The budget app that lives in your iCloud

Cash Compass uses Apple's CloudKit framework on top of Core Data, which is the standard iOS pattern for syncing app data through a user's iCloud account. When premium is active and iCloud is signed in on the device, Cash Compass stores transactions in a private CloudKit database tied to your Apple ID. Other devices using the same Apple ID can read and write to the same database, so changes propagate automatically. Sync is incremental — only changed records move over the network — and works in the background, so you don't have to manually refresh. The data is encrypted in transit and at rest by Apple. We never see your transactions because they live in your iCloud, not in a Cash Compass-operated database.

It's a premium feature. The free tier keeps data local to each device, which works fine if you only use Cash Compass on one device. Premium ($2.99/week or $29.99/year) enables CloudKit sync along with unlimited voice transactions, unlimited receipt scans, CSV export, and Apple Family Sharing across five household members. When you upgrade, your existing local data migrates to your iCloud automatically — no manual export/import. The migration is one-way: once data is in iCloud, downgrading to free won't delete it from iCloud, it just stops actively syncing new entries across devices. One premium subscription covers every Apple device under your Apple ID; you don't pay per device.

Mint, Monarch, YNAB, Copilot, and most modern budget apps store your data on their servers, often in a US-based cloud they operate themselves. They handle sync, backups, and access control on their side, which is convenient but means a breach of their database exposes your transaction history. Cash Compass uses Apple's CloudKit, so your data is stored in your iCloud — the same place your Photos and Messages back up to. We don't run a transaction-data backend, and our team can't see your spending. The trade-off: features that depend on server-side processing (like bank-sync, which Plaid does in the cloud) aren't possible with our architecture. If you want auto-import from your bank, those competitors have it; if you don't trust a third-party server with your finances, Cash Compass is the privacy-first alternative.

Cash Compass works fine without iCloud — it just stores data locally on the device. Sync requires iCloud signed in on each device. If your iCloud storage is full, Cash Compass uses a very small amount (typically under 10 MB even after years of use), so it rarely hits the storage cap, but if it does, sync pauses until you free space or upgrade iCloud+. Apple's free 5 GB tier is enough for most Cash Compass users; iCloud+ at $0.99/month gives 50 GB which handles every other Apple app too. If you sign out of iCloud, data stays on the device but sync stops; signing back in resumes. We never lock you out of your data based on iCloud status — it's stored locally first, synced second.