An essay · April 2026 · 11 min read
Why we're building a money app you'd pay for.
Or: how every personal finance app I've loved has either been shut down, sold, or quietly turned into a lead-gen funnel — and what I'm doing about it.
By Tyler, founder of Arden
I.
The first money app I trusted was Mint. It was clean. It was free. It connected to every bank I had. I built the habit of opening it every morning and watching the dashboard refresh, and for a few years, I felt like I was actually getting good at money.
Then Mint got bought by Intuit. Then Intuit started inserting credit-card “recommendations” into the sidebar. Then they shut it down. The five years of transaction history I'd built up over there ended up in my email as a CSV — the legal minimum — and I had to figure out what to do with it.
II.
When I went looking for a replacement, I learned something uncomfortable. Most of the popular “free” finance apps aren't free. They're free to you. They monetize your spending data — selling it to data brokers, lenders, and advertisers who will pay handsomely to know that you bought plywood at Home Depot last weekend.
The paid alternatives were better. YNAB charges $14.99 a month and treats you like a customer. Empower charges nothing and uses their app as a funnel into their wealth-management business. Monarch is in the middle. None of them gave me budgeting and net worth tracking and investments and the ability to walk away with my data intact.
III.
I started this project as a spreadsheet. Then a Notion page. Then a half-built side project. The goal was simple: a personal finance app that worked the way I wanted, that I could trust with the most intimate data I have outside of medical records, and that would still be there in five years.
Every decision since then has been about staying small enough to keep that promise. Two prices, both honest. No advertisers. No data resale. No free tier funded by the next iteration of Mint.
IV.
The privacy thing isn't a marketing position. It's an architectural decision. Arden works without a bank login — every feature, end-to-end, from CSV import to envelope budgeting to net worth tracking to investment holdings. The Privacy plan is the no-Plaid plan; the Plus plan adds bank sync as an option, never a gate.
The export thing isn't marketing either. Full CSV and JSON export is in Settings, today. If you cancel, your data exports before your access ends, not after. If you come back six months from now, your data is waiting.
V.
I'm not pretending Arden will be the right tool for everyone. If you want a free app and you're comfortable with the trade, Empower works. If you want a slick polished enterprise product with a sales team and a roadmap committee, Monarch works. Arden is for the person who looked at those two and felt like neither one was theirs.
VI.
The pitch is short. Two plans, both honest. Privacy at $5/mo for manual + CSV. Plus at $12/mo with bank sync. Built by someone who got tired of picking between privacy and polish.
The harder part of the pitch — the part this essay exists for — is the trust. I'm asking you to put your money data into a product built by one person, on the promise that I won't do to you what every previous app did to me. That's a real ask. I take it seriously. Hold me to it.
Tyler
April 2026
Six commitments. Written down. Held to.
What we'll never do.
The essay above is the why. This is the what — the line items I'm holding myself to, written down so you can hold me to them too.
We'll never sell your data.
Not to lenders, not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone. Our business model is a paid subscription — yours to end any time.
We'll never show you ads.
No banner ads. No sponsored categories. No "recommended credit cards" slot in the sidebar. You paid us. We work for you, not the advertiser.
We'll never share your transactions with lenders, advertisers, or data brokers.
Your transaction history stays inside Arden. It doesn’t get aggregated, anonymized-and-sold, or handed to partners "to improve your experience."
We'll never require a bank login to use Arden.
Plaid is an option, not a gate. CSV import is a first-class flow — every feature works without connecting a single account.
We'll never prevent you from exporting every piece of data we hold about you.
Full CSV and JSON export is available from Settings → Privacy & Data Export. Every transaction, budget, category, account, and holding. One click.
We'll never use dark patterns to keep you subscribed.
Cancel in one click, no "talk to a human" wall. Your data exports before you cancel, not after. Re-subscribe any time at the same price.
Commitments updated May 2026. Changes to this list are announced at least 30 days in advance via email to every active user. The full binding terms live in the privacy policy and terms of service.