Kemback vs Lunch Money

The verdict

Choose Lunch Money if your money lives in more than one currency, you want to invite several people to one budget, or you need bank sync in Canada or Europe. It’s a paid app, $10 a month or a yearly price you pick between $60 and $150, and every feature is included.

Choose Kemback if your finances are in US dollars and you want a complete free plan built around a household: separate sign-ins, private accounts, roles, and a register you can reconcile to the cent. The trade-off today is that Kemback doesn’t connect to banks yet, so you import a file from your bank each week until its Plus plan brings automatic sync.

Who Lunch Money is for

Lunch Money suits people whose finances cross borders. It handles more than 160 currencies and converts them to your primary currency, so a US checking account, a euro savings account and a card in Canadian dollars can sit in one picture. Its bank sync runs through Plaid in the US, Canada and several European countries, and it imports CSV and PDF files too.

It’s also built for collaboration. You can add any number of collaborators, each with their own login, and only the budget’s admin pays. The budget itself is flexible: periods other than a calendar month, rollovers, and a choice of simple spend tracking, envelope or zero-based budgeting. Lunch Money is web first, with a companion app on iPhone and Android that has fewer features, and there’s an API for people who like to build on their data. It’s funded by subscriptions and says it doesn’t sell your information.

Who Kemback is for

Kemback is for US households who want depth without a subscription. The budget has two modes on the same data: envelope mode, where every dollar of income is assigned, and category mode, where you set a monthly plan per category. You can switch at any time without losing anything.

Underneath sits a register with splits, transfers, cleared and reconciled status, and statement reconciliation that locks reconciled transactions. Rules rename payees and set categories, a review inbox holds new transactions, and bills and recurring transactions appear on a calendar, with a warning when a bill or subscription goes up. Safe to spend, a 90-day projected balance, savings goals and net worth and spending reports come with the Free plan.

One currency or many

This is the difference that decides it for many people. Kemback keeps every amount in whole cents in US dollars. That’s deliberate, because it keeps the arithmetic exact, but it means Kemback isn’t the right home for a household that earns, saves or spends in several currencies.

Lunch Money was designed for that case. If you’re paid in one currency and spend in another, or you keep accounts in two countries, it’s the stronger choice, and Kemback doesn’t try to compete there.

Collaborators or a household

Both apps give each person their own login, but they model sharing differently.

Lunch Money lets you invite any number of collaborators to a budget, and only the admin pays. That’s generous, and simple when everyone should see everything.

Kemback treats sharing as a household. Accounts can be shared or kept private, so one partner’s personal card stays theirs while the joint budget still adds up. Roles decide what each person can do: owner, editor, viewer, or advisor, which gives an accountant or a financial planner view-only access. A tamper-evident activity log records who changed what. The Free plan covers a household of two, and Plus is planned for up to six. The households page explains how it works.

Moving from Lunch Money to Kemback

1. In Lunch Money, export your transactions as CSV.
2. Create a free Kemback account and add your accounts.
3. Import the CSV. The column mapper lets you tell Kemback which column holds the date, the payee and the amount.
4. Kemback skips duplicates when you import again, so you can add newer files from your bank on top without overlap.
5. Add rules for your regular payees, choose envelope or category mode, and set up your budget.

If any of your Lunch Money accounts are in a currency other than US dollars, leave those out; Kemback records amounts in US dollars only.

From then on, download an OFX, QFX, QIF or CSV file from your bank each week. Kemback’s Plus plan, planned at $79 a year or $7.99 a month, will add automatic bank sync through Plaid; it isn’t on sale yet, and you can join the waitlist on the pricing page.

Bottom line

Lunch Money is the stronger choice for multi-currency finances, international bank sync and open-ended collaboration, at a price you partly choose. Kemback is the free option for US-dollar households that want separate sign-ins, private accounts, roles and a full register, with a weekly file import until Plus arrives. If everything you own is in dollars, try Kemback with real data for two weeks.

Questions

Does Kemback support more than one currency?

No. Kemback keeps amounts in whole cents in US dollars. If you hold accounts in other currencies, Lunch Money, which handles more than 160 currencies and converts them to your primary one, is the better fit.

Is Kemback free?

Yes. The Free plan has no time limit and includes budgets, a register, bills, reports, rules, import and export. Plus, planned at $79 a year with automatic bank sync, isn't on sale yet; there's a waitlist on the pricing page.

Can several people share one budget?

Both apps give each person their own login. Lunch Money allows any number of collaborators and only the admin pays. Kemback adds roles and private accounts inside a shared household; the Free plan covers two people and Plus is planned for up to six.

Does Kemback connect to banks like Lunch Money?

Not yet. Today you import OFX, QFX, QIF or CSV files from your bank, and Kemback skips anything it has already seen. Automatic bank sync through Plaid is coming with the Plus plan, which isn't on sale yet.

How do I move from Lunch Money to Kemback?

Export your transactions from Lunch Money as CSV, then import the file into Kemback and use the column mapper to match the date, payee and amount columns. Kemback skips duplicates if you import again.