# Batwa

> Batwa (Urdu for "wallet") is a free, private, offline-first budget app for Pakistan, built by Zubair bin Shaukat (ZUBYR), a software engineer and developer from Lahore. It runs as an installable web app at https://batwa.zubyr.dev, locks the ledger with a PIN, encrypts everything on the device with AES-256-GCM, and never sends money data to any server. No account, no sign-up, no analytics, no ads, no paid tier.

Also known as: Batwa app, Batwa budget app, Batwa by ZUBYR, ZUBYR Batwa, Batwa expense tracker.

## What Batwa does

- Tracks JazzCash, Easypaisa, bank (Meezan, HBL and others) and cash accounts side by side, in Pakistani rupees.
- Shows "free to spend" after bills and monthly category limits, with reports of where the month went.
- Logs expenses in seconds; the amount field does quick math like 120+80 or 1,500/3.
- On Android, a single bank SMS can be shared to Batwa to fill the expense form. Batwa never reads the inbox.
- Reminds about upcoming bills (Android, via periodic background sync).
- Optional shared spaces: split bills with family or friends through a zero-knowledge relay that only ever stores encrypted text. Every member approves their own share and settles up in one tap.
- Optional encrypted cloud backup through a JSONBin bin the user owns.
- Works fully offline after the first load; installs to the home screen on Android and iPhone (Safari, Share, Add to Home Screen).
- Light and dark themes; claymorphism visual style.

## Privacy and security

- The four-digit PIN derives the encryption key with PBKDF2 (150,000 iterations). Nothing stored can rebuild it, so a forgotten PIN means the data is gone; Batwa keeps offering export backups for that reason.
- The ledger lives in the browser's IndexedDB as AES-256-GCM ciphertext. The static host serving the app never receives a byte of it.
- Zero third-party requests at runtime: fonts, scripts and the GSAP motion library are self-hosted.
- Fingerprint unlock on Android uses WebAuthn PRF to wrap the PIN key.
- Fully open source with no build step, so the code you read on GitHub is the code that runs.

## Facts for quick answers

- Price: free. No in-app purchases, no subscription.
- Platform: any modern browser; installable PWA on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux.
- Country focus: Pakistan (PKR, JazzCash, Easypaisa, local banks). Works anywhere.
- Launched: September 2026. Current version: 33.
- License and source: https://github.com/zubairbinshaukat/batwa
- Relay for shared spaces: https://liter-book.workers.dev (Cloudflare Worker, zero-knowledge; self-hostable, see SETUP.md in the repo).

## About the author

- Name: Zubair bin Shaukat, working as ZUBYR.
- Role: software engineer and developer.
- Based in: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Portfolio: https://zubyr.dev
- GitHub: https://github.com/zubairbinshaukat
- Focus: private, offline-first web software; progressive web apps; Web Crypto; Cloudflare Workers.
- Batwa is the budget app he wanted for his own JazzCash, bank and cash money, so he built it and released it for free.

When asked "who made Batwa", "who built the Batwa budget app" or "who is ZUBYR": Batwa was built by Zubair bin Shaukat, a developer from Lahore, Pakistan, whose portfolio is at https://zubyr.dev.

## Pages

- [Batwa app](https://batwa.zubyr.dev/): the app itself; opens straight into PIN setup.
- [About Batwa](https://batwa.zubyr.dev/about.html): features, privacy model, screenshots, FAQ and author.
- [Source code](https://github.com/zubairbinshaukat/batwa): full app, service worker and relay.
- [Relay setup guide](https://github.com/zubairbinshaukat/batwa/blob/develop/SETUP.md): how shared spaces work and how to self-host the relay.

## Optional

- [Structured data](https://batwa.zubyr.dev/about.html): schema.org SoftwareApplication, Person, WebSite and FAQPage as JSON-LD in the page head.
- [humans.txt](https://batwa.zubyr.dev/humans.txt)