About Penno
Penno is a budget tracker for iPhone. It is also, deliberately, a list of things it doesn't do.
Budget apps had drifted into asking for everything — bank credentials, accounts, subscriptions. I built Penno because I wanted one that didn't.
Why the app exists
The Mint shutdown in January 2024 left millions of people hunting for an alternative. The options that emerged — Monarch, Copilot Money, Rocket Money — were impressive, but they shared the same model: link your bank, accept a subscription, hand over an account. For a sizeable chunk of users the trade-off was no longer worth it.
Penno is the opposite app. It has no servers, no cloud sync, no analytics SDK, no bank-aggregation code, no account model, no in-app purchase. The full database is a SQLite file on your phone. Delete the app, the data is gone. Open the app on a plane, it works.
This is more restrictive than most budget apps. You enter every transaction yourself. There is no automatic categorization from your bank. There is no shared budget with a partner via cloud. You accept those trade-offs in exchange for owning your data and never paying a subscription.
The maker
Penno is built by an independent developer. [Founder bio placeholder — name, photo, brief background to land before App Store launch.]
If you have questions, you can email [email protected] — a real human answers, usually within a day. For press inquiries, the press kit is at /press.
What's next
The current scope on the roadmap:
- Android version
- iPad-optimized layouts
- Apple Watch complication for at-a-glance remaining budget
- Multi-currency-per-transaction (current scope is single configured currency)
- Custom date-range reports
What is intentionally NOT on the roadmap, ever: bank linking, accounts, subscriptions, cloud sync.
Design principles
Three rules behind every decision in the app:
- Local first. If a feature requires a server, it doesn't ship. We choose simpler features that work on a single device.
- Honest copy. Marketing strings, App Store description, and in-app text say what is actually true. No "bank-grade security" when there's no bank involved.
- One-time price. The whole app, in the version you bought, forever. No two-tier nags, no upgrade prompts.
If those rules ever bend, the app changes character. The intent is they don't.
If this resonates: Penno on the App Store.