Kleev vs Billroo: simple AI budgeting, or privacy-first property depth?

Queenie Tan of Invest With Queenie created Billroo and bootstrapped it without outside funding. She pitches it as a budgeting tool without all the noise, built for people who have asked her thousands of ordinary money questions.

You connect your Australian banks through open banking via Fiskil, let AI categorise and analyse your spending, set custom budget cycles, and track goals and net worth. Billroo also highlights expenses that might be tax-deductible, and a Plus tier shares the whole thing with a partner.

The iOS app holds 4.7 stars, and the warmth of the product is real. It makes budgeting approachable for people the finance industry usually talks past.

Kleev serves a more asset-heavy group in the same country. It's for people who won't connect a bank account to anything, who hold or plan to hold an investment property, and who want their offset, loan amortisation and cashflow computed rather than estimated.

Your CSVs parse in your browser, with no login and no feed. Kleev is web-first and funded by subscriptions, with an ongoing free tier.

Its AI reads everything you upload: categorisation, transfer detection, a monthly CFO report, an EOFY pack and chat. The two apps serve neighbouring audiences in the same country.

How do Kleev and Billroo compare at a glance?

How does your data get in, and where does it go?

Billroo uses the modern connected method done properly: open banking through Fiskil, an accredited provider under the Consumer Data Right, with read-only access and no bank credentials shared. Coverage is Australian banks per the CDR directory.

For anything else there's CSV upload and manual entry, which makes Billroo one of the few feed-based apps that also respects the file route. Its privacy policy names its processors plainly, including Fiskil, Google Cloud and Anthropic, and states that AI data is processed and stored in the United States, with deletion from live systems within 30 days and from backups within 90.

How does Kleev get your data instead?

Kleev removes the connection question entirely, with no feeds, no aggregator and no consent to manage. You export a CSV from your own bank, drop it in, and it parses in your browser, and the raw file is never uploaded.

The parallel disclosure, in fairness to Billroo's transparency: when Kleev doesn't recognise a CSV layout, the file name, headers and first five rows go to its AI provider to map the columns, and Kleev's AI features send transaction descriptions, dates, amounts and account names to Anthropic's Claude API, also processed in the United States.

The two products genuinely share an AI supplier, and the difference is the bank connection sitting in front of it, which Kleev doesn't have. The wider case for the file route is in how to track spending without linking your bank account.

How do budgeting and AI compare?

Billroo does straightforward category-limit budgeting with genuinely thoughtful touches: custom categories, spending limits, a budget cycle you can align to your actual pay day rather than the calendar month, month-to-month comparisons and tags.

Its AI covers spending insights, auto-categorisation, smart reports and suggestions, and it's metered by credits: 30 a month on Pro and 50 on Plus, with extra packs sold in-app from A$12 to A$70.

The tax feature deserves its own mention. Billroo scans transactions and highlights expenses that might be deductible, with an appropriate disclaimer to consult a tax agent, and that targets exactly the same EOFY pain Kleev's paid EOFY pack addresses.

One gap is worth noting. Despite the name, we found no evidence of automatic recurring-bill or subscription detection.

How does Kleev's AI work?

Kleev includes its AI in the product instead of metering it per use. Categorisation across roughly 42 categories, merchant aliases, transfer and offset detection, and recurring-charge detection all run as part of the product.

The monthly CFO report, goal projections, AI deep insights and chat are included on paid plans. Free-tier limits exist, at about 1,000 transactions a month and three spending patterns, but you'll never buy a credit pack to ask a question about your own spending.

For day-to-day budgeting simplicity the two apps are closer than either fanbase would admit. They separate the moment assets enter the picture.

Is Billroo better than Kleev for property and net worth?

Billroo handles net worth respectably for its audience: manually added assets and debts (property, cash, investments, super), change over time, and goals with progress tracking, with Pro capped at 2 net-worth assets and Plus unlimited.

Property itself is a number you type in. We found no loan, offset, amortisation or property-cashflow features anywhere in the product as at July 2026.

How does Kleev model a property?

Kleev was built from the property side out: per-property loans with amortisation, offset accounts with three what-if projection modes, an editable statement grid reconciling years of interest and repayments, cashflow with offset netting, valuations, expenses, and AI extraction of loan details from mortgage statements.

If you're renting and building your first buffer, Billroo's scope is honestly all you need. The moment a mortgage, an offset or a tenant enters your life the gap opens fast, and that's the same moment a spreadsheet stops being enough. Kleev describes your own data and does not give financial advice.

What do they cost?

As at July 2026, Billroo Pro is A$9.99 a month or A$98.99 a year, covering one user, bank connections, CSV upload, 30 AI credits a month and net worth up to 2 assets. Plus is A$14.99 a month or A$149.99 a year, covering two users, unlimited assets, 50 credits and priority support.

The 14-day trial covers full Pro but takes your card upfront and converts unless you cancel. Billroo advertises no ongoing free tier, though its terms describe a limited free account after trial expiry that loses bank connections.

What does Kleev cost?

Kleev keeps an ongoing free tier of about 1,000 transactions a month and one property. Pro is A$3.99 a week billed A$15.96 every 4 weeks or A$176.28 a year, Max is A$4.99 a week billed A$19.96 every 4 weeks or A$220.48 a year, with a 14-day first-subscription trial with card at checkout and a one-off A$67.69 founding offer for lifetime Max.

Billroo is clearly cheaper month to month. Kleev's free tier, unmetered AI and property depth are what the difference buys.

So which one should you choose?

• Choose Billroo if: you want friendly, low-effort budgeting with real CDR bank feeds, native phone apps, and a price that undercuts most of the market.
• Choose Billroo if: you budget as a couple. Two users with full shared access on Plus is something Kleev doesn't offer.
• Choose Billroo if: the community and voice of Invest With Queenie is part of what keeps you engaged with money at all; motivation you'll actually use beats features you won't.
• Choose Kleev if: you don't want any bank connection, full stop, and you'd rather a file you control than a feed you consent to.
• Choose Kleev if: you hold or are buying an investment property, or you have an offset account you actually want modelled.
• Choose Kleev if: you want an ongoing free tier, AI that isn't metered by credits, and EOFY-ready records at tax time.

Billroo is built for the start of the wealth journey and does that warmly and well. Kleev is built for the accumulation years, when the spreadsheet has tabs and the loan has an offset.

Plenty of Billroo users will eventually grow into exactly the problems Kleev solves, and we're comfortable being patient about that. If you have an ambitious income and you're building assets, you might be a HENRY, and the full field comparison is in our 2026 money-app roundup.

Testing the Kleev side of the argument takes one bank export and ten minutes. Drop a CSV into Kleev →

Common questions

Is Billroo free?

Billroo advertises no ongoing free tier. There's a 14-day free trial of the full Pro product with a payment method required upfront, after which Pro costs A$9.99 a month or A$98.99 a year and Plus costs A$14.99 a month or A$149.99 a year, as at July 2026. Billroo's terms describe a limited free account after a trial expires, which loses bank connections and other features. Kleev keeps an ongoing free tier covering about 1,000 transactions a month and one property.

What's the difference between Billroo's and Kleev's AI?

Both apps use Anthropic's Claude as their AI provider, which is a genuinely unusual thing for two competitors to have in common. Billroo meters AI usage with monthly credits (30 on Pro, 50 on Plus, with extra credit packs sold for A$12 to A$70), while Kleev includes its AI features (categorisation, transfer detection, CFO report, EOFY pack, chat) within plan limits rather than selling credits.

Does Billroo track investment property?

Billroo tracks property only as a manually entered net-worth asset; we found no loan, offset, amortisation or property-cashflow features anywhere in the product, its help centre or its store listings as at July 2026. Kleev models each property with its loans and amortisation, offset accounts with what-if projections, a statement grid, cashflow, valuations and expenses.

Does Billroo work without linking my bank?

Partly. Billroo's main ingestion is open banking through Fiskil under the Consumer Data Right, and it also supports CSV upload and manual transactions, so you could run it feed-free. Kleev is built entirely around that model: CSVs parse in your browser, the raw file is never uploaded, and there's no bank connection in the product at all.

Which is cheaper, Billroo or Kleev?

Billroo, at the entry level. As at July 2026 Billroo Pro is A$9.99 a month or A$98.99 a year versus Kleev Pro at A$15.96 every 4 weeks or A$176.28 a year. Kleev's counterweights are its ongoing free tier, unmetered AI within plan limits, the property module, and a one-off A$67.69 founding offer for lifetime access to its top plan.