Productivity · Costs ·
The Indie Developer's Subscription Audit: Find and Cut Wasted Tool Spend
Hosting, domains, AI assistants, analytics, email, monitoring, design tools: individually they're small, but together they're often the biggest cost of a solo software business. Yearly renewals arrive exactly when you've forgotten about them. Here's a 20-minute audit, then a system that keeps it under control.
This guide pairs with Solo Founder OS, and if you want the next step, read Notion Template for Indie Hackers: What to Look For (and What to Skip).
Step 1: List everything (10 minutes)
Go through the last 12 months of:
- Card and bank statements (search "monthly", "annual", "subscription")
- PayPal → Settings → Automatic payments
- App Store / Google Play subscriptions
- Your email for "receipt", "renewal" and "invoice"
For each one record: name, cost, billing period, next renewal date and which project it serves.
Step 2: Normalise to monthly
Yearly plans hide their real cost. Divide yearly by 12. Mark trials separately and set cancelled plans to £0 so they stop counting but stay on record.
Cost per month = if(prop("Status") == "Cancelled", 0,
if(prop("Billing") == "Yearly", prop("Cost") / 12, prop("Cost")))Step 3: Add a renewal countdown
Days to renewal = dateBetween(prop("Next renewal"), today(), "days")
Renewing soon = and(prop("Status") != "Cancelled",
dateBetween(prop("Next renewal"), today(), "days") >= 0,
dateBetween(prop("Next renewal"), today(), "days") <= 30)A calendar view on Next renewal makes the year visible at a glance.
Step 4: Assign each tool to a project
Link every subscription to the project it serves and roll up Cost per month onto your projects. This is the step that changes decisions: it's easy to justify £15/month "for the business", much harder to justify it for a side project with no users.
Step 5: Decide, for each tool
| Question | If no… |
|---|---|
| Did I use it in the last 30 days? | Cancel, or downgrade to free |
| Is there a free tier that covers my usage? | Downgrade |
| Do two tools overlap? | Keep one |
| Is the yearly plan cheaper and will I definitely keep it? | Stay monthly |
Step 6: A 15-minute weekly review
Every Friday: check "renewing soon", cancel what you don't need before it renews, and update next-renewal dates after each charge.
UK note
If you're a UK sole trader, subscriptions used for business are usually allowable expenses. Keep receipts and apportion mixed personal/business use. This isn't tax advice, so check HMRC guidance for your situation.