This self-hosted Linux app cut my subscription costs by $300

Subscriptions are the new cable, and if you’re not careful, you may find that your subscription costs end up being higher than any cable subscription ever made.

This open source application allows me to track my subscriptions and ultimately save several hundred dollars per year.

My subscriptions have gotten out of control

Subscriptions are a bit of a trap. You sign up for a one-week, two-week, or one-month free trial. All you have to do is provide your credit card to sign up. Even things you know you want are a bit of a trap, because the reasonably low monthly price makes it deceptively easy to think they’re “not that expensive,” but they add up.

If you told me I would pay about $150 a year just to watch 10 episodes of a TV show, I would have laughed, but it happened. I also ended up paying $130 a year for many years for a Microsoft 365 subscription that I rarely used, mostly replacing it with free and open source alternatives when possible, or more privacy-focused alternatives when a paid option was necessary.

It’s just part of the cycle: Subscribe, accidentally forget it, and before you know it, you’re scratching your head at the end of each month wondering where a big chunk of that paycheck goes.

By serendipity, I came across an open source app that made it easier for me to track my subscriptions and determine how much money I was actually wasting each month and year.

Wallos makes it easier to track subscriptions

Wallos is a free and open source application designed to help you keep tabs on your subscriptions.

The basic interface is extremely simple. Click “New Subscription” at the top, fill in the appropriate details for your subscription or other recurring cost, then click “Save.”

Interestingly, it also has a built-in logo search function, which makes it easy to find the right one. When browsing your subscription list, simple visual cues like logos certainly make it easier.

The real benefit for me came when I went to the Statistics page, available when you click on your username in the upper right corner.

Before I even finished loading all my subscriptions, I saw the exorbitant annual cost: $1,134.97. It also made me think about how much I spent over the lifespan of certain subscriptions.

Every year I spent enough money to buy a high-end graphics card, and for what? I don’t watch TV regularly (certainly not on all streaming platforms simultaneously) and I don’t really use my Microsoft 365 subscription. Quite the contrary, I decided to deliberately remove OneDrive from my Windows PCs because I find it so harmful.

Related

I got tired of OneDrive, so I replaced it with something better

You’re not stuck with OneDrive forever.

Getting Wallos to Work

You can run Wallos “bare metal”, meaning you install and run it directly on a Linux PC, or you can install and run it using Docker.

Normally I don’t use Docker too much because my usual home server runs Proxmox, which supports its own container types. However, in this case, the Docker setup process was significantly simpler. You can even run it on Windows if you install Docker Desktop, which is how I use it.

Simply head to the Images tab, click the search bar at the top, then search Wallos. Once you find the bellamy result, click “Run”.

Once you click Run, make sure to go to Optional Settings and set the ports to 80 and 8282 respectively (which I just grabbed from the Docker compose instructions), and you will be able to connect by typing local host: followed by the port you chose.

Unlike many budget or subscription tracking apps, the database is saved on your device or server, ensuring that everything you enter remains private.

You don’t need a powerful server to host Wallos

Unlike some things you might try to self-host, Wallos will run on something with a fairly low-power CPU and relatively little RAM.

If you’re looking for a fairly lightweight project to run on a Raspberry Pi so that your low-power services run on a low-power device, this is a very good candidate.

Brand

Raspberry Pi

Storage

8 GB

Processor

Cortex A7

Memory

8 GB

Operating system

Raspbien

Ports

4 USB-A

It’s only recommended for tech-savvy users, but the Raspberry Pi 5 is a DIYer’s dream. Cheap, highly customizable, and with excellent built-in specs, it’s a solid foundation for your next mini PC.

With so many things moving to subscriptions rather than the old “buy it for life” model, it’s more important than ever to keep an eye on your subscriptions to ensure costs don’t spiral out of control. Before Wallos, I simply used a spreadsheet to keep track of mine, but I found that visuals make it easier to digest.

Additionally, pinning the web server address to my bookmarks bar reminds me to add any new subscriptions immediately, which was a problem with the spreadsheet approach.