What are your must-have features in the peronal finance app of yours?!
Hey everybody,
Yigit here! I am developing a personal finance app mainly based on what features I wish an app to have and it is on google play closed test now. Here is a quick summary:
The app's main value proposition is being able to keep track of your expenses 'automatically'. The rationale behind is the fact that in my country banking laws restrict individual's access to open banking apis. That is, you cannot have an API access to your bank to exchange information and keep track of your expenses unless you are corporate. According to my research, this feature is available in US and EU but only with certain restrictions in the latter.
I thought it could be sutaible time to ask the community about their needs about such an app and can guide me a long way before I commit further. Would you be so kind enough to answer below questions? Any replies are appreciated and thanks in advance.
Do you use personal finance app?
Could you please share your the most essential must-have features of the personal finance app of your choise and tell me why?
Under which circumstances would you give another app a try?
What would be the ideal price point for such a service in your perspective?
Replies
Hey @yigit_sahin2 I don't use any personal finance apps, but I will tell you something I would use. If there was an app which linked to open banking securely and I could link it up to a tablet on the wall and see what I spent each day and how much money I made from products per day (Updated Hourly). That would be pretty cool!
Able to add multiple categories is a must-have because money is spent on lots of things. And if you are building it for Android users as well as Mac, right? There are so many messages we get where you know, if you're spending some money, it gets auto-calculated. So if we could have an app that we'll be able to figure out, where the money is spent would be really great
ARKAD Wallet - Budget & Tracking
Hey @yigit_sahin2 , great question.
We’re building in the same space with ARKAD Wallet, so this is something we think about a lot. From our perspective, the biggest must-have is reducing the friction of tracking. Most people don’t quit budgeting because they lack dashboards. They quit because entering every coffee, taxi, or grocery run manually starts feeling like a second job.
That’s why in ARKAD Wallet we focused first on very fast expense logging, especially voice input. You can simply say what you spent, and the app turns it into a structured transaction. For us, that’s the key: personal finance should fit into daily life instead of demanding a whole new routine.
A few must-haves we believe matter:
Fast input: voice, smart suggestions, receipt scan, or automatic detection.
Clear insights: simple answers like “where is my money going?” without overwhelming users with jargon.
Privacy-first design: financial data is sensitive, so trust is a feature, not a footnote.
Flexible budgeting: categories, recurring payments, and irregular expenses.
Easy export/import: people should never feel locked in.
We’d personally try another app if it solved tracking friction better than our current setup, had a clean UX, and was transparent about privacy.
On pricing, it depends a lot on the region, but a free tier plus something around $3-6/month feels reasonable for a strong personal finance tool.
Good luck with your closed test. The problem you’re solving is very real, especially in markets where open banking access is limited.