The privacy angle is interesting. I'm curious how people view the pricing strategy of taking a one-time payment for lifetime access. My first thought was that it encourages the developer to focus more on recruiting new users rather than keeping existing ones happy - makes me wonder what will become of the product if new user growth stalls.
Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
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Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#12I’m really sorry but anyone can vibe a personal finance app in 2026. Monetizing this is going to be challenging.
I've wrestled with this idea. Do you think the general population will all be vibe coding finance apps? I have to think that most will still just pay the big players.
(I say this as someone who vibe coded a finance app, and it works!)...now I'm not sure what to do with it, it works for me - do I open it to the world or just keep making it great for me.
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#13The privacy angle is interesting. I'm curious how people view the pricing strategy of taking a one-time payment for lifetime access. My first thought was that it encourages the developer to focus more on recruiting new users rather than keeping existing ones happy - makes me wonder what will become of the product if new user growth stalls.
That's actually a fair point, regarding the implications of a one time fee.
Personally, I don't like subscription-based apps so didn't want to create yet another one.
And I built this around my personal needs so I plan to support it indefinitely.
Regarding long term improvements, there is a number of paying users that once I achieve, any new users are basically profit.
The service was built to be cheap to run and maintain so I could charge a one time fee.
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#14I use YNAB. I thought about building my own now that AI coding make this feasible. But the moat that I can't cross is the integration with my bank accounts. Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me. Has anyone been able to find a personal financial data provider that has a reasonable price?
I am researching providers to be able to add account sync to trackm.net
I haven't done it at first because
(1) they all have monthly / yearly costs and I wanted a flat fee;
(2) I can't update the account without the user having logged in because of how the encryption works.
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#15I use YNAB. I thought about building my own now that AI coding make this feasible. But the moat that I can't cross is the integration with my bank accounts. Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me. Has anyone been able to find a personal financial data provider that has a reasonable price?
actual budget something similar from what i can see via SimpleFIN Bridge ( https://actualbudget.org/docs/advanced/bank-sync/#supported-... )
Actual Budget is incredible. Happy (now free since it's gone FOSS, formerly paying) customer since migrating from YNAB4 ~ 3/4/5 (?) years ago.
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#16I use YNAB. I thought about building my own now that AI coding make this feasible. But the moat that I can't cross is the integration with my bank accounts. Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me. Has anyone been able to find a personal financial data provider that has a reasonable price?
GoCardless might be an option, at least for OpenBank (UE/SEPA), no idea for the USA though...
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
#17I use YNAB. I thought about building my own now that AI coding make this feasible. But the moat that I can't cross is the integration with my bank accounts. Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me. Has anyone been able to find a personal financial data provider that has a reasonable price?
As a few others have said Plaid is actually rather cheap if you only have a handful of accounts. I created my own personal finance tracker when Intuit Mint shut down and Plaid costs me $1.80 per month for all my linked accounts which feels very reasonable to me
Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
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Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
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Re: Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app
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Yeah, the 4-year forward projection was what got me hooked on moneywell in 2009, when I bought a "forever" license for them. I have since wanted a budgeting app that would have that feature too, so I built trackm.
Regarding the one-time fee and subscription, 100% agree. I delayed adding account sync because of the monthly / yearly costs. And also, because with the model of recuring rules looking into the future, I tend to use the app on a daily basis to correct things (payment is scheduled on 16th but is cleared on 17th so I need to update it).
When I add bank account sync, I'll have to think how to charge it. I still don't want to have a subscription for it, so need to think about it.
Finally, I don't do client-side encryption. There is encryption in transit (https / tls) and at rest.
I can't open any database without the user's password, so even if someone were able to exfiltrate the user databases, they still would need to know the encryption key used to read the data.