The Founder's Problem
Subsight Tracker
The average person has 7 to 12 subscriptions costing $273/month. You probably don’t know your number. Tracking apps ask for bank access. Spreadsheets break with annual and quarterly billing cycles. So most people just guess, and overspend.
Timeline
19 days
Solo sprint · full ownership
Target User
Budget-conscious individuals & Solopreneurs
Performance
Field-tested calculation accuracy across 3 export formats
Why Alternatives Fell Short
- Mint and YNAB require bank account linking. Many people won’t give that permission.
- Spreadsheets work until you have mixed billing cycles. Then formulas break silently.
- No tool offers privacy-first tracking with accurate calculations. You have to pick one.
What I Built
Manual subscription entry with optional AI auto-fill (bring your own Gemini key)
Calculation engine handling monthly, yearly, quarterly, and custom billing cycles
Real-time budget simulation: toggle subscriptions on/off without mutating your actual data
Multi-format export: JSON, CSV, and PDF with proper Unicode support
Tech Stack & Why
Next.js 16
Static generation for landing pages, SSR for the dashboard. Fast everywhere.
Supabase
Free tier handles 500MB database and 2GB bandwidth. Enough for MVP scale.
Recharts
Lighter than Chart.js, better TypeScript integration. Clean SVG output.
jsPDF
Client-side PDF generation. No server costs, no latency.
The 3-Week Process
Database schema, Calculation engine, Unit tests
Dashboard UI + Recharts, Export functionality
AI integration, PDF generation, Deploy
Lessons Learned
Financial edge cases are infinite. Leap years, month-end dates, and time zones each need dedicated test suites.
Manual entry isn’t a weakness, it’s a trust signal. Users preferred entering data themselves.
Export functionality tripled perceived value. Always ship exports. PDF, CSV, JSON.
Would Do Differently
I'd add freemium pricing from day one. Free tools don't scale alone, and having no monetization plan meant there was zero signal for whether users actually pay.