It's been nearly one 12 months 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 monitor spending, set objectives like pay my mortgage down sooner and with basic cash administration.
Forward of Mint’s demise, I gave Credit score 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 alternative in one other budgeting app. The next information lays out my expertise testing among the hottest Mint alternative apps obtainable immediately. Our choose for finest Mint different stays Quicken Simplifi, even months after the Mint shutting down, because of its simple to make use of app, good earnings and invoice detection and its inexpensive worth. However there are many different strong choices on the market for these with completely different wants. Should you’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to interchange Mint, we hope these particulars may help you resolve which of the perfect budgeting apps on the market shall be best for you.
Greatest 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 simply simply hold scrolling by to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embody your top-line balances; internet value; latest spending; upcoming recurring funds; a snapshot of your spending plan; high spending classes; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve arrange. It’s also possible to arrange financial savings objectives elsewhere within the app. I additionally recognize the way it affords neat, nearly playful visualizations with out ever trying cluttered. I felt at house 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 notably impressed at how simply it linked to Constancy; not all finances trackers do, for no matter motive. 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’d add to my preliminary evaluation of the app, having used it for just a few months now: I want Simplifi supplied Zillow integration for simply monitoring your house worth (or not less than a tough estimate of it). Numerous rivals together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there's a Zillow API obtainable 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 can even mark for those who’re anticipating a refund, which is a novel 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 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 might doubtless accommodate your most popular budgeting technique. Simply verify that your common earnings is correct and remember to arrange recurring funds, making be aware of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is essential as a result of Simplifi reveals you your whole take-home earnings in addition to an “earnings after payments” determine. That quantity consists of, properly, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you’ll be able to add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending may also embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. While you create a finances, 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 which you could’t arrange an account by Apple or Google. There’s additionally no choice for a free trial, although Quicken guarantees a “30-day a refund assure.”
Monarch Cash grew on me. My first impression of the budgeting app, which was based by a former Mint product supervisor, was that it's 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 sophisticated 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 affords a powerful stage of granularity. Within the budgets part, you’ll be able to see a bona fide stability sheet displaying budgets and actuals for every class. You'll additionally discover a forecast, for the 12 months or by month. And recurring bills might be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as properly. As an illustration, whereas most Amazon purchases is likely to be marked as “buying,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are positively child provides, and might be robotically 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 launched 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 function is obtainable 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 potential to robotically replace the worth of your automobile. This, mixed with the prevailing Zillow integration for monitoring your house worth, makes it simple to rapidly 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 primary 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 move; high earnings and expense classes; money move developments; modifications to your internet value, belongings and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the web value graph, in order that for those who click on on the Accounts tab you’ll be able to see how your internet value 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 screen, you’ll additionally discover tabs for accounts, transactions, money move, finances 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 fallacious. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll be able to customise for those who’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 house, 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. Much like NerdWallet, I discovered myself finishing two-factor authentication each time I wished 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 — 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 need to 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's not the one one both; at present, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added comparable performance that shall be obtainable 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 lately 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 Cash is likely to 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 net apps are coming quickly. However till it follows by, I can’t advocate Copilot for most individuals with so many good rivals on the market.
Copilot Cash for Internet 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 Internet 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, properly 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 can assist you perceive at a look the way you’re doing on the whole lot out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Specifically, Copilot does a greater job than nearly every 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 individual classes, full along with your alternative 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 inner search function 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, you must arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding tackle after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are robotically forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you can even add any property you personal and monitor its worth by Zillow, which is built-in with the app.
Whereas the app is closely automated, I nonetheless recognize 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 hook up with banks by networks aside 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 finances monitoring apps. In an much more latest 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 workforce is nearly finished constructing out an in depth money move part as properly. On its web site, 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 objectives,” pure language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is supposed to offer 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 new clients that distinguish it from the competitors. There’s a “demo mode” that looks like a recreation simulator; no want so as to add your individual 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.
Chances are you’ll know NerdWallet as a website that gives a mixture of private finance information, explainers and guides. I see it typically after I google a monetary time period I don’t know and certain sufficient, it’s one of many websites I’m 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 truth, there isn’t any paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The primary catch: There are adverts all over the place. To be truthful, the free model of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable bank card affords, 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 move, internet value and credit score rating. (Of be aware, though Mint itself supplied 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 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’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 may’t at present create customized spending classes, although a be aware contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll be capable 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 be capable to 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 probably the most onerous setup processes of any app I examined. I don’t suppose it is a dealbreaker, as you’ll solely need to 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 screen, 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 among the solely finances trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private data throughout setup, together with your birthday, tackle, 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 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 personal 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 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 items and the inevitable automobile restore. The thought is that for those who finances a certain quantity for the unknowns every month, they received’t really feel like they’re sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is simply involved with the cash you will have 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 means 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 interact 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 cell and net apps are hyperlinks to movies and different tutorials. Though I by no means fairly bought 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 nasty factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Certain, you’ve bought pie charts displaying that you simply 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 lots of money in reserve at a given time, or who’ve spending habits they wish to appropriate (to riff off of YNAB’s personal instance, ordering Seamless 4 occasions per 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 will have main financial savings objectives 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 looks like overkill.
PocketGuard is among the solely respected free finances trackers I discovered in my analysis. Simply comprehend 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 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 will have 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 recognize paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, finances for it once more.
From the primary display screen, you’ll see tabs for accounts, insights, transactions and the “Plan,” which is the place you see recurring funds stacked on high of what appears to be like like a finances. The primary overview display screen reveals you your internet value, whole belongings and money owed; internet earnings and whole spending for the month; upcoming payments; a useful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you will have; and any objectives.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” strategy, the place you enter all your recurring payments, after which PocketGuard reveals you what’s left, and that’s what you’re purported to be budgeting: your disposable earnings. Clearly, different apps have a unique philosophy: consider all your post-tax earnings and use it to pay the payments, buy belongings you need and perhaps 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 an excellent job visualizing which payments are upcoming and which of them you’ve already paid.
PocketGuard has additionally publicly dedicated to including some standard 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 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 had 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 screen actual property.
Of be aware, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its major bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Organising my accounts by Finicity was principally an easy course of. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity wouldn’t connect with my SoFi account. I used to be in a position to do it by 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 obtainable by Finicity, at which level you get the choice to attempt Plaid as a substitute. Like I stated: the expertise might 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 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 corporate 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” choice in whichever one you’re utilizing, you’ll see a menu of generally used banks. There’s additionally a search subject you should use to look yours up immediately. 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 properly.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for data that 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’d not be doing my job if I didn’t be aware that in 2022 Plaid was compelled to pay $58 million to shoppers in a category motion go well with for amassing “extra monetary knowledge than was wanted.” As a part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to vary 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 folks extra transparency into Plaid’s position in connecting their accounts, and guaranteeing that our workstreams round knowledge minimization stay on monitor.”
My high Mint different picks: Quicken Simplifi and Copilot Cash
To conclude, you is likely to 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 general 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 desire Copilot's quick, colourful person interface, however as I defined above, it's too missing in table-stakes options for me to go as far as to call it the perfect general choice.
The 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 alternative quickly. Sadly, importing knowledge from Mint shouldn’t be as simple as coming into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In truth, 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:
-
Signal into Mint.com and hit Transactions within the menu on the left facet of the display screen.
-
Choose an account, or all accounts.
-
Scroll down and search for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.
-
Your CSV file ought to start downloading.
Notice: Downloading on a per-account foundation might sound extra annoying, however may assist 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 standard apps on the App Retailer; and in addition requested mates and colleagues what finances monitoring apps they is likely to be utilizing. A number of the apps I discovered had been free, similar to Mint. These, after all, present a great deal of adverts (excuse me, “affords”) 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 alternative, any providers I selected to check wanted to do a number of issues: import all your account knowledge into one place; supply budgeting instruments; and monitor 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 completely testing these apps (and bear in mind, I actually was on the lookout for a Mint different 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 Cash is one other free monetary app that tracks spending and helps issues like stability alerts and account linking. Should you pay for the premium tier, the service may also assist you to 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