I was looking for an easy solution for budgeting and accounting. I did a Reddit search, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/">r/IndiaInvest</a> was quite helpful.
I shortlisted two apps from the search: Wallet from Budgetbakers and FinArt. Both of them are pretty new in the market. Both are feature rich. I did a feature comparison. I finally chose Wallet over FinArt.
| Wallet from Budgetbakers | FinArt | |
|---|---|---|
| Does it have a web app? | ✔️But advance features are in mobile all. Still very decent. | ❌👎🏾 |
| Android App | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| How do I import data? | It sync with bank. Supports many bank. Also allows uploading XLS/CSV and of-course manual entries🙄. | Reads SMS and create sheets from them. It is a both bug and feature. Doesn’t require syncing with bank. Much easier to get started. |
| Data Backup | You can export data from Wallet in CSV/XLS format. No automatic export as of now. | 💯 Sync with Google Drive as a simple CSV File. |
| Privacy | GDPR compliant. Based in Europe. | Reads your SMS! Even when syncing with their database is opted-out, they send merchant information to their server👎🏾. Hope they change it in paid version and also play fairly. |
| Price | $28, Rs. 2250, for lifetime. Yearly plan available too. | Rs. 800 per year. |
| Advance features | Automatic rules to label transactions. | Didn’t use long enough to explore all the features. |
| Family support | You can add multiple accounts and have one dashboard for family. Bank must be able to sync. | Connect to the same WiFi and it can read SMS from another device. |
I hope Wallet from Budgetbakers implements periodic Export to Gdrive or Export to Nextcloud soon.
| What I am looking for | Wallet from Budgetbakers | FinArt |
|---|---|---|
| Does it have a web app? | ✔️But advance features are in mobile all. Still very decent. | ❌👎🏾 |
| Android App | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| How do I import data? | It sync with bank. Supports many bank. Also allows uploading XLS/CSV and of-course manual entries🙄. | Reads SMS and create sheets from them. It is a both bug and feature. Doesn’t require syncing with bank. Much easier to get started. |
| Data Backup | You can export data from Wallet in CSV/XLS format. No automatic export as of now. | 💯 Sync with Google Drive as a simple CSV File. |
| Privacy | GDPR compliant. Based in Europe. | Reads your SMS! Even when syncing with their database is opted-out, they send merchant information to their server👎🏾. Hope they change it in paid version and also play fairly. |
| Price | $28, Rs. 2250, for lifetime. Yearly plan available too. | Rs. 800 per year. |
| Advance features | Automatic rules to label transactions. | Didn’t use long enough to explore all the features. |
| Family support | You can add multiple accounts and have one dashboard for family. Bank must be able to sync. | Connect to the same WiFi and it can read SMS from another device. |
FinArt has a good UI, and I would have preferred it if none of my banks synced with Wallet from Budgetbakers. I was alarmed that someone was reading all of my messages, though. But I think this app has a lot of potential especially in our country where most banks won’t provides API to sync transactions. Rs 800 per year is not a bad price as long as they deliver a first-rate product. It is roughly $35 per year (in purchasing power parity terms).
I am enjoying Wallet from Budgetbakers and have been promoting it in my circle. So much so that I’ve changed my salary account back to HDFC bank from DBS Bank. I was disappointed in DBS bank that it didn’t sync (only current accounts can be synced). Also, the CSV export from DBS bank was terrible with many unreadable characters 🤕. As a bank that prides itself on being tech-savvy, this was a very embarrassing situation since I was singing their praises in my circle.