Bow vs Copilot
Copilot and Bow are both made for Apple devices. Copilot is a tracker built around linked accounts, with AI categories and investment tracking on iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. Bow is an envelope budget for iPhone where you assign money before you spend it, with no account to create and bank sync only if you want it.
At a glance
| Feature | Bow | Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99/month, $49.99/year, or $129 once for Lifetime | $13/month or $95/year |
| Free trial | 2 weeks on the monthly and annual plans | 1 month |
| Works on | iPhone, including iPhone Duo | iPhone, iPad, Mac and web |
| Budgeting style | Envelope budgeting: give the money you have to envelopes until nothing is left to assign | Category budgets with rollovers, AI auto-categorization |
| Bank sync | Optional, through SimpleFIN Bridge ($15/year, paid to SimpleFIN). Manual entry, Siri and receipt scanning work without it | Included; most institutions through Plaid |
| Your data | No Bow account. Your budget is stored on your iPhone and in your own iCloud | Copilot account; data hosted on Google Cloud. They don’t sell financial data or show ads |
| Sharing a budget | Syncs across your own iPhones through iCloud. Sharing with a partner isn’t supported yet | A partner signs in to the same account; no separate profiles |
Copilot details checked October 2026 on copilot.money, Copilot’s FAQ, Copilot’s privacy and security page and Copilot’s partner sharing help. Prices are in US dollars and can change; check their site for today’s.
Copilot may suit you better if
- You want your iPad and Mac too, or a web app.
- You want spending tracked and categorized automatically from linked accounts.
- You want investment tracking in the same app.
Bow may suit you better if
- You want an envelope budget: decide what each dollar is for before you spend it.
- You’d rather not link your bank, or not create an account at all.
- You want to pay less: $49.99 a year or $129 once.
- You’re coming from YNAB and want to import your budget.
Two Apple-first apps, two approaches
Copilot watches your linked accounts and sorts what you spent. Bow has you give the money you have to envelopes first, so each envelope shows what’s left before you buy. In Bow, Apple Intelligence reads receipts and the purchases you describe on your iPhone, and you check each one before it’s added.
Questions
Does Copilot do envelope budgeting?
Copilot uses category budgets with rollovers rather than assigning money to envelopes before you spend it.
Is Bow on Mac or iPad?
Bow is made for iPhone, including iPhone Duo. Copilot runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web.