Why I Built Budgetpeer
I tracked my budget in Google Sheets for years. It worked - kind of. I had my categories, my formulas, my colour-coded cells. But every time I sat down to log a transaction, the same friction hit me. Open the spreadsheet. Find the right row. Type the amount. Hope I didn't break a formula. No charts unless I built them myself. No insight unless I squinted at rows of numbers.
I wanted something faster. Add a transaction in a few seconds, see a real dashboard, understand where the money was going - without wrestling a spreadsheet every time.
So I looked at what was out there.
The options weren't great:
Most budget apps wanted my bank login before I could even try them. Services like Plaid would get my full transaction history, my balances, my personal financial data - to use a budget tracker. That felt like too much.
The gap no one was filling:
Not a single budget app properly handles Buy Now, Pay Later. Over 100 million people in North America use Afterpay, Klarna, Affirm, or similar services. Buy something for $200 on Klarna and your budget sees $50 this month - the other $150 lands across the next three months, invisible and unplanned.
No app solved this. Not YNAB. Not Monarch. Not Goodbudget. Not even the expensive ones with bank connections.
That's when I decided to build Budgetpeer.
First, a web app, then I started over
The first version of Budgetpeer ran in the browser. It did the job - manual entry, a dashboard, BNPL split across the right months - and people used it.
But I kept noticing the same thing in my own habits. Budgeting doesn't happen at a desk. It happens in the two seconds after you tap your card, standing in a queue, phone already in your hand. A web app in a browser tab is one tap too far. And a web app can't send you a reminder the day before a Klarna installment is due.
So I rebuilt Budgetpeer as a native app, from scratch. Faster entry. Notifications that actually reach you. Design that follows Apple's guidelines closely enough that it feels like it came with the phone. It's on the App Store now, and more devices are coming.
Budgetpeer is a manual budgeting app for people who want control without complexity. You add your transactions, you see your dashboard, you understand your spending. No bank login. No spreadsheet formulas.
It's the only budget app that automatically splits your BNPL payments across the months they're actually due - and reminds you before each one lands. Your budget reflects reality, not just what's in front of you today.
I built it as a solo founder, alongside my day job. Every feature exists because I needed it or because real people asked for it. No venture capital, no growth-at-all-costs pressure, no reason to harvest your data. Just a tool that does what it says.
The Details:
Free to start: 20 transactions a month, 2 BNPL plans, the full dashboard
$4.99 a month, $49 a year, or $129 once for lifetime access
No bank connection - ever
BNPL splitting for Afterpay, Klarna, Affirm, PayPal Pay in 4, Zip, Sezzle and any other installment service
Reminders before installments and recurring bills are due
Savings and net worth tracking with a monthly check-in
119+ currencies
$4.99 a month, $49 a year, or $129 once for lifetime access
It started as a spreadsheet I was tired of opening. It's now the app I open instead.manual budgeting app for people who want control without complexity. You add your transactions, you see your dashboard, you understand your spending. No bank login. No spreadsheet formulas.
