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The App Store has recently seen another addition in terms of personal finance apps which comes in the form of iBank. For those unfamiliar, iBank is currently available as a desktop app for the Mac — think along the lines of Quicken.

Anyway, the iBank app for the iPhone (and iPod touch) has recently been added to the App Store and will allow users to “enter transactions, track your spending, check account balances and sync with iBank for the Mac.”

Some of the features include the ability to:

• Sync with iBank for Mac or use as a standalone application
• Sync transactions, accounts, categories and currencies
• Sync over wi-fi, MobileMe or other WebDAV server
• Quickly enter transactions, even without an Internet connection
• Access and review account balances
• Sync multiple devices to your iBank for Mac document
• Memorized payee list
• Split transaction support
• Multi-currency support

The part I really want to note here is the “sync with iBank for Mac” because later on in the description it was also noted as being a “standalone application.” This brings me to my disappointment — the price.

The app is selling for $4.99. Overall that is not terribly expensive, but personally I would have thought of this app as a companion app, as opposed to a standalone app. In other words it seems to me that this could have done better as a free app that either was a bonus for existing iBank users (customers) or a tactic to attract new users to the paid desktop app for the Mac.

Of course, I do have to be fair here, the app is full-featured and can be used alone, so I guess that alone warrants the $4.99 price tag. Bottom line, an iBank app was one that I had placed on my wish list way back on July 17, 2008 but now that it is available I am not so sure I still want it.

(I should note that I do feel slightly bad for wishing the app was free, after all I have never been one to shy away from paid apps.)

[iBank (App Store link)]