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; thousands and 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 targets like pay my mortgage down quicker 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 among the hottest Mint substitute apps obtainable right this moment.
Our choose for greatest 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 worth. 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 exchange 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
Greatest 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 person interface, with a touchdown web page that you simply simply maintain scrolling via to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embrace your top-line balances; web price; 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 admire is the power to arrange financial savings targets elsewhere within the app. I additionally admire the way it provides neat, virtually playful visualizations with out ever wanting cluttered. I felt at house within the cellular and net dashboards after a day or so, which is quicker than I tailored to some competing companies (I’m taking a look at 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 finances trackers do, for no matter purpose. That is additionally one of many solely companies I examined that provides 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 just a few 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 opponents together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there is a Zillow API obtainable to be used. Because it stands, Simplifi customers should add actual property manually like every other asset.
In apply, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the bizarre in comparison with any of those finances trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you may also mark in case you’re anticipating a refund, which is a singular function among the many companies 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. 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 possible accommodate your most well-liked budgeting methodology. Simply examine that your common earnings is correct and make sure you arrange recurring funds, making observe of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is essential as a result of Simplifi exhibits you your complete take-home earnings in addition to an “earnings after payments” determine. That quantity contains, nicely, payments however not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you possibly can add spending targets by class within the “deliberate spending” bucket. Deliberate spending may embrace one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. Once you create a finances, 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 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 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 cellular 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 provides a formidable degree of granularity. Within the budgets part, you possibly can 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 may be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as nicely. For example, whereas most Amazon purchases may be marked as “procuring,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are undoubtedly child provides, and may be routinely marked as such every time, to not point out programmed as recurring funds. Weirdly, although, there’s no method to mark sure recurring funds as payments, particularly.
Not lengthy after I first printed this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced an in depth reporting part the place you possibly can create on-demand graphs primarily based on issues like accounts, classes and tags. That function is out there simply on the net model of the app for now. As a part of this similar replace, Monarch added help for an aggregator that makes it potential to routinely replace the worth of your automotive. This, mixed with the prevailing Zillow integration for monitoring your own home worth, makes it simple to rapidly add a non-liquid asset like a automobile or actual property, and have it present up in your web price graph.
The cellular app is generally self-explanatory. The principle dashboard exhibits your web price; your 4 most up-to-date transactions; a month-over-month spending comparability; earnings month-to-date; upcoming payments; an investments snapshot; 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 circulate; prime earnings and expense classes; money circulate tendencies; adjustments to your web price, belongings and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, in order that in case you click on on the Accounts tab you possibly can see how your web price modified over completely different durations of time, together with one month, three months, six months, a yr or all time.
On the principle display, you’ll additionally discover tabs for financial savings and checking accounts (and all others as nicely), transactions, money circulate, finances 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 unsuitable. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll be able to customise in case 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 business commonplace on this area, towards the top of this information.) As a part of an replace in late December, Monarch has additionally made it simpler to attach via these different two networks, if for some purpose Plaid fails. Much like NerdWallet, I discovered myself finishing two-factor authentication each time I wished to get previous the Plaid display so as to add one other account. Notably, Monarch is the one different app I examined that 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 power 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; presently, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added related performance that will probably be obtainable to anybody with the newest variations of their respective apps on a tool working iOS 17.4. As a substitute of manually importing statements, the brand new performance permits apps like Monarch’s to routinely pull in transactions and 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 supplied 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 advocate Copilot for most individuals with so many good opponents on the market.
Copilot Cash for Internet and Android!
Because of the help from our customers, and the overwhelming constructive reception we’re seeing from of us 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 regulate. It’s only a quick, environment friendly, nicely designed app, and Android customers will probably 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 every part out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Specifically, 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 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 good. 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 could 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 by way of an in-app browser. For Venmo, you must arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding handle after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are routinely forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you may also add any property you personal and monitor its worth via Zillow, which is built-in with the app.
Whereas the app is closely automated, I nonetheless admire that Copilot marks new transactions for evaluate. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent expenses, 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 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, could be a bugbear for some finances monitoring apps. In an much more current replace, Copilot added a Mint import possibility, which different budgeting apps have begun to supply as nicely.
As a result of the app is comparatively new (it launched in early 2020), the corporate continues to be catching as much as the competitors on some table-stakes options. Ugarte informed me that his group is nearly finished constructing out an in depth money circulate part as nicely. On its website, Copilot additionally guarantees a raft of AI-powered options that construct on its present “Intelligence” platform, the one which powers its sensible expense categorization. These embrace “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 yr.
Copilot does a pair attention-grabbing issues for brand new clients that distinguish it from the competitors. There’s a “demo mode” that appears like a sport simulator; no want so as to add your personal accounts. The corporate can also be providing two free months with RIPMINT — a extra beneficiant introductory provide than most. When it lastly does come time to pony up, the $7.92 month-to-month plan is cheaper than some competing apps, though the $95-a-year-option is in the identical ballpark.
You could know NerdWallet as a web site that provides a mixture of private finance information, explainers and guides. I see it usually after I google a monetary time period I don’t know and positive sufficient, it’s one of many websites I’m almost certainly 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 principle catch: There are advertisements in every single place. To be truthful, 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 internet and a cellular app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money circulate, web price 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 economic 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 fundamental. Like different apps I examined, you possibly can arrange recurring payments. Importantly, it follows the favored 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you placing 50% of your 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 that you may’t customise your finances to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You possibly can’t presently create customized spending classes, although a observe contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll be capable to customise them sooner or later.” You can also’t transfer objects from the 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 price noting that NerdWallet had one 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 without doubt one of the solely finances trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private data throughout setup, together with your birthday, handle, telephone quantity and the final 4 digits of your social safety quantity. It’s the identical with Credit score Karma, which additionally does credit score rating monitoring.
Associated to the setup course of, I discovered that NerdWallet was much less adept than different apps at routinely detecting my common earnings. In my case, it counted a big one-time wire switch as earnings, at which level my solely different possibility was to enter my earnings 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 goal for each greenback you earn. A steadily used analogy is to place every greenback in an envelope; you possibly can at all times transfer cash from one envelope to a different in a pinch. These envelopes can embrace lease and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation presents and the inevitable automotive restore. The thought is that in case you finances a certain quantity for the unknowns every month, they received’t really feel like they’re sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is just involved with the cash you’ve gotten 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 method to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month via your salaried job will not be related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t interact in forecasting.
The app is tougher 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 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 evaluate every transaction will not 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 method being helpful for individuals who don’t are inclined to have numerous 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, 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 targets you wish 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 method appears like overkill.
PocketGuard is without doubt one of the solely respected free finances 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 at no 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 possibility is definitely one of many few distinctive promoting factors for me: I’m positive some individuals will admire paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, finances for it once more.
From the principle display, you’ll see tabs for accounts, insights, transactions and the “Plan,” which is the place you see recurring funds stacked on prime of what seems to be like a finances. The principle overview display exhibits you your web price, complete belongings and money owed; web earnings and complete spending for the month; upcoming payments; a helpful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you’ve gotten; and any targets.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” method, the place you enter your entire recurring payments, after which PocketGuard exhibits you what’s left, and that’s what you’re speculated to be budgeting: your disposable earnings. Clearly, different apps have a unique philosophy: consider your entire post-tax earnings and use it to pay the payments, buy belongings 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 a very good job visualizing which payments are upcoming and which of them you’ve already paid.
PocketGuard has additionally publicly committed to including some in style options. These embrace rollover budgeting, categorization guidelines and shared family entry.
Though PocketGuard’s UI is straightforward sufficient to know, 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 obtainable. The online model, in the meantime, feels just like the cellular app blown as much as a bigger format and doesn’t reap the benefits of the additional display actual property.
Of observe, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its major bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Establishing my accounts via Finicity was largely a simple course of. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity wouldn’t connect 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 method, so far as I can inform, is to knowingly seek for the identify of a financial institution that isn’t obtainable via 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, known as Plaid, to tug in monetary information, 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 right this moment the business 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 know-how 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 subject you should use to look yours up straight. As soon as you discover yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If in case you have two-factor authentication arrange, you’ll must enter a one-time passcode as nicely.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for data that will embrace 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 information to different corporations. Nonetheless, I might 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 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 individuals extra transparency into Plaid’s position in connecting their accounts, and making certain that our workstreams round information minimization stay on monitor.”
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 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 very best total possibility.
How you can import your monetary information from the Mint app
Mint customers ought to take into account getting their information able to migrate to their new budgeting app of alternative quickly. Sadly, importing information from Mint will not be 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 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 facet of the display.
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Choose an account, or all accounts.
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Scroll down and search for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.
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Your CSV file ought to start downloading.
Word: Downloading on a per-account foundation might sound extra annoying, however might assist you 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 perform a little research. To discover a checklist of apps to check, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); learn evaluations of in style apps on the App Retailer; and likewise requested associates and colleagues what finances monitoring apps they may be utilizing. A number of the apps I discovered had been free, identical to Mint. These, in fact, present a great deal of advertisements (excuse me, “provides”) to remain in enterprise. However a lot of the obtainable 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 companies I selected to check wanted to do a number of issues: import your entire account information into one place; provide budgeting instruments; and monitor your spending, web price and credit score rating. Besides the place famous, all of those apps can be found for iOS, Android and on the net.
As soon as I had my shortlist of six apps, I started working setting them up. For the sake of totally testing these apps (and keep in mind, I actually was in search of a Mint alternative myself), I made some extent 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. For those who pay for the premium tier, the service may assist you 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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