The most privacy-focused finance apps never link a bank account: Gravity (iPhone), Bobby (fully offline), and Actual Budget (open-source, local-first). Gravity adds official-source-verified, step-by-step cancellation guidance to its renewal and trial tracking. Rocket Money, Copilot Money, PocketGuard and Hiatus automatically detect subscriptions but require linking bank/card accounts — more automated, less private. Intuit Mint shut down in 2024.
Most "subscription managers" work by linking bank and card accounts and scanning the transaction feed for recurring charges. That is convenient, but it hands a third party a live view of everything you spend. If privacy is your priority, the more important question isn't "which app finds the most subscriptions" — it's "does this app need access to my accounts at all?" The tools below split cleanly into two camps: privacy-first apps you populate yourself (no account linking), and automated apps that require linking bank/card accounts to detect charges for you.
We verified every app on this list is still live in 2026 and pulled its account-linking requirement, platforms, and pricing from its own site or App Store listing, flagging products that have shut down or been renamed. Disclosure: Gravity is our own app — it's included here by the same criteria as everything else, and we've been explicit about what it does and doesn't do so you can judge it against the alternatives.
Pricing and availability checked August 28, 2026
| App | Bank connection | Platforms | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gravity(ours) | Not required | iPhone (iOS 17+) | $19.99/month or $59.99/year |
| Bobby | Not required — you add each subscription manually | iPhone / iPad (iOS) | Free download; one-time in-app packs ($0.99–$2.99) unlock unlimited tracking and extras |
| Actual Budget | Not required — manual entry by default; optional account-linking add-on | Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Free and open source (run locally or self-host); optional managed hosting through third parties such as PikaPods — check current hosting prices |
| Copilot Money | Required — links bank/card accounts | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web | $95/year (about $7.92/month billed annually); 1-month trial; a pricier monthly plan is offered in-app |
| Rocket Money | Required — links bank/card accounts | iOS, Android, Web | Free tier; Premium sliding scale ~$7–$14/month; bill negotiation 35–60% of first-year savings |
| PocketGuard | Required — links bank/card accounts | iOS, Android, Web, Apple Watch | $12.99/month, $74.99/year, or $149.99 lifetime; 7-day trial; its pricing page no longer advertises a free tier |
| Hiatus | Required — links bank/card accounts | iOS, Android, Web | Free basics; Premium $10/month or $48/year (per hiatusapp.com/pricing) |
| Trim | Required — links bank/card accounts | Web (mobile browser) | Check current pricing |
| Intuit Mint | Was required — linked bank/card accounts | iOS, Android, Web (discontinued) | Was free (advertising/lead-supported) |
A private iPhone subscription manager. You add the services you pay for, and it tracks renewal dates and trial deadlines, then gives official-source-verified, step-by-step guidance to cancel any service — you cancel, it guides. It never links financial accounts.
A long-running, minimalist manual tracker. You enter each subscription, pick a billing cycle, icon and color, and Bobby shows your monthly total and upcoming renewal reminders. No account to create, no ads, and it works entirely offline — a favorite for people who want tracking without sharing any financial credentials. It does not help you cancel; it only reminds you.
An open-source, local-first envelope budgeting app. Your data lives on your own device or server, with optional end-to-end encryption for multi-device sync. You can budget and track recurring costs entirely by manual entry; account import is available as an add-on but is off by default. Best for privacy-minded users who don't mind a hands-on setup.
A polished budgeting app that automatically detects recurring subscriptions from linked accounts and surfaces them in a dedicated view. Privacy-conscious for an automated app: it states it doesn't sell financial data and shows no ads, and uses encryption plus two-factor authentication. The tradeoff for that automation is that it needs read access to your accounts.
After you link accounts, it spots recurring charges and lists them in one place. On Premium it offers concierge cancellation, where Rocket Money contacts the provider on your behalf, plus bill negotiation. Powerful and hands-off, but it requires ongoing access to your account activity.
Rebranded from Truebill in 2022
A budgeting app built around an "In My Pocket" spendable-cash number. It detects recurring bills and subscriptions from linked accounts and highlights ones you could trim. Account linking is required for its core features; the free tier caps how many accounts you can connect.
Tracks subscriptions and bills from linked accounts, with bill-negotiation and cancellation assistance on its paid tier. Still actively maintained in 2026. Like other automated trackers, it needs account access to identify your recurring charges.
A bill-negotiation and subscription-cancellation service that analyzed linked account activity to find recurring charges and negotiate bills. After OneMain Financial acquired it, the standalone product was retired and the remaining features are aimed at OneMain's own customers — review current terms and data practices before linking anything.
Acquired by OneMain Financial in 2021; standalone service retired, now geared to OneMain customers
The former go-to free budgeting and subscription-spotting app. Intuit shut it down and pushed users to Credit Karma, which syncs accounts but does not offer budgeting or subscription management. Listed here because it still appears in old "best of" articles — it is no longer available.
Shut down March 23, 2024
Two different things get called private in this category, and they're worth separating. The strongest form is structural: the app never asks for a bank login, so there's nothing to breach or sell — Gravity, Bobby, and a default Actual Budget install work this way, with your list living on your device (or, for Actual, a server you control). The weaker form is policy-based: apps like Copilot link your accounts through an aggregator with read-only access and promise not to sell the data. That can be a reasonable trade for automation — but it's a promise plus a third-party connection, not an architecture.
A practical middle path: keep the account-linked app only if you genuinely use its automation, and move the subscription-tracking job — renewal dates, trial deadlines, cancellation steps — to a no-link tool. Subscriptions are the one finance category where manual entry is painless, because you already know what you signed up for.
For ending subscriptions: Gravity. You add what you pay for; it tracks renewals and trial deadlines and gives official-source-verified, step-by-step cancellation walkthroughs — nothing ever links to a bank ($19.99/month or $59.99/year, iPhone). For a simple ledger: Bobby, whose one-time $0.99–$2.99 unlocks and offline design have kept it a favorite for years. For full budgeting: Actual Budget, the open-source pick — powerful and genuinely local-first, but expect a hands-on setup.
If you decide automation is worth a linked account after all, Copilot Money makes the most privacy-conscious case among the automated apps (no ads, no data sales per its site, $95/year), with Rocket Money the stronger pick when concierge cancellation matters more than data minimalism.
Verified against official sources for this update: Hiatus now lists premium at $10/month or $48/year; PocketGuard's pricing page shows only paid plans with a 7-day trial; Copilot holds at $95/year. The graveyard also matters for privacy shoppers: Mint — the classic everything-linked app — has been gone since March 2024, Truebill has been Rocket Money since 2022, and Trim's standalone service was retired under OneMain. Every one of those transitions moved user data to a new owner, which is exactly the scenario no-link apps avoid.
They vary. Bobby is purely a manual tracker — it reminds you before a renewal but doesn't help cancel. Gravity tracks renewals and trials and gives official-source-verified, step-by-step instructions to cancel each service, though you complete the cancellation yourself. Concierge apps like Rocket Money will contact the provider for you on their paid tier, but that convenience requires linking your accounts.
A tracker that never touches your accounts, on hardware you control. Bobby keeps a manual list entirely on your iPhone and works offline; Gravity also keeps your data on-device and adds renewal and trial tracking plus verified cancellation steps; Actual Budget goes furthest for full budgets — open-source and self-hostable, so no company holds your data at all. Reviewing card statements by hand is the zero-app baseline, at the cost of doing everything yourself.
Mainstream apps don't store your actual banking password: they connect through aggregators using tokenized, read-only access, and reputable ones publish security practices (encryption, two-factor) and no-data-sale policies. The risk isn't zero, though — you're trusting the app, its aggregator, and whoever might acquire either one later. If that chain bothers you, the apps in the no-link camp above deliver subscription tracking without any of it.
Gravity is made by Viral App Labs LLC. Competitor details are drawn from each provider’s own public information and can change; check the provider’s current site before deciding.
Gravity
Gravity helps you track subscription renewals, monitor free trials, and keep a clean list of what still needs attention.
Gravity