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The Paper Keep vs SparkReceipt.

SparkReceipt is a capable product: automatic inbox fetching, AI scanning, income and expense tracking, mileage, bank-statement extraction, linked accounts, integrations and 190 currencies. The Paper Keep's pitch is narrower — you probably don't need pre-accounting; you need a durable, Australian-shaped receipt archive for $3 a month.

Updated August 2026 Based on public pricing & docs SparkReceipt US$199.98/yr standard (US$99.99 promo observed Aug 2026) · The Paper Keep $30/yr

Two tools, two different jobs.

Pick by the job you need done, not the feature count.

The Paper Keep

A personal receipt archive that fills itself from your email.

Does one job completely: every receipt captured, parsed, categorised and searchable, with Australian tax summaries. $3/mo flat.

SparkReceipt

A lightweight pre-accounting app for freelancers and micro-businesses.

Automatic email fetching, receipt and income scanning, mileage, bank statements, multi-currency and accounting integrations — one broad Elite plan for web signups after a 7-day trial.

The Paper Keep vs SparkReceipt, in detail.

Everything below about The Paper Keep is shipped today — not a roadmap item.

Feature The Paper Keep SparkReceipt
Getting receipts in
Scans your email inbox for receipts Gmail via read-only OAuth; Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail and custom via IMAP — including months of history on first connect Automatic fetching from Gmail, Outlook and IMAP
Native mobile apps Works in any mobile browser instead iOS and Android
Ongoing free plan 14-day free trial, then $3/mo Available to mobile-created and older accounts; web signups get a 7-day trial, then paid access
What each receipt becomes
AI extraction of vendor, date, total, tax Claude-powered
Line items with per-item categories and tags Line-item categorisation is included in Elite
Email receipts stay renderable for good Inline images archived before the retailer's hosting dies Stores receipt documents for at least 10 years; raw-email and inline-image preservation are not documented
Field-level audit history Database-trigger enforced
The wider toolkit
Income tracking / pre-accounting Receipts only, by design Income docs, categories, reports
Mileage tracking
Multi-currency breadth Any currency stored natively; A$ conversion at ATO monthly rates for Australian returns ~190 currencies with conversion
Accountant collaboration seat Hand over the CSV export instead
Australian tax-year summaries + WFH estimator July–June years, deductible/GST totals, ATO FX rates, fixed-rate vs actual-cost comparison Generic report periods
Price
What it costs $3/mo or $30/yr — every feature, no tiers Elite US$199.98/yr standard; US$99.99/yr promotion observed August 2026; 7-day trial. Mobile plan options differ
Included Partial, paid extra, or workaround Not offered

Details for SparkReceipt are drawn from its public website, documentation, and pricing pages as of August 2026, and may have changed since. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we'll fix it.

When SparkReceipt is the right call.

The Paper Keep doesn't try to be everything. If any of these describes you, pick accordingly.

You need income tracking too.

If you're a freelancer who wants receipts, income and mileage in one lightweight app short of real accounting software, that's SparkReceipt's actual job.

You want a native phone app.

SparkReceipt's capture experience is built around its mobile apps. The Paper Keep is a website (a good one on phones, but a website).

You want integrations and broader bookkeeping tools.

QuickBooks Online, Zapier, Make, bank-statement extraction and ten-year document storage sit alongside SparkReceipt's receipt features.

When The Paper Keep is the right call.

You want the raw record preserved.

Both products fetch inbox receipts automatically; The Paper Keep also archives the raw email and downloads inline images before retailer links expire.

You want an archive, not an expense tracker.

Originals kept untouched, email images preserved for the long haul, audit history on every edit — built for records that must survive five-plus years.

You're filing an Australian return.

Deductible totals per July–June year, GST, ATO exchange rates and the WFH comparison are native, not spreadsheet work.

SparkReceipt earns its standard price when you'll use its breadth — automatic inbox fetching, income tracking, mileage, bank statements, integrations, linked accounts and true multi-currency work. If your actual problem is "receipts scattered across inboxes and shoeboxes, needed at Australian tax time and when things break", The Paper Keep is the narrower option at $30/year, versus SparkReceipt's US$199.98/year standard price.

Want the wider field? See the full comparison or our roundup of personal receipt apps.

The receipts are already in your inbox.

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