Spendee Alternative — Martia vs Spendee (2026 Comparison for Europe)
Every PFM shows you data. Martia is the only one you can ask.
Spendee is a beautiful, mature PFM that has been showing people their money since 2013 — clean categories, friendly charts, a Mobile UX Award on the shelf. It does what a 2013-era finance app is supposed to do. It shows you the data.
Martia is something different. You don't open Martia to look at a dashboard. You open it to ask a question. "How much did I spend on groceries last month?" "Which subscription charged me twice in March?" "Did my dining out go up after I moved to Amsterdam?" Martia answers. In plain language. With your actual transactions.
Spendee is a PFM you read. Martia is an AI you talk to. This comparison walks through what each app does well, where Spendee's approach runs into a wall, and when it actually makes sense to switch.
Key takeaways
- Martia is a conversational AI — you ask questions about your money in plain language and get answers. Spendee shows charts and leaves interpretation to you
- Martia connects to 2,410+ European and UK banks directly through PSD2 (via GoCardless, FCA-supervised). Spendee connects globally through Salt Edge middleware
- Martia is free and unlimited during early access. Spendee's Basic tier caps you at 1 wallet and 1 budget — unlimited starts at $14.99/year (Plus)
- Spendee is the better fit only if you live across multiple currencies every month and need native multi-currency reporting. For everyone else in Europe, Martia is built for how people actually want to understand their money in 2026
What is Spendee?
What is Spendee?
Spendee is a personal finance app launched in 2013 by a Czech team and best known for winning a Mobile UX Award in 2017. It lets users track expenses, set budgets and connect bank accounts across 40+ countries through the Salt Edge open banking aggregator. On its own site it describes itself as "the only app that gets your money into shape."
Spendee's value proposition is clear: one place to see transactions from multiple banks, multiple currencies, and multiple types of wallets — bank accounts, cash, e-wallets and even crypto. It is a particularly strong fit for travellers and digital nomads who juggle EUR, GBP and USD in the same week, and for couples or families who want a shared wallet to see joint spending in one place.
What Spendee does well
Spendee is built for a specific user: the currency-juggling traveller. Multi-currency conversion, tracking and reporting is a first-class feature — useful if your income lands in EUR but your rent is in GBP. It is also a mature product with a decade of iteration and a Mobile UX Award on the shelf. If that describes your life, Spendee has been built for you since 2013.
How Spendee is priced
Spendee uses a three-tier model. Basic is free, but the free tier is narrow: one wallet and one budget, no shared wallets. Plus is $1.99/month or $14.99/year and unlocks unlimited wallets, unlimited budgets and shared wallets — for most households this is the real entry point. Premium is $5.99/month or $35.99/year and adds the full premium feature set. Bank sync and auto-categorisation are available across all tiers.
The wall: Spendee is a 2013-era PFM
Spendee is a PFM from the pre-AI era. Open the app and you get what finance apps have shipped since 2013: transaction lists, category pie charts, budget bars. You read the data. You do the interpretation.
That is the wall. "Is €340 on dining a lot for me?" "Which subscriptions renewed this quarter?" "Why did my spending jump in March?" Spendee can't answer. It wasn't built to. Every chart, every filter, every category tag gives you more raw material — never an answer. Martia is built around answering.
Fair attribution: see Spendee's own pricing page for the latest tier details and the bank connection page for the supported country list.
Where Martia works differently for European users
Martia takes a different approach in three places: the interface is a conversation, the bank connection is direct PSD2, and the product is free and unlimited from day one. The first one is the core difference; the other two are what make the first one trustworthy.
An AI you can talk to — Martia is a conversation, not a dashboard
Martia's primary interface is a chat. You type a question about your money in plain English — "how much did I spend on groceries last month?", "what are my recurring subscriptions?", "did my eating out go up after I moved?" — and Martia answers with specific numbers, the transactions behind them, and relevant context (e.g. compared to the same period last quarter).
This is not a chatbot bolted onto a dashboard. It is the way the product is built. Charts exist — but charts are generated in response to questions, not the other way around. The shift is from "here is your data, figure it out" to "ask me anything about your money."
(And yes, Martia also categorises your transactions automatically — but the pie chart is not the product. The conversation is.)
Direct PSD2 via GoCardless — 2,410+ European and UK banks
Martia connects to European banks through GoCardless Bank Account Data — a PSD2-licensed provider regulated by the FCA in the UK and supervised by national regulators across the EU. The connection is read-only, direct, and authorised through your bank's own login screen. You never hand over a password. Coverage runs to 2,410+ banks across the EU and UK, including N26, Revolut, Monzo, ING, BNP Paribas, Santander, HSBC, Commerzbank, and Polish banks like PKO BP, mBank and Pekao.
Spendee uses Salt Edge — also PSD2-licensed and regulated — but as middleware. For most users this is invisible. For users who care about the integration layer (fintech-savvy audiences, data teams, anyone who has debugged a broken bank sync), direct PSD2 is the simpler architecture.
If you want to go deeper on how bank sync works under PSD2, see our explainer on how to connect a bank account to a budget app.
Free and unlimited — no paywall for the basics
Martia is free during early access. No tier-gating on the number of accounts, categories or budgets. Unlimited AI conversations. Spendee's Basic free tier is designed as a preview: one wallet, one budget, no shared wallets. If you have more than one account (and most Europeans do — a current account, a savings account, maybe a second bank for a specific purpose), you hit the Plus paywall quickly — $14.99 per year to unlock what Martia gives you for free.
For context on the broader European PFM landscape, see our best finance apps in Europe for 2026.
Stop squinting at pie charts. Ask Martia.
Connect your European bank in 2 minutes via PSD2. Then just ask: "where did my money go last month?" Martia answers.
Spendee vs Martia — feature comparison
The table below covers ten criteria that actually matter for a European household choosing a PFM in 2026 — from how you interact with your data to how bank sync is wired. Cells in ember highlight where each product wins on that row.
| Criterion | Spendee | Martia |
|---|---|---|
| Conversational AI | None — dashboards only | Core product — ask anything about your money |
| Natural-language questions | No | Yes — "how much on groceries last month?" |
| Category insights | Charts + manual review | AI narrative — "dining rose 30% in March" |
| European bank coverage | 2,500+ globally (Salt Edge middleware) | 2,410+ EU + UK via GoCardless PSD2 direct |
| Free tier — wallets | 1 wallet limit | Unlimited |
| Price for unlimited | $14.99/year (Plus) — $35.99/year (Premium) | Free during early access |
| Setup time | 5-10 min (Salt Edge OAuth) | 2 min (PSD2 direct) |
| Product interface | Dashboard + charts | Conversation + answers |
| Bank sync architecture | Salt Edge middleware | Direct PSD2 (GoCardless, FCA-supervised) |
| Best fit | Currency-juggling travellers — multi-currency, 10+ years of polish | Europeans who want answers, not charts |
Recommendation: Spendee if your life runs across multiple currencies every month and multi-currency reporting is the feature you actually need. Martia for everyone else in Europe — if you want to stop reading charts and start asking questions, connect your European banks directly through PSD2, and keep your money unlimited and free.
When to switch from Spendee to Martia
Switching PFMs is not free — you lose history, you rebuild categories, you teach a new tool how you spend. Do it when the gain is real, not cosmetic. Two honest profiles below.
Spendee is for you if...
Your life runs across multiple currencies every month — income in EUR, rent in GBP, freelance clients paying in USD — and native multi-currency reporting is the feature you actually use. If that is you, Spendee has spent a decade building for you and $14.99 a year for the Plus tier is a fair price.
Switch to Martia if...
You want to ask questions about your money in plain language — how much on groceries, which subscriptions renewed, why spending jumped in March — and have the app answer. You have European bank accounts and want them connected directly through PSD2, not routed via middleware. You noticed that Spendee's Basic tier stops being useful at two accounts and you don't want to pay for something you can have for free. You believe, like we do, that a finance app in 2026 should do the interpretation — not just serve you the raw data.
Move from Spendee. Get the AI that talks back.
Connect your European accounts in 2 minutes via PSD2. Keep your Spendee CSV export as history. Then just start asking Martia about your money.
Frequently asked questions
Why choose Martia over Spendee?
Martia is an AI you can talk to about your money — Spendee is a dashboard you read. Ask Martia "how much did I spend on groceries last month?" and you get a plain-language answer with the breakdown. Spendee shows you a pie chart and leaves the interpretation to you. Beyond that, Martia connects to 2,410+ European and UK banks directly through PSD2 (via GoCardless), while Spendee uses Salt Edge as middleware. Martia is free and unlimited during early access; Spendee limits the free tier to one wallet and one budget.
Can I ask Spendee questions about my spending?
No. Spendee is a traditional PFM app — it shows you transactions, categories, charts and budgets, but there is no conversational layer. You look at the data and interpret it yourself. Martia is built around a chat: you type a question about your money in plain language and the AI answers, citing specific transactions and time ranges. It is the primary way you use the product, not a bolt-on feature.
Is migrating from Spendee to Martia difficult?
The hands-on part takes a few minutes. You connect your European bank accounts to Martia through PSD2 — you log in on your bank's own screen, grant read-only consent and transactions start flowing. Historical data from Spendee doesn't move across automatically, but Spendee lets you export transactions to CSV if you want to keep a record. For most people this point is moot: once Martia is connected, you stop opening Spendee.
What does Spendee do that Martia doesn't?
One genuinely differentiated thing: first-class multi-currency reporting for people who actually live across currencies — income in EUR, rent in GBP, clients paying in USD. Spendee has built for that use case since 2013 and does it well. Spendee also tracks crypto wallets and offers shared family wallets, though these are feature adjacencies rather than core PFM work. For anyone whose money lives in European bank accounts and wants to understand where it went, Martia answers questions Spendee can't.
Is Spendee safe for European users?
Spendee is considered safe by industry standards — it uses read-only bank connections through Salt Edge, an FCA-regulated Account Information Service Provider under PSD2. You don't share your bank password with the app; you authenticate on your bank's own page. Martia uses the same regulatory framework but through a different provider — GoCardless Bank Account Data, also PSD2-licensed. Both are read-only, neither can move money. The practical difference is architecture: Salt Edge sits between Spendee and your bank; Martia's provider connects more directly.
How much does Spendee cost vs Martia?
Spendee has three tiers. Basic is free but caps you at 1 wallet and 1 budget. Plus is $1.99/month or $14.99/year — unlocks unlimited wallets, unlimited budgets and shared wallets. Premium is $5.99/month or $35.99/year — adds all premium features. Martia is free during early access with unlimited accounts, unlimited categories and full AI chat access. Over a year, Plus costs roughly €14 and Premium roughly €33; Martia costs €0.
Which European banks does Spendee support vs Martia?
Spendee supports 2,500+ financial providers globally across 40+ countries (through Salt Edge), including major European banks. Martia supports 2,410+ European and UK banks directly through GoCardless PSD2 — N26, Revolut, Monzo, ING, BNP Paribas, Santander, HSBC, Commerzbank, and Polish banks like PKO BP, mBank and Pekao are all covered. Coverage numbers are close; the real difference is the integration layer (middleware vs direct PSD2).
Sources
- Spendee, Pricing — Basic, Plus, Premium tiers, spendee.com/pricing
- Spendee, Bank Connect — 2,500+ financial providers, 40+ countries, spendee.com/bank-connect
- Spendee Help Center, Available banks and Salt Edge integration, help.spendee.com
- GoCardless, Bank Account Data — PSD2 open banking provider, FCA-authorised, gocardless.com/bank-account-data
- European Banking Authority (EBA), PSD2 — Revised Payment Services Directive, eba.europa.eu
Read more
Copilot Money Alternative — Martia vs Copilot Money (2026) →
Copilot Money doesn't work in Europe. Martia does. Feature comparison and migration.
YNAB Alternative — Martia vs YNAB for European Users →
YNAB charges $109/year and requires manual entry. Martia connects via PSD2 for free.
Mint Alternative for European Users in 2026 →
Mint shut down in 2024. Here's what replaced it for Europeans.
Best Personal Finance Apps in Europe — 2026 Guide →
A ranked overview of PFM apps that actually work with European banks.