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Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

ufincs.com

11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#11
I really appreciate the "Get out your credit card" call to action. Just the right kind of humor for a personal finance site.

Super tiny nit: I might put the per-month cost next to the annual price (and maybe how many months/years next to the lifetime cost). It was not immediately apparent to me that the annual price is 50% cheaper, which is fairly substantial.

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#12
post #2

Hey HN! I'm excited to (officially) show off the project I've been working on (for far too long): uFincs, a privacy-first personal finance app! https://ufincs.com Yes, it's another personal finance app. Yes, there sure are a lot of them. But when I got tired of using GnuCash a couple years ago, I figured I should try something a little different and throw my hat in the ring. The result? No banks, no budgets, no data…

Privacy-first finance app should really have a self-hosted option front and center. That's not even negotiable. That's because otherwise the privacy property of the app hinges on a trust in vendor and the assumption that they won't serve some funny JS on the next page reload. The one and only way to address this is to provide a self-hosted, completely self-contained version. There's really no way around this. It's no…

Yep, I agree. If you want perfect security and a 100% trust-less solution, then uFincs certainly isn't it.

But I like to think that, at least when put in contrast with other products on the market, choosing to do these privacy/security related things is better than not.

I elaborate on this further in our security doc (https://ufincs.com/policies/security#the-catch) and the FAQ (https://ufincs.com/faq#is-a-ufincs-a-trustless-system).

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#13
post #2

Hey HN! I'm excited to (officially) show off the project I've been working on (for far too long): uFincs, a privacy-first personal finance app! https://ufincs.com Yes, it's another personal finance app. Yes, there sure are a lot of them. But when I got tired of using GnuCash a couple years ago, I figured I should try something a little different and throw my hat in the ring. The result? No banks, no budgets, no data…

Privacy-first finance app should really have a self-hosted option front and center. That's not even negotiable. That's because otherwise the privacy property of the app hinges on a trust in vendor and the assumption that they won't serve some funny JS on the next page reload. The one and only way to address this is to provide a self-hosted, completely self-contained version. There's really no way around this. It's no…

https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#mon.... A bunch of self hosted alternatives, some of them with nice UI as well.

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#14
The problem I've always had with these type of apps is keeping them in sync with what I've spent using my CC or bank transfers. After a while it gets truly annoying to import or god forbid type in all weekly transactions.

I see that CSV import is supported. For people like me it will be truly useful to outline, with examples, how and what exactly can be automated using CSV or other methods.

In my family we use Wallet [1], which allows for shared family accounts, budgets and bank account sync. The app definitely has some issues, like because of the PSD2 requirements, sync sometimes fails for some banks. It lacks a solid algorithm that recognizes/remembers the type of synced expenses. It also lacks some features like investment type of accounts that support stocks or crypto with real-time updates.

That being said, it still provides an immediate look over our current finances and monthly balance with as little need for account management as possible.

I hope this feedback helps.

[1] https://budgetbakers.com

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#15
post #10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely none at all! uFincs is all about manual entry (although CSV import + recurring transactions makes things a bit easier). I made a deliberate choice to not support any bank integrations for privacy reasons (although simplicity is also a big factor).

privacy in what sense? the bank owns your data already, if you don't store any user data in the cloud, then is private by design, right? I was looking for something like this, but I do need auto import my transaction data, across all banks and brokers, etc. Offline first and only, ala Personal Capital, but secure and safe. Paying 20 bucks a month for the privilege of manual data entry is a bit much. There is a bunch…

Privacy in the sense that, while the bank may own your data already, third-parties like Plaid do not. And at least up in here Canada, we're a bit weaker on the whole 'bank API' system, so it generally turns into a wonderful game of "hand over your bank account credentials".

Anyways, I definitely understand where you're coming from. Plenty of other products that do have bank integrations though, so at least of there's lots of options for you!

And thanks for the design feedback :)

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#16

I really appreciate the "Get out your credit card" call to action. Just the right kind of humor for a personal finance site. Super tiny nit: I might put the per-month cost next to the annual price (and maybe how many months/years next to the lifetime cost). It was not immediately apparent to me that the annual price is 50% cheaper, which is fairly substantial.

Yeah, deciding to go straight-shooter with some of copy was definitely a risk, but thanks for letting me know that you appreciate it :)

And yeah, the pricing section could definitely be made clearer on that. Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#17
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any plans for Plaid/etc integration for transaction syncing?

Absolutely none at all! uFincs is all about manual entry (although CSV import + recurring transactions makes things a bit easier). I made a deliberate choice to not support any bank integrations for privacy reasons (although simplicity is also a big factor).

Not having integrations is a deal breaker for me. All of my financial information lives in other systems that I need to be able to import it into a single view that I can manage. There is no way I'm going back and manually entering all of that info. A privacy centric solution would store credentials for systems like plaid, bank accounts, etc. in the client on the OS keychain and open source that part of the code to be audited. The data then would be stored preferably on a self-hosted server or your cloud provider of choice. There is some sweet spot here at the intersection of the personal cloud server movement and local client credential storage that none of the current finance apps have yet addressed. Once someone does I think they may have a real hit on their hands.

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#18
post #5

Looks nice! What language is this written in?

Thanks! The app itself is all React + Redux + TypeScript. Backend API is Node + Feathers + TypeScript. So certainly nothing fancy.

tailwind too, right?

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#19
post #14

The problem I've always had with these type of apps is keeping them in sync with what I've spent using my CC or bank transfers. After a while it gets truly annoying to import or god forbid type in all weekly transactions. I see that CSV import is supported. For people like me it will be truly useful to outline, with examples, how and what exactly can be automated using CSV or other methods. In my family we use Wallet…

I can definitely see where you're coming from regarding the whole syncing thing. Personally, I've gotten into a habit of recording my transactions right after they happen (or at worst, at the end of the day), but somehow I get the feeling that I'm particularly crazy for doing that.

In any case, I agree that we could do better as far as showing examples/features altogether, but I figured (at least for the time being), just letting people use the app without an account (https://ufincs.com/noaccount) is as good a demo as any.

Definitely useful feedback, thanks!

Re: Show HN: I built uFincs – a privacy-first, encrypted personal finance app

#20
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! The app itself is all React + Redux + TypeScript. Backend API is Node + Feathers + TypeScript. So certainly nothing fancy.

tailwind too, right?

The marketing site (https://ufincs.com) uses React + NextJS + Tailwind. The app itself (https://app.ufincs.com) uses a design system that I built completely custom (with plain old Sass).
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