It has been over one 12 months since Intuit shut down the favored budgeting app Mint. I used to be a Mint consumer for a few years; hundreds of thousands of different customers like me loved how simply Mint allowed us to trace all accounts in a single place and monitor credit score scores. I additionally used it commonly to assist me observe spending, set targets like pay my mortgage down quicker and with common cash administration.
Forward of Mint’s demise, I gave Credit Karma, Intuit’s different monetary app, a attempt however discovered it to be a poor Mint different. So I got down to discover a true substitute in one other budgeting app. The next information lays out my expertise testing among the hottest Mint substitute apps accessible immediately.
Our choose for finest Mint different stays Quicken Simplifi, even this lengthy after Mint being shut down, because of its simple to make use of app, good revenue and invoice detection and its reasonably priced value. However there are many different stable choices on the market for these with completely different wants. In case you’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to exchange Mint, we hope these particulars can empower you to decide on which of the best budgeting apps on the market will likely be best for you.
Desk of contents
Finest Mint options in 2025
No pun meant, 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 consumer 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; current spending; upcoming recurring funds; a snapshot of your spending plan; high spending classes; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve arrange.
One other one of many key options I respect is the power to arrange financial savings targets elsewhere within the app. I additionally respect the way it gives neat, virtually playful visualizations with out ever trying cluttered. I felt at dwelling within the cell and net 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 principally painless. I used to be significantly impressed at how simply it linked to Constancy; not all price range trackers do, for no matter purpose. That is additionally one of many solely providers I examined that offers you the choice of inviting a partner or monetary advisor to co-manage your account. One factor I might add to my preliminary evaluation of the app, having used it for a number of months now: I want Simplifi supplied Zillow integration for simply monitoring your property worth (or a minimum of a tough estimate of it). Numerous opponents together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there is a Zillow API accessible to be used. Because it stands, Simplifi customers should add actual property manually like another asset.
In observe, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the abnormal in comparison with any of those price range trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you too can mark when you’re anticipating a refund, which is a novel function among the many providers I examined. Simplifi additionally estimated my common revenue 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. For 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 also be self-explanatory and might doubtless accommodate your most popular budgeting technique. Simply examine that your common revenue is correct and you should definitely arrange recurring funds, making be aware of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is necessary as a result of Simplifi reveals you your complete take-home revenue in addition to an “revenue after payments” determine. That quantity contains, properly, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you may add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending may also embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. Once you create a price range, Simplifi will counsel a quantity primarily based on a six-month common.
Not dealbreakers, however two issues to bear in mind as you get began: Simplifi is notable in that you may’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 reimbursement 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 net app for fine-tuning particulars.) Monarch additionally didn’t get my revenue proper; I needed to edit it.
When you’re arrange, although, Monarch gives a powerful stage of granularity. Within the budgets part, you may see a bona fide stability sheet exhibiting budgets and actuals for every class. You may additionally discover a forecast, for the 12 months or by month. And recurring bills will be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as properly. For example, whereas most Amazon purchases may be marked as “buying,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are positively child provides, and will be mechanically marked as such every time, to not point out programmed as recurring funds. Weirdly, although, there’s no approach 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 may create on-demand graphs primarily based on issues like accounts, classes and tags. That function is on the market simply on the internet model of the app for now. As a part of this similar replace, Monarch added help for an aggregator that makes it attainable to mechanically replace the worth of your automobile. This, mixed with the prevailing Zillow integration for monitoring your property worth, makes it simple to rapidly 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 usually self-explanatory. The primary dashboard reveals your web price; your 4 most up-to-date transactions; a month-over-month spending comparability; revenue 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 circulation; high revenue and expense classes; money circulation developments; adjustments to your web price, property 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 may see how your web price modified over completely 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 financial savings and checking accounts (and all others as properly), transactions, money circulation, price range and recurring. Like lots of the different apps featured right here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring bills and revenue, even when it will get the class unsuitable. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll customise when you’re so inclined.
Monarch Cash makes use of a mix 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 trade customary on this house, 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 lets you 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 should do no matter the place you select to take your Mint knowledge.
Moreover, Monarch simply added the power 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; presently, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added related performance that will likely be accessible to anybody with the newest variations of their respective apps on a tool operating iOS 17.4. As an alternative of manually importing statements, the brand new performance permits apps like Monarch’s to mechanically pull in transactions and stability historical past. That ought to make it simpler to account for spending on Apple playing cards and accounts all through the month.
Monarch additionally lately 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 — a minimum of for now. Andres Ugarte, the corporate’s CEO, has publicly promised that Android and net apps are coming quickly. However till it follows via, I can’t suggest Copilot for most individuals with so many good opponents 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 people migrating from Mint, we are able to now say that we’ll be constructing @copilotmoney for Net and Android with a objective 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 keep watch over. It’s only a quick, environment friendly, properly designed app, and Android customers will likely be in for a deal with after they’ll lastly have the ability 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 all the things out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Particularly, Copilot does a greater job than virtually another app of visualizing your recurring month-to-month bills.
Behind these punchy colours and cutesy emoji, although, is a few refined 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 alternative of emoji.) It’s not excellent. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (all of them do), but it surely makes it simpler to edit than most. On high of that, the inner search function may be very quick; it begins whittling down leads to your transaction historical past as quickly as you start typing.
Copilot can also be distinctive in providing Amazon and Venmo integrations, permitting you to see transaction particulars. With Amazon, this requires simply signing into your Amazon account through an in-app browser. For Venmo, you must arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding deal with after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are mechanically forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you too can 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 evaluation. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent costs, and in addition be considerably intentional about your spending habits.
Like Monarch Cash, Copilot up to date its app to make it simpler to connect with banks via networks apart from Plaid. As a part of the identical replace, Copilot stated it has improved its connections to each American Specific and Constancy which, once more, generally is a bugbear for some price range monitoring apps. In an much more current replace, Copilot added a Mint import choice, which different budgeting apps have begun to supply as properly.
As a result of the app is comparatively new (it launched in early 2020), the corporate continues to be catching as much as the competitors on some table-stakes options. Ugarte informed me that his group is sort of executed constructing out an in depth money circulation part as properly. 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 provide individuals 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 fascinating issues for brand new prospects that distinguish it from the competitors. There’s a “demo mode” that seems like a recreation simulator; no want so as to add your personal accounts. The corporate can also be providing two free months with RIPMINT — a extra beneficiant introductory supply 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.
It’s possible you’ll know NerdWallet as a web site that gives 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 most probably 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 is no such thing as a paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The primary catch: There are advertisements in all places. To be truthful, the free model of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable bank card gives, NerdWallet has a clear, easy-to-understand consumer interface, which incorporates each an online and a cell app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money circulation, web price and credit score rating. (Of be aware, though Mint itself supplied 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 monetary data, you get some significantly particular class choices when establishing 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 may arrange recurring payments. Importantly, it follows the favored 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you placing 50% of your price range 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 that you may’t customise your price range to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You may’t presently create customized spending classes, although a be aware contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll have the ability to customise them sooner or later.” You can also’t transfer gadgets from the needs 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 one of the vital onerous setup processes of any app I examined. I don’t suppose it is a dealbreaker, as you’ll solely should do it as soon as and, hopefully, you aren’t establishing 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. It is a safety coverage on NerdWallet’s finish, not Plaid’s, a Plaid spokesperson says.
Exactly as a result of NerdWallet is likely one of the solely price range trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private data throughout setup, together with your birthday, deal with, cellphone 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 mechanically detecting my common revenue. In my case, it counted a big one-time wire switch as revenue, at which level my solely different choice was to enter my revenue manually (which is barely annoying as a result of I might have wanted my pay stub helpful to double-check my take-home pay).
YNAB is, by its own admission, “completely different from something you’ve tried earlier than.” The app, whose identify is brief for You Want a Funds, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a objective for each greenback you earn. A continuously used analogy is to place every greenback in an envelope; you may at all times transfer cash from one envelope to a different in a pinch. These envelopes can embody lease and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation items and the inevitable automobile restore. The concept is that when you price range a certain quantity 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 got in your accounts now. The app doesn’t ask you to offer your take-home revenue or arrange recurring revenue funds (though there’s a means 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 more durable to study than another right here, and it requires extra ongoing effort from the consumer. And YNAB is aware of that. Inside each the cell and net apps are hyperlinks to movies and different tutorials. Though I by no means fairly received comfy with the consumer interface, I did come to understand YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing customers to draft a brand new price range every month and to evaluation every transaction is just not essentially a nasty factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Certain, you’ve received pie charts exhibiting that you just spent an obscene amount of cash in eating places — however you’ve nonetheless spent an obscene amount of cash in eating places.” I can see this strategy being helpful for individuals who don’t are inclined to have a number of money in reserve at a given time, or who’ve spending habits they need to right (to riff off of YNAB’s personal instance, ordering Seamless 4 occasions every week).
My colleague Valentina Palladino, realizing 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 got main financial savings targets you need to obtain, whether or not it’s paying for a marriage or shopping for a home. I counsel you give her column a learn. For me, although, YNAB’s strategy seems like overkill.
PocketGuard is likely one of the solely respected free price range trackers I discovered in my analysis. Simply comprehend 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 without spending a dime, except you retain issues easy with one money account and one bank card. When it comes time to improve to PocketGuard Plus, you’ve got 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 individuals will respect paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, price range 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 like a price range. The primary overview display reveals you your web price, complete property and money owed; web revenue and complete spending for the month; upcoming payments; a helpful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you’ve got; and any targets.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” strategy, the place you enter your entire recurring payments, after which PocketGuard reveals you what’s left, and that’s what you’re imagined to be budgeting: your disposable revenue. Clearly, different apps have a special philosophy: take note of your entire post-tax revenue and use it to pay the payments, buy stuff you need and perhaps even save slightly. However in PocketGuard, it’s the “in your pocket” quantity that’s most outstanding. To PocketGuard’s credit score, it does an excellent job visualizing which payments are upcoming and which of them you’ve already paid.
PocketGuard has additionally publicly committed to including some fashionable options. These embody rollover budgeting, categorization guidelines and shared family entry.
Though PocketGuard’s UI is straightforward sufficient to grasp, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is slightly busy, and doesn’t present totals for classes like money or investments. Seemingly small particulars like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy sometimes make the app really feel janky. Greater than as soon as, it prompted me to replace the app when no updates had been accessible. The online model, in the meantime, feels just like the cell app blown as much as a bigger format and doesn’t benefit from the additional display actual property.
Of be aware, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its major bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Organising my accounts via Finicity was principally 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 simple to entry Plaid within the app. The one means, so far as I can inform, is to knowingly seek for the identify of a financial institution that isn’t accessible via Finicity, at which level you get the choice to attempt Plaid as a substitute. Like I stated: the expertise will 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 drag 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 immediately the trade 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 price range 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 discipline you should utilize to look yours up immediately. As soon as you discover yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. You probably have two-factor authentication arrange, you’ll must enter a one-time passcode as properly.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for data 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 firms. Nevertheless, I might not be doing my job if I didn’t be aware that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for amassing “extra monetary knowledge than was wanted.” As a part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to alter a few of its enterprise practices.
In an announcement offered to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson stated 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 individuals extra transparency into Plaid’s position in connecting their accounts, and guaranteeing 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 comfy with. I are inclined to favor Copilot’s quick, colourful consumer interface, however as I defined above, it is too missing in table-stakes options for me to go as far as to call it one of the best total choice.
How you can 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 alternative quickly. Sadly, importing knowledge from Mint is just not as simple as coming into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In reality, any app that advertises the power 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.
Notice: Downloading on a per-account foundation may appear extra annoying, however may enable you 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 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 critiques of fashionable apps on the App Retailer; and in addition requested associates and colleagues what price range monitoring apps they may be utilizing. A few of the apps I discovered had been free, identical to Mint. These, in fact, present a great deal of advertisements (excuse me, “gives”) to remain in enterprise. However a lot of the accessible apps require paid subscriptions, with costs usually 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 your entire account knowledge into one place; supply 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 internet.
As soon as I had my shortlist of six apps, I started working setting them up. For the sake of totally testing these apps (and bear in mind, I actually was in search of a Mint alternative myself), I made a degree of including each account to each budgeting app, regardless of how small or immaterial the stability. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Simply hours of coming 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 stability alerts and account linking. In case you pay for the premium tier, the service may also enable you 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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