> The Age of Micro Apps
I had two of my best friends come visit me recently. As usual, we created a Splitwise group to track expenses. But the moment I started adding entries, ads began popping up after every input. I hit a paywall after five entries. It felt like I was getting forced to convert to a paid user. I didn’t want to pay for yet another subscription. All I really wanted was a simple way to track expenses and settle up at the end of the trip. Do I really need to pay monthly for that?
We’re now in an era where if you need something simple, you can easily build it yourself. I mean, isn’t that what my Cursor subscription is for?
I used ChatGPT to help me write up the prompt and implementation plan, opened Cursor, and built Tripsplit in a single rainy afternoon.
>> Features
- User authentication (email/password + magic link)
- Trip management: create, edit, delete
- Trip membership: add/remove members, leave trips
- Per-trip currency support (preset list + custom ISO codes)
- PWA support
Expense tracking
- Description, date, payer, participants
- Split types: equal, full amount, custom amounts
- Clean breakdown per participant with formatted currency
Settlement engine
- Computes each member’s paid/owed/net balance
- Minimizes transfer (“who owes whom”)
- Logs settlements as expenses
Dashboard
- Overview of all trips
- Clear status: you owe / you’re owed / settled
Profile management
- Update display name
- Change password
>> Tech Stack
- Next.js - Full-stack framework
- Tailwind + React - Styling/UI
- Neon - Database (Using Neon’s built-in Authentication layer)
- Vercel - Deployment
- Cursor + ChatGPT - Vibe coding tools