Why we built barabar (and why you should delete that other app).

I remember the exact moment Splitwise died for me. I was trying to add a simple ₹400 lunch expense.

Ad 1: Upgrade to Pro to scan receipts. Ad 2: Upgrade to Pro to see charts. Ad 3: A literal banner ad for insurance.

I just wanted to split a bill. I didn't want to buy a subscription, see an ad, or navigate a "simplified" UI that actually made everything harder to find.

Splitwise started as a utility. It became a bank. They forgot the one rule of building a tool: Get out of the way.

The Problem with "Pro"

When you monetize a utility by crippling the free tier, you're not building a business; you're holding features hostage.

  • Limit of 3 expenses per day? Insane.
  • Can't see total balance easily? Dark pattern.
  • Waiting 10 seconds to open the app? Bloat.

We realized the world didn't need a "better" Splitwise. It needed an anti-Splitwise.

Enter Barabar.

We built barabar with three core principles.

1. Speed is a Feature

If it takes more than 3 taps to settle a debt, we failed. No "adding friends via email." No "verifying accounts." Just phone numbers and math.

2. Dark Mode Ledger

We're engineers. We like dark mode. We like dense information. Barabar looks like a terminal for your finances. It's not "friendly" in the corporate sense. It's efficient.

3. UPI Native

This is India. We don't do PayPal. We don't do "mark as settled" manually. Barabar generates dynamic UPI QRs for every debt. You scan, you pay, it updates. Done.

Tired of tracking this manually?

Barabar extracts bills, splits expenses, and settles via UPI. Instant.

Launch barabar

The "Gritty" Philosophy

We call our design system "Gritty Premium." It's not polished to be harmless. It's raw. It has noise textures. It uses monospace fonts. It treats you like an adult, not a user.

We don't want to be your financial advisor. We just want to be the calculator that doesn't lie.

Why it's free.

"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

Usually true. But we're building a reputation protocol (more on that later). For now, the utility is free. The tracking is free. The privacy is absolute.

So yes, delete that other app. Come to the dark side. We have dark mode.