Should I Build It Should I Build It
09 Jun 2025
Personal Finance Money

Money tracker, personal budget, family share, expense - income ...

...management

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

You're entering a crowded market for personal finance and budgeting tools, often referred to as a 'Swamp' because many have tried and few have truly broken through. We found 30 similar products, so you'll face significant competition. The good news is, similar products get some positive user engagement but very little overall (avg 1 comment), so it's possible to differentiate. There aren't any strong signals for positive or negative usage, which means people aren't vocal about needing or disliking these tools in general. However, the great news is there appears to be very strong underlying positive buy signal from the similar products, which indicates an underlying demand for these types of products. Many solutions exist, but user reviews often highlight a need for more features, better UI/UX, or easier automation, suggesting areas ripe for improvement.

Recommendations

  1. Given the competitive landscape, your first step should be thorough competitive research. Dive deep into the existing solutions like Mint, YNAB, and others mentioned in the similar product discussions. Understand their strengths and, more importantly, their weaknesses. Identify underserved user segments or unmet needs that you can uniquely address. For example, some users expressed a need for multiple family members recording expenses or analytics and insights for finances.
  2. Focus on a specific niche. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Instead, identify a particular group of users (e.g., freelancers, students, families with specific financial goals) and tailor your app to their unique needs. This targeted approach will help you stand out from the generic money trackers. Use the discussion and criticism summaries from competing products to inform your niche focus.
  3. Prioritize user experience (UX) and automation. Many similar apps require a lot of manual input, which users find tedious. Explore ways to automate expense tracking (e.g., connecting to bank accounts, automatically categorizing transactions). Make the app intuitive and easy to use, even for people who aren't financially savvy.
  4. Consider a freemium model. Offer a basic version of your app for free to attract a large user base. Then, offer premium features (e.g., advanced reporting, custom categories, family sharing) for a subscription fee. This will allow users to try your app before committing to a paid plan.
  5. Develop a clear differentiation strategy. What makes your app different from all the others? Is it a unique feature, a superior user experience, or a focus on a specific niche? Clearly communicate your value proposition to potential users. Look at the discussions of similar products to get insight of what you must differentiate from.
  6. Actively solicit user feedback. Once you launch your app, pay close attention to user reviews and feedback. Use this feedback to improve your app and add new features. Engage with your users on social media and other channels. Ensure that your feedback mechanisms are intuitive (as highlighted in one of the criticism summaries).
  7. Explore integrations with existing tools. Consider integrating your app with other popular productivity tools or financial services. For example, you could integrate with calendar apps, to-do list apps, or investment platforms. This will make your app more valuable to users.
  8. Given that there's an expressed buy signal, explore monetization strategies beyond just freemium. What other valuable financial service can you tack onto the app to help users?

Questions

  1. Given that multiple similar products receive feedback that the product needs more features, what is the minimum number of features that are REQUIRED to get enough users to find the application to be useful?
  2. What are the biggest frustrations users have with existing budgeting apps, and how can you solve those problems in a way that's both innovative and user-friendly?
  3. How can you leverage AI or machine learning to automate expense tracking and provide personalized financial insights to users, going beyond basic categorization and reporting?

Your are here

You're entering a crowded market for personal finance and budgeting tools, often referred to as a 'Swamp' because many have tried and few have truly broken through. We found 30 similar products, so you'll face significant competition. The good news is, similar products get some positive user engagement but very little overall (avg 1 comment), so it's possible to differentiate. There aren't any strong signals for positive or negative usage, which means people aren't vocal about needing or disliking these tools in general. However, the great news is there appears to be very strong underlying positive buy signal from the similar products, which indicates an underlying demand for these types of products. Many solutions exist, but user reviews often highlight a need for more features, better UI/UX, or easier automation, suggesting areas ripe for improvement.

Recommendations

  1. Given the competitive landscape, your first step should be thorough competitive research. Dive deep into the existing solutions like Mint, YNAB, and others mentioned in the similar product discussions. Understand their strengths and, more importantly, their weaknesses. Identify underserved user segments or unmet needs that you can uniquely address. For example, some users expressed a need for multiple family members recording expenses or analytics and insights for finances.
  2. Focus on a specific niche. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Instead, identify a particular group of users (e.g., freelancers, students, families with specific financial goals) and tailor your app to their unique needs. This targeted approach will help you stand out from the generic money trackers. Use the discussion and criticism summaries from competing products to inform your niche focus.
  3. Prioritize user experience (UX) and automation. Many similar apps require a lot of manual input, which users find tedious. Explore ways to automate expense tracking (e.g., connecting to bank accounts, automatically categorizing transactions). Make the app intuitive and easy to use, even for people who aren't financially savvy.
  4. Consider a freemium model. Offer a basic version of your app for free to attract a large user base. Then, offer premium features (e.g., advanced reporting, custom categories, family sharing) for a subscription fee. This will allow users to try your app before committing to a paid plan.
  5. Develop a clear differentiation strategy. What makes your app different from all the others? Is it a unique feature, a superior user experience, or a focus on a specific niche? Clearly communicate your value proposition to potential users. Look at the discussions of similar products to get insight of what you must differentiate from.
  6. Actively solicit user feedback. Once you launch your app, pay close attention to user reviews and feedback. Use this feedback to improve your app and add new features. Engage with your users on social media and other channels. Ensure that your feedback mechanisms are intuitive (as highlighted in one of the criticism summaries).
  7. Explore integrations with existing tools. Consider integrating your app with other popular productivity tools or financial services. For example, you could integrate with calendar apps, to-do list apps, or investment platforms. This will make your app more valuable to users.
  8. Given that there's an expressed buy signal, explore monetization strategies beyond just freemium. What other valuable financial service can you tack onto the app to help users?

Questions

  1. Given that multiple similar products receive feedback that the product needs more features, what is the minimum number of features that are REQUIRED to get enough users to find the application to be useful?
  2. What are the biggest frustrations users have with existing budgeting apps, and how can you solve those problems in a way that's both innovative and user-friendly?
  3. How can you leverage AI or machine learning to automate expense tracking and provide personalized financial insights to users, going beyond basic categorization and reporting?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 30
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 1
  • Net use signal: 32.4%
    • Positive use signal: 32.4%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 5.4%
    • Positive buy signal: 5.4%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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