Intuit is planning to shut down the popular budgeting app Mint on March 24, 2024 and has recommended that users switch to their other personal finance app, Credit Karma. As a Mint user myself, I’ve relied on the app to track all of my accounts in one place, monitor my credit score, stick to a monthly budget, and set goals like building a rainy-day fund or paying down my mortgage faster. I wanted to find a suitable replacement for Mint and spent a month downloading and testing multiple money apps to compare them in terms of tracking net worth and spending in one place. I consulted Google and Reddit, read reviews of popular apps on the App Store, and asked friends and colleagues for recommendations to compile a shortlist of six apps to test. I then set up all six apps, thoroughly testing each one by adding every account to every tracking app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. This involved several hours of two-factor authentication entering passwords and one-time passcodes for each bank multiple times over. Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network called Plaid to pull in financial data. Plaid is the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps and works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, and Europe. The apps rely on Plaid to import account data into one place, offer budgeting tools, and track spending, net worth, and credit score. The process of importing data from Mint into a new app involves uploading a CSV file of transactions and other data. I found Quicken Simplifi to be the most suitable alternative to Mint, offering a clean user interface, detailed overview of financial stats, neat visualizations, and painless setup. Quicken Simplifi costs less than the competition and allows users to share app access with a spouse or financial advisor. It also offers a handy refund tracker and the option of categorizing some-but-not-all purchases from a merchant as recurring. Overall, Quicken Simplifi is my top pick for a Mint replacement.
Exploring Mint Alternatives: Finding the Ideal Option for You
