Hurdlr

Hurdlr is a mobile-first income, expense, and mileage tracker built for freelancers with multiple revenue sources. It updates your estimated federal, state, and self-employment tax liability in real time as money flows in and out of connected accounts. The Pro plan adds invoicing, double-entry accounting, and annual tax filing (federal + one state) through a partnership with April, making it a rare all-in-one option at the sub-$200/year price point.

Plans and Pricing#

Hurdlr offers three tiers, with all but the enterprise level available directly in the app:

• Free: Unlimited semi-automatic mileage tracking, manual income and expense entry, real-time tax estimates. Integrations and automation are not available.
• Premium: $9.99/month or $100/year (~$8.34/month). Adds fully automatic mileage tracking via GPS, automatic expense and income tracking through linked bank accounts and integrations (Stripe, PayPal, Square, Shopify, Uber), machine-learning spending rules, time tracking, and speed tagging. Direct integrations require a Premium or Pro subscription and import up to two years of historical data.
• Pro: $200/year (~$16.67/month, annual billing only). Includes everything in Premium plus invoicing with credit card and ACH payments (via Stripe), full double-entry accounting, Chart of Accounts, Balance Sheet, General Ledger, home office deduction tracking, accountant access, and annual federal + one state tax filing via April.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for financial institutions and SaaS platforms that want to embed Hurdlr's accounting stack in their own products (Hurdlr's parent company, Tight, powers this API).

New users automatically receive a 7-day free trial of Premium features (automatic tracking and integrations) before the account reverts to the Free plan.

Key Features for Indie Authors#

• Real-time tax dashboard: Every incoming royalty payment and outgoing business expense updates your estimated tax liability on the spot. Authors with unpredictable quarterly income find this significantly reduces end-of-year surprises.
• Automatic mileage tracking (Premium+): GPS-based automatic trip detection logs all drives; you swipe to classify as business or personal. Unlimited mileage tracking is available on all plans including Free.
• Multi-stream income tracking (Premium+): Royalties deposited via PayPal, Stripe, Square, or direct bank can be tracked per channel. Direct Stripe and Shopify integrations pull detailed transaction data; PayPal and most bank connections pull via linked account balance changes.
• Expense categorization (Premium+): Machine learning rules build spending patterns over time, auto-categorizing common author expenses — software subscriptions, advertising, editorial services, conference fees, home office costs.
• Tax filing (Pro only): April (a self-service embedded tax filing partner) handles annual federal and one state return, accessible directly from the Hurdlr app during tax season. This is not CPA-prepared; it is a guided self-service filing similar to TurboTax.
• Invoicing (Pro only): Create branded invoices and accept payment by credit card or ACH directly through the app.

Platforms#

• iOS (App Store, app ID 951737201) — 4.7 stars, 15,700+ ratings
• Android (Google Play) — 4.4 stars, 7,800+ ratings
• Web (web.hurdlr.com) — full feature parity with mobile

The Android app was most recently updated to v42.2.5 on January 2, 2026, confirming active development.

Integrations#

Direct income integrations (Premium/Pro only):

• Stripe (individual transaction detail)
• Square (daily sales)
• Shopify (sales payouts)
• Uber (earnings)
• PayPal (via linked bank account, not direct API)

Bank and card connections: Hurdlr uses Plaid to connect to 9,500+ US financial institutions. Transactions pull automatically for expense categorization.

Note: Lyft, Airbnb, Amazon Flex, DoorDash, and similar gig platforms do not provide direct API access to third parties; their income can only be tracked by linking the receiving bank account.

KDP royalty limitation: Amazon KDP does not provide a direct API to any third-party financial tool. KDP royalty deposits will appear when they hit a linked bank account, but the line items won't break down per title, per marketplace, or by format. Authors needing royalty-level detail should also use ScribeCount or a similar royalty dashboard alongside Hurdlr.

Company Background#

Hurdlr was founded in 2012 by Raj Bhaskar and Anu Bhaskar in Bethesda, Maryland. The company raised $3.2M from TTV Capital and REACH. In recent years the founders pivoted to a B2B embedded-accounting API business under the brand Tight (tight.com), which powers financial features for SaaS products and fintech platforms including Bonsai, Collective, ZenBusiness, and others. Hurdlr remains the company's direct-to-consumer product and continues to receive active development. No Empower acquisition has been confirmed in any public source; reports of such an acquisition are unverified.

Strengths#

• Free mileage tracking is genuinely unlimited: Unlike MileIQ (40 trips/month on free plan) or most competitors, Hurdlr's free tier imposes no mileage cap.
• Real-time tax estimates on free plan: The live tax dashboard is available without a subscription, useful for authors building their first awareness of self-employment taxes.
• Pro includes tax filing at $200/year: Bundling income tracking, expense categorization, mileage, invoicing, and annual tax filing at $200/year is competitive — comparable services often cost $250+ for filing alone.
• Responsive in-app chat support: Multiple independent reviews cite fast, helpful responses via the app's chat channel.
• Active development: Regular app releases through early 2026 confirm the product is not in maintenance mode.

Limitations#

• KDP royalty line-item detail unavailable: Amazon doesn't expose KDP API data to any third party. Royalty income appears as a lump-sum bank deposit — title-by-title breakdown is not possible.
• Mileage tracking reliability issues: Multiple user reviews on Google Play and Google My Business report missed trips, auto-start failures on some Android devices, and occasional GPS inaccuracies. Manual backup logging is available but removes the automation benefit.
• Bank sync reconnection required: Users periodically need to re-authenticate bank connections after security updates at financial institutions — a known friction point across all Plaid-dependent tools, not unique to Hurdlr.
• Pro tax filing is self-service, not CPA-prepared: The April integration in Pro guides you through self-service filing. If you need a CPA to prepare your return, FlyFin or a standalone CPA service is more appropriate.
• No multicurrency support: Authors earning in GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, or other currencies from international storefronts cannot track those income streams natively. Manual entry in USD is required.
• Pro is annual-only: There is no monthly option for the $200/year Pro plan. Premium can be paid monthly ($9.99/month) or annually.
• SMB Guide notes last product news from 2022: While app releases are ongoing, significant feature announcements have slowed since the company's B2B pivot.

Alternatives#

| Tool | Best for | Price | |---|---|---| | Keeper | AI-automated deduction scanning + optional CPA filing | $20/month or $199/year | | FlyFin | AI scan + CPA-prepared filing, audit protection | $84–$348/year | | QuickBooks Self-Employed | Authors wanting TurboTax integration and brand recognition | $15–$25/month | | MileIQ | Mileage-only tracking with high accuracy focus | $5.99–$9.99/month | | Wave | Free bookkeeping with no mileage or real-time tax estimates | Free |

Hurdlr's primary advantage over QuickBooks Self-Employed is price and simplicity. Its advantage over Keeper is the inclusion of tax filing in the top plan. Its disadvantage versus FlyFin is that Pro's April filing is self-service while FlyFin Standard includes a CPA.