Indie devs: Would you pay $20/month for unlimited transaction categorization? (vs Plaid's per-call pricing)
Hey everyone
I'm validating an idea before building it. Need your honest feedback.
The Problem:
If you're building a budgeting app, expense tracker, or any fintech tool, you need to categorize messy bank transactions:
"AMZN MKTP US*2H4GP" → Shopping
"UBER *EATS" → Dining
"SHELL OIL 57441" → Transportation
Current options suck for indie developers:
• Plaid: Pay-per-API-call (pricing hidden until sales call, costs scale unpredictably)
• Ntropy: Enterprise sales process, custom pricing
• DIY with LLMs: Weeks of prompt engineering, ongoing maintenance, accuracy issues
What I'm Thinking of Building:
A simple, focused API that does ONE thing really well:
- Transaction categorization only (not a full banking platform)
- Flat $20/month for unlimited categorizations (predictable costs, no surprises)
- Stateless & privacy-first – your transaction text never gets stored
(you send → we categorize → we instantly forget)
- Fast & simple – REST API, JSON in/out, <200ms response
- 15+ smart categories – handles weird formats, ambiguous merchants, edge cases
Why Flat Pricing?
| Monthly Calls | Plaid (est.) | This API |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | ~$15 | $20 |
| 2,000 | ~$60 | $20 |
| 10,000 | ~$300 | $20 |
At scale, flat pricing makes way more sense. Plus you can budget accurately from day one.
Questions for You:
I need to validate if this is actually useful or if I'm solving a problem that doesn't exist.
1. Would you actually use this? (Yes/No/Maybe)
2. What's your use case?
(Personal finance app? B2B expense tool? Accounting software? Something else?)
3. What accuracy would you need to trust it?
(80%? 90%? 95%? 99%?)
- Flat $20/month vs pay-per-call – which do you prefer and why?
5. What countries/banks do you need supported? (US? UK? EU? India? Global?)
- Dealbreakers?
(What would make this useless to you? What features are non-negotiable?)
Be Brutally Honest:
- If this solves a real pain point for you → tell me
- If you'd switch from your current solution → tell me what you're using now
- If $20/month is too expensive for your volume → tell me what price works
- If this is a dumb idea → tell me why so I don't waste months building it
I'm NOT selling anything yet. Just trying to figure out if this is worth building.
If there's genuine interest (10+ people saying "I'd pay for this"), I'll build a working MVP and offer early access at 50% off for the first 50 users.
Thanks for your time! 🙏