Why I built split-cash

I split costs with friends all the time: trips, dinners, a shared flat now and then. For years I used Splitwise for it, and every year it annoyed me a little more.

What went wrong

The app kept asking me for money. Upgrade prompts, ads, another screen to close before I could add a taxi fare. The subscription costs more than I want to pay for something I open a few times a month.

It also kept growing. Most of the time I need three things: write down who paid, see who owes whom, and settle up at the end of the trip. Everything else got in the way of those three.

So I built the part I use

split-cash does those three things and not much more. You make a group, send your friends a link, and everyone adds what they paid from their own phone. When the trip ends, it tells each person who to pay and how much, in as few transfers as possible.

It runs in the phone’s browser, so nobody has to install anything. You can add it to the home screen and it opens like an app. It works in English and Russian, because my friends speak both.

Why it’s free

I built split-cash for me and my friends. It runs on Cloudflare, and the hosting costs me about five dollars a month. Letting more people use it adds close to nothing to that bill, so I opened it to everyone.

I think of it as a non-profit side project. There is no Pro version, no ads and no plan to add either. Your groups are visible only to the people in them.

If you want to say thanks

You don’t have to. If split-cash saves you one awkward conversation about money, that’s enough. If you’d like to send a thank-you or a small donation, write to me at hello@split-cash.org and I’ll reply with the details.

The same address works for bigger things. If you’re starting a company, or you have an idea that needs investment, I’m happy to talk.

Sabir