evtaylor

Joined 13 years ago

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Jun 12

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Comment · 3 years ago

Thanks, I appreciate you feedback.

Comment · 3 years ago

I discovered Actual while I was working on Dollero although it was not open source at the time. I believe we were both influenced by YNAB classic, hence the similar layout. I imagine hosting Actual was time consuming and expensive for the author because all syncing appears to rely on a centralized server and database. I'm hoping to avoid this with Dollero because the peer-to-peer syncing requires a much simpler server and is cheap and easy to host.

Comment · 3 years ago

My side project is a personal budgeting web app [0] based on these principles. The technologies to support this type of architecture are available and fairly mature.

For example in my budgeting app:

  - All of the user's budget data is stored client side in IndexedDB
  - Offline support via a service worker
  - Peer to peer synchronization between devices via WebRTC data channel
  - Lightweight IdP server which also handles the WebRTC signalling (via web sockets)

This setup is nice because the user's data never touches the server and very little server side infrastructure is needed (none at all if you don't need data synchronization). One downside with the data sync is that both devices must be online with the app open at the same time to sync, but perhaps this could be improved with web workers?

[0] https://dollero.app

Comment · 3 years ago

Dollero - https://dollero.app/

Dollero is a personal budgeting web app which doesn't store any of your budgeting data in the cloud. Instead your budget data is stored locally in your browser with IndexedDB and is synced peer to peer with your other devices using WebRTC. It's currently is free and makes no money although I would like to eventually charge a small monthly fee for syncing your budget between devices.

Comment · 3 years ago

I would love that as well. I was thinking even adding an attachment photo/scan of a receipt could be valuable as a first step.

Comment · 3 years ago

Yes! I've felt some pain recently budgeting with USD/CAD and plan to add support for this.

Comment · 3 years ago

It's currently not open sourced although that is an option I'm open too someday

Comment · 3 years ago

Thanks for taking a look at Dollero. I've been a YNAB Classic (YNAB4) user for almost a decade but was disappointed when they moved to a SaaS cloud based model (even though I understand their motivations). I enjoyed not paying a monthly fee and that syncing was supported through Dropbox where I had full control of my data. YNAB Classic hasn't been supported for a while and I didn't want to wait around for an OS update to kill it so I created Dollero.

I enter most of my transactions on my phone and I agree that the mobile experience is key. Dollero is a responsive PWA so it can be used offline and can be installed by "Adding to home screen" on a mobile device resulting in an experience that is very similar to a native app. I'm continuing to polish and improve that part of the app.

YNAB is a great product and is ideal for people who are new to budgeting and desire an automatic bank account import.

Dollero is for people who want an envelope budgeting system, like YNAB, but are price sensitive and value their privacy. Dollero is free to use. Data syncing between devices will be a small monthly fee (currently free while in beta) making it much more affordable than YNAB, especially for folks in low income countries. Dollero respects your privacy, your data stays in your browser and is synced directly between your devices. For existing YNAB users I've added back some features that were removed from the new YNAB like multi-month view and carrying negative category balances.

Comment · 3 years ago

Dollero - https://dollero.app/

I created a personal budgeting web app which doesn't store any of your financial information in the cloud. Instead your budget data is stored locally in your browser with IndexedDB and is sync'd peer to peer with your other devices using WebRTC.