Keeping your finances in order can be a tricky task, no matter who you are—a single college student, a parent budgeting for an entire family, or a high-net-worth widow. Not everybody is spreadsheet savvy, nor do they necessarily have time to download transactions and work out a budget from scratch.
Fortunately, numerous tools can make organizing your finances much easier—and Quicken software is one of the most popular choices because of its many comprehensive features.
That said, Quicken is hardly the only finance and budgeting tool you have at your disposal.
But while Quicken is a common choice, it’s far from the only finance and budgeting tool available. A number of Quicken alternatives are worth a closer look depending on your needs—whether you want something that’s simpler, more affordable, or has a special feature you need.
Today, I’ll go over what Quicken can do for you—and then dive into the best Quicken alternatives for you to consider. These alternatives range from simple budgeting tools to wide-use financial apps that handle just about everything.
Let’s get to it! Read on to discover which alternative to Quicken best fits your financial needs.
Quicken Competitors—Our Top Picks
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Our Top Quicken Alternative
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High-Net-Worth Portfolio Tracker
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Digital Envelope Budgeting System
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Primary Rating:
4.5
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Primary Rating:
4.4
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Primary Rating:
3.5
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Tools: Free. Wealth Management: Starts at 0.89% of assets annually.*
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Starter: Free. Plus: $29/mo. Premium: $79/mo. Family Office: $699/mo.*
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Free 34-day trial. $8.25/mo.*
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What Is Quicken?
Quicken is a popular money management and personal finance software that has been around for roughly four decades. It’s a one-stop shop where users can manage finances, create budgets, track investments, and more—all in one place.
The software was originally offered by Intuit (the name behind TurboTax and QuickBooks), but Intuit sold Quicken in 2016 to H.I.G. Capital, who then sold it in 2021 to Aquiline Capital Partners.
Quicken Overview
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Desktop app (Windows, macOS), web, mobile app (Android, iOS)*
Quicken is different things to different users depending on which plan you subscribe to:
- Simplifi is a simple offshoot of Quicken, providing primarily budgeting functionality.
- Classic Deluxe is Quicken’s base plan, offering budgeting, tax planning and some investment features.
- Classic Premier is what I consider the most useful plan for your average person—it also offers budgeting functionality, as well as enhanced tax and investment functions.
- Classic Business & Personal is the most powerful (and expensive) version of Quicken, offering even more features for budgeting, tax planning, and investments, as well as features for businesses and rental properties.
I’ll focus on Quicken Classic Premier, as I think it’s Quicken’s best overall value and provides what most people need:
More than 20 million users trust Quicken Classic Premier as one of the best investment tracker tool options for their needs.
Quicken Classic Premier’s financial management software allows investment tracking for your entire portfolio in one dashboard. You can connect investments, banking, loans, retirement accounts, assets, private holdings, and more. In fact: Do you own your home? Premier gets real estate market values from Zillow so you always have an idea of how much your home is worth.
Having all of your investment accounts in one place makes it easy to see your net worth. Your investments automatically update. You can customize your views and reports to focus on what is important to you.
Not sure how to adjust your asset allocation and grow your investment portfolio? Quicken Classic Premier helps with portfolio management and provides robust analysis tools. No portfolio manager or asset managers are necessary.
Analysis tools include (but aren’t limited to):
- Benchmarks
- Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray
- Buy/Sell Preview
- Buy/Sell Optimizer
- By/Hold Analyzer
- Performance view
- Target allocations
- Watchlists
- Investing activity reports
You can run “what if” scenarios, such as “What if I paid down my loans faster to save on interest?” There are also useful calculators to help plan for college funds, savings, loans, refinancing, and more.
The LifeTime Planner helps you prepare for retirement by running scenarios to see what would happen if your revenue streams increased or decreased, what would happen if you bought a new property, and other possibilities.
The software will help you create custom budgets and save for all of your various savings goals, such as an emergency fund, home renovations, vacations, and more.
Quicken automatically categorizes your transactions, and you can add your own customization rules if you want to have everything organized in the way that makes the most sense to you.
This portfolio management software also lets you view all your bills in one spot. You can pay your bills from Quicken for free as well with just a few clicks. And when tax season arrives, Quicken Classic Premier automatically generates your tax reports.
And sometimes, you might want to chat with a real person, so Quicken software comes with free phone and chat support.
* Note: Quicken Classic Premier does not have a standalone app, but it syncs with the Quicken mobile companion app for iOS and Android.
- Use the Quicken family of personal finance and money management software to see your financial life in one place.
- Create a custom comprehensive budget, track your investments and plan for retirement.
- Stay on top of spending and track what's left to pay bills that you can easily view and manage.
- Review your investment portfolio and monitor performance.
- Multiple versions for differing needs
- Wide range of compatible accounts
- Bill pay reminders
- Real estate features
- Excellent customer support
- No free version or free trial
- Mobile app is only "companion" software
- Several features not available on Mac
Related: 20 Best Investing Research & Stock Analysis Websites
Why Should You Consider Alternatives to Quicken?
Quicken Classic Premier is an excellent all-around program, and it’s one of the first such programs to ever hit the market, making it an established name. Still, there are several reasons why people seek alternatives to Quicken.
To start, Quicken isn’t free. And the more advanced features you want, the more it costs every month. So it’s sometimes possible to find a cheaper (or even free) Quicken alternative that still has all of the features you want.
While Quicken does work on mobile, the mobile apps aren’t standalone—they’re used in sync with the desktop version and don’t have all of the desktop features. Conversely, many of the best Quicken alternatives either have great mobile apps or are mobile-first apps. I’ll also note (with annoyance, as someone who uses a Mac) that while Premier and Deluxe are available for Macs, Quicken Classic Business & Personal isn’t. It’s only available for Windows.
Furthermore, Quicken has a steep learning curve. Some people just want a simple budgeting app, rather than comprehensive software. More isn’t always better, so some people seek simplicity through Quicken alternatives.
If you’ve been using Quicken for years, it might seem like too much hassle to try something new. The good news is that some companies make it simple to transfer over your data or link your accounts to automatically bring in new data. Plus, nearly every alternative to Quicken offers a free trial (if it costs anything at all).
Related: 19 Best Investment Apps and Platforms [Free + Paid]
Best Quicken Alternatives [Companies Like Quicken]
The best alternative for you depends on your needs and budget. Below, I’ve outlined several great alternatives to Quicken (that in many cases are cheaper or even free).
1. Empower (Personal Capital Is Now Empower)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
Empower (Personal Capital is now Empower) has 3.3 million users, some of whom use free tools such as the Personal Dashboard, and some of whom use the Personal Capital Wealth Management service (now offered through the Empower Advisory Group).
Empower’s free financial planning tools
The free Personal Dashboard makes it easy for people to add all their financial accounts in one place, including credit cards, savings, checking, loans, and tax-advantaged investment accounts.
Empower also provides a free Investment Checkup tool to assess your portfolio risk, analyze past performance, and get a target allocation for your portfolio. The tool will help you identify overweight and underweight sector investments (perhaps you have too much allocated to utilities, and not enough to healthcare, for example) and assess your diversification.
You can even compare your portfolio to both the S&P 500 and Empower’s “Smart Weighting” Recommendation, which suggests that investors more equally weight their portfolios across size, style, and sector—unlike the S&P 500, where the biggest stocks have the most effect on the portfolio, and there are huge differences in how much each sector is weighted.
The Empower Fee Analyzer helps you examine the fees you pay in your accounts, whether that’s advisory fees, sales charges, expenses, and other costs.
Other investing and personal finance tools include a Savings Planner, Retirement Planner, Financial Calculators, and more.
These services, of course, are also available with Empower’s full-service Wealth Management account—along with a number of other perks.
Empower’s wealth management services
The Wealth Management plan better suits investors who want a fuller advisory experience. The service pairs automated wealth management tools with human management.
After you enter your risk tolerance, financial goals, time frame, and personal preferences, Empower creates a recommended portfolio. The portfolios are diversified across multiple asset classes and rebalanced when necessary. The six asset classes include:
- U.S. stocks
- International stocks
- U.S. bonds
- International bonds
- Alternative investments
- Cash
Customers have the option to incorporate socially responsible investing (SRI) into their investments, too. In short, that means you can choose to invest only in companies that have positive environmental and social impacts.
Investors enjoy access to financial advisors who can help them make various financial decisions, from retirement planning to college savings to stock options and more. Empower’s financial advisors are available 24/7 by phone, live chat, email, or web conference.
Note that the Wealth Management plan has a minimum initial investment of $100,000. Investors with between $100,000 and $250,000 have access to a team of financial advisors. Those with more than $250,000 have access to two dedicated financial advisors. There are extra benefits for people who invest over $1 million, including lower fees.
Wealth management annual fee tiers
- $100,000-$1,000,000: 0.89%
- $1,000,001-$3,000,000: 0.79%
- $3,000,001-$5,000,000: 0.69%
- $5,000,001-$10,000,000: 0.59%
- $10,000,001-plus: 0.49%
Regardless of how much money you bring to the table, if you sign up, you will be given the option to schedule an initial 30-minute financial consultation with an Empower advisor.
- Empower (formerly Personal Capital) offers both a free set of portfolio, net worth, and cash flow tracking tools, as well as paid asset management service.
- Link Empower to your bank and investing accounts, credit cards, and more to see a single view of useful information and data, including your net worth.
- Empower Wealth Management offers unlimited advice and retirement planning help, as well as managed ETF portfolios, for accounts with between $100,000 and $250,000 in assets. Higher asset tiers include access to dedicated financial advisors, retirement specialists, and more investment options (including stocks, options, real estate, and private equity).
- Free portfolio tracker
- Free net worth, cash flow, and investment reporting tools
- Dedicated investment advisor
- Free tax-loss harvesting
- Dividend reinvestment
- Automatic rebalancing
- 5-day-a-week live customer support, 24/7 email support
- High minimum for investment management ($100k)
- High investment management fee (0.89% AUM)
Related: 11 Best Stock Portfolio Tracking Apps [Stock Portfolio Trackers]
2. Vyzer (Best for High-Net-Worth Individuals)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Desktop (Windows, macOS), mobile (Android, iOS) app
Vyzer represents the best Personal Capital alternative for high-net-worth individuals found on this list. It offers investment portfolio tracking, financial planning tools, and wealth management solutions for both public and private investments.
The digital wealth management platform also distinguishes itself by serving as the only service that combines public and private investment performance tracking. Vyzer keeps tabs on all of your investments in one place, providing a comprehensive view of your entire portfolio so you can easily monitor its performance. It supports all of the following accounts and asset classes:
- Real estate (syndications, funds, rental properties)
- Private equity funds (venture capital, hedge funds, debt funds)
- Private companies (startups and small-to-mid-sized enterprises)
- Investment accounts (Brokerage accounts, pension plans, 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA)
- Bank accounts (18,000+ banks worldwide)
- Crypto (Binance, Coinbase, BTC + ETH addresses, and more)
- Precious metals
- Collectibles
You can even track investments you co-hold with others, and organize your investments under different holding entities.
Vyzer is designed for investors with diverse portfolios and multiple sources of income. It allows users to forward or upload any financial documents (think spreadsheets, investment documents, Schedule K-1s, quarterly statements, and more) and have the platform translate them into new assets or liabilities or update existing ones. After you link your bank accounts to the platform, Vyzer analyzes your transaction data with artificial intelligence to identify which transactions link to which assets or liabilities you’ve added to your account. This feeds the system’s cash flow tools.
Once you load all of your assets and liabilities into the dashboard, you can produce a cash flow forecast based on scheduled distributions, capital calls, expenses, and more.
Curious about how your peers handle their investments? Vyzer members can anonymously view each other’s portfolios to understand the financial products and funds they’ve invested in.
If much of this sounds similar to Personal Capital, it might help knowing specifically how it’s different in four main ways:
- Vyzer doesn’t offer active wealth management.
- Vyzer can track more asset classes than Personal Capital
- Vyzer offers more flexibility in adding new data to your account, and requires less effort.
- Vyzer charges a flat monthly fee (or a discounted annual fee) that you pay from outside with your investments, say with a credit card. Personal Capital takes its fees from portfolio performance.
If you are a sophisticated investor with a complex portfolio to track, consider using Vyzer to follow everything in a single platform. You can open an account for free for 30 days to see if the service is right for you. There’s no commitment and you can cancel at any time.
Read more in our Vyzer review.
- High-net-worth (HNW) investors can keep track of public and private investments with Vyzer, which provides portfolio tracking, wealth management, and financial planning tools.
- Enjoy comprehensive, holistic insight into your investment portfolio.
- Platform includes robust cash flow planning tools to make the most of your cash.
- Find new opportunities by seeing what other high-net-worth investors within the Vyzer community are doing.
- Can track a portfolio of public and private investments
- Can generate easy-to-view data from uploaded documents and linked bank accounts
- Fair fees under new tiered fee structure
- No active wealth management offerings
- Free Starter tier is heavily limited and has no mobile app access
Related: 8 Best Personal Capital Alternatives
3. You Need a Budget (Smart Budgeting Platform)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android), smart speaker (Alexa)
You Need a Budget (YNAB) determines how much money you have and tracks your monthly income, and it also helps you determine what your expenses are and when they need to be paid.
It can track fixed expenses and allows you to budget for less frequent variable expenses. In addition to keeping track of expenses, it can help you establish goals and plan for saving money.
And you can put it all together with their Net Worth Report, which provides a snapshot of your various account balances.
You Need a Budget’s method is built around four rules:
- Give every dollar a job. When you get money, decide right away what all that money needs to do based on your priorities.
- Embrace your true expenses. Take significant but infrequent expenses (say a biannual insurance premium) and break them into smaller monthly “bills.”
- Roll with the punches. Be flexible. Life doesn’t always happen exactly how you plan it. If you overspend in one area, move funds from another category to balance it out.
- Age your money. Be purposeful with your spending and spend less than you earn. Eventually, you should aim to be able to spend today with money you earned 30 or more days ago.
Are you out shopping and wondering whether a purchase is within your budget? Wonder no longer—you can easily access YNAB via your iPhone or Android smartphone.
Have a question about your budget but no free hands? Have your Apple Watch or Amazon Echo device talk to you about your finances.
In addition to being available on the road and hands-free, YNAB also differs from many other budgeting apps in that it doesn’t just help you track your net worth—it helps you improve it through a strategic, real budget. Survey results show new users saved $600 on average by just their second month.
Try You Need a Budget free for 34 days without entering any credit card information. After that, you can sign up for monthly or annual billing.
- You Need a Budget (YNAB) is an award-winning software platform which uses a proven method to teach you how to manage your money and get ahead.
- Budgets update automatically and in real time, and can be accessed on your computer, phone, or tablet.
- Customizable
- Allows for multiple budgets
- Difficult for beginners
- No bill tracking or bill pay
- No investment tracking features
Related: 19 Best High-Yield Investments [Safe Options Right Now]
4. Tiller (Spruce Up Your Spreadsheets)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web
Have you ever made a budget in Excel? Well, Tiller Money takes that a step farther. This automated personal finance service provides highly customizable Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel templates that allow spreadsheet lovers to use their favorite formulas.
You can connect Tiller to your bank accounts, credit cards, and more to pull in real-time data so you don’t have to manually enter in a single number. From there, you can choose a template and customize it to display what’s important to you.
Users can adjust data to test different scenarios that could affect their net worth and create custom charts and reports. The optional AutoCat feature automatically categorizes your income, transfers, and spending, according to your custom rules.
Members can use up to five spreadsheets with one subscription. Users can also opt in to receive daily emails summarizing their account activity.
The service is funded only by subscriptions and doesn’t sell your personal data to third parties or advertisers. Sign up for a 30-day free trial today.
- Tiller helps you organize your financial life by connecting your various bank and other financial accounts to an easy-to-read spreadsheet.
- Highly customizable templates allow you to track your net worth and any other financial metrics that are important to you.
- Easy to use
- Works with basic spreadsheet programs
- Can connect with more than 21,000 financial institutions
- Supports investment accounts but cannot show portfolio holdings
- Limits number of spreadsheets you can use with one subscription
Related: 14 Best Stock Picking Services, Subscriptions, Advisors & Sites
5. PocketSmith (Net Worth Tracker With Finance Tools)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Desktop app (Windows, MacOS, Linux), web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
PocketSmith helps users determine how to increase their net worth in the future by getting them to see their current financial patterns.
Users can automatically import and categorize transactions from more than 14,000 banks and other financial institutions worldwide. Have assets and liabilities in different countries? No worries: PocketSmith automatically converts data into whatever currency you want based on daily rates.
The platform’s historical reporting feature provides ample insights into your past earnings and spending habits. PocketSmith then helps you take those insights and turn them into learning opportunities by showing you how changes in your behavior will affect your future financial situation. The software will show you, to the day, what your net worth will look like up to three decades in the future.
In addition to net tracking, noteworthy PocketSmith features include a budget planning calendar, automatic interest calculations, Mint migration, and the ability to invite other PocketSmith users—including an advisor—to view and even manage your account. One of our reviewers also noted the ease with which he could manage income from his day job and his side gigs. We also love the technological flexibility; PocketSmith is available on the web, mobile apps, and desktop apps—it even supports Linux!
A quick look at PocketSmith’s plans:
- Free: Allows you to connect up to two bank accounts, can provide up to 12 budgets, and projects finances up to six months out.
- Foundation: Free’s features, but adds automatic bank feeds, unlimited accounts and budgets, six dashboards, six connected banks from one country, email support, and up to 10 years’ worth of projection.
- Flourish: Foundation’s features, but adds 18 connected banks from all countries, 18 dashboards, and up to 30 years’ worth of projections.
- Fortune: Flourish’s features, but adds priority email support, unlimited connected banks from all countries, unlimited dashboards, and up to 60 years’ worth of projections.
- PocketSmith is a powerful net worth tracker that helps you understand how your past and current financial choices can affect your future.
- Excellent product for expats: It supports international banks and can show all transactions and balances in one single currency.
- Highly customizable budgets that allow you to plan a month at a time or down to the day. You can also test out your budget by plotting "what-if" scenarios against your plan.
- Integrates with several platforms, including Mint and Xero.
- High number of app choices, including desktop with Linux compatibility
- Supports international banks
- Excellent budgeting calendar
- High cost to unlock all features
- Connecting investment accounts can be complicated
- Few investment-related features
Related: 20 Best Investing Research & Stock Analysis Websites
6. Google Sheets (Free DIY Option)
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
DIY net-worth trackers might consider opening up Google Sheets.
This is an option for truly self-motivated people. Google Sheets doesn’t have a net worth tracking template in its template gallery. But, like with Excel, you can easily create your own system that you can organize exactly how you want.
Unlike a physical spreadsheet, Google Sheets can calculate for you to prevent mathematical errors. Of course, you also have to manually update the numbers to track your current net worth. While the best net worth trackers update automatically, you can’t connect a bank account to Google Sheets on your own.
Still, there’s no cost here—using Google Sheets is completely free—so we think this is worth considering if you’re a go-getter.
Related: 11 Best Stock Trading Apps [Free + Paid]
7. EveryDollar (Basic Budgeting Tool)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
EveryDollar was created by Ramsey Solutions, so this is a good option for Dave Ramsey fans. The budgeting strategy is similar to You Need a Budget (YNAB) in that it also focuses on the principles of zero-based budgeting, where every dollar you make is assigned some sort of purpose, whether it’s spent, saved, or given away.
Using the free version of this budgeting tool, you can create monthly budgets, manually track transactions, customize items/categories, and sync budget data across devices.
You can also set up sinking funds. With a sinking fund, you set aside a little money each month to pay off either an upcoming expense (say, new tires that you know you’ll eventually need) or a long-term debt. Other free features include splitting transactions between two items, setting due dates, and a monthly newsletter.
The paid Premium plan delivers much more functionality, including the ability to connect bank accounts, paycheck planning, goal tracking, custom reports, and downloadable CSV files of your budgets. It also enables one-click tracking recommendations, bill reminders, and group financial coaching calls.
- EveryDollar is a budgeting app under the Dave Ramsey umbrella of products and services that focuses on the zero-based style of budgeting.
- Free plan features include monthly budgets, manual transaction tracking, item customization, sinking budgets, and synchronized budget data.
- Premium plan features include paycheck planning, goal tracking, custom reports, bank account connectivity, bill reminders, and group financial coaching calls.
Related: 11 Best Free Investing Apps [Invest for Free]
8. Dollarbird (Collaborative Personal Finance App)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
Dollarbird is a collaborative personal finance app that individuals can use, but that offers fantastic functionality for families and even business teams.
Users can manually add past, future, and recurring transactions. Alternatively, you can sync your bank accounts and credit cards to share all of your banking and investment transactions. From there, Dollarbird’s artificial intelligence takes your financial data and categorizes it. That makes it easier to see where your money is going—and make smarter money decisions going forward.
Importantly, this app is calendar-based and highly collaborative. Couples can share calendars to work on joint budgets and stay current on their household finances. However, it also works well for teams that collectively need to work on budgets.
In fact, Dollarbird’s plans are based around calendars and users. Pro allows for 20 calendars and three team members, while Pro Unlimited allows for unlimited calendars and team members. It also has a Business plan with customized pricing.
- Dollarbird is a collaborative personal finance app that works for individuals, families, even business teams.
- This calendar-based app allows you to manually add transactions or sync with bank accounts. Dollarbird also makes it extremely easy to share budgets between family or team members.
Related: 15 Best Budgeting Apps for Couples to Grow Together
9. CountAbout (Simple, Customizable Quicken Alternative)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
CountAbout is a simple, flexible Quicken alternative for someone who has already been using Quicken but wants a change, as users can easily transfer all of their Quicken data to CountAbout. (Users can also transfer Mint data.)
This personal finance software can be used via the web or mobile app, and it offers many of the same features as Quicken, including budgeting, spending plans, recurring transactions, categorization, and more. You can set up an unlimited number of accounts and create your own custom categories. Transactions can be split between two categories as well.
Its budgeting tool lets you see how even small budgeting changes can affect your future finances up to 40 years into the future. For example, you could see how much money you would save over time by canceling unused subscriptions.
The cheaper Standard plan requires you to either manually enter transactions and/or import QIF files from banks. The Premium plan costs considerably more but allows you to automatically download bank, credit card, and other financial transactions. Both plans have a lengthy 45-day free trial, so you’ll have plenty of time to decide if CountAbout is right for you.
- CountAbout is a robust personal finance app offering budgeting, recurring transactions, spending plans, and more.
- Calculate savings projections as far as 40 years into the future.
- CountAbout's Standard plan requires you to manually input transactions or import bank QIF files. You must subscribe to Premium to automatically download bank, credit card, and other financial transactions.
Related: 7 Best Stock Portfolio Management Software Tools + Apps
10. Mint (Comprehensive Budgeting App)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
Mint, with more than 10 million users, is a popular alternative to Quicken that’s owned by Intuit—the maker of Quicken.
This budgeting tool draws information from all of your financial accounts and automatically categorizes your transactions. You can have Mint use existing default categories, or rename or even recategorize categories yourself. Features include notifications when bills are due or increase in cost, free credit scores and credit report summaries, portfolio tracking, bill negotiation, and more.
For a free budgeting app, Mint is both useful and powerful. The downside? It’s full of ads—Intuit uses your information to advertise financial products and services to you. Billshark, through Mint, does charge for successful bill negotiations; users are charged 40% of the savings from a service provider for the service period, up to 24 months.
Mint also has two subscription tiers: Mint Ad-Free and Mint Premium, though the latter is only available on iOS. In addition to an ad-free experience, Mint Premium includes subscription cancellation (through Billshark), advanced data visualization, advanced spending graph capabilities, and two exclusive games.
- Mint is the top-downloaded personal finance app, offering everything from budgeting and bill payment tracking to credit score monitoring and investment tracking.
- Mint's bill consolidation services, provided by Billshark, can help negotiate lower monthly bills for internet, phone, and cable services.
- Get an overview of your holdings and asset allocation, and get in control of your investing fees, with Mint's investment tracker.
- Free personal finance and investment tracker
- Free credit score monitoring and credit alerts
- Bill negotiation
- Limited investment tracking functionality
- Ads on free version of app
Related: 8 Best Wealth + Net Worth Tracker Apps
11. Goodbudget (Free Budgeting App)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Mobile app (iOS, Android)
Goodbudget uses the envelope budgeting method—without the physical envelopes.
The envelope budgeting method involves dividing your cash into envelopes that have specific spending purposes. (For example, you might have an envelope of money for dining out, one for an upcoming vacation, and another for beauty costs, such as makeup and hair supplies.) Goodbudget helps you do the same thing, but within a digital budgeting app.
Goodbudget is a simple way to envelope-budget from your phone so you never overspend in any of your categories. You can also share your budget with other people.
The Free version gives you one account with 20 total envelopes that you can use on two devices. The paid Plus tier offers unlimited accounts and envelopes, usable across five devices, records up to seven years’ worth of history and adds email support.
A downside to this method, whether using cash or an app, is that you aren’t earning any interest on the money in your envelopes. It’s also pretty light on features. Still, if it helps you save, it might be worth it.
- The Goodbudget digital envelope budgeting app helps you ensure every dollar has a purpose—and gets used on that purpose.
- Goodbudget's Free plan offers one account with 20 total envelopes usable across two devices. Unlock unlimited devices and envelopes, email support and more with the paid Plus plan.
Related: Best Cash Alternatives [Get Yield on Short-Term Investments]
12. QuickBooks (Geared Towards Small Businesses)
- Available: Sign up here
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)
People often pit Quicken against QuickBooks because they’re both accounting software, they have similar names, and they both have connections to Intuit.
However, QuickBooks is more appropriate for small businesses, while Quicken is designed more for personal finances (though Quicken does have a plan for small businesses).
All of QuickBooks’ online plans include receipt capture, expert support, and integration of over 300 popular apps, such as PayPal and Shopify. The services can help you maximize tax deductions, track mileage, manage cash flow, create invoices, manage 1099 contractors, and much more.
QuickBooks offers numerous plans that vary in features and number of users:
- The basic Simple Start plan supports one user and includes free guided setup, income and expenses, invoice and payments, tax deductions, connection with one sales channel, and more.
- Essentials supports three users and adds bill management, time entering, and connection with three sales channels.
- Plus supports five users and adds inventory, project profitability, and connection with all sales channels.
- Advanced supports 25 users and adds employee expenses, batch invoices and expenses, exclusive premium apps, 24/7 support and training, and more.And includes all that but adds bill management, connection with three sales channels.
- Quickbooks is a powerful financial software tool for freelancers, contractors, and small- and midsize-busines owners.
- Integrates with TurboTax and other Intuit products to deliver a centralized view of your financial picture with tracking, reporting, and organizing functionalities.
Related: 11 Best Stock Screeners & Stock Scanners
Quicken Alternatives: FAQs
Does Quicken have a competitor?
Yes, there are many Quicken alternatives. Some of the top options are highlighted in the sections above. But Empower, Vyzer, and YNAB are among the most noteworthy Quicken competitors.
Is Quicken being discontinued?
This question comes up now and then because the brand has been sold a couple of times, and because there are more Quicken alternatives than there used to be. But there is no reason to believe Quicken is being discontinued anytime soon—any rumors are just rumors at this point.
Quicken Online was discontinued in 2010, but there are plenty of Quicken subscription services still available. If you love using Quicken, you don’t need to worry.
Is there a free version of Quicken?
There is no free version of Quicken, but it does offer 30-day free trials. If you don’t want to pay a monthly or annual subscription, you’ll need to use a free alternative to Quicken. Several free alternatives are detailed in earlier sections.
What’s the difference between Mint and Quicken?
Mint and Quicken share many of the same features, but there are differences. One of the easiest differences to spot is the price. Quicken is a paid service, while Mint has a free version (with ads), which makes it a popular Quicken alternative.
Overall, Mint is a simpler service. It works well for individuals who need help with basic budgeting. Meanwhile, Quicken is a more complex service for individuals (and some small businesses) with more complex finances who might want to include investing activities in their finances.
Is there software like Quicken without a subscription?
Yes. Some Quicken alternatives are completely free—though even some Quicken alternatives that require a subscription are still cheaper.
Is it worth buying Quicken?
I’ll be honest: The answer to this boils down to your situation. For some people, it’s worth it. For others, it’s an unnecessary use of money.
If you’re looking for comprehensive financial management software and can afford the price, Quicken can indeed be worth it. The software can help with your investment portfolio, budget, planning for retirement, and much more.
However, if you’re just looking for a little budgeting help and wouldn’t take advantage of most of Quicken’s features, it’s probably not worth the monthly subscription fee. Instead, you’re better off with cheaper/free budgeting tools.
If you’re already using Quicken and have realized it’s not for you, some apps do allow you to transfer your Quicken data.
If you’re still unsure, consider a Quicken free trial or trials of other financial apps.
What is the best Quicken alternative?
Empower (previously Personal Capital) isn’t just the best free Quicken alternative—it’s my top Quicken alternative overall.
Many of people’s favorite Quicken features are available for free through Empower. This service is packed with personal finance tools that can help you track your net worth, choose investments, analyze fees, and much more. I think it rivals Quicken in comprehensiveness, and other WealthUp reviewers believe so, too.
Empower isn’t the only great option though. Depending on the features you need, several of the other apps listed in this article might be sufficient for you.
Are financial tracking apps safe?
Most financial apps use several security measures to keep your financial data safe, and the apps will typically explain their security features on the app’s website.
For example, Empower encrypts your data, won’t sell your data, and uses several external services to provide independent security evaluations. They also send security alerts if there is suspicious activity on your account. The Empower Security Guarantee is the company’s promise to restore any losses from unauthorized transactions.
Still, you should keep your information safe on your end by creating a strong, unique password and only using your money management apps on secure Wi-Fi connections. I also recommend you monitor your accounts for any unusual activity.
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