I've been privacy-conscious for years — VPN user, I actually read privacy policies, I've never linked my bank accounts to anything. The problem is that every personal finance app I've tried requires bank linking through Plaid or a similar aggregator.
After using spreadsheets for years I got frustrated enough to build something. Here's how it works from a data perspective, because I know this community will ask:
No bank credentials ever leave your bank's own website. You export a CSV from your bank, import it to the app.
No financial data aggregators. No Plaid, no Finicity, no MX.
Database is Supabase with row-level security — your data is isolated and not accessible to other users.
Auth is through Clerk — they hold your email/identity data, which is standard for any authenticated app.
AI CFO feature uses Anthropic's API — transaction data can be sent there when you use that specific feature. It's optional and disclosed.
No advertising. No data selling. Revenue is subscriptions only.
I want to be honest about what I mean by 'privacy-first': it means no financial data aggregators and no selling your data. It doesn't mean zero third parties exist — Supabase hosts the database, Clerk handles auth. I think that's a meaningful distinction from apps that hand your bank credentials to Plaid, but I'm not going to pretend it's airgapped.
It's called Moosely. Free tier available. Happy to answer any questions about the architecture — I'd rather have this community poke holes in my claims now than have someone feel misled later.