Keep Above
Keep Above vs Steady
Steady, from Steady Finance Limited in Christchurch, is a New Zealand web app in a limited soft launch that reads your transactions through a bank connection and produces a figure for what is safe to spend, with a 12-month cash-flow forecast on its paid tier. Keep Above is a manual app on iOS and Android that works the same kind of figure out from bills you entered once, with no bank connection, and projects 30 years.
Written and maintained by Manandai Ltd, the company that makes Keep Above. This is our comparison, not an independent review, and no winner is named on this page. How we compare.
Every Steady fact below is taken from Steady's own published pages, linked beside it. Features and prices change. Check each provider before deciding.
Spotted something out of date? Email support@keepabove.com and we correct or remove it within five business days.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Steady. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
Last verified 21 September 2026What each one is
Steady
A New Zealand personal finance web app. Its own site describes a limited soft launch while its open-banking accreditation is finalised, and its material states that native apps are in build and not yet released. Onboarding begins by connecting a bank; CSV import is a paid-tier feature. Pricing and tiers are on its own site.
Keep Above
A forward-looking budgeting app with no bank connection and no spending record. You enter each bill and your income once and keep your balance current, and it works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming and projects that and your reserved funds ahead day by day, up to 30 years.
| Keep Above | Steady | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank connection | None, by design | Onboarding begins by connecting a bank | site |
| Where it runs | iOS and Android, sold in any country | In a browser; its material says native apps are not yet released | site |
| Availability | Live on both stores | A limited soft launch, in its own words, pending accreditation | site |
| Forecast horizon | 30 years, free plan and Premium alike | 12 months on the paid tier; the free tier lists no forecast | pricing |
| What the free tier includes | A budget you're paid into plus one more of any kind, and the full 30-year projection | 90 days of history, per its own wording | pricing |
| Manual entry | The whole model | CSV import on the paid tier | pricing |
| Recurring bills | Entered once, projected forward | Detected from the transactions it reads | site |
| Money set aside for later bills | Reserved funds, projected with the balance | Goals | site |
| Price | Free with a budget you're paid into plus one more; Premium US$9.99/yr or US$2.49/mo in the US | Free; Plus NZ$12.99/mo, introductory NZ$6.50 for 3 months; Family NZ$19.99 | pricing |
How does each one work out what is safe to spend?
Both apps are trying to answer the same question: what is actually safe to spend before the next pay, once everything still coming is accounted for. They get there from opposite directions.
Steady reads your transactions and works the answer out from what your account has actually been doing. That means the figure reflects real spending without you entering anything, and it means the app needs a connection to your bank to exist at all.
Keep Above never sees your account. It works the answer out from the bills and income you entered once, against a balance you keep current. That means it works with no connection anywhere in the world, and it means the answer is only as good as what you typed.
Has Steady launched yet?
Steady's own site describes a limited soft launch while its open-banking accreditation is finalised, and its material says native apps are in build rather than released. We state that because a comparison that implied both products were equally available would be misleading, not because it is a criticism. Everything ships eventually.
One practical note if you go looking: there are several unrelated apps called Steady on the New Zealand App Store, including another finance app. The product compared here is Steady Finance Limited's web app at steady.nz.
How far ahead does each one forecast?
Steady's paid tier documents a 12-month cash-flow forecast, and its free tier lists 90 days of history rather than a forecast. Keep Above projects 30 years, on the free plan and on Premium alike.
A year is enough for most day-to-day questions, and if that is all you need then the horizon is not a reason to choose either. It matters for the bills that arrive every second or third year, which is the case Keep Above's reserved funds are built around.
Can Steady plan a trip, split bills or track a home loan?
Steady's pages describe a holiday fund goal, a household view for couples that works out each partner's share of rent and power from their incomes, and a mortgage logged as a liability with its monthly interest cost. They state nothing about a shopping list.
Each kind in the table is a budget of its own in Keep Above, with its own screen in the app. The free plan holds a budget you're paid into plus one more of any kind; Premium holds more.
| Keep Above | Steady | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A trip, with its places and the people going | The dates and places, each cost split between the people going, and a settle-up at the end | A holiday fund goal, and asking it for a clear number on a weekend away instead of a guess | site |
| One big dated day, such as a wedding or a move | An estimate for each cost, its deposit and payment dates, and the costs split between people | A moving guide describes a savings goal for bond and moving costs, and planning for the dip in cash flow | blog |
| Bills split with the people you live with | Each person's share of each bill, which anyone on Keep Above can take into a budget of their own. No money moves | For couples, each partner's share of a rent and power pot, worked out from their incomes, in one household view | couples |
| Birthdays and other days you buy for | What each day would cost, with a share set aside from a budget you're paid into on each payday before it | A savings goal for each planned expense, such as Christmas gifts, showing progress and when there is enough | glossary |
| What you buy regularly | A cupboard showing how much of each thing is left, and a list for each shop of what would run out before the next | Its pages state nothing about this | site |
| What owning each thing costs a year | What each thing costs a year, from what you paid, its running costs and what it would sell for | Household goals for big-ticket buys, such as a new washing machine | families |
| A home loan | Each portion's balance and rate, when a fixed rate ends, what you pay, and the interest it would cost from here | A mortgage logged as a liability, with its monthly interest cost and forecasts that include the next rate-change date | blog |
| Loans and buy-now-pay-later plans | Side by side, with what is still to pay and what goes out in each pay cycle | Credit cards, buy-now-pay-later bills and personal loans pulled from bank data, with balance, interest rate and minimum payment | debt page |
What Steady does that Keep Above does not
- Reads your transactions for you, so spending is captured without anything being entered.
- Detects recurring bills from what your account actually does, rather than waiting for you to enter them.
- Keeps a history of what you spent, 90 days on the free tier and longer on the paid one.
- Is built specifically around New Zealand bank connections and the local market.
- Offers a family tier.
What Keep Above does that Steady's pages do not document
- Runs on iOS and Android today, in any country, with no accreditation or connection required.
- Projects 30 years ahead rather than 12 months, which is what the every-few-years bills need.
- Works out the balance you would need today to cover everything still coming.
- Projects money set aside for later bills alongside the balance, day by day.
- Plans a trip with its dates, places and the people going, and one big dated day with a deposit and payment schedule for each cost, splitting the costs of either between people; Steady's pages state nothing about these.
- Lets each person take their share of a shared bill into a budget of their own, and keeps a list of the days you buy for with what each would cost; Steady's pages state nothing about these.
- Shows how long each thing in a regular shop lasts, what each thing you own costs a year, and a home loan's portions and how much of the home is yours; Steady's pages state nothing about these.
Where Steady's own pages state nothing on a point, the tables above say so rather than calling the feature absent.
Our comparison, not a review. Every Steady fact here is taken from Steady's own published pages and linked beside it, those in the first table on 21 September 2026 and those about other kinds of budget on 28 September 2026. Projections described here are conditional on the figures a person enters and on nothing changing. This page takes no account of your circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.
Keep Above
Enter each bill and your income once, and keep your balance current now and then. Keep Above works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming, and projects your balance and your sinking funds — which it calls reserved funds — forward. No bank connection.
Common questions
Has Steady launched?
Its own site describes a limited soft launch while its open-banking accreditation is finalised, and its material states that native apps are in build and not yet released. It runs in a browser. Check its site for the current position, as this changes.
Does Steady need a bank connection?
Its onboarding begins by connecting a bank, and CSV import is a paid-tier feature. Its pages do not state that a connection is mandatory, so we describe what its onboarding does rather than asserting a requirement.
How far ahead does each one forecast?
Steady's paid tier documents a 12-month cash-flow forecast, and its free tier lists 90 days of history rather than a forecast. Keep Above projects 30 years, on the free plan and on Premium alike.
Is this comparison fair, given you make one of them?
We make Keep Above and say so above the table. Every Steady fact here comes from Steady's own site on the date shown and is linked, no app is scored or ranked, and what Steady does that Keep Above does not is listed in the same register as the reverse.
Can Steady plan a trip or split bills with other people?
Its pages describe a holiday fund goal, and a household view for couples that works out each partner's share of rent and power from their incomes. In Keep Above a trip and bills split with the people you live with are each a budget of their own, and anyone on Keep Above can take their share of a bill into a budget of their own.