The best Mint alternatives

Managing your funds doesn’t need to be sophisticated, and there are such a lot of instruments accessible now that may make issues simpler (and even partially automated) for you. I used to be a Mint person for a few years, however I used to be pressured to discover a new budgeting app after the service shut down in March 2024. Mint’s mum or dad firm, Intuit, prompted of us to attempt their different monetary app, Credit score Karma. Nonetheless, after testing Credit score Karma myself, I discovered it to be a poor Mint alternative. So I got down to attempt all the greatest budgeting apps accessible immediately to discover a new house for all of my monetary monitoring and goal-setting. Hopefully my journey can assist you discover the most effective budgeting app for you and your cash as properly.Greatest funds apps of 2025QuickenNo 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 hold scrolling by means of to get an in depth overview of all of your stats. These embody your top-line balances; web value; current spending; upcoming recurring funds; a snapshot of your spending plan; high spending classes; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve arrange. You can too arrange financial savings targets elsewhere within the app. Getting arrange with Simplifi was principally painless. I used to be notably impressed at how simply it related to Constancy; not all funds trackers do, for no matter motive. 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. Nonetheless, it doesn’t connect with Zillow, a characteristic I want it had. Varied opponents together with Monarch Cash and Copilot Cash work with Zillow, so clearly there is a Zillow API accessible to be used. Because it stands, Simplifi customers should add actual property manually like some other asset. In observe, Simplifi miscategorized a few of my bills, however nothing out of the atypical in comparison with any of those funds trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, it’s also possible to mark if you happen to’re anticipating a refund, which is a singular characteristic 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 with the ability to categorize some, however not all, purchases from a service provider as recurring. As an 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 also be self-explanatory. Simply examine that your common earnings is correct and make sure you arrange recurring funds, making notice of that are payments and that are subscriptions. That is necessary as a result of Simplifi reveals you your whole take-home earnings in addition to an “earnings after payments” determine. That quantity contains, 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 also can embody one-time expenditures, not simply month-to-month budgets. Whenever you create a funds, Simplifi will counsel a quantity based mostly on a six-month common. ProsEasy-to-use app with a delicate studying curveDoes an excellent job detecting recurring earnings and billsLess costly than the competitionLets you share app entry with a partner or monetary advisorHandy refund trackerConsNo free trialYou cannot create an account utilizing your Apple or Google IDNo Zillow integration$72/12 months at QuickenMonarch MoneyMonarch Cash 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. Enhancing expense classes, including recurring transactions and creating guidelines, for instance, is a bit more sophisticated 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. However when you’re arrange, Monarch gives a powerful degree of granularity. Within the budgets part, you’ll be able to see a bona fide steadiness sheet displaying budgets and actuals for every class. You will additionally discover a forecast, by 12 months or by month, and recurring bills might be set not simply by service provider, however different parameters as properly. As an example, whereas most Amazon purchases is likely to be marked as “buying,” these for the quantities of $54.18 or $34.18 are undoubtedly child provides, and might 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 tried out all these budgeting apps, Monarch launched 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 obtainable simply on the net model of the app for now. As a part of this identical replace, Monarch added assist for an aggregator that makes it doable to routinely replace the worth of your automobile. This, mixed with the prevailing Zillow integration for monitoring your own home worth, makes it simple to shortly add a non-liquid asset like a automobile or actual property, and have it present up in your web value graph. The cellular app is generally self-explanatory. The principle dashboard reveals your web 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 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 movement; high earnings and expense classes; money movement tendencies; adjustments to your web value, belongings and liabilities; plus asset and legal responsibility breakdowns. A more recent characteristic right here expands on the web value graph in order that if you happen to click on on the Accounts tab you’ll be able to see how your web 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, you’ll additionally discover tabs for accounts, transactions, money movement, funds 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 if you happen to’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.) Monarch has additionally made it simpler to attach by means of these different two networks, if for some motive Plaid fails. Just 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 means that you can grant entry to another person in your loved ones — possible a partner or monetary advisor. Within the iOS 17.4 replace some time again, Monarch added the power to trace Apple Card, Apple Money, and Financial savings accounts. It isn’t the one one both; presently, Copilot and YNAB have additionally added comparable performance that will likely be accessible to anybody with the newest variations of their respective iOS apps. As an alternative 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. ProsLots of element and alternatives for customizationHelpful “targets” featureYou can grant account entry to different peopleChrome extension for importing from MintMonth-in-review recap is extra thorough than mostCar worth syncingZillow integrationConsSteeper studying curve than another funds trackersThe cellular app feels restricted and fewer intuitive than the online versionDoesn’t appear to tell apart between payments and different recurring expensesSome bugginess on cellular round creating guidelines for expense classes$100 a 12 months or $15 a month at Monarch MoneyNerdWalletYou could know NerdWallet as a website that gives 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 definitely 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 principle catch: There are adverts in all places. Even with the inescapable bank card gives, NerdWallet has a clear, easy-to-understand interface on each its net and cellular apps. The important thing metrics that it highlights most prominently are your money movement, web value and credit score rating. I notably 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 monetary information, you get some notably particular class choices when organising your accounts (assume: 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 funds 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 which you can’t customise your funds to the identical diploma as some competing apps. You may’t presently create customized spending classes, although a notice 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 desires 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 one of the onerous setup processes of any app I examined. I don’t assume it is a dealbreaker, as you’ll solely need to 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. 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 funds trackers to supply credit score rating monitoring, it additionally wants extra of your private information 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. ProsFreeEasy to useHelpful weekly insightsNerdWallet has a deep properly of useful monetary explainers and guidesOne of the few choices that gives credit score rating monitoringConsAds everywhereNo customization for spending categoriesLess adept at detecting common incomeOne of the extra tedious setup processesFree at NerdWalletCopilot MoneyCopilot Cash 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 means of, I can’t suggest Copilot for most individuals with so many good opponents on the market. There are different options that Copilot is lacking, which I’ll get into. However it’s promising, and one to control. It’s only a quick, environment friendly, properly designed app, and Android customers will likely be in for a deal with once 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 all the things out of your budgets to your funding efficiency to your bank card debt over time. Particularly, Copilot does a greater job than virtually some 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 can too add your personal classes, full along with your alternative of emoji.) It’s not excellent. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (all of them do), but it surely makes it simpler to edit than most. On high of that, the inner search characteristic could be very quick; it begins whittling down ends in 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, it’s important 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, it’s also possible to add any property you personal and observe its worth by means of 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 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 means of 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 funds monitoring apps. Copilot additionally 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 remains to be catching as much as the competitors on some table-stakes options. Ugarte instructed me that his crew is sort of accomplished constructing out an in depth money movement 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 targets,” 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. ProsSlick UIStandalone Mac appLower month-to-month value than some competing appsDoes an excellent job visualizing recurring expensesOptional Amazon, Venmo and Zillow integration“To evaluation” part is handyConsNo net or Android app yetMiscategorized extra bills than our high pickLots of in any other case frequent options are nonetheless in improvement$95 a 12 months or $13 a month at Copilot MoneyYNABYNAB 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, is a so-called zero-based budgeting app, which forces you to assign a objective for each greenback you earn. It is akin to the envelope budgeting technique in that you just put every greenback in an envelope and you’ll all the time transfer cash from one envelope to a different in a pinch. These buckets can embody hire and utilities, together with unexpected bills like vacation presents and the inevitable automobile restore. The thought is that if you happen to funds 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’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 means to do that). The cash you’ll make later within the month by means of your salaried job isn’t related, as a result of YNAB doesn’t interact in forecasting. The app is more durable 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 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 funds every month and to evaluation every transaction isn’t essentially a foul factor. As YNAB says on its web site, “Positive, you’ve received pie charts displaying that you just 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 instances every week). My colleague Valentina Palladino, understanding I used to be engaged on this information, penned a respectful rebuttal, explaining why she’s been utilizing YNAB for years. Maybe, like her, you’ve gotten main financial savings 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 strategy looks like overkill. ProsParticularly robust emphasis on budgetingUnique “zero-dollar” strategy to monetary planning that some folks swear byConsSteep studying curveHarder to make use of sure options on the cellular app than on the net$110 a 12 months or $15 a month at YNABOther budgeting apps we testedPocketGuardPocketGuard was a stable free funds tracker, however the firm has since restricted its “free” model to only a free seven-day trial. Now, you’ll have to decide on between two plans as soon as the trial is over: a $13 month-to-month plan or a $75 annual plan. Once I first examined it, I discovered it to be extra restricted than NerdWallet, however nonetheless an honest choice. The principle overview display reveals you your web value, whole belongings and money owed; web earnings and whole 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” strategy, the place you enter your whole recurring payments, after which PocketGuard reveals you what’s left, and that’s what you’re speculated to be budgeting: your disposable earnings.Though PocketGuard’s UI is simple sufficient to know, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is just a little 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 accessible. 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. In the end, now that the free tier is gone, it simply doesn’t current the identical worth proposition because it as soon as did.How we take a look at budgeting appsBefore I dove in and began testing out budgeting apps, I had to do a little analysis. To discover a listing of apps to check out, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); learn opinions of standard apps on the App Retailer; and in addition requested mates and colleagues what funds monitoring apps (or different budgeting strategies) they is likely to be utilizing for cash administration. A number of the apps I discovered had been free and these, in fact, present a great deal of adverts (excuse me, “gives”) to remain in enterprise. However many of the accessible apps require paid subscriptions, with costs sometimes topping out round $100 a 12 months, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My high decide is cheaper than that.)The entire companies I selected to check wanted to do a number of issues: import your whole account knowledge into one place; provide 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 totally testing these apps, 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 coming into passwords and one-time passcodes, for a similar banks half a dozen instances over. Hopefully, you solely have to do that as soon as.Budgeting app FAQsWhat is 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 what it’s and the way it works. Plaid was based as a fintech startup in 2013 and is immediately 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 corporate claims.To be clear, you don’t want a devoted Plaid app to make use of it; the know-how is baked into a big selection of apps, together with all the budgeting apps listed on 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 info 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 corporations. Nonetheless, I might not be doing my job if I didn’t notice that in 2022 Plaid was pressured to pay $58 million to customers in a category motion go well with for accumulating “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 folks extra transparency into Plaid’s position in connecting their accounts, and guaranteeing that our workstreams round knowledge minimization stay on observe.”Why did Mint shut down?When mum or dad firm Intuit introduced in December 2023 that it could shut down Mint, it didn’t present a motive why it made the choice to take action. It did say that Mint’s thousands and thousands of customers could be funneled over to its different finance app, Credit score Karma. “Credit score Karma is thrilled to ask all Minters to proceed their monetary journey on Credit score Karma, the place they may have entry to Credit score Karma’s suite of options, merchandise, instruments and companies, together with a few of Mint’s hottest options,” Mint wrote on its product weblog. In our testing, we discovered that Credit score Karma is not an actual alternative for Mint — so if you happen to’re nonetheless in search of a Mint various, you’ve gotten some respectable choices.What about Rocket Cash?Rocket Cash 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 enable you to cancel undesirable subscriptions. We didn’t take a look at it for this information, however we’ll think about it in future updates.