Compared with Splitwise
Sí Listo vs Splitwise for group trips
Splitwise is better for an ongoing ledger with the same people. Sí Listo is better when the money and the plan belong to the same trip.
Splitwise is a genuinely good product and it solved this problem long before we existed. The reason to consider anything else is narrow and specific: Splitwise knows what was spent, but it does not know what the trip was.
On a group trip that gap costs you. The expense that says "Dinner £240" does not know it was Thursday, that it was the restaurant three people voted for, or that two of the group were not there. You end up holding the itinerary in one place and the money in another, and reconciling them by memory.
Side by side
What each does, stated plainly. Where Splitwise is stronger, the table says so.
| Feature | Sí Listo | Splitwise |
|---|---|---|
| Splitting an expense unevenly | Per-expense list of who it covered | Per-expense shares, plus percentages and exact amounts |
| Settling up | Minimum set of transfers, per currency | Simplified debts, multi-currency |
| Ongoing balances between the same people | No — balances live inside one trip | Yes, indefinitely, across groups |
| An itinerary | Day by day, breakfast to dinner | No |
| Knowing what is booked | Each item is a suggestion or a booking | No |
| Dietary requirements checked | Each venue checked against what it publishes | No |
| Deciding as a group | Voting on each suggestion | No |
| Moving money | No — produces the list, you send it | No in most regions; settle-up records payment |
Where Splitwise is the better choice
Genuinely. If one of these describes your situation, use it instead — you will be happier and we would rather you came back for the trip it does suit.
Anything that is not a trip
Housemates, a couple's shared costs, a recurring group of friends who eat out monthly. Splitwise is built around a persistent group with a running balance, and that is the right model for all of those. Ours resets with the trip.
Long-running history
Splitwise keeps balances between the same people indefinitely and across multiple groups. If you want to know what you and a friend have owed each other over three years, that is exactly what it is for.
Fine-grained split controls
Splitwise offers shares, percentages and exact amounts per person on a single expense. Ours splits between the people an expense covered, which handles most trip cases but is a blunter instrument.
Where we think we are better
The money sits next to what it was for
An expense attaches to the trip that produced it, so "who was on Thursday's dinner" is something the plan already knows rather than something you reconstruct in April.
You are also planning the trip
One link gives the group the itinerary, the voting, the record of what is booked and the settle-up. Splitwise is one of three or four tools a group trip usually ends up using; this is meant to be the only one.
It knows about the trip's constraints
Dietary requirements, group size, where you are staying, how far you want to walk. None of that is Splitwise's job, and all of it changes what the trip should be.
Questions people ask
- Can I use both?
- Plenty of people will. Plan the trip here and keep an ongoing Splitwise balance for the friendships that outlast it. Nothing about using one stops the other working.
- Does Sí Listo move money like Splitwise Pay?
- No. It produces the shortest list of transfers that settles the group and you send them however you already send money. It never holds funds.
- Does it simplify debts the way Splitwise does?
- Yes — it nets everything off and produces the minimum number of transfers rather than routing every debt through whoever paid. It does that per currency rather than converting between them.
- How does it handle rounding on an uneven split?
- Everything is held in the currency's smallest unit as a whole number, and the remainder from an uneven split is handed out a penny at a time rather than rounded away, so transfers always sum to exactly what was paid.
- Is Sí Listo free?
- Planning and splitting are free. Where an activity is booked through a supplier link we may earn a commission from the supplier, which does not change your price.
Plan it in about a minute
Four questions — where, when, who with, and anything the group can't eat. You get the whole trip back, day by day, and a link to send the others.
Start planning