What Receipt?Compare
What Receipt? vs Smart Receipts: an honest comparison
How What Receipt? and Smart Receipts compare on price, free plans, automatic reading, email import, reports and bank feeds, including where Smart Receipts is the better pick.
Smart Receipts is a popular receipt app, and it's especially good at one job: turning a pile of receipts into a tidy expense report you can hand to an employer or a client. If you're weighing it against What Receipt?, the real differences come down to three things: what the free plan actually does, what you pay for automatic reading, and whether you need finished PDF reports, bank feeds or native apps today. Here's the comparison, as of October 2026.
At a glance
| What Receipt? | Smart Receipts | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, 30 receipts a month, read automatically, no card needed | Yes, manual entry and basic expense reports, mobile app only |
| Automatic receipt reading | On the free plan and Pro | Pro and Max |
| Entry paid price | $6.99/month or $59/year | $12.99/month or $99.99/year (Pro) |
| Capture | Camera (several in a row), photos, PDFs, screenshots | Camera, CSV and statement imports (Max) |
| Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail and Zoho Mail auto-import (Pro); a forwarding address for any mailbox, including Outlook | Email forwarding (Pro and Max) | |
| Reports and exports | CSV; Excel workbook with monthly totals by category and project, and a Zoho Books import file (Pro) | PDF reports with receipt images, CSV and ZIP |
| Projects and clients | Tag any receipt by client, project or Personal | Separate expense reports |
| Recurring charges | Detected automatically, with alerts when one goes missing | Not listed |
| Bank connections | No; import a statement (CSV, OFX, QFX, or PDF on Pro) to find charges with no receipt | Yes, US and Canada (Max, $17.99/month or $139/year) |
| Mileage | No | Yes |
| Currency conversion | No | Yes, automatic (Pro and Max) |
| Apps | Web app on any phone or computer, Mac app; iPhone and Android coming | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android; web from Pro |
| Local-only option | Mac Privacy Edition, $29 once, no account or cloud | No |
Smart Receipts' prices are from its pricing section in October 2026. It notes that those are web prices and that in-app purchase prices may differ.
Where What Receipt? is the better fit
You want the free plan to read receipts for you
On Smart Receipts' free plan you type receipts in yourself. Automatic reading starts on Pro. What Receipt? reads the vendor, date, total, tax and payment method on the free plan too, for up to 30 receipts a month, with no card on file.
You'd rather pay less for the same basic job
When you outgrow the free plan, What Receipt? Pro is $6.99 a month or $59 a year, with unlimited receipts. Smart Receipts Pro is $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Your receipts arrive in Gmail
Smart Receipts' paid plans let you forward receipts in. What Receipt? Pro does that too, and also connects to Gmail directly: receipts already in your inbox come in, including the last 90 days, new ones arrive within minutes, and Import a past year catches up a whole tax year. See how to find receipts in Gmail.
You file by year, not by trip
Smart Receipts is built around expense reports, which suits reimbursements. If what you really need is a year of spending sorted for taxes, What Receipt? files every receipt by category and project as it comes in, and the Pro Excel workbook gives you monthly totals by category and project without building reports first.
You'd rather nothing left your computer
The Mac Privacy Edition is a one-time $29 purchase that reads, files and exports receipts entirely on your Mac. There's no account, no cloud copy and no subscription.
Where Smart Receipts is the better fit
We'd rather you pick the right tool than the wrong one:
- You submit expense reports. Smart Receipts' mobile app exports a full PDF report with the receipt images attached at the end, ready to send to an employer or client. It can also export CSV and ZIP files. What Receipt? exports CSV and Excel, not a formatted PDF report.
- You want a native app today. Smart Receipts is in the App Store and Google Play, and runs on iPad and Apple Watch as well. What Receipt? runs in the browser on your phone for now.
- You want bank transactions pulled in. The Max plan connects to banks in the US and Canada and imports statements. What Receipt? doesn't connect to your bank: you import a statement, and it lists the charges with no receipt.
- You travel abroad for work. Smart Receipts converts currencies automatically on Pro and Max.
- You track mileage. Smart Receipts logs trips; What Receipt? doesn't track mileage.
Switching from Smart Receipts
- In Smart Receipts, export your reports. A ZIP export keeps the receipt images as separate files, and a CSV keeps the data.
- Start a free What Receipt? account and drop the receipt images in. They're read automatically, so vendors, dates and totals come back without retyping.
- Connect Gmail (Pro) and use Import a past year to pull in emailed receipts, or set up your forwarding address.
- Keep your Smart Receipts export somewhere safe. It's your record of what was already filed.
Questions
Is What Receipt? cheaper than Smart Receipts?
On paid plans, yes. What Receipt? Pro is $6.99 a month or $59 a year. Smart Receipts Pro is $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year on the web, and Max is $17.99 a month or $139 a year. Both have free plans, but only What Receipt?'s reads receipts automatically.
Does What Receipt? make PDF expense reports?
No. It exports CSV on every plan, and on Pro an Excel workbook with monthly totals by category and project plus a Zoho Books import file. If you need a formatted PDF report with receipt images for reimbursement, Smart Receipts does that well.
Does What Receipt? connect to my bank?
No. What Receipt? works from the receipts themselves: photos, PDFs, screenshots, Gmail and forwarded email. To find charges with no receipt, import a statement you download from your bank or card's website (CSV, OFX or QFX on every plan, PDF on Pro) or forward your card's purchase alerts. If you want a live bank feed, Smart Receipts' Max plan does that in the US and Canada.
Is there a What Receipt? app for iPhone or Android?
Not in the stores yet; they're coming. For now, What Receipt? runs in the browser on any phone or computer, and there's a Mac app.
Can I cancel What Receipt? any time?
Yes. Pro is billed monthly or yearly, and you can cancel from the billing page in Settings.
Competitor details are from public pricing and product pages in October 2026 and may have changed. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@whatreceipt.app and we'll fix it.
