Subscription Tracker API

A backend API for managing user subscriptions, authentication, and recurring billing or renewal tracking.

Overview

This project is a subscription management backend built to handle core production-style API workflows such as user authentication, subscription storage, protected routes, validation, and error handling.

It is designed as a practical backend project that can be extended with reminders, scheduled jobs, analytics, admin features, and deployment to a VPS or cloud platform.

Features

• User registration and login
• Token-based authentication
• Protected API routes
• Create, read, update, and delete subscriptions
• Track renewal dates and billing cycles
• Centralized error handling
• Input validation
• Scalable folder structure for production-style backend apps

Tech Stack

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB
• Mongoose
• JWT for authentication
• dotenv for environment configuration
• Nodemon for development

Project Structure

subscription-tracker/
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── database/
│   ├── middleware/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── utils/
│   ├── app.js
│   └── server.js
├── .env
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
└── README.md

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed:

• Node.js
• npm
• MongoDB Atlas account or local MongoDB instance
• Git

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/revolution737/subscription-tracker-api.git
cd subscription-tracker-api

Install dependencies:

npm install

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory and add:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_key
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=1d

Add any extra variables your project uses, such as mail service credentials, rate-limiting keys, or scheduled job configuration.

Running the App

Start the development server:

npm run dev

Start in production mode:

npm start

API Base URL

http://localhost:5000/api/v1

Example Endpoints

Auth

• POST /auth/register - Register a new user
• POST /auth/login - Log in an existing user

Users

• GET /users/me - Get the logged-in user profile

Subscriptions

• GET /subscriptions - Get all subscriptions for the logged-in user
• GET /subscriptions/:id - Get a single subscription
• POST /subscriptions - Create a new subscription
• PUT /subscriptions/:id - Update a subscription
• DELETE /subscriptions/:id - Delete a subscription

Sample Request Body

Create Subscription

{
  "name": "Netflix",
  "price": 499,
  "currency": "INR",
  "billingCycle": "monthly",
  "category": "Entertainment",
  "startDate": "2026-03-01",
  "renewalDate": "2026-04-01",
  "paymentMethod": "Credit Card"
}

Scripts

"scripts": {
  "dev": "nodemon src/server.js",
  "start": "node src/server.js"
}

Error Handling

The API uses centralized error handling to return consistent error responses and improve maintainability across routes and controllers.

Deployment

This project can be deployed to:

• VPS servers
• Render
• Railway
• DigitalOcean
• AWS EC2

For VPS deployment, you can use:

• Nginx as a reverse proxy
• PM2 for process management
• MongoDB Atlas for database hosting

Future Improvements

• Email reminders before renewal dates
• Subscription analytics dashboard
• Admin panel
• Role-based access control
• Swagger API documentation
• Unit and integration testing
• Docker support
• CI/CD pipeline

License

This project is for educational and portfolio purposes. Update the license section based on how you plan to publish or distribute the repository.

Author

Your Name
GitHub: https://github.com/

Would you like me to make this more accurate to the exact course stack and route names instead of keeping it generic?