Cash Book vs Buddy (2026): Bank Sync vs No Account at All
Quick answer
Buddy and Cash Book are both iPhone money apps that take opposite routes to the same goal. Buddy, made in Stockholm, is a budget planner with bank import through Plaid and Salt Edge, shared budgets with a partner, a split feature for settling up, and apps for iPad, Mac and Apple Watch; Premium is listed at $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Cash Book never touches a bank: you say what you spent, snap the receipt, or let Apple Pay taps log themselves, and the data stays on your phone with no account. Pick Buddy for bank import and a shared household budget. Pick Cash Book for fast manual logging with nothing to sign up for.
Buddy wants to see your bank so you never type an entry. Cash Book never sees your bank and spends all its effort making the entry cost almost nothing. Pick Buddy if you want transactions to arrive on their own and a budget you share with a partner. Pick Cash Book if logging should take one sentence and there should be no account anywhere.
Every Buddy fact here comes from Buddy's App Store listing, website or privacy policy, fetched on 12 September 2026. Buddy's FAQ, Premium and help pages would not load that day. Those gaps stay marked unverified rather than filled in with guesses.
The one difference that decides it
Do you want the transactions to arrive, or do you want to put them there?
Buddy is the more connected product, and it is not close. Bank import through Plaid and Salt Edge. A budget shared with a partner that shows who spent what. A split feature for settling up. Recurring transactions, an Apple Watch app, and versions for iPad, Mac and Apple Vision. It has been on the App Store since 2014, it is made in Sweden, and it holds an average of 4.7 from about 9,500 US ratings. On breadth, Buddy wins.
The breadth has a bill attached. Premium is listed at $49.99 a year, the free tier is never defined anywhere Buddy publishes, and recent reviews describe bank connections that break and balances that do not add up.
Cash Book has one idea instead. Say it, snap it, or let an Apple Pay tap log itself, and the record stays on the phone with no account behind it. No bank import. No shared budgets. No watch app. Nothing free once the 7-day trial ends.
Feature table
| Feature | Buddy | Cash Book |
|---|---|---|
| Voice entry | Not mentioned in the App Store description, release notes or privacy policy | Tap the mic, say what you spent, in any major language; one sentence can become several transactions |
| Receipt scan | Not mentioned in the fetched sources | Snap a receipt, bill or screenshot and every line becomes a transaction |
| Apple Pay automation | Not mentioned in the fetched sources | One-time Shortcuts automation on the Transaction trigger; after that every card tap logs itself |
| Bank sync | Yes, through Plaid Technologies and Salt Edge. Recent reviews report breaks, duplicates and re-categorized imports | None, by design. Cash Book never connects to a bank |
| Manual entry | Yes, according to recent App Store reviews, which describe using it without linking any account | Keypad with tag chips, an optional note, date and account; three taps for a typical entry |
| Budgets | A budget plan that fits you, shared budgets with a partner; reviewers mention multiple independent budgets and bi-weekly periods | A monthly or weekly allowance on Home, plus per-tag budgets with progress bars; budgets can recur |
| Accounts and net worth | Credit cards show what you owe; wallets and accounts are mentioned in reviews. A net-worth view is not described | Cash, cards and savings with one net-worth number over the account cards; transfers between accounts |
| Multi-currency | Not mentioned in the fetched sources | 128 currencies, set in Settings |
| Export | A reviewer mentions exporting data; the format is not documented officially | CSV and Excel (XLSX) from Settings |
| Sync and account | Registration collects names, email addresses, usernames and passwords. Whether an account is mandatory is not stated | No account. Optional encrypted sync to your own iCloud |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch (watchOS 11.6), Mac with Apple silicon (macOS 15), Apple Vision. No Android | iPhone only, iOS 18.6 or later |
| Languages | 13 language codes on the App Store | 26 interface languages |
Read the "not mentioned" rows the way they are meant. They say a feature did not appear in the pages we read. They do not say Buddy lacks it.
Pricing side by side
All Buddy prices are from the App Store description and the US in-app purchase list, in US dollars, on 12 September 2026.
| Plan | Buddy | Cash Book |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Not documented on any fetched official page. Reviews conflict: some use a free version, others describe a paywall after a trial | None after the trial |
| Monthly | $9.99 a month for Premium | Not offered |
| Yearly | $49.99 a year for Premium | $39.99 a year, auto-renews through Apple, cancel any time |
| Lifetime | Mentioned by reviewers who bought one; not confirmed on an official page | $19.99 once |
| Trial | 7 days, according to recent reviews and a featured App Store review; not confirmed on the website | 7 days, then a plan is required |
The listing is messier than the description admits. Past the $9.99 and $49.99 Buddy names, the US purchase list shows Buddy Premium entries at $4.99, $16.99, $24.99 and $34.99, none of them labelled with a period. So the honest answer to "what does Buddy cost" is that it depends which sheet the app shows you. If the free tier is what you are counting on, the only way to find its edges is to install it and go looking.
How each one handles your data
Buddy's privacy policy is unusually clear about two things: geography and bank credentials. "We are established in Sweden and primarily store and process personal data within the EEA. However, some of the third-party service providers we use, including Open Banking service providers such as Plaid Technologies, Inc. and AI service providers such as Anthropic, are established in, or may process personal data in, countries outside the EEA, including the United States." On credentials: "We do not ask you to provide your online banking credentials directly to Buddy, and we do not store your online banking credentials." On selling: "We do not sell your personal data." As bank-linked apps go, that is a good policy, and Buddy deserves the credit for writing it plainly.
Then there is the App Store privacy card, which the developer declares and Apple does not verify. It lists Location, Identifiers and Other Data under Data Used to Track You, and coarse location, user ID, diagnostics, purchases, usage data, financial info, email and name under Data Linked to You, for the developer's advertising or marketing, analytics and app functionality. Recent App Store reviews ask why a budget app needs location at all. Fair question.
Cash Book's privacy approach is shorter because there is less of it. Transactions sit on your iPhone. Turn on sync and they also sit in your own iCloud account, encrypted, described in the app as accessible only to you. There is no Cash Book account and no server holding your history. Voice clips and receipt photos go to an AI model through the studio's relay for parsing and are not kept afterwards. No ads, no data selling, no contacts, no location.
Who picks which
Buddy is the answer if your bank works with Plaid or Salt Edge and you would rather review imports than make entries. It is also the answer if you budget with someone else, because a shared plan showing who spent what is a category Cash Book does not compete in at all, and the split feature settles the argument at the end of the month. Wrist, iPad, Mac: Buddy is there too. You will pay $49.99 a year for that, or find out on your own phone whether the undocumented free tier is enough.
Cash Book earns its place on the other side of the same question. You would rather say "twelve euros lunch" than link a bank or fill in a form, which is voice logging. You want a receipt or a screenshot to turn itself into transactions, which is receipt scanning. You pay with your phone and want each tap recorded without a bank connection that can drop, which is Apple Pay auto-logging. And you want no account, no location permission, and no server anywhere holding a list of what you bought. Paying $19.99 once instead of $49.99 a year is the part people notice first, but it is rarely the part that decides it.
If bank import is the whole reason you are shopping, read how to track Apple Pay purchases automatically first. It is the one kind of automation that needs no bank at all.
What we could not verify
- Buddy's free tier: whether it exists, what it includes and where its limits are. The website's FAQ and Premium pages returned nothing when fetched.
- Which in-app purchase is monthly, yearly or lifetime beyond the description's $9.99 and $49.99, and whether a lifetime option is currently sold.
- The 7-day trial. It appears in recent reviews and in a featured App Store review, not on an official page.
- Whether an account or email is required to start using the app.
- Export format, multi-currency, widgets, voice entry, receipt scanning, Apple Pay or Shortcuts automation, ads in a free tier, and a web app.
That is a long list for an app with this much history, and it is the reason this page hedges as much as it does. Buddy on its own terms, reviews and all, is in the full Buddy review.
Get Cash Book on the App StoreFree for 7 days. $19.99 once for lifetime.
Frequently asked questions
Is Buddy free?
Buddy's own materials do not say. The app is free to download, and its App Store description lists Premium at $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year, but no fetched official page defines a free tier or its limits. Recent App Store reviews conflict: some describe using a free version happily, others describe a 7-day trial followed by a paywall. Treat the free tier as unverified.
Does Buddy connect to my bank?
Yes. The App Store description says you can import all transactions from your bank account, and Buddy's privacy policy names its Open Banking providers as Plaid Technologies and Salt Edge. The policy also states that Buddy never asks for or stores your online banking credentials. Recent App Store reviews mention connections breaking and transactions duplicating, so results vary by bank.
Does Buddy have voice entry or receipt scanning?
Neither appears in Buddy's App Store description, release notes or privacy policy. The policy does describe AI providers, including Anthropic, being used for transaction categorization, financial summaries, spending insights and support, which is a different thing from logging by voice. Cash Book's mic and camera circles are its primary ways to log, alongside a keypad.
Do I need an account for either app?
Buddy's privacy policy says it collects names, email addresses, usernames and passwords when you register, and bank import and shared budgets are the kind of features that need one, but no official page states outright that an account is mandatory. Cash Book has no accounts at all; transactions stay on the iPhone with optional sync to your own iCloud.
Which one costs less over a year?
Buddy Premium is listed at $49.99 a year or $9.99 a month. Cash Book is $39.99 a year, or $19.99 once for lifetime access, after a 7-day trial. Reviewers mention a lifetime Buddy purchase, and the App Store lists unlabeled price points from $4.99 to $49.99, but no official page confirms a current lifetime option or what each price buys.
Can I use Buddy without linking a bank?
Yes, according to its users. Recent App Store reviews describe entering everything manually and say it is not necessary to hook up any accounts, and several prefer it that way. Buddy's official materials focus on bank import and do not describe the manual path in detail. Cash Book is manual by design, with voice, receipt scan and Apple Pay automation to remove the typing.
What this is based on
Get Cash Book on the App StoreFree for 7 days. $19.99 once for lifetime.