Dolio vs Settle Up

Settle Up deserves more credit than it gets. While most expense-splitting apps lock weighted splits or exports behind a subscription, this Czech-built app gives them away free — along with a real web app and live currency conversion. So a comparison with Dolio, which is also free, comes down to two quieter questions: how each free tier is funded, and what happens when you go beyond the basics. One of these apps shows ads and the other doesn't, and that difference runs through everything else. Here's an honest, source-checked look at both.

The short version

Settle Up's free tier is the most capable of any app we've compared: even, unequal, and weighted splits, multiple payers on one expense, offline entry, multi-currency with real-time exchange rates, and CSV export — free, on web, iOS, and Android. In exchange, the free version shows ads, and the power features — receipt photos, expense categories, recurring expenses, charts, Excel export — sit behind Premium. Dolio's free plan shows no ads and holds nothing of the core back: itemized bills, ghost participants who need no account, and one-click CSV export are all free, with Pro (€2.49/month) adding receipt scanning that actually reads the bill. The table above resolves against live, dated facts, so it stays current as either product changes.

How each free tier is paid for

Nothing free is unfunded — the difference is the funding model. Settle Up's free version is ad-supported: its App Store listing discloses advertising, "Remove all ads" is the first feature on its Premium page (both checked 25 July 2026), and founder David Vávra writes openly about the model — his December 2025 monetization write-up describes redesigning the screen shown before ads and reaching one million monthly active users. That's a legitimate way to fund a free app, and Settle Up is transparent about it. Dolio makes the opposite trade: no plan shows ads, and the free tier is funded by people who choose Pro. Which model you prefer depends on whether you'd rather pay with attention or have power users pay with money.

Where Dolio pulls ahead

• No ads on any plan. Dolio's free plan is unlimited — groups, members, expenses — and shows no advertising. The product is funded by the optional Pro plan, not your attention.
• Receipt scanning that reads the bill. Settle Up Premium stores photos of receipts (with PDF previews since v3.17.0) — it doesn't read them. Dolio Pro scans a receipt and turns it into an itemized, split expense automatically.
• Itemized splits, free. Settle Up's listing offers even, unequal, and weighted splits with multiple payers — per-item bill splitting isn't among them. Dolio does equal, fixed, weighted, and fully itemized bills on the free plan.
• Ghost participants are full participants. Settle Up lets people view a group in the browser via a shared link without installing the app. Dolio goes further: a ghost participant is a real member of every split — no account, no email, no phone — and can claim their identity later or stay anonymous forever.
• A cheaper paid tier, without commitment. Dolio Pro is €2.49/month, and a 7-day pass from €0.99 covers a single trip. Settle Up's Individual Premium starts at $3.49/month, and its shortest Group Premium option is $5.49 for one week.

Where Settle Up wins

This cuts both ways, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Settle Up's Android app is released on Google Play today, while Dolio's is still in closed beta ahead of its public Play Store release — if your group is Android-first, that matters right now. Its multi-currency handling converts expenses at real-time exchange rates, so a trip mixing euros, crowns, and pounds nets out automatically. It works offline and syncs when you're back. Its free tier is genuinely strong — weighted splits, multiple payers, and CSV export cost nothing, which is more than most competitors give away. And it's proven at scale: the founder reported one million monthly active users in December 2025.

How we sourced this

We don't ask you to take our word for it. Every Settle Up value in the comparison table is pulled from a primary source — Settle Up's official website, its web app's Premium page, and its App Store listing — and each cell shows its source and the date it was checked. Negative claims (like "doesn't read receipts") cite the official page that would list the feature if it existed. This is the same live facts system that powers our Dolio vs Splitwise and Dolio vs Tricount comparisons, and we re-verify claims on a schedule. Where a fact couldn't be confirmed from a primary page, we left it out rather than guessed.