Okay, let's unpack this. If you're anything like me, uh,
your digital life probably feels packed with subscriptions. Oh,
definitely streaming online tools, software. Exactly.
It feels like this,
this constant stream of recurring payments hitting your bank account.
Do you actually know like off the top of your head,
how many you even have or what the total is?
It's a real blind spot, isn't it? For so many people,
those little charges they add up so fast. They really do. And you know,
without a clear overview,
it's just so easy to overspend or even forget you're paying for something you
don't use anymore. Right. Spreadsheets get messy and just trying to remember,
forget it. Yeah. Not really sustainable. Absolutely.
And that exact problem trying to track all those subscriptions efficiently,
and maybe more importantly, privately,
that's what our deep dive is all about today.
We're looking into an open source tool called Wallows.
It's a self-hostable web-based and it's built specifically for managing
personal subscriptions, giving you a simple, clear view of those recurring costs.
Yeah. Get some control back, maybe ditch the complicated spreadsheets.
Now our understanding of Wallows, it comes straight from the source material.
That's right. We've been digging into the GitHub repository where the project
actually lives and also its official landing page.
So everything we talk about today is based on what we found there. Exactly.
Okay. But before we dive deeper,
we really need to give a big thank you to our sponsor, Safe Server.
Yes, absolutely. They're supporting this deep dive. Safe Server. Well,
they're all about helping you host software, just like Wallows,
and they support your digital transformation journey too.
Really helpful if you're looking into self hosting things. Definitely.
If you want to learn more about what they offer,
you can find them at www.safe-server.de. Yeah, thanks again to Safe Server.
Their support lets us explore these kinds of tools that can really help you take
control. For sure. So here's our mission for this deep dive.
We're going to explore what Wallows actually is, look at the key features,
the sources highlight that make it useful. And maybe most importantly,
especially if you're kind of new to this self hosting world,
explain how you might actually get started with it based on the sources,
of course, trying to make it feel, you know, accessible, not scary.
Let's do it. So starting with the core idea from the sources,
Wallows is basically presented as this powerful,
but still simple answer to that problem of scattered subscriptions. Right.
The whole concept is you should have one single place to manage all those
recurring things, Netflix, gym, cloud storage, whatever it is. Okay.
So it's laser focused.
It's not trying to be your entire budget app or anything. Exactly.
Just that specific often overlooked category of recurring payments and the
sources, they point to a whole range of features to back this up. Okay.
They really break down how it helps you get that clear picture. I do. Yeah.
If you look at what it can do, sort of falls into a few key areas. All right.
Let's dig into those. What's the foundation? Well, the most basic thing,
but absolutely essential is just subscription management.
The sources show this is where you put in all the details for every service,
like the name cost, how often it bills, name, amount,
billing cycle, monthly, yearly, whatever. And the next due date,
just getting that central list is like step one for visibility. Okay.
Makes sense. So you've got them listed.
How does it help you make sense of it beyond just a big list?
That leads right into category management. According to the source material,
you can stick each subscription into a category that you create.
Ah, customizable category. Exactly.
And this is where you start getting real insight. You group expenses together,
maybe streaming software, utilities, fitness,
whatever makes sense for your spending grouping is smart. What about, um,
different currencies? I have a couple things built in euros or dollars.
That gets confusing. Yeah,
that's where the multi-currency support and conversion comes in.
It's actually pretty powerful.
The sources say wallows handle subscriptions in various currencies.
How does it do the conversion?
It connects with the service. They mentioned the fixer API as an example.
That's a, an API,
basically just a way for wallows to automatically grab real time exchange
rates. So you see everything converted into your main currency.
It gives you that single accurate total, no matter how things are built.
That's a huge help. Okay.
Now something the sources really emphasize is data privacy.
Yes. This is a big one for wallows.
That self-hostable part means you install it, you run it on your own server.
So like a small computer at home or maybe a server you rent somewhere.
Exactly.
And the key thing highlighted in the sources is that your financial data,
it stays completely under your control.
It's not sitting in some third party company's cloud database.
Okay. So that privacy aspect is huge. You control the data.
Does that also mean you're responsible for certain things?
Yes, precisely.
While the sources really focus on the privacy win and making it easy to start,
self-hosting always means, well,
you're also responsible for keeping that server running, keeping it secure,
doing backups. It's the flip side of that complete control coin.
You're the guardian of your data.
Makes sense. More control, but also more responsibility. Okay.
Beyond the core tracking and privacy,
what else did the sources mentioned that makes it better to use day-to-day?
There's quite a bit you can actually customize.
The landing page talks about tweaking categories, obviously,
but also currencies, themes, display options.
You can sort of make it look and feel how you want.
Yeah. And useful sorting options too. Arrange your list by due date,
cost, category, name, whatever helps you figure out your spending patterns.
I saw a neat little touch mentioned the logo search feature. Right. Yeah.
If you type in a subscription name,
Wallows can apparently go find the logo for that service.
Just makes the list a bit nicer to look at visually clearer.
Little things like that add up. They do. And speaking of daily use,
the sources confirm it's got a fully responsive mobile view,
so you can easily check things or add a new subscription from your phone or
tablet. Good. What about seeing trends? Like how much am I spending over time?
That's where the statistics and graphs come in.
The sources indicate Wallows gives you visualizations, helps you spot patterns,
track your total recurring costs month by month.
See where the money's really going across those categories you set up. Exactly.
And crucial, how do you avoid missing a payment or, you know,
forgetting a free trial is about to end and charge you.
Notifications. Super important.
Wallows supports sending reminders through actually quite a few channels,
the sources list, email, telegram, discord, push over,
go to fi and even web hooks. Wow. Lots of options there. Yeah.
So you can pick how and where you want those alerts about upcoming payments. Very
flexible.
Super practical. And one last thing,
the landing page mentioned was extensive multi-language support. Yes.
Over 21 languages. Apparently it just great opens it up to a much wider audience
globally. Okay. That is a really solid set of features,
all focused on tracking, organizing, analyzing,
and just staying on top of those recurring costs. But the big question,
especially for someone may be new to this self-hosting idea,
how do I actually get this thing running? Right. That can sound intimidating.
Yeah. But the sources actually provide some helpful guidance here.
They seem to try and make it approachable, even for beginners.
They really do.
The source material basically lays out a couple of main ways to install wallows.
There's the more, let's say traditional bare metal install,
which means installing it directly onto your server's operating system, right?
Manually setting up web servers, databases. Exactly that way.
Or the other way they highlight is using Docker or Docker compose.
And for a beginner just looking for the easiest path,
the sources definitely seem to point towards Docker. Why is that simpler?
Well, Docker and Docker compose in particular,
it just lowers the barrier to entry quite a bit.
It works by bundling everything wallows needs, the web server stuff, the PHP bits,
all of it into these neat little isolated packages called containers.
OK, so instead of you manually installing
and configuring every single piece of software on your server,
Docker sort of handles a lot of that complexity for you.
Gotcha. And the GitHub repository,
it provides that Docker dash compose dot YAML file needed.
Yes, it does.
Can you maybe walk us through what that file actually does based on the sources?
Why does it make the setup easier?
Absolutely. Think of the Docker dash compose dot YAML file like a recipe or a
blueprint.
It tells Docker compose precisely how to set up and run wallows.
OK.
It specifies things like which wallows application image to download.
I mentioned building wallows dot latest as an example.
It maps network ports so you can actually reach wallows in your web browser,
like connecting port 80 to 80 to on your server to the standard web port 80 inside
the wallows container. Right.
So you can access it.
Yeah. It lets you set your time zone.
And really importantly, it defines volumes, volumes.
What are those for?
Volumes are crucial here.
They tell Docker where to store the actual wallows application data,
like its database file and logos you upload outside of the running container
itself on your server's disk.
So the data isn't lost if the container stops or updates.
Exactly. That's super important.
It means your subscription data, your categories, all that stuff,
isn't just temporary inside the container.
It's stored persistently, safely in that volume on your server.
So you update walls later or restart it.
Your data is still there.
That persistence sounds absolutely key.
OK, so if I'm a beginner and I've got this info from the sources,
what's the simplest sequence of steps using this Docker Compose method?
Right. Based on the source material, it looks pretty straightforward.
First, you need Docker and Docker Compose actually installed on your server.
That could be a little Raspberry Pi at home,
a virtual machine, a cheap cloud server, whatever you're using.
OK, prereq was its first.
Second, grab that docker-compose.yml file from the wallows GitHub page.
You might need to make tiny edits,
like maybe double checking the volume
pads match where you want to store data on your server or confirming the time
zone is right for you, minor tweaks, minor tweaks.
Yeah. Yeah.
Third, open up a terminal connected to your server, go into the directory
where you save that file and just run the command docker-compose up at 10.
And that one command that does most of the work.
It really does.
The bat pad part just tells it to run in the background.
Docker-compose reads the file, downloads the wall's image if needed,
starts the container with all the settings, connects those persistent volumes.
It basically handles setting up the whole environment defined in that file.
So you don't have to manually install PHP,
configure a web server like NGINX or Apache, set up a database.
Nope. Docker-compose orchestrates all of that based on the recipe file.
It definitely sounds like an easier
entry point compared to setting up everything from scratch.
It really does.
OK, so that command finishes.
How do you actually start using Wallace then?
Simple. Just open a web browser on your computer or any device on your network
that can reach your server's IP address and go to that address,
followed by the port you mapped.
And the examples from the sources, it's often port 8282.
So like HTTP.your-serverep.8282.
Exactly. The very first time you load that page,
Wallace itself will guide you through creating your first user account,
setting a username and password.
And from there, it's about setting it up for yourself.
Precisely.
You then log in, go into the settings.
That's where you'll add the categories you want, maybe adjust your main currency,
perhaps add other people in your household if you want to track things together.
Right. And that currency conversion feature needs set up too.
Yes. To get the multi currency conversion working,
you need to follow the steps in the sources to get a free API key from a service
like
Fixer, they provide currency data, and then you just paste that key into the
Wallace settings.
OK, I think I saw a little tip in the source
material about making sure it updates the rates right away.
Yeah, good catch.
They suggest just quickly changing your main currency setting to something else,
saving it, and then changing it right back.
It's apparently a simple trick to force
Wallace to use that new API key immediately and fix the latest exchange rates.
Handy tip.
So, yeah, while self-hosting might sound daunting at first,
the guidance in the sources, especially pushing that Docker compose method,
seems designed to make getting started much more manageable,
even if you don't have tons of server admin experience.
And for anyone listening who just wants to see it in action first,
maybe before even thinking about installing anything,
the sources mention a great option for that.
They do.
There's a live demo site you can play with.
It's at HTTPS.demo.wallowsapp.com.
And they even give login details.
Yep. The source material helpfully says the username is demo and the password is
also demo. Just remember, as the sources point out,
the database on that demo resets every couple of hours.
OK, so it's purely for exploring.
Don't put your real data there.
Exactly. Just for clicking around,
seeing the features, getting a feel for the interface, not for actual use.
Trying the demo is definitely a smart first step.
See if it clicks for you.
This has been really insightful.
It seems like Wallows is a very focused and potentially quite powerful tool
for tackling that very common subscription overload problem.
It really does seem that way.
The core value proposition based on everything in the sources is simplifying
that tracking to give you real insight and ultimately better control over your
recurring finances. Right.
All those features we talked about categories, stats, multi-currency notifications,
they all seem built around that one central goal and that strong emphasis
on data privacy, you know, through self-hosting.
That's a really significant advantage for a lot of people nowadays.
Keeping sensitive financial info truly under your own lock and key.
Absolutely. Having your data on your own
server, it just offers a level of control and privacy that people are increasingly
looking for these open source self-hosted tools like Wallows.
They offer a compelling alternative to just handing your data over to third party
services. So let's maybe leave you, the listener,
with the thought to chew on building on what we've learned from the sources today.
OK, think about how easy it is for those
recurring costs to just become invisible, almost a small monthly fee here.
An annual renewal there.
They just kind of fade into the background noise of your bank statement.
Yeah, you stop noticing them individually.
Exactly, Wallace.
But giving you that single clear private
overview of all of them based on the details you put in, it can act as this
really powerful wake up call, a tool for financial awareness.
Just seeing the true cumulative impact
of all those small recurring payments laid out in one place.
That can be incredibly eye opening and
maybe the first step towards making more conscious financial choices.
It really highlights the difference
that simple visibility can make in managing your money more effectively.
So if you're curious after this deep dive and you want to explore Wallace further,
definitely check out that demo site, HTTPS.demo.wallowsapp.com.
Use the demo demo log in, kick the tires.
Good way to start or if you're feeling
a bit more adventurous and want to look at the actual code or the installation
details we discussed, head over to the project's GitHub page.
And one more time, we want to say a huge
thank you to our sponsor, Safe Server, for supporting this exploration of Wallows.
Yes, thank you, Safe Server.
They're a fantastic resource if you're looking into hosting solutions
or need help with digital transformation stuff.
You can find out more about them at www.safeserver.de.
Check them out.
Thanks so much for joining us for this deep dive.
We really hope this look at Wallows has
given you a clear picture of what it is and maybe how it could help you get
a better handle on your subscriptions.
Yeah, hope it was useful until next time.