Finance · iOS
Whalefy: Manual Budget Tracker
by Maksim Grigorev




Whalefy is a solo-developer manual budget tracker that keeps things deliberately simple. You log income, expenses, and transfers by hand, organize money across multiple wallets, and annotate each transaction with a short comment. There are no bank syncs, no dashboards pulling data automatically. If you want full control over every number you record and zero advertising interruptions, Whalefy offers a clean, low-noise environment to do exactly that.
What It Does Well
The wallet system is genuinely flexible. You can spin up wallets for cash, credit cards, loans, or savings, and negative starting balances are supported natively, which means debt tracking does not require workarounds. The no-ads commitment is real and appreciated in a category that routinely plasters banners across your transaction history. Per-transaction comments are a small but practical touch for jogging your memory weeks later.
Where It Falls Short
With only four store ratings, there is very little community evidence to lean on. The app sits at 56 MB, which feels on the heavier side for a manual ledger with no automatic data fetching. The store description cuts off mid-word on categories, hinting the feature set description is incomplete. At version 2.1 after roughly five years of existence, the pace of development appears slow, and it is unclear what in-app purchases unlock.
Who Should Consider It
Whalefy suits someone who actively distrusts automatic bank-sync apps, prefers to review every transaction consciously, and wants a clean screen free of ads. It is not a fit for users who need charts, recurring transaction automation, or a large support community. Think of it as a tidy digital envelope system rather than a full personal finance platform. The free entry point makes it low risk to try.
Pros
- Genuinely ad-free with no banners, pop-ups, or video interruptions
- Supports negative balance wallets for straightforward debt tracking
- Three transaction types cover the basics cleanly
- Per-transaction comment field adds useful context without clutter
- Still receiving updates as recently as June 2026
Cons
- Only four ratings makes reliability hard to judge
- 56 MB install size feels large for a simple manual ledger
- In-app purchase scope is not clearly disclosed
- No automatic bank or card syncing
- Very slow version progression over five years suggests limited feature growth