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 hundreds of thousands 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 often to trace spending, set objectives like pay my mortgage down quicker and with basic cash administration.
So I got down to discover the perfect Mint 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 obtainable right now searching for my subsequent budgeting app.
Our decide 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 worth. However there are many different stable choices on the market for these with totally different wants. For those who’re additionally on the hunt for a budgeting app to switch Mint, we hope these particulars can assist you determine which of the best budgeting apps on the market will likely be best for you.
Desk of contents
Finest Mint options in 2025
No pun meant, however what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas different budgeting apps attempt to distinguish themselves with darkish themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clear person interface, with a touchdown web page that you just simply preserve 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; prime 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 provides neat, nearly playful visualizations with out ever trying cluttered. I felt at residence within the cell 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 principally painless. I used to be significantly impressed at how simply it related to Constancy; not all price range trackers do, for no matter purpose. 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 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 no less than 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 some other asset.
In follow, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the unusual in comparison with any of those price range trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you may also mark in case 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 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 characteristic can be self-explanatory and may doubtless accommodate your most popular budgeting methodology. Simply verify that your common revenue is correct and make sure to arrange recurring funds, making observe of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is essential as a result of Simplifi exhibits you your whole 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 can even embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. While you create a price range, Simplifi will counsel a quantity based mostly on a six-month common.
Not dealbreakers, however two issues to bear in mind as you get began: Simplifi is notable in you can’t arrange an account by 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 listing, 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 revenue proper; I needed to edit it.
When you’re arrange, although, Monarch provides a formidable stage of granularity. Within the budgets part, you’ll be able to see a bona fide stability sheet exhibiting budgets and actuals for every class. You will additionally discover a forecast, for the 12 months or by month. And recurring bills may be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as effectively. As an illustration, 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 mechanically 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 introduced an in depth reporting part the place you’ll be able to create on-demand graphs based mostly on issues like accounts, classes and tags. That characteristic is offered 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 attainable to mechanically replace the worth of your automobile. This, mixed with the present Zillow integration for monitoring your own home worth, makes it straightforward to rapidly add a non-liquid asset like a automobile or actual property, and have it present up in your internet value graph.
The cell app is generally self-explanatory. The primary dashboard exhibits your internet 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 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 movement; prime revenue and expense classes; money movement developments; adjustments to your internet value, 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’ll be able to see how your internet value modified over totally different intervals of time, together with one month, three months, six months, a 12 months or all time.
On the principle display, you’ll additionally discover tabs for accounts, transactions, money movement, price range and recurring. Like lots of the different apps featured right here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring bills and revenue, even when it will get the class fallacious. (All of them do to an extent.) Expense classes are marked by emoji, which you’ll 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 normal on this house, towards the top of this information.) As a part of an replace in late December, Monarch has additionally made it simpler to attach by these different two networks, if for some purpose Plaid fails. Much like NerdWallet, I discovered myself finishing two-factor authentication each time I needed to get previous the Plaid display so as to add one other account. Notably, Monarch is the one different app I examined that permits you to grant entry to another person in your loved ones — doubtless a partner or monetary advisor. Monarch additionally has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, although actually that is only a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you’ll should do no matter the place you select to take your Mint knowledge.
Moreover, Monarch simply added the power to trace Apple Card, Apple Money, and Financial savings accounts, because of new performance introduced with the iOS 17.4 replace. It is not the one one both; at present, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added comparable performance that will likely be obtainable to anybody with the newest 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 mechanically pull in transactions and stability historical past. That ought to make it simpler to account for spending on Apple playing cards and accounts all through the month.
Monarch additionally lately launched funding transactions in beta. It additionally says invoice monitoring and an overhauled objectives system are coming quickly. Monarch hasn’t offered a timeline for that final one, besides to say that the improved objectives characteristic 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 — no 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 suggest 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 optimistic reception we’re seeing from of us migrating from Mint, we are able to 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 keep watch over. It’s only a quick, environment friendly, effectively designed app, and Android customers will likely be in for a deal with once they’ll lastly have the ability 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 thing out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Specifically, 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 individual 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 interior search characteristic could 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, you need to arrange fwd@copilot.cash as a forwarding deal with after which create a filter, whereby emails from venmo@venmo.com are mechanically forwarded to fwd@copilot.cash. Like Monarch Cash, you may also 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 assessment. It’s a great way to each weed out fraudulent costs, and likewise 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 price range 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 continues to be catching as much as the competitors on some table-stakes options. Ugarte instructed me that his group is nearly finished constructing out an in depth money movement 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 good expense categorization. These embody “good monetary objectives,” pure language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is supposed to provide individuals a way of how they’re doing in comparison with different Copilot customers, on each spending and funding efficiency. Most of those options ought to arrive within the new 12 months.
Copilot does a pair fascinating issues for brand new 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 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.
It’s possible you’ll know NerdWallet as a website 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 certain sufficient, it’s one of many websites I’m most certainly 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 any paid model; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The primary catch: There are advertisements all over the 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 online and a cell app. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money movement, internet value and credit score rating. (Of observe, though Mint itself provided credit score rating monitoring, most of its rivals don’t.) I significantly loved the weekly insights, which delve into issues like the place you spent essentially the most cash or how a lot you paid in charges — and the way that compares to the earlier month. As a result of that is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of monetary 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 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 can’t customise your price range to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You’ll be able to’t at present create customized spending classes, although a observe contained in the dashboard part of the app says “you’ll have the ability to customise them sooner or later.” You can also’t transfer objects from the desires 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 vital onerous setup processes of any app I examined. I don’t suppose it is a dealbreaker, as you’ll solely should do it as soon as and, hopefully, you aren’t 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, 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 among the solely price range trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private information throughout setup, together with your birthday, deal with, 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 mechanically 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 might have wanted my pay stub helpful 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 title 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 often 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 lease and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation presents and the inevitable automobile restore. The thought is that in case 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 simply involved with the cash you may have in your accounts now. The app doesn’t ask you to supply your take-home revenue or arrange recurring revenue funds (though there’s a manner to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month by your salaried job is just not related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t interact 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 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 price range every month and to assessment every transaction is just not essentially a foul factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Positive, you’ve received pie charts exhibiting that you just spent an obscene amount of cash in eating places — however you’ve nonetheless spent an obscene amount of cash in eating places.” I can see this strategy being helpful for individuals who don’t are inclined to have a whole lot 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 every 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 may have main financial savings objectives 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 strategy appears like overkill.
PocketGuard is among the solely respected free price range trackers I discovered in my analysis. Simply understand 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 may have three choices: pay $7.99 a month, $34.99 a 12 months 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 recognize paying as soon as and by no means having to, uh, price range 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 like a price range. The primary overview display exhibits you your internet value, whole belongings and money owed; internet revenue and whole spending for the month; upcoming payments; a helpful reminder of when your subsequent paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you may have; and any objectives.
Like another apps, together with Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after payments” strategy, 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 revenue. Clearly, different apps have a unique philosophy: take note of your entire post-tax revenue and use it to pay the payments, buy stuff 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 a superb 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 embody rollover budgeting, categorization guidelines and shared family entry.
Though PocketGuard’s UI is simple 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 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 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 actual property.
Of observe, though PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its main bank-connecting platform is definitely Finicity. Organising my accounts by Finicity was principally a simple 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 straightforward to entry Plaid within the app. The one manner, so far as I can inform, is to knowingly seek for the title of a financial institution that isn’t obtainable 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, known 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 right now the business normal 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 big selection of apps, together with the price range 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 utilize to look yours up straight. As soon as you discover yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. When you have two-factor authentication arrange, you’ll must enter a one-time passcode as effectively.
Because the intermediary, Plaid is a passthrough for info that 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. Nevertheless, 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 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 offered to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson stated the corporate continues to disclaim the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial phrases within the settlement are 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 knowledge minimization stay on monitor.”
My prime Mint various picks
To conclude, you may be questioning what app I made a decision on for myself in any case of this analysis. The reply is definitely two apps: Quicken Simplifi, my general prime decide, 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 is too missing in table-stakes options for me to go as far as to call it the perfect general possibility.
Methods to import your monetary knowledge from the Mint app
Mint customers ought to take into account getting their knowledge able to migrate to their new budgeting app of alternative quickly. Sadly, importing knowledge from Mint is just not as straightforward as coming into your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” The truth is, any app that advertises the power to port over your stats from Mint is simply going to have you ever add a CSV file of transactions and different knowledge.
To obtain a CSV file from Mint, do the next:
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Signal into Mint.com and hit Transactions within the menu on the left 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.
Observe: Downloading on a per-account foundation might sound 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 options
Earlier than I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do a little analysis. To discover a listing of apps to check, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); learn critiques of in style apps on the App Retailer; and likewise requested mates and colleagues what price range monitoring apps they may 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 obtainable apps require paid subscriptions, with costs sometimes topping out round $100 a 12 months, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My prime decide 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 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 set to work 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, 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 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 can even 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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