| Splitwise | |
| Genre: | Personal finance software |
Splitwise is an online expense-splitting application developed by a privately owned American company of the same name. The app facilitates repayments of shared bills by calculating what each person in a group owes. Splitwise has faced mixed reception, with supporters saying it reduces complications and stress, and critics saying it and similar apps make people petty and can cause disagreements.
The Splitwise app launched in February 2011 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.[1]
On September 11, 2013, Splitwise integrated payments via Venmo to settle up between friends.[2]
Splitwise raised $20 million in funding during a series A round run by Insight Partners.[3]
On November 14, 2023, Venmo announced a competing feature called Venmo Groups which implemented bill-splitting within their app[4] and which Lifehacker said "could be a Splitwise killer."[5]
In April 2024, Splitwise partnered with Tink, a Visa payment services company, to incorporate a bank transfer feature directly in the Splitwise app.[6]
Splitwise allows users to create groups with friends to determine what each person owes. All expenses and their splitting methods are added to the app, and Splitwise simplifies the transaction history to determine exactly what payments need to be made to settle outstanding balances.[7]
Splitwise stores user information in the cloud to allow users to access their application from any web browser or a mobile app.[8]
A 2022 opinion piece in The Guardian by London journalist Imogen West-Knights shared the negative effects of exactly splitting bills among friends and family members. West-Knights argued that Splitwise and similar apps can "turn people into those true enemies of all that is fun and joyful in the world: accountants." However, she said the app does work better when used by couples rather than friend groups.[9] A similar article published in The Telegraph used the story of a group trip to illustrate how expense-splitting apps make people petty.[10]
In contrast, an article published by Condé Nast Traveler describes how Splitwise eliminated stress caused by complicated offline bill splitting, saying it "fixed such a pervasive obstacle in group travel."[11]
Coverage by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) lands somewhere in between the two contrasting views, saying Splitwise and similar apps are helpful, but users need to be prepared for difficult money-related conversations that may arise. An etiquette advisor at Debrett's, said, "The less talk you can have about money on any of these occasions, the better." A WSJ editor suggested conversations as simple as asking, "We’re splitting this evenly, right?" before a meal.[12]