Tired of doing the maths? Here's how to split costs with friends using an app
Holidays are great! Especially when you go with friends. But group holidays always come with one small catch: the money. One person pays for the boat trip, someone else gets dinner. Then there’s the Airbnb. Somebody borrows some cash, and before you know it you’re stuck with a seriously complicated maths problem trying to untangle it all. If you want to stay friends with everyone on the trip, you need a bill-splitting app.
Bill-splitting apps help you settle up, but which one is best?
Search the App Store or Google for “bill splitting” and you’ll be buried in options. Last time we counted, we found more than 30 of them, and the quality varies a lot. What we also find interesting is the steady stream of new apps, and the ones that quietly disappear again.
Bill-splitting apps all work in pretty much the same way. You install the app, usually create an account with your email and a password, and off you go. You add everyone by name and then start entering the group’s expenses. For each expense you put in the basics: the date, what it was for (“Hotel”, “Sauna visit”, “Cleaner for the flat”, “Ski rental”) and of course the amount. The app then works out who owes money to whom and what needs to be paid so everyone’s square.
The best app for splitting costs
We only want to show you one app, and it’s called Kittysplit. Kittysplit isn’t a smartphone app you install, so you won’t find it in the App Store. It’s a web app instead, and it works on any phone. We think it’s a huge plus when an app doesn’t need installing and just works in your browser. Picture it: you’re on holiday with 6 friends and all 6 of you have to install a new app. If just one of them can’t be bothered, everything gets complicated straight away. And you don’t go on holiday every other week either, maybe once or twice a year. So that’s one more app on your phone that hardly ever gets used and just takes up space.
Update 10.09.2025: Kittysplit is now also available as an app for Android and iOS. Here’s what’s new. The web app still works without installing anything.
Kittysplit has another big advantage over other bill-splitting apps (Splitwise, for example): you don’t have to sign up. You can use the web app without logging in, and your data is still safe: you get in through a secure link that you share with your group.
And it’s really easy to use. No confusing tables or charts, just short, clear sentences that tell you who pays whom.
Why not give Kittysplit a try? We’d love to hear what you think.