TripCount vs Splitwise — free AI OCR, multi-currency, E2EE
Last updated: 2026-06-03TripCount vs Splitwise: 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 | Splitwise |
|---|---|---|
| AI receipt OCR | Free (with per-user quota) | Pro only (USD 5/month) |
| Multi-currency with live FX | Yes — captured per expense | Yes — Pro plan |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes — encrypted client-side (AES-GCM) | No (cloud only) |
| 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 | US (AWS) |
| Pricing model | Free; €3 one-time per group to raise AI Scans + Media limits | Freemium (Pro USD 5/month) |
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
- Is TripCount really free vs Splitwise Pro?
- Yes. TripCount's AI receipt OCR is free with a per-group quota (5 scans included); Splitwise paywalls OCR behind Pro at USD 5 per month. Every other expense feature — unlimited trips, members, debt simplification, multi-currency — is free forever in TripCount. The only paid item is an optional one-time €3 per group to raise scan and media limits.
- Does Splitwise support Bizum or Revolut payouts?
- No. Splitwise integrates PayPal and Venmo only, which are weak rails outside the US. TripCount renders every owed transfer as a one-tap deep link prefilled with amount and recipient for Bizum (Spain), Revolut (EU) and PayPal — no IBAN to paste, no manual amount entry.
- Is TripCount's end-to-end encryption real?
- Yes. Each trip carries an envelope key derived on your device. Expenses are encrypted client-side with AES-GCM before they leave your browser, and stored at rest as opaque ciphertext on EU-hosted infrastructure (Hetzner, Frankfurt). The integration test suite verifies on every CI run that no plaintext expense data appears in any stored artifact.
- How does multi-currency work compared to Splitwise?
- TripCount captures the live FX rate from open.er-api.com at the moment each expense is added, so the final settlement reflects what the group actually paid. Splitwise puts live FX behind Pro and otherwise asks you to set rates manually. For trips spanning EUR/USD/GBP this difference can be several euros across a typical 4-day trip.
- Can I migrate my Splitwise trips to TripCount?
- Splitwise allows CSV export per trip. TripCount accepts manual entry that mirrors the same data model (people, expenses, payer, consumers). There is no auto-import yet, but the schema overlap means a CSV → TripCount paste workflow is straightforward for the common case of equal splits. Heavier migrations can be handled by email — [email protected].
- Which European languages does TripCount cover that Splitwise doesn't?
- TripCount ships 50 languages including 11 regional and minority European ones first-class: Catalan, Basque, Galician, Asturian, Occitan, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Frisian, Faroese and Romansh. Splitwise covers around 10 major languages and treats the rest as machine translation or not at all.
- Why does Bizum matter for splitting trips in Spain?
- Bizum is the dominant peer-to-peer payment rail in Spain — 26 million users, ~400 million operations per year, supported by every major bank. For Spanish groups, "I'll Bizum you" is the default settle-up gesture. Splitwise doesn't integrate Bizum at all; TripCount prefills the Bizum amount and recipient in one tap.
- Do I need to install anything from the App Store?
- No. TripCount is a Progressive Web App. You open trip-count.com in any browser on iOS or Android and install it from the address bar — no App Store gatekeeping, no 50 MB download, no review queue. Splitwise also offers a web version but invests primarily in native apps.
