The subscription tracker app that finds every recurring charge

Subscriptions are built to be easy to start and easy to forget. A streaming plan bills on the 3rd, a cloud-storage tier on the 14th, a fitness app once a year — each charge is small enough to slip past you, and no single screen adds them all up. That's the gap a subscription tracker app closes. In a 2022 survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, C+R Research found people first guessed they spent about $86 a month on subscriptions — then, adding it up category by category, the real figure was $219. That's roughly $133 a month, or over $1,500 a year, more than they thought. Most people who use SimpleFinances turn up recurring charges they'd completely forgotten about.

What does a subscription tracker app actually do?

A subscription tracker app pulls every recurring charge you pay into one place so you can see the total you've been paying in pieces. Instead of you scanning bank statements and five separate billing screens by hand, the app reads your transactions, spots the ones that repeat — monthly, annually, or on an odd cadence — and lists each subscription with its amount and how often it bills. The good ones go one step further and translate each charge into an annual number, because $14.99 a month doesn't feel like much until you see it as $180 a year. That's the whole job: turn scattered, easy-to-ignore charges into a single, honest list you can actually act on. SimpleFinances does exactly this, then keeps the list current so a new charge — or a converted free trial — shows up before its second bill, not after its twelfth.

How does SimpleFinances find my subscriptions?

SimpleFinances works from your actual transaction history, not a form you fill out. When you connect an account through Plaid, it imports your transactions, automatically sorts them into categories, and groups them by merchant. It then flags the charges that recur on a regular schedule and surfaces them as subscriptions — the direct card charges a phone's app-store screen never shows, plus the annual renewals a one-month statement scan misses. Each one is listed with its amount and billing frequency, and its cost is projected out to a full year so the number is impossible to ignore. If you'd rather not link a bank, you can add accounts and transactions by hand and the finder still works. The same transaction data also powers your spending review, financial health score, net-worth timeline, and cash-flow calendar — so tracking subscriptions is one view inside a fuller picture of your money.

How does it work, step by step?

Getting your subscriptions on screen takes three steps. There's nothing to install — SimpleFinances runs in your browser.

How much does a subscription tracker app cost?

SimpleFinances is free to start. The Basic tier is free forever and lets you connect an account (or enter data manually) and see your transactions sorted into categories automatically — there's no free trial to remember to cancel, because there's no trial at all. The subscription finder is part of Premium, which unlocks the full toolkit — the recurring-charge finder, spending review, financial health score, net-worth timeline, and cash-flow calendar — for $19.99 a month, or $100 a year. Paying monthly for a year would run $239.88, so the annual plan saves you $139.88 — about 58% off, or roughly $8.33 a month. Because most people turn up recurring charges they'd forgotten about, a year of Premium often pays for itself from the first subscription you cancel.

Is it safe to connect my bank?

Yes. SimpleFinances connects to your bank through Plaid, the same secure service many major finance apps use. The connection is read-only: it can see transactions to find your subscriptions, but it cannot move, send, or withdraw money. You enter your bank login with your bank through Plaid, and it's never stored by SimpleFinances — your login stays with the bank. Data is protected with bank-level encryption in transit and at rest. And if you'd rather not link anything at all, the manual-entry option means you can use the subscription tracker, spending review, and financial health score without ever connecting an account. The goal is simple: see the real number, on your terms, without handing over control of your money.

How is this different from doing it myself or a cancellation app?

You have three realistic options for getting on top of subscriptions: track them by hand, use an app that cancels them for you, or use a tracker like SimpleFinances that finds them and hands you the decision. Each is a fair choice — here's the honest trade-off.

The honest distinction: SimpleFinances finds and tracks your subscriptions — it does not cancel them for you. Apps like Rocket Money offer a cancellation concierge, which is genuinely convenient, but some charge a percentage of the money they save you. We take a different line: we show you every recurring charge and exactly what it costs per year, then you cancel the ones you don't want at the source. It's one more step for you, but you keep every dollar of the savings instead of paying a cut — and canceling at the source is what actually stops a charge for good.

Can I track subscriptions without linking a bank?

Yes. If connecting an account isn't for you, SimpleFinances supports manual entry: you add your accounts and transactions yourself, and the subscription finder still groups the recurring ones and projects their annual cost. It's slower to set up than an automatic Plaid connection and you keep it current by hand, but your data stays entirely in your own hands. Many people start with manual entry to try the app, then link a bank later once they've seen what it surfaces. If you want the thorough manual method for auditing subscriptions across bank statements, the App Store, Google Play, PayPal, and Amazon, our companion guide walks through every screen: how to find forgotten subscriptions you're paying for.

Whether you link a bank or enter it by hand, the win is the same: you stop guessing at $86 and see your real number — and every charge you'd forgotten becomes a decision you get to make on purpose. Start free, or compare Premium plans.