It seems like all of life is turning into one big subscription party. There's Netflix, Spotify, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, food ordering subscriptions, Duolingo, Amazon and YouTube. Can you believe there is even a subscription to buy socks? Look, the list could go on, but I don't want to bore you or me.
Subscription services are here to stay and there is nothing you or I can do about it. As much as we hate having our money drained every month, if we want the goods, we must accept that in return we have to part with our hard-earned money.
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Home Screen Heroes
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps we couldn't live without. Read them all here.
Orbit is a beautifully designed subscription tracking app to solve the growing problem of subscription growth. It acts as a financial watchdog that uncovers all the bills draining your account and centralizes them in one sleek interface. This virtually eliminates the stress of surprise charges and helps you regain control of your wallet.
Adding subscriptions was easier than I thought
I expected to have to add each individual subscription manually, and while this functionality is present in the app, there's actually a much smarter way to load all your subscriptions into Orbit.
It's called Magic Import and it simplifies the tedious task of manual entry by capturing financial information directly from screenshots, bank statements, CSV or PDF files.
This is made possible by a combination of very clever AI and OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and I must say it is very good. I uploaded several different files and found that Orbit reliably picked up what I needed.
On the very rare occasion that Orbit misinterprets specific details of subscriptions, it's fairly easy to dive into that particular subscription and adjust any number of data fields, including your billing cycle, which list you want it on, and whether it's a free trial or not. These changes can be made when you import a subscription or later if you encounter an error.
Track Subscriptions Like a Pro
The main home screen lets you view your subscriptions in a list format, but the calendar view shows you when the money will actually come out of your pocket. This helps you spot heavy payment days or times of the month when multiple subscriptions are bundled together. Armed with this type of information, you can plan ahead to ensure you have the money set aside in your bank account.
The calendar view also includes readings of the total cost of subscriptions during the month, as well as a live countdown of how much money you still need to account for before the month ends. I process information visually and find the calendar invaluable for keeping track of my personal subscriptions.
There are also notifications that act as a proactive defense and are designed to close the gap between knowing you have a subscription and taking action before you are charged. This is perhaps most critical when you add a service marked as trial. Orbit will calculate the expiration date and send you a notification, usually 24 to 48 hours, before the trial period ends.
It will also send you recurring invoice renewal reminders. This is incredibly useful for cash flow management, especially for services that cost a lot of money. No one likes to be surprised by a sudden large financial deduction, and notification reminders minimize the chances of this happening.
Go premium to live the full experience
So if you've ever subscribed to a service and realized that after several months you were no longer using the service but were still paying for it, Orbit is designed just for you. It's for those people who feel anxiety about piling up bills and want a simple, one-app solution to manage it all.
The free version is extremely limited, so I recommend paying the lifetime fee of $24.99 / £24.99 to get access to the full range of premium features. These include unlimited tracking, magic import, iCloud backup, custom lists, and multi-currency support.
Orbit has a number of features coming soon including family sharing, a dedicated Mac app, and advanced spending insights. With these new additions, Orbit will go from strength to strength and will be increasingly useful for users who want complete control over their spending.
Download Orbit on iOS.
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