Why SlyTab

Honest differences, each one checkable in the code. Where the alternatives are better, this says so — a comparison that only flatters is one nobody believes twice.

	SlyTab	Typically elsewhere
Exchange rates	Fixed to the day of the expense and stored on it, so a balance never drifts on its own — nothing re-values your history in the background. Editing an expense re-reads the rate for that same date, and a rate you overrode by hand needs entering again.	Conversion is a bulk action over past expenses. Splitwise warns that it affects settled ones and can move other members' balances, and that new expenses need it re-running.
Receipt scanning	Read by a model on our own server. No third-party vision service is configured, so receipts do not leave it. Location data is stripped from JPEG photos on arrival.	Usually a third-party vision API, with the photo leaving the vendor's control.
Tracking	None. No analytics SDK, no advertising identifier, no crash reporter. The app talks to our server, and to Apple's or Google's push service if you turn notifications on.	Analytics and crash SDKs are close to universal.
Deleting your account	In the app, in two taps. Your share of shared history is anonymised so nobody else's balance moves, and Apple is told to revoke the sign-in.	Often a web form or an email request.
Money handling	Integer minor units with per-currency scale everywhere, so zero-decimal currencies like CLP and JPY are never a rounding accident.	Varies; floating-point money bugs are a common complaint.
Price	Free. No premium tier holding a feature hostage.	Currency conversion, receipt scanning and charts are common paid upgrades.
Where they are ahead	Smaller and younger. No per-currency balance view, no recurring expenses, no web-wide integrations.	Mature, large user base, and most people you invite will already have an account.

The rate thing, in more detail

This is the difference that matters most and is easiest to miss.

When you enter an expense in a foreign currency, SlyTab looks up the reference rate for the date of that expense and stores it on the expense. From then on, that expense's contribution to everyone's balance is fixed.

The alternative — converting on the fly, or converting the group's history in one action — means a balance you agreed to last month can be a different number today, through no action of yours. Splitwise's own documentation warns that converting "affects all expenses, including settled ones" and "may impact other members' balances".

Ours cannot do that, because there is nothing to re-run.

The honest caveat: editing an expense re-reads the rate for its date, so a rate you overrode by hand must be entered again if you edit that expense later. Same date, so the automatic figure is unchanged — but a manual override is not remembered through an edit.

What "no third-party AI" actually means

Receipts are read by a self-hosted model. The code does contain a path to a third-party service, and it is selected only when no local model is configured — production configures one, and ships with the third-party API key empty.

So: no receipt has been sent to a third party, and none can be while the service is configured as it is. That is a stronger claim than most apps can make and a weaker one than "impossible", and the difference is worth stating rather than glossing.

What we do not do

Move money. SlyTab records that a payment happened. You pay each other however you already do.
Charge. There is no paid tier, so no feature is withheld.
Track you. No analytics, so no dashboard of your behaviour exists to be breached or sold.
Guess. Where a number is approximate — a total converted from several currencies — it is marked approximate rather than presented as exact.