What your subscriptions really cost you in a year, on one screen. A self-owned iOS app, from a spreadsheet habit to 50 countries.
Founder, Product Designer
2025
Solo, built with AI
iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS
Small recurring charges look harmless every month and shocking over a year. The best-known trackers only work with US banks.
Designed and shipped a self-owned iOS app in public, written in SwiftUI with AI, then reshaped onboarding, ads and pushes around real usage data.
#19 Product of the Day on Product Hunt. 500+ installs from 50 countries in two months. 90 seconds median to the first tracked subscription.
I've always tracked my money in a Google Sheet, which is exactly as clumsy on a phone as it sounds.
What changed how I looked at spending was simple maths. Subscriptions work like that coffee: each one quietly takes a few dollars a month, and nobody knows what they add up to in a year.
So the idea was narrow on purpose: show the yearly cost of everything recurring, on one screen, in your pocket.
Before the App Store, I gave a working TestFlight build to a small circle. Several people installed it right away, and the feedback was positive enough to commit.
What success means
Why people install it
Three real usage scenarios
Open, look at the Overview, close. No taps. The most common return by far.
A new subscription or a charge arrives, and the user adds or edits it.
The morning affirmation brings people back more than anything about money.
| Google Sheets | Bobby | Rocket Money | Monarch | Spendee | Subscrr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions | manual | yes | via bank | via bank | as recurring transactions | yes, plus import from a screenshot |
| Everyday spending | manual | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| No bank login needed | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes |
| Works outside the US | yes | yes | US only | US and Canada | yes | yes, 67 currencies |
As of September 2026, from public help centres and App Store pages: Rocket Money, Monarch, Bobby, Spendee.
Takeaways
If onboarding goes from six steps to three,
Then more people reach their first subscription,
Because every benefit screen is a chance to leave before any value appears.
If users can import subscriptions from one App Store screenshot straight after onboarding,
Then the empty list disappears,
Because recognising your own subscriptions is faster than typing them.
If the ad shows one idea with simpler visuals,
Then clicks get cheaper,
Because the product has to make sense before the thumb scrolls on.
An Instagram campaign built this way produced the biggest install spike so far.
If pushes are shorter and more playful,
Then more of them get opened,
Because a reminder that sounds like a bank statement gets swiped away.
If a daily affirmation gives people a reason to come back,
Then they keep adding subscriptions until they hit the free limit of six,
Because the paywall lands after the value, not before it.
Purchases happen at the limit: the seventh subscription or the second scan.
Daily installs, August to September
Key decisions
Identity and campaign
Product of the Day on Product Hunt
installs from 50 countries in the first two months
median from starting onboarding to the first tracked subscription. About half of new users track one within the first day.
countries with the first paying users
What the data corrected
People open the app when a charge reminder arrives.
What I'd do differently: connect analytics from the first build. The early onboarding and import changes felt right, but I can't measure their effect: the tracking arrived after them.