As a long-time Mint person, I used to be pissed off to say the least when information broke on the finish of 2023 that Intuit would shut Mint down. I, like hundreds of thousands of others, loved how simply Mint allowed us to trace all accounts in a single place and monitor credit score scores. I additionally used it usually to trace spending, set targets like pay my mortgage down quicker and with common cash administration.
So I got down to discover the most effective Mint alternate options within the wake of its disappointing demise. I gave Credit Karma, Intuit’s different monetary app, a attempt however discovered it to be a poor Mint substitute. The next information lays out my expertise testing a few of the hottest Mint substitute apps obtainable as we speak in quest of my subsequent budgeting app.
Our choose for greatest Mint different stays Quicken Simplifi, even months after the Mint shutting down, because of its straightforward to make use of app, good earnings and invoice detection and its reasonably priced value. However there are many different strong choices on the market for these with totally different wants. For those who’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to switch Mint, we hope these particulars will help you resolve which of the best budgeting apps on the market shall be best for you.
Desk of contents
Finest Mint alternate options in 2025
No pun supposed, however what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas different budgeting apps attempt to distinguish themselves with darkish themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clear person interface, with a touchdown web page that you just simply preserve scrolling via to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embody your top-line balances; web price; latest spending; upcoming recurring funds; a snapshot of your spending plan; high spending classes; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve arrange. You too can arrange financial savings targets elsewhere within the app. I additionally respect the way it presents neat, virtually playful visualizations with out ever wanting cluttered. I felt at dwelling within the cell and internet dashboards after a day or so, which is quicker than I tailored to some competing providers (I’m you, YNAB and Monarch).
Getting arrange with Simplifi was largely painless. I used to be significantly impressed at how simply it related to Constancy; not all funds trackers do, for no matter purpose. That is additionally one of many solely providers I examined that provides you the choice of inviting a partner or monetary advisor to co-manage your account. One factor I’d add to my preliminary evaluation of the app, having used it for a number of months now: I want Simplifi provided Zillow integration for simply monitoring your house worth (or not less than a tough estimate of it). Varied rivals together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there is a Zillow API obtainable to be used. Because it stands, Simplifi customers should add actual property manually like some other asset.
In follow, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the peculiar in comparison with any of those funds trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you can too mark when you’re anticipating a refund, which is a singular function among the many providers I examined. Simplifi additionally estimated my common earnings higher than another apps I examined. Most of all, I appreciated the choice of with the ability to categorize some, however not all, purchases from a service provider as recurring. As an example, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring funds, with out having to create a broad-strokes rule for each Amazon buy.
The budgeting function can be self-explanatory and may doubtless accommodate your most popular budgeting technique. Simply test that your common earnings is correct and you’ll want to arrange recurring funds, making word of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is essential as a result of Simplifi exhibits you your whole take-home earnings in addition to an “earnings after payments” determine. That quantity contains, nicely, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you possibly can add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending may embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. While you create a funds, Simplifi will recommend a quantity primarily based on a six-month common.
Not dealbreakers, however two issues to remember as you get began: Simplifi is notable in which you can’t arrange an account via Apple or Google. There may be additionally no choice for a free trial, although Quicken guarantees a “30-day a refund assure.”
Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of the budgeting app, which was based by a former Mint product supervisor, was that it is tougher to make use of than others on this checklist, together with Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it’s. Enhancing expense classes, including recurring transactions and creating guidelines, for instance, is a bit more difficult than it must be, particularly within the cell app. (My recommendation: Use the online app for fine-tuning particulars.) Monarch additionally didn’t get my earnings proper; I needed to edit it.
When you’re arrange, although, Monarch presents a formidable stage of granularity. Within the budgets part, you possibly can see a bona fide steadiness sheet exhibiting budgets and actuals for every class. You may additionally discover a forecast, for the 12 months or by month. And recurring bills may be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as nicely. As an example, whereas most Amazon purchases may be marked as “buying,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are undoubtedly child provides, and may be routinely marked as such every time, to not point out programmed as recurring funds. Weirdly, although, there’s no method to mark sure recurring funds as payments, particularly.
Not lengthy after I first revealed this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced an in depth reporting part the place you possibly can create on-demand graphs primarily based on issues like accounts, classes and tags. That function is out there simply on the net model of the app for now. As a part of this identical replace, Monarch added help for an aggregator that makes it attainable to routinely replace the worth of your automotive. This, mixed with the present Zillow integration for monitoring your house worth, makes it straightforward to shortly add a non-liquid asset like a car or actual property, and have it present up in your web price graph.
The cell app is generally self-explanatory. The principle dashboard exhibits your web price; your 4 most up-to-date transactions; a month-over-month spending comparability; earnings month-to-date; upcoming payments; an investments snapshot; a listing of any targets you’ve set; and, lastly, a hyperlink to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is extra detailed than most, delving into money stream; high earnings and expense classes; money stream developments; modifications to your web price, belongings and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, in order that when you click on on the Accounts tab you possibly can see how your web price modified over totally different intervals of time, together with one month, three months, six months, a 12 months or all time.
On the primary display, you’ll additionally discover tabs for accounts, transactions, money stream, funds and recurring. Like lots of the different apps featured right here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring bills and earnings, even when it will get the class mistaken. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll be able to customise when you’re so inclined.
Monarch Cash makes use of a mixture of networks to attach with banks, together with Plaid, MX and Finicity, a competing community owned by Mastercard. (I’ve a fast explainer on Plaid, the business customary on this area, towards the top of this information.) As a part of an replace in late December, Monarch has additionally made it simpler to attach via these different two networks, if for some purpose Plaid fails. Much like NerdWallet, I discovered myself finishing two-factor authentication each time I wished to get previous the Plaid display so as to add one other account. Notably, Monarch is the one different app I examined that permits you to grant entry to another person in your loved ones — doubtless a partner or monetary advisor. Monarch additionally has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, although actually that is only a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you’ll must do no matter the place you select to take your Mint knowledge.
Moreover, Monarch simply added the flexibility to trace Apple Card, Apple Money, and Financial savings accounts, because of new performance introduced with the iOS 17.4 replace. It is not the one one both; at present, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added comparable performance that shall be obtainable to anybody with the newest variations of their respective apps on a tool working iOS 17.4. As a substitute of manually importing statements, the brand new performance permits apps like Monarch’s to routinely pull in transactions and steadiness historical past. That ought to make it simpler to account for spending on Apple playing cards and accounts all through the month.
Monarch additionally not too long ago launched funding transactions in beta. It additionally says invoice monitoring and an overhauled targets system are coming quickly. Monarch hasn’t offered a timeline for that final one, besides to say that the improved targets function is coming quickly.
Copilot Money may be the best-looking budgeting app I examined. It additionally has the excellence of being unique to iOS and Macs — not less than for now. Andres Ugarte, the corporate’s CEO, has publicly promised that Android and internet apps are coming quickly. However till it follows via, I can’t suggest Copilot for most individuals with so many good rivals on the market.
Copilot Cash for Net and Android!
Due to the help from our customers, and the overwhelming optimistic reception we’re seeing from of us migrating from Mint, we will now say that we’ll be constructing @copilotmoney for Net and Android with a purpose to launch in 2024.
We’ll proceed to…
— Andres Ugarte (@chuga) November 15, 2023
There are different options that Copilot is lacking, which I’ll get into. However it’s promising, and one to control. It’s only a quick, environment friendly, nicely designed app, and Android customers shall be in for a deal with after they’ll lastly be capable to obtain it. It makes good use of colours, emoji and graphs that will help you perceive at a look the way you’re doing on every little thing out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Specifically, Copilot does a greater job than virtually some other app of visualizing your recurring month-to-month bills.
Behind these punchy colours and cutesy emoji, although, is a few subtle efficiency. Copilot’s AI-powered “Intelligence” will get smarter as you go at categorizing your bills. (You too can add your personal classes, full along with your selection of emoji.) It’s not good. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (all of them do), nevertheless it makes it simpler to edit than most. On high of that, the inner search function may be very quick; it begins whittling down ends in your transaction historical past as quickly as you start typing.
Copilot can be distinctive in providing Amazon and Venmo integrations, permitting you to see transaction particulars. With Amazon, this requires simply signing into your Amazon account by way of an in-app browser. For Venmo, it’s a must to arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding handle after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are routinely forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you can too add any property you personal and observe its worth via Zillow, which is built-in with the app.
Whereas the app is closely automated, I nonetheless respect that Copilot marks new transactions for overview. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent costs, and likewise be considerably intentional about your spending habits.
Like Monarch Cash, Copilot up to date its app to make it simpler to hook up with banks via networks apart from Plaid. As a part of the identical replace, Copilot mentioned it has improved its connections to each American Specific and Constancy which, once more, generally is a bugbear for some funds monitoring apps. In an much more latest replace, Copilot added a Mint import choice, which different budgeting apps have begun to supply as nicely.
As a result of the app is comparatively new (it launched in early 2020), the corporate remains to be catching as much as the competitors on some table-stakes options. Ugarte instructed me that his group is sort of carried out constructing out an in depth money stream part as nicely. On its website, Copilot additionally guarantees a raft of AI-powered options that construct on its present “Intelligence” platform, the one which powers its sensible expense categorization. These embody “sensible monetary targets,” pure language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is supposed to present folks a way of how they’re doing in comparison with different Copilot customers, on each spending and funding efficiency. Most of those options ought to arrive within the new 12 months.
Copilot does a pair attention-grabbing issues for brand spanking new clients that distinguish it from the competitors. There’s a “demo mode” that appears like a sport simulator; no want so as to add your personal accounts. The corporate can be providing two free months with RIPMINT — a extra beneficiant introductory provide than most. When it lastly does come time to pony up, the $7.92 month-to-month plan is cheaper than some competing apps, though the $95-a-year-option is in the identical ballpark.
You could know NerdWallet as a web site that provides a mixture of private finance information, explainers and guides. I see it typically once I google a monetary time period I don’t know and certain sufficient, it’s one of many websites I’m more than likely to click on on. Because it occurs, NerdWallet additionally has the excellence of providing one of many solely free budgeting apps I examined. In reality, there isn’t a paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The principle catch: There are adverts in every single place. To be honest, the free model of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable bank card presents, NerdWallet has a clear, easy-to-understand person interface, which incorporates each an internet and a cell app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money stream, web price and credit score rating. (Of word, though Mint itself provided credit score rating monitoring, most of its rivals don’t.) I significantly loved the weekly insights, which delve into issues like the place you spent essentially the most cash or how a lot you paid in charges — and the way that compares to the earlier month. As a result of that is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of economic data, you get some significantly particular class choices when organising your accounts (suppose: a Roth or non-Roth IRA).
As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is greater than serviceable, if a bit fundamental. Like different apps I examined, you possibly can arrange recurring payments. Importantly, it follows the favored 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you placing 50% of your funds towards stuff you want, 30% towards stuff you need, and the remaining 20% into financial savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, nice — simply know which you can’t customise your funds to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You possibly can’t at present create customized spending classes, although a word contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll be capable to customise them sooner or later.” You can also’t transfer objects from the desires column to “wants” or vice versa however “Sooner or later, you’ll transfer particular transactions to actively handle what falls into every group.” A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to offer an ETA, although.
Lastly, it’s price noting that NerdWallet had some of the onerous setup processes of any app I examined. I don’t suppose this can be a dealbreaker, as you’ll solely must do it as soon as and, hopefully, you aren’t organising six or seven apps in tandem as I used to be. What made NerdWallet’s onboarding particularly tedious is that each time I wished so as to add an account, I needed to undergo a two-factor authentication course of to even get previous the Plaid splash display, and that’s not together with the 2FA I had arrange at every of my banks. This can be a safety coverage on NerdWallet’s finish, not Plaid’s, a Plaid spokesperson says.
Exactly as a result of NerdWallet is without doubt one of the solely funds trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private data throughout setup, together with your birthday, handle, telephone quantity and the final 4 digits of your social safety quantity. It’s the identical with Credit score Karma, which additionally does credit score rating monitoring.
Associated to the setup course of, I discovered that NerdWallet was much less adept than different apps at routinely detecting my common earnings. In my case, it counted a big one-time wire switch as earnings, at which level my solely different choice was to enter my earnings manually (which is barely annoying as a result of I’d have wanted my pay stub helpful to double-check my take-home pay).
YNAB is, by its own admission, “totally different from something you’ve tried earlier than.” The app, whose title is brief for You Want a Funds, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a goal for each greenback you earn. A regularly used analogy is to place every greenback in an envelope; you possibly can at all times transfer cash from one envelope to a different in a pinch. These envelopes can embody hire and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation presents and the inevitable automotive restore. The thought is that when you funds a specific amount for the unknowns every month, they gained’t really feel like they’re sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is just involved with the cash you’ve in your accounts now. The app doesn’t ask you to offer your take-home earnings or arrange recurring earnings funds (though there’s a manner to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month via your salaried job is just not related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t have interaction in forecasting.
The app is tougher to study than some other right here, and it requires extra ongoing effort from the person. And YNAB is aware of that. Inside each the cell and internet apps are hyperlinks to movies and different tutorials. Though I by no means fairly received snug with the person interface, I did come to understand YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing customers to draft a brand new funds every month and to overview every transaction is just not essentially a nasty factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Positive, you’ve received pie charts exhibiting that you just spent an obscene sum of money in eating places — however you’ve nonetheless spent an obscene sum of money in eating places.” I can see this method being helpful for individuals who don’t are likely to have lots of money in reserve at a given time, or who’ve spending habits they wish to right (to riff off of YNAB’s personal instance, ordering Seamless 4 occasions every week).
My colleague Valentina Palladino, figuring out I used to be engaged on this information, penned a respectful rebuttal, explaining why she’s been utilizing YNAB for years. Maybe, like her, you’ve main financial savings targets you wish to obtain, whether or not it’s paying for a marriage or shopping for a home. I recommend you give her column a learn. For me, although, YNAB’s method appears like overkill.
PocketGuard is without doubt one of the solely respected free funds trackers I discovered in my analysis. Simply realize it’s much more restricted on the free tier than NerdWallet or Mint. In my testing, I used to be prompted to pay after I tried to hyperlink greater than two financial institution accounts. A lot at no cost, except you retain issues easy with one money account and one bank card. When it comes time to improve to PocketGuard Plus, you’ve three choices: pay $7.99 a month, $34.99 a 12 months or $79.99 for a one-time lifetime license. That lifetime choice is definitely one of many few distinctive promoting factors for me: I’m certain some folks will respect paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, funds for it once more.
From the primary display, you’ll see tabs for accounts, insights, transactions and the “Plan,” which is the place you see recurring funds stacked on high of what seems to be like a funds. The principle overview display exhibits you your web price, whole belongings and money owed; web earnings and whole spending for the month; upcoming payments; a helpful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you’ve; and any targets.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” method, the place you enter all your recurring payments, after which PocketGuard exhibits you what’s left, and that’s what you’re alleged to be budgeting: your disposable earnings. Clearly, different apps have a special philosophy: take note of all your post-tax earnings and use it to pay the payments, buy stuff you need and possibly even save a bit of. However in PocketGuard, it’s the “in your pocket” quantity that’s most distinguished. To PocketGuard’s credit score, it does a very good job visualizing which payments are upcoming and which of them you’ve already paid.
PocketGuard has additionally publicly committed to including some widespread options. These embody rollover budgeting, categorization guidelines and shared family entry.
Though PocketGuard’s UI is straightforward sufficient to know, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a bit of busy, and doesn’t present totals for classes like money or investments. Seemingly small particulars like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy often make the app really feel janky. Greater than as soon as, it prompted me to replace the app when no updates have been obtainable. The net model, in the meantime, feels just like the cell app blown as much as a bigger format and doesn’t reap the benefits of the additional display actual property.
Of word, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its main bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Organising my accounts via Finicity was largely a simple course of. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity wouldn’t hook up with my SoFi account. I used to be capable of do it via Plaid, however PocketGuard doesn’t make it straightforward to entry Plaid within the app. The one manner, so far as I can inform, is to knowingly seek for the title of a financial institution that isn’t obtainable via Finicity, at which level you get the choice to attempt Plaid as a substitute. Like I mentioned: the expertise may be janky.
What’s Plaid and the way does it work?
Every of the apps I examined makes use of the identical underlying community, known as Plaid, to tug in monetary knowledge, so it’s price explaining in its personal part what it’s and the way it works. Plaid was based as a fintech startup in 2013 and is as we speak the business customary in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 monetary establishments throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Moreover, greater than 8,000 third-party apps and providers depend on Plaid, the company claims.
To be clear, you don’t want a devoted Plaid app to make use of it; the know-how is baked into a wide selection of apps, together with the funds trackers I examined for this information. As soon as you discover the “add an account” choice in whichever one you’re utilizing, you’ll see a menu of generally used banks. There’s additionally a search area you need to use to look yours up immediately. As soon as you discover yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. When you have two-factor authentication arrange, you’ll have to enter a one-time passcode as nicely.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for info which will embody your account balances, transaction historical past, account sort and routing or account quantity. Plaid makes use of encryption, and says it has a coverage of not promoting or renting buyer knowledge to different corporations. Nonetheless, I’d not be doing my job if I didn’t word that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for gathering “extra monetary knowledge than was wanted.” As a part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to alter a few of its enterprise practices.
In a press release offered to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson mentioned the corporate continues to disclaim the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial phrases within the settlement are targeted on us accelerating workstreams already underway associated to giving folks extra transparency into Plaid’s function in connecting their accounts, and making certain that our workstreams round knowledge minimization stay on observe.”
My high Mint different picks
To conclude, you may be questioning what app I made a decision on for myself in any case of this analysis. The reply is definitely two apps: Quicken Simplifi, my total high choose, and Copilot Cash. For now, I’m actively utilizing each apps and nonetheless deciding, long-term, which I really feel extra snug with. I are likely to choose Copilot’s quick, colourful person interface, however as I defined above, it is too missing in table-stakes options for me to go as far as to call it the most effective total choice.
Find out how to import your monetary knowledge from the Mint app
Mint customers ought to take into account getting their knowledge able to migrate to their new budgeting app of selection quickly. Sadly, importing knowledge from Mint is just not as straightforward as getting into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In reality, any app that advertises the flexibility to port over your stats from Mint is simply going to have you ever add a CSV file of transactions and different knowledge.
To obtain a CSV file from Mint, do the next:
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Signal into Mint.com and hit Transactions within the menu on the left facet of the display.
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Choose an account, or all accounts.
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Scroll down and search for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.
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Your CSV file ought to start downloading.
Word: Downloading on a per-account foundation might sound extra annoying, however may show you how to get arrange on the opposite facet, if the app you’re utilizing has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts.
How we examined Mint alternate options
Earlier than I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do a little analysis. To discover a checklist of apps to check, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); learn evaluations of widespread apps on the App Retailer; and likewise requested pals and colleagues what funds monitoring apps they may be utilizing. A few of the apps I discovered have been free, similar to Mint. These, after all, present a great deal of adverts (excuse me, “presents”) to remain in enterprise. However a lot of the obtainable apps require paid subscriptions, with costs sometimes topping out round $100 a 12 months, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My high choose is cheaper than that.)
Since this information is supposed to assist Mint customers discover a everlasting substitute, any providers I selected to check wanted to do a number of issues: import all your account knowledge into one place; provide budgeting instruments; and observe your spending, web price and credit score rating. Besides the place famous, all of those apps can be found for iOS, Android and on the net.
As soon as I had my shortlist of six apps, I started working setting them up. For the sake of completely testing these apps (and keep in mind, I actually was on the lookout for a Mint alternative myself), I made a degree of including each account to each budgeting app, regardless of how small or immaterial the steadiness. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Simply hours of getting into passwords and one-time passcodes, for a similar banks half a dozen occasions over. Hopefully, you solely have to do that as soon as.
What about Rocket Cash?
Rocket Money is one other free monetary app that tracks spending and helps issues like steadiness alerts and account linking. For those who pay for the premium tier, the service may show you how to cancel undesirable subscriptions. We didn’t take a look at it for this information, however we’ll take into account it in future updates.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-best-budgeting-apps-to-replace-mint-143047346.html?src=rss
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