Looking for a Bobby App Alternative

Bobby Is Good. Here Is Why People Leave Anyway.

Bobby does one thing well: it tracks subscriptions on iOS with a clean interface, a one-time purchase, and no recurring fee. For a subscription tracker to not itself be a subscription is a genuinely nice piece of product design, and if it fits your situation you should keep it.

People move for structural reasons rather than dissatisfaction.

1. You switched to Android, or use both

Bobby is iOS only. There is no Android version and no announced plan for one. If you move to Android your data does not come with you.

Mixed-device households hit this immediately — one person on iPhone, one on Android, no shared list possible.

2. You want to check subscriptions on a computer

Bobby has no web interface. Reviewing subscriptions while doing finances on a laptop means picking up your phone and typing numbers across, which is exactly the friction that causes reviews to stop happening.

3. You need to share with a partner

Bobby is single-user with local storage. Two people cannot maintain one list. In practice this means both people track partially, each assuming the other has the shared services covered.

4. Your data lives on one device

Local-only storage is a genuine privacy strength and a genuine backup weakness. Lose the phone without a backup and the list is gone.

Where Bobby Is Better Than the Alternatives

One-time purchase. No recurring cost, ever. Over three years Bobby is cheaper than any subscription-priced tracker.

Data never leaves the device. No server holds your subscription list. Nothing to breach.

Native iOS feel. Faster and more polished than any web app, because it is native.

No account required. Nothing to sign up for.

If these matter more than cross-platform access, do not switch. The rest of this page is for people who need something Bobby structurally cannot provide.

What SubTracker Does Differently

Works everywhere. Web-based, so iOS, Android, desktop and tablet all reach the same list.

Shared workspaces. Up to ten people on one list, which resolves the household coordination problem.

Per-subscription reminder lead times. Seven days for monthly services, forty-five for annual ones with notice periods.

Category reporting. Spend broken down by category rather than a flat list.

Server-side backup with export. Data survives a lost device, and CSV or JSON export is always available.

Free tier. Ten subscriptions permanently, no card required (reminders are a Plus feature).

The trade-off, stated plainly

SubTracker stores your subscription list on a server (EU, Frankfurt, under GDPR) rather than only on your device. That is what enables sync, sharing and backup, and it is strictly more exposure than Bobby's local-only model.

The data is limited to what you type in — provider, amount, renewal date — and there is no bank connection in either product. But if local-only storage is the specific reason you chose Bobby, that reason does not survive the switch, and you should weigh it honestly.

What Changes When You Switch The practical difference between manual and bank-linked tracking is not features — it is what the service knows about you. A bank-linked tracker holds a continuously updated copy of your transaction history through an aggregator such as Plaid or TrueLayer. That is what makes automatic detection possible, and it is a real capability. It also means a third party can see everywhere you spend, not only your subscriptions. A manual tracker knows what you typed in: provider, amount, renewal date. There is no transaction history, because none was collected. SubTracker stores this in the EU (Frankfurt) under GDPR, and every account can export to CSV or JSON and delete permanently from settings. Whether that trade is worth ten minutes of setup is a personal judgement. It is worth making deliberately rather than by default.

Moving Your Data Across Switching trackers is less work than it appears, because the list you need already exists. **Export from your current tool first.** Most offer CSV. If yours does not, take a screenshot of the list — you only need provider, amount, interval and renewal date. **Add the expensive ones first.** Sorting by cost and entering the top five captures the majority of your total spend in a couple of minutes. The long tail can wait. **Set reminder lead times as you go.** This is the step worth doing carefully. Monthly services need about seven days; annual ones need thirty or more because notice periods are commonly that long. **Keep the old tool for one cycle.** Run both for a month and compare. If the new one caught everything, close the old account — and remember to revoke any bank connection, which is a separate action from deleting the account.

The Honest Recommendation

Stay with Bobby if: you are iOS-only, track alone, and prefer a one-time purchase with local storage.

Switch if: you need Android or web access, want to share with a partner, or want your list backed up off-device.

Getting Started

The free plan covers ten subscriptions permanently with no card required. Renewal reminders are a Plus feature at €5.90/month. Plus (€5.90/month) removes the limit; Family (€9.90/month) adds shared workspaces.