I've always struggled with keeping track of my expenses. Every budgeting app out there either charges a ridiculous subscription — I'm not paying $100 a year just to track $50 worth of coffee — or it's free but selling my financial data to credit card companies, advertisers, or whoever's buying. That never sat right with me. I tried connecting my bank accounts through apps that promise automatic tracking, but those connectors are unreliable at best — they break constantly, require re-authentication every other week, and half the time transactions just stop syncing without any warning. I eventually discovered Actual Budget, which solved the privacy problem with self-hosted data, but the mobile experience felt clunky and overwhelming — too many menus, too many steps just to log a simple purchase. I wanted something that combined Actual Budget's privacy-first approach with a UI that didn't make me dread opening the app. So I built arc. It's dead simple: snap a receipt or type "lunch $12 at chipotle" and the AI handles the rest. No broken bank connectors to babysit — just log transactions as they happen, or automate it through Apple Shortcuts or Tasker so your Apple Pay purchases and bank SMS alerts get captured without you lifting a finger. Your data lives on your own server, end-to-end encrypted, so nobody sees it — not even us. No upselling, no data harvesting, no surprise fees. Just a clean, private way to know where your money is going. If you've been looking for something simple that respects your privacy and doesn't cost more than what you're trying to save, give it a try. I'd love to hear what you think.

arc

Take Control of your Finances

Take Control of your Finances