I'm adding a budgeting app to my collection of client-side web tools. The core premise: no server, no account, no Plaid integration. All financial data lives in IndexedDB/localStorage and never leaves the browser.
Stack is straightforward—vanilla JS with WebAssembly for any heavy lifting, same approach I've used for the file converters and PDF tools I've already built.
Planned feature set:
- Envelope budgeting
- Recurring transactions
- Cash flow projections
- CSV import/export
- PWA with full offline support
Business model is ads with an optional paid tier to remove them. No paywalled features.
Curious if others have built local-first financial tools and what edge cases I should anticipate. Particularly interested in thoughts on:
IndexedDB storage limits for multi-year transaction history
Backup/sync strategies that don't compromise the privacy model
Whether anyone actually trusts browser storage for financial data long-term
Site: https://practicalwebtools.com
