With the release of the 3G iPhone and iPhone 2.0 software, Apple has allowed 3rd party developers to write applications that work with the iPhone and iPod Touch and opened the app store to the public. With the world’s imagination at work, I’m sure there will be a ton of clever applications written for the personal finance world.
Since the app store opened for two days already, let’s take a look at all the personal finance applications available currently.
ACTCurrency – $0.99
Overview: A simple currency converter that becomes extremely useful when you are out of the country.
Pro: Uses are obvious. It makes you wonder why I didn’t think of it.
Con: Why doesn’t this grab the most up-to-date currency from the web is anyone’s guess.
ACTGratuity – $0.99
Overview: Great little utility that automatically adds tip to a subtotal and splits the bill for you, letting you know how much each person should pay.
Pro: Easy and fast to use for people who go dutch often.
Con: Don’t let anyone know that you paid for this software because you can easily do the same thing on a calculator.
BigTipper – $1.99
Overview: Exactly the same thing as ACTGratuity. I guess great minds think alike.
Pro: Slightly more stylish than its competitor and multiple language support. It also offers the round function for those that care about the cents.
Con: Not only will you be talked about by people who didn’t buy any of these type of apps, ACTGratuity users will send you unpleasant comments too because it’s $1 more.
Bloomberg – Free * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: App that offers stock quotes, charts, analysis and latest news from companies around the world.
Pro: Free. This gives E*Trade’s Mobile Pro a run for its money.
Con: Only if you work for CNBC.
Budget – $4.99 * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: Easily track your budget. Perfect for something like the iPhone because you won’t forget to input your expenses.
Pro: Easy input, nice interface and offers graphs too.
Con: A little expensive when compared to other iPhone Apps.
Calculators – $0.99
Overview: A car and mortgage payment calculator which lets you tests out different scenarios
Pro: Finally there’s a way calculate quickly whether the car salesman is lying or not.
Con: When the typing pad shows up, half the fields are blocked from input..
CheckPlease
Overview: This is a ultra simple calculator for people to calculate tips, taxes and splitting of bills.
Pro: Finally someone with some sense to offer this for free.
Con: It doesn’t look as good as the paid versions but it does the job. It’s free so stop whining.
DutchTab – $2.99
Overview: Just like the others but adds a few other features like storing who paid what and who still needs to pay.
Pro: Simple interface, and great if you have friends that always say they paid last time.
Con: Not needed if you use the calculator and have decent friends.
Expense2GO – Free * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: Create expense report and optionally sync with Salesforce CRM
Pro: Good use of the camera, capture expenses as you incur them and more.
Con: Why didn’t they come up with this before?
GarageBuy – Free
Overview: The iPhone version of GarageBuy for the mac.
Pro: Great to keep track of multiple ebay bids while on the road.
Con: There better not be affiliate links because ebay has its own app for the iPhone.
Gratuity – $0.99
Overview: Just another gratuity calculator
Pro: Another choice for us consumers
Con: Get in line. At least ACTGratuity knows he will be on top if they are sorted alphabetically.
iGold – $9.99
Overview: Displays gold, silver, and platinum prices.
Pro: Top honors for the one of the most expensive but useless iPhone App.
Con: Yahoo Finance?
iSoroban – $1.99
Overview: iPhone version of Soroban – a japanese calculator used way before the calculator was invented. This is more a game than a real useful tool.
Pro: If you are a die hard Soroban fan, then this is for you.
Con: The main benefit of Soroban is the speed of calculation and you cannot get this with the iPhone touchscreen.
iSpend – $15.99
Overview: Another expense tracker
Pro: Organized interface, easy to use.
Con: Winner of the most expensive personal finance app award.
iTip – $0.99
Overview: Yawn…
Pro: People searching tip might get this one first. It’s all in the name.
Con: I love the originality of adding the “i” in front. Here’s one. iwillnotbuythis
iXpenseIt – $4.99
Overview: Another expense tracking software.
Pro: This one offers a picture taking feature so you can take a pic of the actual receipt.
Con: Categories are too general and not easily customizable.
Loan Calc – $0.99
Overview: Simple loan calculator.
Pro: Simple and easy to use
Con: Over simplified. Looks like a way to make money off people more than a useful app.
Loan Sim – $0.99
Overview: Nice graphical loan calculator that’s very similar to Loan Calc
Pro: If $0.99 is going to save yourself from foreclosure, go for this graphical calculator.
Con: Do I really need this on an iPhone?
Mini Mortgage Manager – $1.99
Overview: Another way of saying “loan calculator”.
Pro: The graphics are nicer than others.
Con: It’s the same thing for more money…
Mobile Banking – Free * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: A nice little app for Bank of America customers.
Pro: Quick way to find the closest ATM machine.
Con: No one knows where this is as secure as going through the online website. Too bad this only works for Bank of America customers.
Nexonia Expenses – Free
Overview: Expense Tracker. Yes another one.
Pro: Free for users of Nexonia.com, email PDFs to yourself.
Con: Can’t be used for people who don’t use Nexonia.com.
PayPal – Free
Overview: Allows you to use PayPal with this app to check your balance or pay someone quickly.
Pro: Easy and quick.
Con: When was the last time you used PayPal outside of your house?
PocketMoney – $9.99 * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: A port from Palm, this is yet another expense tracker for the iPhone
Pro: Years of experience working on the Palm version, this is the most feature-rich expense tracker available on the iPhone so far
Con: Much more expensive than other solutions and no free trial.
Puluwai Real Estate Search
Overview: Now you can quickly search for houses for sale in your area.
Pro: Perfect for the realtor.
Con: Good luck with this app in the current market. The reason why you didn’t sell those houses aren’t because of the lack of this app.
Save Benjis – Free * MoneyNing recommended *
Overview: Quickly search online for the latest low prices for anything in the market.
Pro: Amazingly simple app. Just what everyone’s been waiting for, not to mention it’s free.
Con: Input your keywords carefully or else you will get information overload. I’m surprised that not many people have thought of this app yet so this is the only choice (even though it’s a good one).
ShoppingList – Free
Overview: Keep track of your shopping list conveniently on the iPhone
Pro: Easy to use, easily keep track of what you already bought and haven’t
Con: You can do all this for free with notes but it’s only $0.99 so it might be worth the price. Inputting everything you need before you leave the house might be a pain though.
Spend – $1.99
Overview: Budget tracker
Pro: Cheap
Con: Better solutions out there. For such an important app, paying more for the best might be worth it.
SplashMoney – $9.99
Overview: Budget……tracker……
Pro: Password protection, wirelessly connect to online banks, quick shortcut.
Con: There are so many of these it’s hard to choose one.
TapExpense – $4.99
Overview: Another one…
Pro: Doesn’t need the input keyboard
Con: There are better ones out there.
Tip Calc – $0.99
Overview: Tip Calculator #83
Pro: Simple, small form footprint
Con: Maybe too simple to warrant paying for it
TipCalc – $0.99
Overview: Tip Calculator #83 (this isn’t a typo)
Pro: See above
Con: See above
Tipper – $1.99
Overview: Was there a group competition to write the tip software?
Pro: The author is welcome to contact me to change this section because I don’t know what to write
Con: More expensive and the name should be changed to tip calculator #83
Tips – $1.99
Overview: He must be the first person to come up with this or something because he got the name.
Pro: The interface is simple and it looks pretty good.
Con: More money for the same thing.
Tipulator – $0.99
Overview: Tip calculator #83
Pro: Optional tip rounding to the nearest dollar. Wow.
Con: Split checks among several people. Oh is this the section for disadvantages?
TripLog/1040 – $12.99
Overview: A way to keep track of your business expenses
Pro: Perfect for salespeople. Allows you to email yourself a log so data can be transferred to the computer unlike most other apps currently.
Con: No one knows all the features because no one can figure out the UI yet.
Currently, not many applications exists for the iPhone but as Apple’s 100M development fund is put into use, better and better applications will be written. I’m excited to see the potential of the app store and foresee more and more companies writing free extensions of their website to work with the iPhone to provide better, faster and more convenient services.
If you haven’t already, perhaps now is the time to line up to buy a new iPhone.
{ read the comments below or add one }
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Thanks for any other informative web site. The place else could I get that kind of information written in such an ideal means?
I’ve a challenge that I am simply now runningg on,
and I’ve been at the glance out for suh information.
Good collection of tools for managing the personal finance and money. You can also consider the cloud based expense reports management tool from Replicon ( http://www.replicon.com/olp/expense-reports.aspx ) which is featured with calender based and user friendly interface and manage the things in a streamlined fashion.
FriendCash is a really cool app to manage group expenses, for example during holidays or with roommates to know what people owe to one another. It’s free for a limited period of time, so hurry up men 🙂
We created this great app to get Current Mortgage Rates. It does not require or collect personal private information. One of only two apps that provides direct access to lenders’ web sites. Sorting ability is unique to the app. Provides Credit Cards and info as well.
I use Total Return for my stocks and 401k investments. I like to know how much my stocks change in the day and how much I’ve made overall and the app gives me that on one screen in big numbers (hopefully green 🙂
I found a great app that helps you with your bills and to forecast your balance on a calendar, is called Budgets & Bill Tracking. Very well done.
For budget management, try budget-planner. here are some promo codes
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if you trade in the stock market, the “Smart Trading” app is a must have app.
it is a simple app, but the daily info in the app is very valuable.
it is the only app I use to check for stock ideas
I like Budget-Planner, it has a calendar that i have never seen. It shows you your balance on a particular day of the month so if you are going to be negative it displays the number in red. Pretty cool app. I download it yesterday and exported all my expenses on a spreadsheet. I hope it helps me save on those annoying bank charges i get at the end of the month for been overdraft. anyway, great app. they have a nice tutorial on their website mybudget-planner
ProOnGo Expense is new on the iPhone scene as well — take pictures of your receipts and your expense report is filled out automatically. Export options include Excel (XLSX), Fax, QuickBooks Online Edition, XML, and more.
iDesp Money is excelent too. Simple and objective.
Splashmoney has pretty big issues on its sync feature – there are a lot of blogs about this. It frankly does not work well. My last sync had me out by about $700 with some pretty bizarre transactions. After this happened several times (extremely frustrating) I moved to another financial program.
A recently introduced finance App Dough is quite interesting.
Dough combines money management with Budget and Bill paying in an elegant easy to use interface.
Its another choice for those looking for managing money on the iPhone.
dough.codebeyond.com has some screenshots and details.
-Augustus
You guys missed what is possible the best app in the entire Finance section: **PortfolioLive**
I use this brilliant app every day to track the value of my stock portfolio down to the penny in real time. I also track my 401K … to see how bad my retirement years will be. PortfolioLive has a huge set of features and is stable and fast to boot.
Hi all, there’s a new app on personal finances: budgetcare
I wanted to share this with you as I think it’s really useful and has very nice design.
I second that. Free trial versions should be mandatory. Otherwise you end up buying
totally crappy no good software.
Great list, I don’t have an iphone but it was interesting to read.
Good List.
Some of this stuff is overload though I think we can all agree on that.
Awesome list. I LOLed at “iwillnotbuythis.” 🙂
Goodness me that’s a long list of apps, I’m assuming that’s where the 16Gb version would kick in eh? 😉
Very good list. I don’t have an iPhone but it surprised me how many tipping apps there were. Are people really that bad at math? Especially people with iPhones?
It’s iMoney?
Apple should enforce a rule that says all iPhone apps need to include a free trial.
Mostly useless apps but at least there’s some good ones 🙂 Thank you for the list.
marci: It actually got worst while I was doing the review because so many of those tip type software came up.
It’s amazing that everyone has the split and tax functions though. I bet someone came up with it first and everyone else just copied it.
I thought this was a joke list when I read the first three applications…. things that people should be able to do in their heads or with a pen and paper… ie, simple basic 4th grade math. I find it hard to believe that people will buy these things.
Thanks for the run down tho.
Calvin: Thanks. There are way too many versions of the same thing though. I hope one day the better ones will kill everything else.
mannequin: Thank you. Are you french btw? (I just noticed the use of “tres”).
Thank you very much for gathering that for us; you’re and Apple are both tres sweet.
Great list of software. I agree with you that the iPhone will have tons of cool software developed for it pretty soon.