaurant bill
Both apps can read a receipt, and both put that behind their paid plan, apart from Cento’s 3 free scans.
In Splitwise, a scanned receipt helps you assign each item to the person who had it, so the split is fair. In Cento, the AI reads every line of a receipt and puts each item in its own category: the milk under groceries, the shampoo under personal care, even when they are on the same receipt. That is what makes the monthly picture accurate.
For a dinner out, Cento’s Split the bill divides a scanned receipt by who ate what, adds the tip and tells everyone what they owe. Splitwise then does what Cento doesn’t: it keeps the balance with your friends until everyone has paid.
Price
Splitwise’s free version lets you add up to 4 expenses a day and shows ads. Splitwise Pro removes the limit and adds receipt scanning, currency conversion and more. Splitwise does not print its prices on its website: they vary by country and are shown in the app.
Cento’s free version has no daily limit, no ads and no time limit. You type your expenses, see trends, export and back up your data, and scan 3 receipts in total. Premium adds more scans each month, the shared household, budgets, Split the bill and Ask Cento. There are two plans, Personal and Family, and the app shows the price for your country.
Which one should you use?
- You and your friends need to settle up after a trip: Splitwise.
- You and your partner want to see what you spend together and what each of you spends alone: Cento.
- Your family wants one budget, with receipts sorted item by item: Cento.
- You do both: Splitwise for the group, Cento for the household.
Sources
Checked on 7 November 2026: Splitwise’s Pro page, what Splitwise Pro is, how to use Splitwise, multiple currencies and exporting data. Cento’s features are described in the FAQ.