TripCount vs Sesterce — free AI OCR, multi-currency, E2EE
Last updated: 2026-06-03TripCount vs Sesterce: free AI receipt OCR, end-to-end encryption, EU-hosted, multi-currency with per-expense FX, one-tap Bizum/Revolut/PayPal settle-up.
| Feature | TripCount | Sesterce |
|---|---|---|
| AI receipt OCR | Free (with per-user quota) | Not advertised |
| Multi-currency with live FX | Yes — captured per expense | Yes |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes — encrypted client-side (AES-GCM) | Not advertised |
| Bizum one-tap settle-up | Yes | No |
| Revolut deep-link settle-up | Yes | No |
| PayPal settle-up | Yes | Yes |
| Regional EU languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician, Breton, Welsh…) | Yes — 50 languages incl. regional | No |
| Trip memories (photos + Spotify) | Yes | No |
| EU hosting | Yes — Hetzner | EU (France) |
| Pricing model | Free; €3 one-time per group to raise AI Scans + Media limits | Free with paid tier |
What it does
Free AI receipt OCR with a per-user quota, automatic debt simplification (algorithm reduces N people to at most N−1 transfers — same as Splitwise/Tricount), multi-currency with live FX captured per expense from open.er-api.com, end-to-end encryption.
Privacy by default
Expenses encrypted client-side with per-trip AES-GCM envelope keys, stored at rest as opaque ciphertext. EU hosting (Hetzner). The integration test suite asserts on every CI run that no plaintext media bytes appear in any stored artifact. Zero-knowledge — where no escrowed key sits on the server — is on the roadmap.
Payouts and currencies
One-tap settle-up via Bizum, Revolut and PayPal — each owed transfer renders as a deep link pre-filled with amount and recipient. Multi-currency trips capture each expense's FX rate at the moment of entry, so the final settlement reflects actual rates, not an averaged guess.
50 languages including regional EU
50 languages shipped today, including 11 regional/minority European languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician, Asturian, Occitan, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Frisian, Faroese, Romansh) — first-class, not Google-Translate; the Valencian and Balearic variants are derived from Catalan and being refined. The locale matrix and translations live in the open-source repo at frontend/src/locales.
Frequently asked questions
- How is TripCount different from Sesterce?
- Sesterce is a French expense-sharing app with a generous free tier and an emphasis on managing both expenses and intra-group transfers. TripCount is more travel-focused: free AI receipt OCR, AES-GCM end-to-end encryption, one-tap Bizum/Revolut/PayPal payouts, multi-currency live FX, 50 languages, and trip memories (photos + Spotify). Sesterce's strength is its "transfers and income" model; TripCount's strength is the 2026 mobile feature set.
- Does Sesterce have receipt OCR?
- Sesterce does not currently advertise AI receipt OCR as a free feature. TripCount's OCR is free with a per-group quota and uses OpenAI Vision to read line items, vendor and currency — typically faster than typing expenses by hand.
- Does Sesterce offer one-tap Bizum or Revolut settle-up?
- Sesterce supports manual settling and PayPal. It doesn't pre-fill Bizum or Revolut deep links. TripCount renders every owed transfer as a one-tap deep link prefilled with amount and recipient — Bizum (Spain), Revolut (EU) or PayPal. The minimum-transfers algorithm reduces the group to at most N−1 payments.
- How does multi-currency compare to Sesterce?
- Sesterce supports multi-currency. TripCount captures the mid-market FX rate from open.er-api.com at the moment each expense is added — this matters on long trips spanning EUR/USD/GBP because end-of-trip averaged rates can drift several euros from what the group actually paid.
- Is Sesterce end-to-end encrypted?
- Sesterce does not advertise end-to-end encryption. TripCount encrypts expense data client-side with AES-GCM before it ever reaches the server, and stores it as opaque ciphertext on EU-hosted infrastructure (Hetzner Frankfurt). Even our database backups are ciphertext only.
- Which languages does Sesterce support?
- Sesterce ships French and English primarily, plus a few other mainstream languages. TripCount supports 50 languages including 11 regional European ones (Catalan, Basque, Galician, Occitan, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Asturian, Frisian, Faroese, Romansh) — first-class translations, not Google Translate.
- Is Sesterce free?
- Sesterce has a free tier with a paid upgrade. TripCount is free for unlimited trips, members and exports forever; the only paid item is a one-time €3 per group to raise AI-scan and media-upload caps. No subscription.
- Can I migrate my Sesterce trip to TripCount?
- Sesterce exports group data; TripCount accepts manual entry with the same model. There's no auto-import yet, but for the common case of equal splits the CSV → paste workflow works fine. For complex migrations write to [email protected].
