Personal Finance Users Reject Existing Solutions
Users are frustrated with existing personal finance apps that are overly complex, require bank connections, lack shared budgeting features, or fail to maintain user engagement. They've resorted to building their own solutions or reverting to spreadsheets to address these shortcomings. The desire for simplicity, privacy, and collaborative budgeting is a recurring theme.
SOURCES (60)
“Budgeting app in EU is a brutal category too. You're competing against Revolut, N26, Monzo, YNAB, and every fintech app that already has budgeting baked in. "Waitlist for a budgeting app" is not a wedge. What makes yours different for EU users specifically?? Some things…”
“how many people in your life have ever expressed desire for a budgeting app? Or even are already using a budgeting app? Keep going, but you're probably eventually going to find out people don't care about your app because it doesn't solve a real, tough problem for them.”
“hate logging into the budgeting app and seeing our cash as lower even though it was something we planned for and we aren’t draining the funds to zero. Don’t add those accounts to your budgeting app. You’re inflating your position then having an emotional reaction Treat the money as spent when it’s saved”
“Pretty cool and novel idea. You should give the user the ability to choose how much each hour is worth. I would try it out myself but I'm on Android”
“I'm kind of an Excel nerd and enjoy building financial planning calculators and spreadsheets in my free time. I'm looking for ideas on tools that planners wish existed (or wish worked better). Not necessarily full-blown planning software, but smaller calculators or models that would actually save time in practice. For example: Roth conversion modeling Tax projection tools Social Security claiming comparisons RSU/stock option planning College funding analysis RMD planning Cash flow models”
“I've been managing investments across various platforms Wealthsimple, Canadian bank accounts, and Indian stocks, and I realized I was constantly switching between apps just to understand one thing: What's my actual net worth? So over the last few months I started building Wealth View . :- https://wealthvu.vercel.app/ The goal isn't to replace brokerages. It's simply one place where I can track: Investments Cash Debt Net worth Goals Multiple currencies (CAD/USD/INR) I'm still”
“Known scam numbers get blocked automatically, checked against reported-scam databases. Fake “IRS” or “bank” calls are harder because scammers fake the number, so instead of blocking, the app flags it and pings you in real time, so even if mum’s already talking, you know right away and can call her or step in. The really hard part, and where reliability lives, is catching brand new scams by what they actually say. That’s what we’re building, and the safe word covers whatever slips through.”
“been building an iOS app for tracking net worth (accounts, savings, debt), kinda like Finary but way dumber on purpose: no bank connection, you type in your numbers, nothing leaves your phone. it does accounts (cash, savings, investments, crypto) and debts (mortgage, auto loan, personal loan). It include a chart to see how things move over time. for real estate it's intentionally basic too: no appreciation tracking, no auto-estimated value. just purchase price minus what's left on the mo”
“There's a point in every developer's life when they build their own finance app. It's a rite of passage. Mine has arrived. I built Cashzilla for three reasons: I wanted it to be genuinely free — not free-until-the-useful-parts. It's local-only: no accounts, no server, no cloud, no bank sync. Your data lives on your device and never touches mine. That's also why it's free — there's nothing running that costs me money, so there's nothing to monetize by locking features away. If that ever changes,”
“I really like Empower (mobile app and website) for net worth tracking and basic expense tracking. It’s probably the best free option out there. Besides that, I recommend to just pull up a spreadsheet and jot down how much you typically spend in each major category (can reference credit card statements the first time to get an idea).”
“wondering what you all think about linking your accounts to one of these financial planning softwares. it'll obviously make planning much simpler to not have to manually enter in info and have it read. fwiw I'm using RightCapital and they use Yodlee to look at my account. it's supposed to be Read Only. I think a similar company is Plaid. I called vanguard and the guy said "we have used yodlee". he said he can't give specific recommendations but it's how comfy I am.”
Appreciate the feedback, and a simulation mode is a great idea. I'll add a dedicated privacy screen in onboarding so that those who care about their data can review it. Thanks!
Yep. Mine reconciles all accounts so I know all is captured
“So so smart that you’re doing this. We use an app to track every dollar and it’s been really helpful but I haven’t done the analysis as well as you have.”
“No way in 2026 with my AI skills am I doing manual data entry of data which already exists in other system.”
“"Then deliberately confirm each category" is the part that makes this work — that's the bit I'd have gotten wrong. A straight import would kill the whole point of it; making you review each one keeps the awareness and just skips the typing. Closest things right now are recurring bills (set once, they just show up) and a quick-add that's a couple of taps. No CSV yet. Genuinely curious though — if you give it a spin, I'd like to know whether entry actually feels heavy in”
“I tried spreadsheets for like 2 years and the problem isnt setting them up, its actually remembering to log stuff consistently. Thats what always killed it for me. I'd be good for a week then forget for 3 days and suddenly im reconstructing purchases from memory which defeats the whole purpose. What actually stuck for me was switching to Pockita because I can just say what I spent out loud and its logged. Sounds lazy but that tiny friction reduction is the difference between me actually doin”
“Hello! I would be really interested in tying this. I've been working on something similar (only for myself, not looking to publish it) but it's been a nightmare! So I definitely need one!”
[Perplexity] ★★ 2/5 (v26.27.0) — I’m not interested in paying to use an app. After years of using this free app. Looks like we may be parting ways due to insufficient funds
“Hi everyone, I’m looking for a small number of UK-based people to genuinely test an early personal finance app called Clearly. Clearly is designed to: • work out what is safe to spend until payday • recognise income, bills, subscriptions and transfers • answer questions about your money • learn when you correct a transaction • help prevent accidental overspending This is not a one-click test. I’m looking for people willing to use it naturally over roughly 1–2 weeks and report anything that seems”
“I wanted a simple overview of my subscriptions. So I tried the popular tracker apps, and every single one had the same first step: "Connect your bank account." Hand my banking credentials to a startup so it can... read a list I already know? No thanks. So I built SubTrack — a subscription tracker that works the old-fashioned way: you type in your subscriptions yourself. Takes about 2 minutes for most people, and in exchange: No bank connection, ever. There's literally nothing sensi”
“I wanted a simple overview of my subscriptions. So I tried the popular tracker apps, and every single one had the same first step: "Connect your bank account." Hand my banking credentials to a startup so it can... read a list I already know? No thanks. So I built SubTrack — a subscription tracker that works the old-fashioned way: you type in your subscriptions yourself. Takes about 2 minutes for most people, and in exchange: No bank connection, ever. There's literally nothing sensi”
“I’d test crumpled thermal receipts before anything clean. Totals and dates are easy on a flat sample, but faded line items are where people will decide whether they trust the export. Let them correct a row before it hits the spreadsheet.”
“Honestly. I don’t really know anything about how maybe finance was, but with the limited setup I’ve done so far for sure, it seems to work well with a nice ui that I (and my wife) don’t hate looking at.”
“I use actual. The wife only uses it once a month when we have our monthly finance meeting. There are usually 10-15 transactions I don't know where they go and she just labels then in the correct expense and then we use the extra time to review. I share this cause I learned some people don't ever want to review their finances so whatever you use your wife will find a reason not to use it cause likely her brain does not accept it. It's ok. I don't judge my wife cause of this or get”
“It records shared expenses and reduces everyone’s net balances into a smaller set of suggested payments. The app currently lets you: --Create groups and record shared expenses --Split expenses between selected members --See who owes whom --Generate a simpler settlement plan --Review pending settlement confirmations --View an activity history --Export the ledger and settlement report It’s a beta, not for sensitive financial data. I’d love feedback on two things specially: Q1. can you understand w”
“Hey all, I am looking for a wife approved finance app. At this time I am running the finances and have been using Actual. I do like it but my wife gets overwhelmed by it and chose to not use it. I was wondering if there were any finance apps that you have used with your partner and found success with. Thanks! submitted by /u/ZAX2717 [link] [comments]”
“I've been trying to get a better handle on tracking my expenses/finances generally, and realized I don't actually know how other people approach it. Curious what everyone's real workflow is. How do you actually track what you spend? An app, a spreadsheet, mental math, nothing at all? Do receipts factor into it, or is it purely bank statement/transaction based for you? What's actually made you regret not tracking something, like a surprise at tax time, not knowing where money went”
“Hey everyone, I drive too and got tired of not knowing if I was actually making money after gas, maintenance, and taxes. Most budget apps are built for people with steady paychecks. They don't understand variable income, platform fees, or quarterly taxes. So I built one that does. It's designed specifically for gig drivers — tracks your income across platforms, accounts for expenses like gas and wear, and gives you a real picture of what you're actually taking home. It's not live”
“All this category breakdown is useful for finding leaks, but it's still after-the-fact. None of it tells you, right now, mid-week, how much you can actually spend without touching bill money. Something simple that helps more than another spending category chart: current bank balance minus everything still owed before your next paycheck. That number, updated as bills clear, is what actually stops the "death by 1000 cuts" thing you mentioned, because you're not guessing off a mon”
“i used to use spreadsheets and a bad calendar system to keep track of my personal notes and agendas is there a good tool that’s compatible with windows linux and iOS? submitted by /u/Odd_Procedure_1927 [link] [comments]”
“Neat idea, the pay stub is dense and most people never actually read theirs. The make-or-break is trust though. Uploading a pay stub to an unknown app is a big ask, so I'd put the privacy answer front and center before asking for the upload: is it processed locally, what do you store, is it deleted after. If people have to wonder, most won't upload. Nail that and there's a real use here. Happy to try it if you drop a link.”
“It's a personal budgeting tool. Basically, it's to help facilitate organizing spending. The reason I built it is that no other apps really let me get as specific as I wanted in my categories, or really facilitated receipt itemization. So to get it sorted how I wanted, I had to put everything in excel, but manually categorizing all my transactions was pretty time consuming. So this basically allows the personalization of excel, but utilizes AI to help do the tedious work of sorting your s”
“A really great template; huge thanks to the author for making it available to everyone.”
“Yes, true. The reason I like is that it hides all the pain of using GoCardless. And also is likely cheaper than direct usage - I think they even stopped supporting non-B2B.”
“Hey everyone, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at the current landscape of finance software, and honestly, a lot of the "modern" tools feel like they were built by engineers who have never actually stared at a spreadsheet or closed a month-end ledger in their lives. I’m trying to better understand where the actual day-to-day pain points are for practitioners right now. If you use modern platforms (like NetSuite,Anaplan, Workday, newer AI tools, etc.): What is the single most an”
“you're weird, people donate, pay and so on for opensource software all the time. if something is self hosted I should be able to do that with my own api keys then.”
“I love it. Replaced Ghostfolio with this. Please, add support for securities fees - for example, on Binance you can pay your fees with BNB instead of cash.”
“I had my eye on Wealthfolio because I saw the spending tracking feature and thought it might be nice to have investments, other assets, and spending tracking in one app. Consequently, I installed the self-hosted web version of Wealthfolio hours after version 3.6.0 was released because adding OIDC meant I could integrate it with Authentik. It's definitely too early for me to say how much value Wealthfolio will provide, but thus far it does seem usable and I'm not getting any obvious data”
“clean page and the dashboard shot pulls a lot of weight. one thing though: the headline (finances, clear, simple, in control) is the promise basically every budgeting app makes, so in the first 5 seconds you read as "another budget app." the thing that actually sets you apart is sitting lower down, the EU-hosted, GDPR, your-data-never-leaves-europe angle. for people who don't trust US fintech with their bank data, that IS the reason to switch. i'd pull that up top and lead with”
“I dig the color scheme. I haven't deploy it but does it support local llm model to analyze my budget. And, does it support SimpleFIN integration?”
“Its funny that i vibe coded the same application for personal use and it almost looks the same 😆”
“Yes, you can self host or also simply use the desktop or the mobile standalone version. To pull data to you local db you can natively import csv files, use the app form or spreadsheet like editor or develop your own bank api connector. Connect is optional paid service to automatically connect and sync your data from brokers (it supports just the investments accounts for now)”
“Wealthfolio is an open source, local-first finance tracker I've been building for a couple of years (~8k stars now). It started as an investment tracker, but as of this release it covers the whole picture: investments, net worth, spending, goals, and FIRE / retirement simulations (when can I stop working, what happens if I change my savings rate). New in 3.6, with self-hosters specifically in mind: • SSO / OIDC authentication — one of the most requested features here, so you can bring your o”
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“Hi all, I feel like I've tried every budget hack under the sun. I made a spreadsheet, tried rocket money, and I still feel like I don't have a solid understanding on my spending. I never can seem to find a budget tracker that does what I want it to do which is take the info from my bank account spending and just catagorize it into spending habits. It always seems to track credit card expenses but then also track when I pay for my credit card bill so the cost is doubled what it should be.”
“The trick is separating "log it" from "face the budget," because only one of those is actually tiring. On a wiped-out day I open it, type the payee and the number, done. Five seconds, no tags, no category, no reconciling. The running balance updates and I close it. You're not sitting down with your finances, you're just keeping one number current. The stuff that repeats (rent, subscriptions, paycheck) is on recurring so it logs itself, which leaves only the tiny every”
“I get the concept but for 24 bucks a year i want to feel pain, not just friction”
“how do you gently encourage yourself to log those tiny, everyday transactions on days when you feel too tired to face the budget?”
“First time in this sub, apologies if it's an often visited topic. For years I have been a notion fanatic. I use it to run everything in my personal life, log my travel, health, workouts, todo lists, plans, goals, ideas .... This month I decided I would start using my personal claude subscription with Notion. Wanted to use cowork to edit notes, query my databases, answer basic questions like "where did i travel in 2024?". Only to find out: I can't. Claude can't scan my datab”