I've kept a few tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes etc over the years and I take care of a selection now. But when I looked for an app to track feedings and molts, I found the options were either built for commercial breeders with features I'd never use, locked to a single platform, or had reviews full of people who'd lost all their data after an update.
So I'm building my own. A simple, clean and solid alternative.
The problem
The invertebrate hobby has grown massively, but the software hasn't kept up. Most apps are either:
- Overcomplicated. Breeding projects, genetic lineage trees, marketplace integrations. I just want to log a feeding.
- Platform-locked. Decent iOS app? Android users are out of luck. And vice versa.
- Unreliable. The most common complaint I found researching this: data loss. Hobbyists with 50+ animals losing everything.
- Slower than paper. If it takes longer to log a feeding than scribbling on a post-it, what's the point?
What I'm building
Exoden is a web-based collection manager for hobbyist invertebrate keepers. Not breeders. Not commercial operations. Just people who want to track their animals, log feedings, record molts, and know at a glance who needs attention.
It'll work on any device with a browser. Phone, tablet, desktop. No app store downloads, no platform restrictions.
The stack
I'm using what I know: the TALL stack (Tailwind, Alpine.js, Livewire, Laravel) on PHP 8.4 with MySQL 8, hosted on my own Linode server. Nothing fancy, but battle-tested and fast to iterate with.
For UI components, I'm using FluxUI with heavy CSS customisations. It saves a lot of time not reinventing buttons, modals, and form elements while still letting me control exactly how everything looks.
Where I'm at
The core foundation is done:
Passwordless Authentication
I could have used one of Laravel's starter kits, but I wanted a specific flow. Users receive an email with both a magic link and an auth code, so they can either click to log in or enter the code manually. If they've enabled 2FA, they'll need their authenticator app after that. And if they've set up passkeys, they can skip the email step entirely. It's the kind of flexible, secure flow I'd want to use myself.
Two-factor authentication
Custom built integration with recovery codes. Not using a package here, just a clean implementation that does exactly what's needed.
Passkey management
Users can register multiple passkeys and manage them from their account. If they have a passkey set up, they can bypass the email step entirely.
Session management
View active sessions, see device info, revoke sessions remotely.
Account deletion
No grace period. No "we'll keep your data for 30 days just in case." When you delete your account, it's gone. I dislike apps that claim deletion but keep everything in their database. This really deletes from the database.
Deletion requires either a passkey or email confirmation. Once confirmed, a job is queued, the user is logged out, and within 10 seconds the data is wiped.
Stripe subscriptions
Handled via Laravel Cashier with Reverb for real time notifications. We have an account page dedicated to billing and subscriptions allowing users to:
- Start subscriptions
- Cancel a subscription
- Resume a cancelled subscription
- Updating payment details,
- Access invoice history
- Download invoice PDFs.
There'll be a free tier and and a single affordable Pro option. None of this 4-tier plan business. Plain and simple. You're either subscribed to Pro or you're not!
Unit Tests
I'm writing both as I go, not bolting them on later. For transparency I'm using the following tools:
- Pest for unit tests with 100% code coverage on everything built so far.
- PHPStan (currently level 6) for static analysis
- Rector for automated refactoring and to ensure latest modern syntax is being used
- Pint for code style
- Peck for catching typos.
User guide.
I've decided to write the documentation as I get things finished rather than leaving it until the end. The chances of forgetting something is drastically reduced rather than trying to remember everything once its all done.
There's already a full guide covering:
- Login
- Registration
- Two-factor authentication
- All aspects of account management described above
- Subscription and billing
Now the foundational core is out of the way, I'm starting on the actual product: the animal management, feeding logs, and dashboard views.
What's next
The immediate focus is the core tracking features. Adding animals, logging feedings, recording molts. I want the "quick tap" logging to feel faster than paper, not slower.
I'm targeting a launch around May/June 2026. PWA support will come later once I figure out how to do it with the current stack I'm using.
Following along
I'll be posting dev logs here as I build. If you keep inverts and have opinions on what a tracker should do, or what existing apps get wrong, I'd genuinely like to hear it.
Landing page: exoden.app
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