Lunch Money vs Tiller
Lunch Money vs Tiller: Hosted App or Spreadsheet?
This pairs a polished hosted tracker against raw spreadsheet control. Lunch Money is an indie personal-finance app with native multi-currency, crypto tracking and a full developer API. Tiller does none of that — it feeds your bank transactions into Google Sheets or Excel so you build the budget yourself. The choice comes down to whether you want a maintained app or a spreadsheet you own end to end.
Lunch Money vs Tiller: feature comparison
Feature comparison of Lunch Money, Tiller and Auritrack
| Feature | Lunch Money | Tiller | Auritrack |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI chat expense tracking | No | No | Yes |
| AI bookkeeping & categorization | Auto-categorization rules | AutoCat rules inside the sheet | Yes |
| Automatic bank sync | YesVia Plaid, GoCardless and SimpleFIN | YesDaily feed into Sheets or Excel | Premium; US, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Statement import everywhere |
| Bank-statement import (PDF/CSV/Excel) | YesCSV import | Manual import into the sheet | YesPDF, CSV or Excel, read by AI |
| Budgeting | YesCategory budgets | YesPrebuilt budget templates | Yes |
| Savings goals | Tracked via budgets, not dedicated goals | Via templates | Yes |
| Invoicing | No | No | Small-business records and reports |
| Receipt scanning | No | No | Yes |
| All currencies, kept separate | Yes160+ currencies with historical rates | Only if you build it in the sheet | YesEach currency kept separate |
| Data export (PDF/CSV) | YesCSV and full API access | YesIt is your spreadsheet | YesPDF and CSV anytime |
| Telegram tracking | No | No | Yes@auritrack_bot |
| Investment tracking | Crypto and manual assets | Account balances only | No |
| Shared / household accounts | YesShared budgets | YesShare the sheet | Yes |
| Sells your data to advertisers | No | No | No |
| Price | $10/mo or ~$100/yr | $79/yr | Free app + web from $3/mo |
Which of the two should you pick?
Where Lunch Money wins
- Native multi-currency with 160+ currencies and historical rates
- Built-in crypto and manual-asset tracking
- A developer-friendly API for automations and exports
- Live bank sync via Plaid, GoCardless and SimpleFIN
Where Tiller wins
- Daily automatic bank feeds into a spreadsheet you fully own
- Total flexibility to build any formula, report or view
- A large template library to start from quickly
- Slightly cheaper at $79/year versus roughly $100/year
A third option: Auritrack
Lunch Money asks you to categorize inside its app; Tiller asks you to tend a spreadsheet. Auritrack removes both chores by letting an AI log and categorize your spending from a chat message or an uploaded statement. Like Lunch Money it works across currencies, and it is free on the mobile apps and Telegram (AI pay-as-you-go), or on the web from $3/month, with bank sync on the $20 Premium plan in the US, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
The verdict
Choose Lunch Money if you juggle multiple currencies or crypto, want an API, and value a maintained mobile-and-web app. Choose Tiller if you prefer to own a spreadsheet and want your US or Canadian bank data delivered there automatically. If you want the tracking done for you instead of categorizing it yourself, an AI tracker like Auritrack is worth a look.
Frequently Asked Questions
Want to dig into one of them on its own? Read the Lunch Money guide or the Tiller guide, each an honest look at where that tool wins and where Auritrack fits.
Comparisons reflect our understanding of each product at the time of writing and may change; check each provider’s site for current pricing and features. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. This page is general information, not financial advice.