Plaid
No written verdict yet. Here is what commenters said.
Why people recommend it
“In fairness they redirect you to your bank to login”
“I prefer that they use Plaid since I know it as a trusted entity.”
Show 3 more
“Overall, it's been a pretty good experience!”
“for now, Plaid or a Plaid-like competitor is the safest way”
“We work with partners (Plaid, Snaptrade) who explicitly state that they DO NOT sell user data”
Caveats and dissent
“Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective”
“when they first came out they were pretty evil. They would go into your accounts and download all activity.”
Show 2 more
“They sued Plaid in 2020.”
“Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“You do need to set up Link, but it's pretty easy.”
“Plaid does support personal use (including personal use access for Chase).”
Threads where it came up
- Show HN: Wealthfolio 2.0- Open source investment tracker. Now Mobile and Docker 5 mentions
- OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid 4 mentions
- item 47894690 3 mentions
- Show HN: Trackm, a personal finance web app 3 mentions
- Ask HN: General API for accessing bank transactions? 3 mentions
- item 47897662 2 mentions
Data: plaid.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 30
Well, with EXTREME cautions (read the readme): https://github.com/brookstalley/bankmachine
“a card through Plaid”
I built my own financial dashboard and used Enable Banking Accounts API, it's free to use for such limited usage, and they support most European banks at least. https://enablebanking.com/accounts-api/
“Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective”
“In fairness they redirect you to your bank to login”
While I understand the risk of sharing sensitive information (e.g. bank login) with a 3rd party. But the current situation is such that your bank currently monopolize your bank information to improve your loan offer, to give you better service at better rate based on their understanding of your bank transaction history. Currently, there is no aligned format for sharing your bank transaction history with other financi
“That's not how it worked last time I used it with Chase Bank.”
“I prefer that they use Plaid since I know it as a trusted entity.”
“when they first came out they were pretty evil. They would go into your accounts and download all activity.”
“integrations with Plaid, Finch, Lithic.”
“but https://dashboard.plaid.com/ has it.”
“Overall, it's been a pretty good experience!”
“TD now has API integration with plaid so you don't need to give credentials”
“They sued Plaid in 2020.”
“for now, Plaid or a Plaid-like competitor is the safest way”
Check out Lunch Flow, that's the exact reason I built this :) we Aggregate multiple providers behind a simple api for global coverage, and with a pricing friendly to individuals not businesses.
“Plaid, which is good but built for companies”
actual budget something similar from what i can see via SimpleFIN Bridge (https://actualbudget.org/docs/advanced/bank-sync/#supported-providers)
“Plaid and the like are too expensive and don't cater to one-off users like me.”
“I saw that there is a limited production mode, but it doesn't support institutions such as BofA or chase”
“I've not been happy when encountering Plaid in the wild”
“Plaid is unable to successfully log in”
“Plaid still rubs me the wrong way.”
“connectors like Plaid or Finicity don't always cover historical data”
“Plaid and other "aggregator/scrapers" are not designed for a single user.”
“We work with partners (Plaid, Snaptrade) who explicitly state that they DO NOT sell user data”
“Plaid does in fact sell your data”
“The big alternative is Plaid and I don't trust them at all.”
“They could work for the Plaid or Stripe which are pretty known for taking proactive security very serious.”
“sync accounts via plaid”