It has been over one yr since Intuit shut down the favored budgeting app Mint. I used to be a Mint person 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 objectives like pay my mortgage down sooner and with basic cash administration.
Forward of Mint’s demise, I gave Credit Karma, Intuit’s different monetary app, a strive 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 a few of the hottest Mint substitute apps out there immediately.
Our choose for finest Mint different stays Quicken Simplifi, even this lengthy after Mint being shut down, due to its simple to make use of app, good earnings and invoice detection and its inexpensive value. However there are many different strong choices on the market for these with completely different wants. For those who’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to switch Mint, we hope these particulars can empower you to decide on which of the best budgeting apps on the market will probably be best for you.
Desk of contents
Finest Mint 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 by way of to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embrace your top-line balances; internet value; current spending; upcoming recurring funds; a snapshot of your spending plan; prime spending classes; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve arrange.
One other one of many key options I recognize is the flexibility to arrange financial savings objectives elsewhere within the app. I additionally recognize the way it gives neat, nearly 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 notably impressed at how simply it linked to Constancy; not all price range trackers do, for no matter cause. 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 own home worth (or a minimum of a tough estimate of it). Varied rivals together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there is a Zillow API out there 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 strange in comparison with any of those price range trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you too can mark in the event 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 having the ability to categorize some, however not all, purchases from a service provider as recurring. As an illustration, 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 possible accommodate your most well-liked budgeting methodology. Simply test that your common earnings is correct and make sure to arrange recurring funds, making observe of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is vital as a result of Simplifi reveals you your complete take-home earnings in addition to an “earnings after payments” determine. That quantity consists of, properly, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you may add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending also can embrace one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. Once you create a price range, Simplifi will recommend 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 you could’t arrange an account by way of Apple or Google. There’s 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 record, together with Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it’s. Modifying 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 gives a powerful stage of granularity. Within the budgets part, you may see a bona fide stability sheet displaying budgets and actuals for every class. You will additionally discover a forecast, for the yr or by month. And recurring bills will be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as properly. As an illustration, 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 robotically marked as such every time, to not point out programmed as recurring funds. Weirdly, although, there’s no technique to mark sure recurring funds as payments, particularly.
Not lengthy after I first printed 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 out there simply on the net model of the app for now. As a part of this similar replace, Monarch added help for an aggregator that makes it attainable to robotically replace the worth of your automobile. This, mixed with the prevailing Zillow integration for monitoring your own home worth, makes it simple to shortly add a non-liquid asset like a car or actual property, and have it present up in your internet value graph.
The cell app is usually self-explanatory. The principle dashboard reveals your internet value; your 4 most up-to-date transactions; a month-over-month spending comparability; earnings month-to-date; upcoming payments; an investments snapshot; an inventory of any objectives you’ve set; and, lastly, a hyperlink to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is extra detailed than most, delving into money circulate; prime earnings and expense classes; money circulate developments; modifications to your internet value, property and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, in order that in the event you click on on the Accounts tab you may see how your internet value modified over completely different durations of time, together with one month, three months, six months, a yr or all time.
On the principle display screen, you’ll additionally discover tabs for financial savings and checking accounts (and all others as properly), transactions, money circulate, price range and recurring. Like most of the different apps featured right here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring bills and earnings, even when it will get the class flawed. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll customise in the event 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 trade commonplace on this area, towards the tip of this information.) As a part of an replace in late December, Monarch has additionally made it simpler to attach by way of these different two networks, if for some cause Plaid fails. Much like NerdWallet, I discovered myself finishing two-factor authentication each time I needed to get previous the Plaid display screen so as to add one other account. Notably, Monarch is the one different app I examined that means that you can grant entry to another person in your loved ones — possible 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 information.
Moreover, Monarch simply added the flexibility to trace Apple Card, Apple Money, and Financial savings accounts, due to new performance introduced with the iOS 17.4 replace. It is not the one one both; at the moment, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added related performance that will probably be out there to anybody with the most recent variations of their respective apps on a tool operating iOS 17.4. As a substitute of manually importing statements, the brand new performance permits apps like Monarch’s to robotically 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 not too long ago launched funding transactions in beta. It additionally says invoice monitoring and an overhauled objectives system are coming quickly. Monarch hasn’t supplied a timeline for that final one, besides to say that the improved objectives 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 internet apps are coming quickly. However till it follows by way of, 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 constructive reception we’re seeing from people migrating from Mint, we will now say that we’ll be constructing @copilotmoney for Net and Android with a aim 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, properly designed app, and Android customers will probably be in for a deal with after they’ll lastly be capable of 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. Particularly, Copilot does a greater job than nearly 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. (It’s also possible to 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 prime 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 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, it’s important to arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding handle after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are robotically forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you too can add any property you personal and observe its worth by way of Zillow, which is built-in with the app.
Whereas the app is closely automated, I nonetheless recognize that Copilot marks new transactions for assessment. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent fees, and likewise be considerably intentional about your spending habits.
Like Monarch Cash, Copilot up to date its app to make it simpler to connect with banks by way of 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, could be 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 advised me that his group is nearly achieved constructing out an in depth money circulate 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 embrace “sensible monetary objectives,” pure language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is supposed to present 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 yr.
Copilot does a pair attention-grabbing issues for brand spanking new clients 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 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.
It’s possible you’ll know NerdWallet as a website that gives a mixture of private finance information, explainers and guides. I see it usually 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. Actually, there isn’t any paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The principle catch: There are advertisements all over the place. To be honest, the free model of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable bank card gives, NerdWallet has a clear, easy-to-understand person interface, which incorporates each an online and a cell app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money circulate, internet value and credit score rating. (Of observe, though Mint itself provided credit score rating monitoring, most of its rivals don’t.) I notably 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 notably 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 primary. 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 you could’t customise your price range to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You possibly can’t at the moment create customized spending classes, although a observe contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll be capable of 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 supply an ETA, although.
Lastly, it’s value noting that NerdWallet had one of the 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 organising six or seven apps in tandem as I used to be. What made NerdWallet’s onboarding particularly tedious is that each time I needed so as to add an account, I needed to undergo a two-factor authentication course of to even get previous the Plaid splash display screen, 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, 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 robotically 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 useful 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 title is brief for You Want a Price range, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a objective for each greenback you earn. A often 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 embrace lease and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation presents and the inevitable automobile restore. The concept is that in the event 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 barely involved with the cash you’ve gotten in your accounts now. The app doesn’t ask you to supply your take-home earnings or arrange recurring earnings funds (though there’s a means to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month by way of your salaried job is just not related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t have interaction in forecasting.
The app is tougher to be taught 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 obtained comfy with the person interface, I did come to understand YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing customers to draft a brand new price range every month and to assessment every transaction is just not essentially a nasty factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Positive, you’ve obtained pie charts displaying 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 likely to have a variety 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 instances every week).
My colleague Valentina Palladino, understanding 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 gotten main financial savings objectives you need 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 strategy seems like overkill.
PocketGuard is likely one of the solely respected free price range trackers I discovered in my analysis. Simply understand it’s way 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 cost, until you retain issues easy with one money account and one bank card. When it comes time to improve to PocketGuard Plus, you’ve gotten three choices: pay $7.99 a month, $34.99 a yr 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 recognize paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, price range for it once more.
From the principle display screen, you’ll see tabs for accounts, insights, transactions and the “Plan,” which is the place you see recurring funds stacked on prime of what appears like a price range. The principle overview display screen reveals you your internet value, complete property and money owed; internet earnings and complete spending for the month; upcoming payments; a useful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you’ve gotten; and any objectives.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” strategy, the place you enter your whole recurring payments, after which PocketGuard reveals you what’s left, and that’s what you’re imagined to be budgeting: your disposable earnings. Clearly, different apps have a distinct philosophy: bear in mind your whole post-tax earnings and use it to pay the payments, buy stuff you need and possibly even save somewhat. 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 common options. These embrace rollover budgeting, categorization guidelines and shared family entry.
Though PocketGuard’s UI is simple sufficient to grasp, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is somewhat 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 have been out there. The net 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 screen actual property.
Of observe, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its main bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Establishing my accounts by way of Finicity was largely an easy course of. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity wouldn’t hook up with my SoFi account. I used to be in a position to do it by way of 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 title of a financial institution that isn’t out there by way of Finicity, at which level you get the choice to strive Plaid as an alternative. 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, referred to as Plaid, to drag in monetary information, so it’s value 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 commonplace 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 expertise 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 instantly. 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 properly.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for info that will embrace your account balances, transaction historical past, account kind and routing or account quantity. Plaid makes use of encryption, and says it has a coverage of not promoting or renting buyer information to different corporations. Nevertheless, I’d not be doing my job if I didn’t observe that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for accumulating “extra monetary information than was wanted.” As a part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to alter a few of its enterprise practices.
In a press release supplied 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 centered on us accelerating workstreams already underway associated to giving individuals extra transparency into Plaid’s function in connecting their accounts, and guaranteeing that our workstreams round information minimization stay on observe.”
My prime Mint different picks
To conclude, you may be questioning what app I made a decision on for myself in spite of everything of this analysis. The reply is definitely two apps: Quicken Simplifi, my total prime 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 likely to desire 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 perfect total choice.
import your monetary information from the Mint app
Mint customers ought to think about getting their information able to migrate to their new budgeting app of alternative quickly. Sadly, importing information from Mint is just not as simple as coming into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” Actually, 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 information.
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 aspect of the display screen.
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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.
Observe: Downloading on a per-account foundation may appear extra annoying, however may aid you get arrange on the opposite aspect, 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 perform a little research. To discover a record of apps to check, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); learn opinions of common apps on the App Retailer; and likewise requested buddies and colleagues what price range monitoring apps they may be utilizing. A few of the apps I discovered have been free, identical to Mint. These, after all, present a great deal of advertisements (excuse me, “gives”) to remain in enterprise. However many of the out there apps require paid subscriptions, with costs usually topping out round $100 a yr, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My prime 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 whole account information into one place; provide budgeting instruments; and observe your spending, internet value 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 totally testing these apps (and bear in mind, I actually was searching for a Mint alternative myself), I made some extent of including each account to each budgeting app, irrespective 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 instances 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. For those who pay for the premium tier, the service also can aid you cancel undesirable subscriptions. We didn’t take a look at it for this information, however we’ll think about 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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