đ§ Inspiration
Free trials are dangerously easy to forget. Many users lose moneyâsometimes a ridiculous amount đâsimply because they miss a cancellation window hidden behind emails and dates they never track.
Free From Trial (FFT) was inspired by this everyday frustration. We wanted to give users a simple, stress-free way to stay in control of their subscriptions and free trials, without relying on memory or scattered inbox searches.
âïž What it does
Free From Trial helps users track and manage their free trials and subscriptions in one clean, beautiful dashboard.
Current features:
Google OAuth for sign in (only testing phase because of privacy)
Manual subscription & free-trial tracking
Add trials with:
Service name
Start date
End / charge date
Countdown timer (days remaining)
Optional direct cancellation link
Visual urgency indicators so users instantly see whatâs expiring soon
Everything is visible at a glanceâno more âI forgot to cancelâ moments.
Coming soon:
Automatic Gmail scanning for trial confirmation emails
Smart reminders via Google Calendar, SMS, or email
đ ïž How we built it Current version flow:
User manually adds a free trial through a simple form
Trial data is securely stored in MongoDB Atlas
A modern dashboard displays:
All active trials
Countdown timers
Urgency indicators
Optional cancellation links allow quick one-click access
Planned future flow:
Google Login â Gmail analysis (keyword-based) â Automatic trial detection â Smart reminders & notifications
đ§ Challenges we ran into
Planning Gmail access responsibly with minimal permissions and strong privacy guarantees
Balancing feature ambition with hackathon time constraints
Ensuring deployment and database connections were stable and secure
Integrating Gumloop to automize the alerts
đ Accomplishments that we're proud of
Built a clean, modern, mobile-friendly dashboard from scratch
Implemented full manual trial CRUD (add / edit / delete)
Created countdown timers with visual urgency cues
Successfully deployed the app on Digital Ocean App Platform
Implemented secure, persistent storage with MongoDB Atlas
Google OAuth for sign in
đ What we learned
OAuth security principles and permission scopes (prep work completed)
End-to-end deployment with Digital Ocean App Platform is smooth and reliable
Secure and persistent data storage with MongoDB Atlas
Good UX matters more than fancy featuresâclarity beats complexity
đź Whatâs next for Free From Trial
Google OAuth authentication for all users
Limited, read-only Gmail access for trial detection
Implementation for Outlook users and other emails services
Automatic email parsing using keywords (via Gumloop or custom logic)
Smart reminders before trials end (5, 3, 1 days) via:
Calendar
SMS
Browser extension for one-click cancellation
Mobile app / PWA with push notifications
Subscription insights and spending analytics
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