Free Trial Tracker

Never get charged for a trial you forgot.

Quick add popular trials

You will forget. That is the business model.

The average person has 3–5 active free trials at any given time. Most forget at least one. Services count on this — auto-renewal is the business model. The signup takes 30 seconds. The charge shows up 14 days later on a Tuesday when you are not thinking about it. By the time you notice, you have paid for a month of something you used once.

Free Trial Tracker exists to close that gap. Add each trial the moment you sign up, and you get a color-coded countdown, browser notifications before expiry, and a direct link to the cancellation page. Everything runs in your browser. No account, no server, no data leaving your device.

How to use it

  1. Click "Add Trial" and enter the service name, start date, and trial length.
  2. Paste the cancellation URL so you can cancel with one click when the time comes.
  3. Enable browser notifications to get reminded before each trial expires.
  4. When you get a reminder, click "Cancel now" to go straight to the cancellation page.

Why not just use a calendar reminder?

Calendar reminders are better than nothing, but they have real limits for this problem. A calendar event does not store the cancellation URL. It does not show you all your active trials in one view. It does not tell you which trial expires soonest or color-code urgency. And if you are like most people, your calendar is already noisy enough that a single reminder titled "cancel Hulu" gets dismissed or snoozed into oblivion.

A dedicated trial tracker is purpose-built for this one job. You open it, you see every trial sorted by expiry, and each one has a direct link to cancel. That is the difference between a reminder you glance at and a system that actually gets you to act.

Why not use Truebill, Rocket Money, or Trim?

Those apps solve a related problem, but they work in a fundamentally different way. They ask for your bank login so they can scan your transactions and find recurring charges. They make money by negotiating bills on your behalf and taking a percentage of the savings. That means a third party has access to your full transaction history.

Free Trial Tracker takes the opposite approach. Your data lives in your browser's localStorage and never touches a server. There is no account, no bank connection, no third party seeing your subscriptions. The tradeoff is real: you add trials manually instead of having them detected automatically, and the tool is browser-only with no phone app. If you want automated detection and are comfortable sharing bank access, those apps serve that purpose. If you want something private and lightweight that you control entirely, this is the tool.

What you should know about localStorage

This tool stores your trial data in your browser's localStorage. That means it works on one browser, on one device. If you switch to a different browser or clear your browsing data, your trials are gone.

The export and import feature exists specifically to handle this. You can export your data as a JSON file anytime, back it up wherever you want, and import it into another browser or after a reset. It is not as seamless as cloud sync, but it means your data never passes through anyone else's servers. That is a deliberate tradeoff, and it is worth understanding before you rely on the tool.

Frequently asked questions

Do browser notifications work if I close the tab?

No. Browser notifications require the page to be open (or a service worker to be registered, which this tool does not use). For the most reliable reminders, keep the tab open or make a habit of checking the tracker every few days. The color-coded countdowns make it easy to spot anything urgent at a glance.

Can I track paid subscriptions too?

Yes. Use the "Paid Subscription" type when adding an entry. It tracks the service name, cost, billing cycle, and cancellation link without a countdown timer. This gives you a single view of both trials and ongoing subscriptions.

What happens to expired trials?

Expired trials are marked in grey with a strikethrough and moved to the bottom of your list. Active trials are color-coded: green for 7+ days remaining, yellow for 3–7 days, red for fewer than 3 days. The calendar view also marks expiry dates so you can see the full picture at once.