As a long-time Mint person, I used to be annoyed to say the least when information broke on the finish of 2023 that Intuit would shut Mint down. I, like tens of millions 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 normal 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 strive however discovered it to be a poor Mint substitute. The next information lays out my expertise testing a number of the hottest Mint substitute apps out there in the present day in the hunt for my subsequent budgeting app.
Our choose for finest Mint various stays Quicken Simplifi, even months after the Mint shutting down, because of its straightforward to make use of app, good revenue and invoice detection and its reasonably priced value. However there are many different strong choices on the market for these with totally different wants. When you’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to interchange Mint, we hope these particulars can assist you determine which of the best budgeting apps on the market can be best for you.
Desk of contents
Greatest Mint alternate 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 person interface, with a touchdown web page that you simply simply hold scrolling by to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embody your top-line balances; web value; 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 admire the way it provides neat, virtually playful visualizations with out ever trying cluttered. I felt at residence within the cellular and net dashboards after a day or so, which is quicker than I tailored to some competing companies (I’m you, YNAB and Monarch).
Getting arrange with Simplifi was largely painless. I used to be significantly impressed at how simply it linked to Constancy; not all finances trackers do, for no matter motive. That is additionally one of many solely companies I examined that offers 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 supplied Zillow integration for simply monitoring your private home worth (or a minimum of a tough estimate of it). Numerous 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 every other asset.
In apply, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the unusual in comparison with any of those finances trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you too can mark should you’re anticipating a refund, which is a novel characteristic among the many companies 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 characteristic can be self-explanatory and may possible accommodate your most popular budgeting methodology. Simply test that your common revenue is correct and you’ll want to arrange recurring funds, making notice of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is vital as a result of Simplifi reveals you your complete take-home revenue in addition to an “revenue after payments” determine. That quantity consists of, effectively, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you’ll be able to add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending also can embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. If you create a finances, 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 could’t arrange an account by Apple or Google. There’s additionally no possibility 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 harder to make use of than others on this checklist, 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 cellular app. (My recommendation: Use the online app for fine-tuning particulars.) Monarch additionally didn’t get my revenue proper; I needed to edit it.
When you’re arrange, although, Monarch provides a formidable degree of granularity. Within the budgets part, you’ll be able to see a bona fide steadiness sheet exhibiting budgets and actuals for every class. You will additionally discover a forecast, for the yr or by month. And recurring bills may be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as effectively. For example, whereas most Amazon purchases is likely to be marked as “purchasing,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are positively child provides, and may be routinely marked as such every time, to not point out programmed as recurring funds. Weirdly, although, there’s no strategy 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’ll be able to create on-demand graphs primarily based on issues like accounts, classes and tags. That characteristic 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 doable to routinely replace the worth of your automotive. This, mixed with the present Zillow integration for monitoring your private home 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 value graph.
The cellular app is generally self-explanatory. The primary dashboard reveals your web value; your 4 most up-to-date transactions; a month-over-month spending comparability; revenue month-to-date; upcoming payments; an investments snapshot; an inventory 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 value, property and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, in order that should you click on on the Accounts tab you’ll be able to see how your web value modified over totally different intervals of time, together with one month, three months, six months, a yr or all time.
On the primary display, you’ll additionally discover tabs for accounts, transactions, money circulation, finances and recurring. Like most of the different apps featured right here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring bills and revenue, even when it will get the class incorrect. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll be able to customise should 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 these different two networks, if for some motive Plaid fails. Just 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 — 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 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 related performance that can be out there to anybody with the most recent 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 just lately launched funding transactions in beta. It additionally says invoice monitoring and an overhauled targets system are coming quickly. Monarch hasn’t supplied a timeline for that final one, besides to say that the improved targets characteristic is coming quickly.
Copilot Money is likely to 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 by, 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 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, effectively designed app, and Android customers can 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 can assist 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 virtually every other 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 selection of emoji.) It’s not good. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (all of them do), but it surely makes it simpler to edit than most. On high of that, the interior search characteristic could 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 tackle after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are routinely forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you too can add any property you personal and observe its worth by Zillow, which is built-in with the app.
Whereas the app is closely automated, I nonetheless admire that Copilot marks new transactions for evaluation. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent fees, and in addition 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 by networks apart from Plaid. As a part of the identical replace, Copilot stated it has improved its connections to each American Categorical and Constancy which, once more, could be a bugbear for some finances monitoring apps. In an much more latest replace, Copilot added a Mint import possibility, which different budgeting apps have begun to supply as effectively.
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 crew is nearly performed constructing out an in depth money circulation part as effectively. 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 offer 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 fascinating issues for brand spanking 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 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 usually once I google a monetary time period I don’t know and certain sufficient, it’s one of many websites I’m almost definitely to click on on. Because it occurs, NerdWallet additionally has the excellence of providing one of many solely free budgeting apps I examined. The truth is, there isn’t a paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The primary 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 provides, NerdWallet has a clear, easy-to-understand person interface, which incorporates each an online and a cellular app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money circulation, web value and credit score rating. (Of notice, 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 probably 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 information, 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’ll be able to arrange recurring payments. Importantly, it follows the favored 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you placing 50% of your finances towards belongings you want, 30% towards belongings you need, and the remaining 20% into financial savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, nice — simply know which you could’t customise your finances to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You possibly can’t at present create customized spending classes, although a notice 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 can transfer particular transactions to actively handle what falls into every group.” A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to offer an ETA, although.
Lastly, it’s value 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 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 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 likely one of the solely finances trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private information throughout setup, together with your birthday, tackle, 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 revenue. In my case, it counted a big one-time wire switch as revenue, at which level my solely different possibility was to enter my revenue 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, “totally different from something you’ve tried earlier than.” The app, whose identify is brief for You Want a Finances, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a objective for each greenback you earn. A ceaselessly used analogy is to place every greenback in an envelope; you’ll be able to 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 concept is that should you finances a specific amount for the unknowns every month, they received’t really feel like they’re sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is barely involved with the cash you might have 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 method to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month by your salaried job shouldn’t be related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t have interaction in forecasting.
The app is more durable to be taught than every other right here, and it requires extra ongoing effort from the person. And YNAB is aware of that. Inside each the cellular and net 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 finances every month and to evaluation every transaction shouldn’t be essentially a foul factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Positive, you’ve received pie charts exhibiting that you simply 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 strategy being helpful for individuals who don’t are inclined to have loads 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 per 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 might have 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 strategy seems like overkill.
PocketGuard is likely one of the solely respected free finances 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 free of charge, until you retain issues easy with one money account and one bank card. When it comes time to improve to PocketGuard Plus, you might have three choices: pay $7.99 a month, $34.99 a yr or $79.99 for a one-time lifetime license. That lifetime possibility is definitely one of many few distinctive promoting factors for me: I’m certain some individuals will admire paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, finances 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 finances. The primary overview display reveals you your web value, complete property and money owed; web revenue and complete spending for the month; upcoming payments; a useful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you might have; and any targets.
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 purported to be budgeting: your disposable revenue. Clearly, different apps have a distinct philosophy: have in mind your whole post-tax revenue and use it to pay the payments, buy belongings you need and perhaps even save a little bit. 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 know, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a little bit 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 had been out there. The online model, in the meantime, feels just like the cellular app blown as much as a bigger format and doesn’t benefit from the additional display actual property.
Of notice, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its main bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Establishing my accounts by Finicity was largely an easy course of. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity wouldn’t connect with my SoFi account. I used to be capable of do it by Plaid, however PocketGuard doesn’t make it straightforward to entry Plaid within the app. The one method, so far as I can inform, is to knowingly seek for the identify of a financial institution that isn’t out there by Finicity, at which level you get the choice to strive Plaid as an alternative. Like I stated: 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, referred to as Plaid, to drag in monetary knowledge, 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 in the present day 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 companies 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 finances trackers I examined for this information. As soon as you discover the “add an account” possibility 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 straight. As soon as you discover yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. In case you have two-factor authentication arrange, you’ll have to enter a one-time passcode as effectively.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for info which will embody 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 knowledge to different corporations. Nonetheless, I’d not be doing my job if I didn’t notice 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 vary a few of its enterprise practices.
In an announcement 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 targeted on us accelerating workstreams already underway associated to giving individuals 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 various picks
To conclude, you is likely to 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 inclined to want 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 possibility.
The best way to import your monetary knowledge from the Mint app
Mint customers ought to contemplate getting their knowledge able to migrate to their new budgeting app of selection quickly. Sadly, importing knowledge from Mint shouldn’t be as straightforward as getting into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” The truth is, 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 aspect 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 might assist 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 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 fashionable apps on the App Retailer; and in addition requested associates and colleagues what finances monitoring apps they is likely to be utilizing. A few of the apps I discovered had been free, similar to Mint. These, after all, present a great deal of advertisements (excuse me, “provides”) to remain in enterprise. However a lot of the out there apps require paid subscriptions, with costs usually topping out round $100 a yr, 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 companies I selected to check wanted to do a number of issues: import your whole account knowledge into one place; supply budgeting instruments; and observe your spending, web 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 completely testing these apps (and bear in mind, I actually was searching for a Mint alternative myself), I made a degree of including each account to each budgeting app, irrespective 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. When you pay for the premium tier, the service also can assist you cancel undesirable subscriptions. We didn’t check it for this information, however we’ll contemplate 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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