Ya its kind of hard to explain but from my experience certain categories are just easier for me to visualize on a weekly basis (for example: if I hear that i have $200/mo to eat out that sounds like a lot. But when I see it as $40/week I realize "oh that actually isn't a lot. I could accidently spend that at 1 restaurant if im not careful" just an easier way to help me not overspend
@@raroque And as someone who likes to evenly distribute paychecks across expenses each month, this is a great view. Being able to visualize "every week I want to put 25% towards X" is awesome. Can't wait to try it out!
@@raroque Currently reading the finance book called "MAKE EPIC MONEY" and am trying to discipline in financial journey. And needed an app to help me do budgeting and track my expenses and this came around right time. Impressed to see all the features that you have in this app and am excited to try them so I have joined the waitlist, (however am Android user). One big request, hope this app will continue to build on Open-Source as world need a real world problem solving app to make their life easier, as this app seems all the possibilities to do that. Kudos and Thank you Chris. 😊 🎉
@@thefisola I should probably make a video about this haha Weekdays: lots of meetings/emails/messages during the day (my full time job at aloa.co) and then after that I usually spend the rest of the day building on one of the apps Weekends: lots of building haha And then I workout (either actual weightlifting or some cardio thing) almost every single day and then insert random stuff like hanging out with friends/dinner/etc... But I usually do plan what I'm going to work on at the beginning of the week. So for example this week, main focus is going to be Luna onboarding/beta feedback + Ellie google calendar improvements and then each day I just pick and choose whichever one I'm feeling
I think a good solution for big numbers, and is fairly simple to do in swiftUI is to format the number like: CA$10,928, could be CA$ 10,9K, since you are already removing the decimal numbers, this could go as a solution. And if the user tap on the value a little hover shows up the full value
Maann, honestly, your videos are freaking amazing! You truly inspired me to build a project of my own! hahaha Discovered your channel today and I'm already addicted hahah
Tip: Allow people to type their own currency, or none at all. I want to budget the cheerios between my kids. Bonus: Allow it per category, doing the conversion between categories. That would be wild.
Definitely leaning towards adding an option to hide currency throughout the app Also building the system so I can easily add per-category currency as well in the future, will hold off though bc I need to figure out if there are any unintended side effects I'm missing haha Thanks for the feedback!
Absolutely love this, man! Ellie is so clean and so good. There's nothing like it that I've ever used. As a college student, I can't afford a subscription, but it's one of the few apps I'd buy a lifetime license for. (Which sucks because your pro features are so good too!) And now this budgeting app-it's exactly what I've been looking for. Keep up the great work, man. I love your work so much. Looking forward to using this app firsthand!
I've been using Ellie for hours. This app looks amazing! Even though the basic plan features are limited, the app still works perfectly fine and helps me with college stuff. I'm going to save some money to get the premium plan soon. I'm so excited to get this budgeting app; I've tried almost all budgeting apps, and none of them have such a comfy UI and amazing features
This is awesome! I'm also working on a finance app but mostly geared towards desktop users. So this type of content is something I really love to see! Will defs try out for the beta soon! Looking forward to more posts!
Wow! Just happened upon your channel by happenstance (instant sub btw), and this app is what I need from a budgeting app! I dont need the app to link to my banks, or automatically add transactions. Would love to be part of the beta, I’ve joined the waitlist.
Awesome! Will be doing another round of beta this week and actually going to try to get public release in the next 2 weeks 🤞 excited to hear your thoughts when you try it!
Hi, congrats on what you’ve built so far, I want to build a budgeting app myself, just didn’t get to it yet. One feature that the others are missing on is a form of tagging some transactions. For example, you would want to track usual restaurant spendings as one thing, but the restaurant spendings in a vacation, differently. My idea/suggestion for this is to have tags underneath your categories so that people can see how much they've spent at restaurants overall, on non-vacations and on vacations.
You should 100% build one! Super interesting to hear you would want to tag it even if something like categories exist, but I completely understand. Will keep this in mind :)
@@raroque a student enrollment saas for Charter School/Schools in low income areas. I've worked as a Director of IT at a small charter school, so I know first hand the pain points. I have some help from Enrollment specialist as well.
Hi. This is the first time I ran into your channel and I love it. I’m subscribing for sho. I also signed up for the waitlist for Luna and i’m excited to use it soon. I am living alone for the first time ever in my life and I am learning how to track where I spend my money. So i’m so ready to enter that era of my life. 😝🤘🏼
The app looks so good! Congrats! Even though the strategy you chose for multi-currency is a good start, allowing for multiple currencies in the same account - even without conversion - is somehow better since there are situations where this can become common. For example: Subscriptions. Even though you main currency is HUF for example, you netflix sub will be paid in EUR.
Thank you! Also very interesting to know, I did not realize this was common at all 👀 had a few other beta testers mention this as well so what I'll do is build the system with this in mind so I can easily add per category currency in the future Hoooopefully shouldn't be too bad haha
Great work on the design, I just have some feedbacks for you 😀 - I'm not sure you have to precise the sub-type of currency. Let me explain, in the US you don't need to write US$ in the street because everyone knows it is the local money. But, it is also the case in the other countries with Dollars. For instance, in Australia or in New Zealand it is written $ in the streets not AU$/ NZ$. So, I think the CA, AU, NZ is not necessary here just use $ - In Europe, depending of the country the sign is before or after the price (ex: France, Germany and Spain => 50€ | Holland, Belgium => €50) - For certain money like in Vietnam or Madagascar, they don't have cents so think about disabling this possibility - For your empty state, maybe change the 'Add new category' button because in this case, it is the primary action
This is all incredible feedback, thank you so much for taking the time! 🙏 Will be doing a ton of optimization to better handle the edge cases around currencies for sure, this is something I totally underestimated haha
This seems amazing! I just signed up. This seems like an App I would understand. One small tip (if you didn't know). For example, the Euro sign is after the numbers and not before them like the Dollar sign. It would just be a cosmetic thing but thought you might want to know,
Btw if you're going to do the multi currency thing, please add a possibility to set a currency rate by user. For example officially the ARS rate is 950 but here inside it's 1350 and I have to always do the calculation by myself because the app I'm using for budget just use google rate for calculation. I'd be happy to be able to change the rate every week and don't think about that anymore
Hey Herman, thanks for the feedback! Will keep this in mind if I go the route of allowing people to change (and re-calculate) based on the current exchange rate. For now, its simply a formatting swap so no real conversion happens yet :)
I'd really like an import/export functionality that allows me to easily import the data from another budgeting app into that, and then in the future (if for some reason I don't feel like using the app anymore) export it into another app. I know that kind of goes against the "keep the user in your app" principle, but I think it's an amazing feature that one should be able to use. And please if in the future you want to make some money with it, don't JUST put a subscription service (that is justified only for apps that require cloud servers to be running), but put also a one-time price to keep the premium version of the app forever. I signed to the wait list, can't wait to try it!
Thanks for joining the waitlist and for the thoughts! :) 100% will add import/export, I’m a big proponent of users owning their data and have this feature in all my other apps And for sure 1 time purchase option once I roll out the subscription (which won’t come for a while) I plan on supporting web/desktop so cloud is involved for this :)
Thank you! :) Actually from scratch haha There are a few videos on my channel talking about some of the design iterations for the app if you’re curious about my design process!
Would you consider creating workspaces for the budget app. I problem I have is budget for my business and budgeting for my personal finance. I like to keep those separate and workspaces would be very useful
Oh interesting, ya I can definitely account for multiple budgets I saw YNAB and others do something where it’s almost like a dropdown and if you switch between the budgets it’s like a copy of the app. So separate categories, separate transactions, etc… Like that?
Such an amazing video, I've found it extremly motivating! I'm realy looking forward to see videos about how you implement the next steps you mentioned. Btw. what is the tool you are using for tracking where people have joined your waitlist from?
Hi Chris Great video Really liked the way you represent things here I just want to know about the beta testing process. 1. How you are doing it 2. What approach you take. 3. How did you create this waitlist
Thank you! :) 1. Small batches of 100 people every 1-2 weeks (using Testflight to distribute the app). 2. Just manually collecting feedback but now analytics are installed so i can see things like retention and feature usage! 3. Simple framer website + Formspark for the waitlist :)
Thanks for joining! Unfortunately going to take some time on Android, going to really figure out the feature set on iOS and then once its good port it to Android hopefully :)
Wow, that's looking good! How did you achieve the sliding animation when you switch between the tabs? That's really cool! 9:36 Interesting, any particular reason why you chose CoreData instead of SwiftData?
Might make a video on the animation stuff, getting a lot of questions about that :) I was going to go the SwiftData route but after some research it looks like it might be missing a few things that CoreData has so to be safe I chose CoreData Also, since CoreData has been around for a while I know ChatGPT has a lot of knowledge on it compared to SwiftData so that was a big bonus 😅 I use ChatGPT a lot when it comes to learning new concepts so it was actually important to factor it in
@@raroque Amazing, I am in the same situation at the moment, teaching my self how to code and build an app coming from a marketing major background. Thank you for your content truly one of a kind!
This is the first video that I watched, so, I have a question. How do you obtain users for a weight list ? Because besides having a good idea, this is my second biggest difficulty.
Right now videos like this are what drive most waitlist sign ups :) A lot of marketing I do is this type of “build in public” content on RU-vid and twitter, but if I wasn’t allowed to post stuff like this I would be trying to build a waitlist by engaging people in communities like Reddit or Facebook groups
Great job!! I'd like to have a go if possible. One thought though. Regarding the big number issue, I'm wondering how you would handle currencies that typically go by thousands. For example, I mainly deal with Japanese Yen and monthly budgets would typically have 5 digits, sometimes 6. I think I won't mind the font size inconsistency at first, but I think it would also eventually cause me to drop the app especially for a budget app which will be used regularly.
ah wow i did not even think of that, thought this would be a big edge case but you're very right 🤔 Someone else suggested rounding up and truncating, so 10,000 would be 10K or 10.1K in any areas of the app that have limited real estate (like the homescreen). On the transactions/category pages I think there is enough space for the full amount Thoughts on this? Very open to suggestions or if you know of any apps that handle the Yen very well, will definitely do more research
@@raroque It would definitely be preferable to have 10.1k instead of 10k. Although to be honest, I think the target demo of a budget app would prefer to see the whole thing, me included. Also, this would open up a different kind of inconsistency. Since you show what's left and the allocated budget, there would be a point where the other is in the 10s and the other value is in the 1000s, so the "k" formatting would be quite jarring. Also, food for thought would be currencies that typically reach 6 digits and for the custom input you have, currencies that don't deal with decimals, yen included. As for possible app references, I don't really have enough experience on budget apps since I've since dropped using them and switched to spreadsheets but the longest one I've used (about 4 years on and off) and would still consider good is Wallet by BudgetBakers. It's not a super UI/UX focused app but I was happy throughout the period of my usage, the problem is mostly with my specific use case of having multiple bank accounts. You could also check their multi-currency support which is honestly amazing. You could use multiple currencies at the same time and declare conversion rates per entry. It's very useful for immigrants that deals with two or more currencies daily and sometimes for investors with multiple currency accounts, but I guess that can be considered an edge case. Don't take my word for it as I'm not a UI/UX guy by any means but I personally think the main difference is the three column layout you got going compared to most apps using a two column layout which lessens the complexity of formatting. I kind of remember from your previous vlogs that you might have used two columns at the start and dropped it? Maybe you could reconsider it.
Maybe loose typing in the "." for currency. Have the user input "500" for $5.00, "533" for $5.33 or "34" for $0.34. IMHO this just makes the workflow faster since most transactions actually include cents.
Very interesting 🤔 do you have any examples of apps that do this? Just checked Venmo and a few others and I actually thought they did too but looks like they might have reverted at some point maybe I’ll experiment and try it out though, curious how it feels
The different thing in app development is to get users to use your app , l do not know how some games on google play get million or more install on devices
Going to try to hold off for a bit on the bank integration (it opens up a whole new level of complexity to the app that I’m not yet ready for) Android will come after the bank most likely :)
The app looks so good. Just signed up for the waitlist. One question. Have you decided on the pricing of the app once it launches (one time purchase or subscription)?
Thank you! Likely be subscription but with option to do a one time purchase at 3X yearly price, I do the same thing for my other app Ellie and it’s worked out very well so far :) btw beta testers will be gradfathered into any subscription that comes later, so definitely sign up once you get the invite so you get it for free :)
@@raroque Thanks for the reply. English isn't my first language, so just making sure - beta testers will be getting the app for free once it launches officially?
Hey, I am doing a expense tracker for my capstone project (a webapp, actually). Love what you have done with Luna! Signing up for waitlist now!!! Also, will you be releasing a laptop version of the same? Would love that as a CS student since I spend most of my time on my laptop. I am gonna steal some of your ideas, don't sue me 🤣 Also, thank you for multi currency support, really need that being in India. At the same time, for the lengthy characters (5:44) why don't you give like a currency choosing drop down on the top, above weekly budgeting, and under the week listed (Jun 23 - Jun 29)? So then, the text 'CA' won't take up so much space, and the user will know what currency they chose as well. P.S. I love the fact that you are sitting and explaining about your app, and why you chose what you chose, and all those little things you mention in the video. Means a lot of future devs like us!
Thats awesome! Good luck with the project :) Will be releasing a laptop version for sure! Also feel free to take any ideas you like, would actually love to see what you come up with :) "for the lengthy characters (5:44) why don't you give like a currency choosing drop down on the top" -> this could be a good solution, will try! Thanks for watching :)
Oh mate, this one is looking very promising! Amazing job, already signed up to waitlist and can't wait for the release (or testflight 😉) - please don't forget about us, Poles with Polisz Złoty PLN symbol for currency 🙇
Love your videos man, we seem to have some similar Ideas. I published my personal crm also a couple years ago, and working on a finance one now too:) love the videos. What software do you use for your wait list. I've been trying to do more of that but cant find a good one
Appreciate that and that’s awesome haha 🙌 Used framer for this ($5/mo one page plan) and hooked it up to formspark actually, wanted to get it up really quickly and this was what I was fastest with!
@@raroque Nice lol I used framer also and hooked it up to airtable cause im cheap lol but it doesnt provide any extra data like yours so I appreciate the info
Firebase (auth/db) + SwiftUI and a super simple express server for a few endpoints I need Only cost so far is like $5/mo for the express server! Still on the free tier for Firebase My other app, Ellie, has ~1K MAU and doing a few million read operations per day and I think costs like $20/mo. So I don't anticipate the Firebase bill for Luna will be too high for a while either.
Just stumbled upon this video and the app you are making looks very promising. I noticed that you are only making the app for iphone, so is there a plan for making an Android equivalent?
Hey Chris, I noticed you're using apple emojis for the empty state. I saw that a few apps were not approved by the apple design process because of this. Have you made sure you are allowed to use them?
Curious: are you working with a monorepo with this or Ellie? I know you have several services you are building so wanted to know your workflow managing/developing each?
@@raroque One more question: I imagine you're using Figma for designs. Are you using any UI libraries, design systems, etc to help you with rapid prototyping?
@@DouglasWiseRogers actually started purely prototyping in SwiftUI direct for Luna. The only UI library I use is actually Ant design for a few of the web components! :)
Watching this, I was kinda encourage to actual build a product in public. I also want to try out this app. Thank you so much for this content. I subscribed and I want to follow your journey and I hope I can do the same in the coming months. Cheers!
There's probably no reason to show the user their own currency code. I don't need to see AU before every dollar amount, edge cases may exist for people that operate in two currencies in their country (Eg Laos that uses Riel and USD simultaneous). However, you do need to format the currency display properly. This does matter to the user. The correct currency indicator and decorators means that the user will understand the denomination shown. Done countries use commas and periods in contradictory ways to your design. Rounding values might also cause issues when users are trying to match transactions to a budget category. Also, converting the values when a user changes currencies might need to be an opt in action on each event. Changing a bunch of values without asking the user would be very destructive for a detailed budget and an accidental currency change. Might need that user testing eh? Love your work.
First, thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough/thoughtful reply 🙌 - Will be adding an option for users to hide currency throughout the app (looks like a few other international budgeting apps might be doing this too) - "Some countries use commas and periods in contradictory ways to your design" this is a very good point. I now realize that in places I've made custom components like the new transaction page with the "." that won't work if the user has a currency that uses commas. Will have to re-think the strategy to be careful here. - On the converting values for the currency change -> I'm also worried about this (because also undoing might not be as simple). Will likely not be going this route for a while but if I do, will probably give people options here. I'm really glad I posted this video. I'm getting so many comments like this making me aware of different edge cases that I haven't considered Thanks for the feedback, super helpful 🙌
@@raroque you're also excelling at one thing I find hard to do myself, and is seemingly thin on the ground amongst my peers: take feedback on the chin without exhibiting some level of stroppyness! Good for you bro, you'll go far. There's not many folks that are actually both full-stack and able to make a decent looking app. Good on you!
Ah unfortunately not for a while, will be focusing on fleshing out the core features of the iOS app first before porting to Android Will add IDR though!
I definitely think so, the amount of request for android that I’ve gotten has been so overwhelming that I have to find a solution haha A lot of developers have reached out asking if they can build it, I might actually make a public API so anybody can build a Luna client if they want
Can you add pockets/wallets?? If I have multiple sources where the money is, I should know where the money for the transaction came from, and how much is in that pocket. the total amount should be all pockets combined. P.S Great Video 👍🏾
@@raroqueI don’t know if this is what they’re referring to, but you may want to check out the app Budget App (white background, yellow and purple icon). Could provide an example of this
Will 100% be doing it (the demand was just so high haha) but no idea on the timeline :( I've had a lot of devs reach out actually and I might make a public API so people can make an Android client
Thank you! Actually a great idea for a video 🤔 Current strategy is going to be free plan + some pro plan But I will probably not release the pro plan until there are enough features to make it worth it (might be a few months). Will probably be $4.99/mo and then eventually if there is enough value up to $9.99/mo. And then some sort of lifetime plan at 3x the yearly subscription. 50% off for students/non-profit And between us, I also plan on grandfathering anyone who signs up before I release the pro plans with a lifetime pro plan 🤫 as a thank you for early support This is the strategy I used for Ellie and it worked out pretty well haha
Hey Chris , really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with more Quality Editing in your videos and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail and also help you with the overall youtube strategy and growth ! Pls let me know what do you think ?
@@raroque which tool are you using for the landing page? bro what if you make a short and simple video on how we can make apps like you because we also have some ideas. with process and all like which tools to use? what language do we need and how much does it cost? please bro it really help us?
