Why Just Add Bank Sync Is the Wrong Advice for Solo Founders

Why "Just Add Bank Sync" Is the Wrong Advice for Solo Founders Every time I demo Monee -- my no-account, no-server budget tracker -- someone says it: "This is cool, but have you considered adding bank sync? That would make it 10x better." They mean well. I used to agree. I no longer do. Here's why "just add bank sync" is actually terrible advice, and what I learned building without it. The Hidden Cost of "Simple" Features Adding bank sync isn't a feature. It's a product pivot. The moment you integrate Plaid (or any Open Banking provider), you're committing to: Compliance infrastructure -- data handling agreements, security audits, encryption at rest, PCI considerations Ongoing API costs -- Plaid charges per connected account, per month. At scale, it's significant. At zero users, it's still a liability Support burden -- bank API outages, token expiry, categorization errors, missing transactions. Every connection is a future support ticket Trust surface -- you now hold OAuth tokens to so