Finance · iOS
Spending Tracker
by MH Riley Ltd





Spending Tracker by MH Riley Ltd has been around since 2012 and still earns a 4.78 store rating from nearly 19,000 users, which is hard to argue with. At 49 MB and free to download, it covers the basics of personal expense logging without demanding a bank connection or a subscription. If you want a lightweight ledger you control manually, this hits the mark. It will not replace a full financial planning suite, but that is clearly not the goal.
What It Does Well
The core loop is fast: open the app, log a transaction, done. Budget Mode lets you set a fixed spending ceiling for weekly, monthly, or yearly periods, and any leftover budget rolls over to the next period, which is a genuinely useful touch. The Summary View lets you move backward and forward through time to compare periods, and sorting transactions by date, name, or amount keeps things tidy without requiring a tutorial.
Where It Falls Short
Manual entry is both the app's identity and its ceiling. There is no bank sync or import option mentioned, so every transaction depends on the user remembering to log it. That discipline gap is where most casual users will fall off. The app has also been on the market for over a decade with a version number still at 3.2, which suggests a slow development pace. In-app purchases exist but are not detailed in the available facts, leaving pricing transparency murky.
Who Should Install This
This app suits people who are deliberately stepping away from automated finance trackers and want full manual control, perhaps for privacy reasons or because they find connected-account apps overwhelming. Students managing a simple weekly budget, or anyone doing a short-term spending audit, will find the flexible time periods and budget carryover feature more than enough. Power users chasing investment tracking or bill forecasting should look elsewhere.
Pros
- Fast, low-friction transaction entry
- Budget carryover between periods is a practical, well-thought-out feature
- Flexible weekly, monthly, and yearly tracking windows
- Summary View with time navigation makes period comparisons easy
- Free to download with a small 49 MB footprint
Cons
- Fully manual entry means accuracy depends entirely on user consistency
- No bank sync or import functionality apparent
- In-app purchase scope is unclear, which creates uncertainty about the free tier's limits
- Version 3.2 after 13 years suggests limited feature development over time
- No detail on data backup or export options