Quick honesty note: nobody has lab-tested every cost of living app on both platforms. This is not a ranking. It is the five app categories that actually matter when you are moving abroad, with the well-known names where they exist and what to compare everywhere else.
One: a currency converter. You will convert prices in your head for months; it is involuntary. XE Currency is the well-known free option on iOS and Android, and it works offline with saved rates. Whatever you pick, it needs offline mode. Airport wifi is not a plan. I have watched people learn this the hard way. It is always funny when it is not you.
Two: a shared-expense splitter. You will split groceries, utilities, and takeout with roommates constantly. Splitwise is the established name and it is free. The alternative is awkward math and damaged friendships. Pick the app your roommates already use, not the one with the prettiest icon.
Three: a city cost database. The category most students skip and most need. Before committing to a city, you want real numbers: rent by neighborhood, transit passes, grocery baskets. Compare options on data freshness, neighborhood-level detail, and whether the numbers come from actual students or generic estimates. Our own cost of living database by study abroad city exists for exactly this reason.
Four: a budget planner with alerts. A study abroad budget planner app, free or paid, should let you set monthly caps per category and warn you before you blow them, not after. A study abroad budget planner app free tier usually covers this fine. Compare free versus paid on bank syncing, receipt scanning, and whether it handles multiple currencies without mangling them.
Five: a daily expense tracker. A city by city student expense tracker app earns its place only if logging takes under ten seconds per purchase. Longer than that and you will quit by week two. Speed beats features here. Every time.
The real question behind every study abroad cost of living calculator app, iOS or Android, is whether the data underneath is any good. Download the categories, not the hype. And if you want a human to sanity-check the numbers, the pre-departure concierge at studyabroadadvisor.fyi does that with students every week. Apps organize the plan. They are not the plan.