11 Best Quicken Alternatives for 2024 (Paid & Free Replacements)

Long the king of personal finance software, Quicken is no longer the only program in town. We've listed our top 10 Quicken alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement for handling your money.

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Need a new way to manage your money? Learn how to replace Quicken with one of these 12 awesome alternatives!

Once hailed as the best personal finance program on the market, Quicken has not aged well. Thankfully, there are several alternatives to Quicken that meet or exceed the performance of the outdated program – and some of them even do it for free. Here are the best Quicken alternatives for 2024!

Our Top Picks

Personal Capital [Editor’s Choice] – Personal Capital is our top choice for free Quicken alternatives. This software automatically tracks your savings, spending, investments, net worth, and more. It’s easy to use and the free price tag makes it an excellent replacement for Quicken. Get Started Here

Tiller Money [Best for Spreadsheet Budgeting] – Need a budgeting tool that also runs some basic financial reports that are useful at tax time? Tiller Money is it. With this program, you can create a monthly budget spreadsheet and automatically track your results. When it comes to tax prep, Tiller also runs detailed reports on itemized deductions, your annual spend by category, and more. Start with one of their templates, customize it to meet your needs, or build your own. Get it free for the first month, then pay about $7/month moving forward. Get Started Here

PocketSmith [Best for Financial Forecasting] – Want to know what the future holds for your financial plans? PocketSmith can help! This app has a budget calendar to help you plan your income and expenses. It even predicts what your finances will look like 30 years into the future with its “what if” scenarios. Both free and paid accounts are available. Get Started Here

Best Alternatives to Quicken in 2024

Here’s our list of the best replacements for Quicken in 2024! Follow the links below to jump ahead and learn more.

  1. Personal Capital – Free financial tracking and planning tools
  2. Tiller Money – Spreadsheet budgeting and reporting
  3. PocketSmith – Budgeting and financial forecasting
  4. YNAB – Zero-based budgeting
  5. Everydollar – For followers of Dave Ramsey
  6. CountAbout – Budgeting and financial reports
  7. MoneyPatrol – Budgeting and financial tracking
  8. GoodBudget – Envelope budgeting
  9. Empower Finance – Budgeting, automatic savings, and bill reduction
  10. Dollarbird – Calendar-based budgeting
  11. Moneydance – Non-cloud solution

1. Personal Capital

personal capital logo
  • Best Uses: Financial Tracking and Planning
  • Price: Free
  • Top Features: Net Worth Tracking, Investment Fee Analyzer, Retirement Calculator, Investment Checkup Tool, Cash Flow Tracker
  • Try Personal Capital for Free

What makes Personal Capital a good alternative to Quicken? For starters, it’s free. Plus, they offer a comprehensive collection of money tools in one convenient place, so we think that’s pretty awesome.

With Personal Capital, you can track your spending, net worth, and investments. You can also use it to check your investments for expensive fees and calculate whether you’re saving enough for retirement. Again, these tools are all 100% free and at your disposal after a simple sign up process.

So, how does it work?

In short, Personal Capital pulls data from all your accounts and delivers a complete financial picture that’s easy to understand. Just link Personal Capital to your bank, credit, and investment accounts. Then, the software imports your transactions and calculates how your spending aligns with your budget.

Why We Love It: Unlike some other Quicken alternatives, Personal Capital is more than just budgets. And, since it is free, it makes a great compliment to many of the other programs as well.

Personal Capital also offers powerful investment management tools. The user-friendly interface tracks your asset allocation, monitors your investment performance, and analyzes your fees.

The program even takes your retirement goals into account and estimates your retirement income/expenditures based on your financial data. And, of course, Personal Capital also calculates the value of your assets relative to your debt (i.e. your net worth).

Read our complete Personal Capital review to learn more.

What’s Not to Like: Some users may find this “budgeting” tool to be a bit too basic. When directly comparing Personal Capital vs. Quicken, Personal Capital also lacks the ability to directly manage your bills.

Don’t let that be a deal breaker, though.

You can always take advantage of Personal Capital’s tools while using another Quicken alternative for your day-to-day money management needs. Plus, these tools are free, so you’ve got nothing to lose!

2. Tiller Money

tiller money logo
  • Best Uses: Spreadsheet Budgeting and Expense Tracking
  • Price: $6.58/month ($79/year)
  • Top Features: Foundation Template, Customizable Templates and Categories, Automated Tracking, Basic Financial Reports
  • Try Tiller Money: 30-Day Free Trial

Once again, Tiller Money is one of our top Quicken alternatives for 2024.

If you’re used to Quicken, you already know your way around a spreadsheet. Good news: Tiller Money offers a familiar spreadsheet environment with supercharged money management capabilities.

Tiller Money connects with more than 21,000 financial institutions to import and categorize data from your bank, credit card, mortgage, and brokerage accounts into Google Sheets or Excel.

The Foundation Template is the easiest way to get started. It’s a ready-to-go- spreadsheet package that helps you build monthly and yearly budgets based on customizable spending categories. It tracks your spending, financial standing, and balances in one place to give you a clear sense of your situation. You can also run financial reports that make it easy to compile your tax information each year.

For customers needing a more customized experience, Tiller add-ons and Tiller Money Labs offer additional spreadsheets to meet your unique needs. A zero-sum budget, debt snowball template, and net worth tracker are just a few of the more popular options. For the spreadsheet nerds among us, there is even an option to build your own spreadsheet budget.

Here’s a bonus that many money apps don’t include — tools specifically for freelancers and small business owners. These tools include things like quarterly tax estimation and business-expense tracking.

Why We Love It: Tiller Money harnesses the power of spreadsheets to offer a customizable financial management experience. It’s especially great for people who like to be a little more hands-on with their money.

Tiller Money is an ad-free subscription that packs a lot of value for only $6.58 a month ($79 per year). Like most paid financial tools, you can try it risk-free with a free 30-day trial. Students can also use it free for a whole year.

3. PocketSmith

Pocketsmith Logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting and Financial Forecasting
  • Price: Varies (Free, $9.95/month, $19.95/month)
  • Top Features: Solid Budgeting Tools, “What If” Scenario Tester
  • Try PocketSmith for Free

Want to get a better handle on your money? PocketSmith might be for you.

Like several of the best alternatives to Quicken, this program provides a strong option for budgeting. Where it really shines, however, is with its financial forecasting.

Instead of simply tracking what you’ve already spent, PocketSmith also helps you see what the future holds for your money. The “budget calendar” provides a daily look at your future income and expenses, all on an easy-to-read calendar so you can plan appropriately. Using your current info, you can even project your bank account balances as far out as 30 years into the future.

In our complete PocketSmith review, we mention that our favorite feature is the “what if” scenarios. This feature allows you to test different spending and saving decisions and see how they affect your future financial growth. Wondering how reducing your grocery spending will affect your savings rate? Want to take a $2,000 vacation next summer? Use the “what if” feature to understand both the short-term and long-term consequences.

As with most Quicken alternatives, PocketSmith utilizes live bank feeds to update your transactions automatically. Over 10,000 different financial institutions are supported, so it’s pretty likely that you’ll be able to connect your accounts.

Why We Like It: As we mentioned, Pocketsmith’s financial forecasting puts it a notch above many other Quicken alternatives. Additionally, it won’t cost you much to try it out.

The basic functions of PocketSmith can be used for free, however, you are limited to connecting just 2 accounts and 6-months of projections. The Premium version runs $9.95 per month ($7.50 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) and comes with 10 accounts and 10 year projections. Unlimited accounts and 30 year projections are available with the “Super” account which runs $19.95 per month ($14.16 per month if you pay annually).

4. YNAB

YNAB logo Best money apps
  • Best Uses: Zero-based Budgeting
  • Price: $8.25/month (billed annually)
  • Top Features: Realistic Budgets, Automatic or Manual Transaction Imports
  • Try YNAB: 34-Day Free Trial

You Need a Budget (YNAB) has long been considered one of the best budgeting apps available. Although it doesn’t offer a whole suite of money tools like Personal Capital, it focuses on two important things things – building a realistic budget and tracking your spending. Personally, I think that is great because it does them both very well.

I say a “realistic” budget because YNAB’s philosophy is that a budget is fluid. Therefore, they believe your budget should be adjusted frequently in response to whatever is going on in your life. That’s why YNAB makes it so easy to move money between spending categories to keep your budget balanced.

For example, if you’ve budgeted $300 for groceries but your transactions indicate that you’ve spent $340, YNAB will notify you that you’ve overspent. Then, they’ll prompt you to deduct that $40 from another category. This system is especially useful if your goal is to maintain a zero-based budget.

Why YBAB Is a Good Quicken Alternative: With YNAB, you have two choices: You can automatically import your transactions by connecting to your bank and credit providers, or you can enter your transactions manually. Obviously, automating things is easier, but some may appreciate the option to do things the old-fashioned way. Once it is there, the info is added to the budget template, and you’re good to go.

YNAB offers a free 34-day trial, so you can try a full month of budgeting with no commitment. After that, the cost is just $8.25/month when billed annually ($14.99/month if billed monthly). That means once a year, you’ll pay about $99 to use the app/software. Like some other programs, students can enjoy 12 months for free – which is a pretty cool benefit.

Also cool is that YNAB offers a 100% money-back guarantee. So, if you buy the app and decide it’s not helping you take control of your finances, YNAB will give you a full refund. I can’t argue with that!

5. EveryDollar

everydollar logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting, Tracking Expenses
  • Price: Free (Basic) or $129.99/year (Plus)
  • Top Features: Customizable Categories, Dave Ramsey “Baby Steps”
  • Try EveryDollar for Free

Next on our list of Quicken alternatives, we have EveryDollar. If you’re a Dave Ramsey fan, you may want to give his budgeting tool a try.

EveryDollar lets you budget your income into customizable spending categories, then enter your transactions and track your spending. The free version doesn’t link to your online accounts, so you enter your transactions manually. (If you want to automatically sync to your online accounts, you’ll need the paid version.) That’s not a deal breaker, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the app doesn’t seem to remember the category associated with a payee that’s previously been entered. Adding that would be a nice touch.

This is a super simple budgeting app that should meet the needs of someone who wants to get started with planning a budget and tracking their spending. The basic app is free, so there’s no risk involved in trying it out for a few months to see what you think.

For those who want automatic transaction uploads directly from their bank, the app does offer a premium version (EveryDollar Plus)…but it is a hefty $129.99.

6. CountAbout

countabout logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting and Financial Reports
  • Price: $9.99/year (Basic) or $39.99/year (Premium)
  • Top Features: iOS and Android App, Customizable Budget, Financial Reports, Automatically Track Transactions, Invoicing
  • Try CountAbout: 15-Day Free Trial

CountAbout is another web-based alternative to Quicken. This program actually supports importing data from both Quicken and Mint, which is nice if you’re making a switch.

When you use CountAbout on a computer, there’s no app to install; you simply log in to their website. They do offer a mobile app for iOS and Android, but not all the features are available through the app.

Why We Love CountAbout as a Quicken Replacement: Like most of these programs, you can use CountAbout to create a fully customizable budget. Then, simply sync it to your bank account to automatically import your transactions and track your spending. Pretty sweet right? But, that’s not all it does.

With CountAbout, you can also run financial reports at any time throughout the year. The program also offers invoicing capability for small business owners as well as the ability to attach receipts. So, it is a pretty powerful alternative to Quicken and can replace much of the old program’s functionality – even beyond budgeting.

CountAbout offers two membership options: basic for $9.99 a year or premium for $39.99 a year. The only difference between the two is that the basic membership does not support syncing with online bank accounts. That means if you opt for the basic membership, your transactions will not be automatically downloaded. Your options are to enter transactions manually or import QIF files from your bank if they make those available.

You can even try CountAbout before committing. Simply sign up and take advantage of the 15-day free trial on their premium membership.

7. MoneyPatrol

MoneyPatrol Logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting and Financial Tracking
  • Price: $7.00/month
  • Top Features: Automatic Expense Tracking, Customizable Spending Categories, Financial Reports, Fraud Alerts
  • Try MoneyPatrol: 15-Day Free Trial

MoneyPatrol is a money management tool that excels at financial tracking. It also offers some solid budgeting help.

The app itself connects to more than 15,000 financial institutions and automatically imports financial data from your bank, credit card, mortgage, student loan, and investment accounts. It displays a summary of your overall financial picture on your dashboard, which is especially useful for people who have accounts at more than one bank. 

Then, MoneyPatrol sorts your bank and credit card transactions into customizable spending categories, labeling them by merchant. It produces a slew of charts, graphs, and reports to help you understand exactly how, when, and where you’re spending your money. The budgeting function allows you to plan a monthly budget for each category and tracks how your spending aligns with those budgets.

MoneyPatrol also provides a comprehensive alert and notification system. You’ll get text or email notifications whenever money moves out of your account. MoneyPatrol also monitors your spending history for patterns and irregularities, using that data to remind you of upcoming bills and alert you to potentially fraudulent transactions.

A MoneyPatrol subscription will run you $84 per year, which works out to $7 per month. They also offer a 15-day trial before you buy.

8. GoodBudget

good budget logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting
  • Price: Free or $7/month (Plus)
  • Top Features: Envelope Budgeting, Manual Transaction Imports, Debt Tracking
  • Try GoodBudget for Free

GoodBudget is a simple budgeting app that helps you plan and track your spending through a digital version of the envelope budgeting method.

If you’re unfamiliar with the envelope method, this is a zero-sum style of budgeting where you use an envelope for each spending category. First, you’ll plan how much you’ll spend on each category (usually throughout the month). Then, you allocate cash for those expenses in each category’s designated envelope.

Throughout the month, you’ll take money from a designated envelope each time you need to spend in that category. If you run out of money in an envelope, you can’t spend any more on that category… unless you borrow the money from another envelope (which will reduce your spending power in that category).

The free version of GoodBudget gives you twenty envelopes and allows you to manually add transactions from your bank or import them through bank activity files. You can also sync across two devices – which is great for using it on desktop and mobile. You can also use one sync to share a budget with your partner.

GoodBudget Plus costs $7 a month or $60 a year. This gives you access to unlimited envelopes and accounts. You can also use the app on five different devices.

Since you’re likely to have more than one account and may both want access on multiple devices, GoodBudget Plus is probably more practical for a couple who shares a budget. That being said, it’s great that this software also has a free option.

9. Empower Finance

Empower Finance logo

If you’re looking for a Quicken alternative that helps you budget, tracks your spending, and actively saves you money, Empower Finance is it. Oh, and it includes a bank account!

Like most money management apps, Empower works by connecting to your financial accounts and importing your transactions. You can build a daily, weekly, or monthly budget with custom categories and track how your spending compares.

But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. While most apps help you save by making you more mindful of your spending, Empower actually finds you savings opportunities.

Its AutoSave feature helps you meet your weekly savings goals by analyzing your income and spending patterns to discover surplus cash. Empower transfers that excess money into a separate account up to four times a week — cha-ching!

Empower Finance also takes stock of your regular bill payments and presents you with lower-cost alternatives. It will even work with your current service providers to negotiate you a better deal. Lost track of your subscriptions? Empower rounds them up and cancels the ones you don’t want. That’s pretty incredible.

If you need further convincing, Empower Finance includes an interest-bearing checking account and access to a human money coach via live chat.  

Why We Love It: Empower Finance harnesses the power of financial tracking to make personalized recommendations that save you real money. You can try Empower Finance for free for 30 days. After that, you get access to all its features for just $6 per month.

10. Dollarbird

dollar bird logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting
  • Price: Free or $4.99/month (Pro)
  • Top Features: Calendar-based Budgeting, Available for Android and iOS
  • Try Dollarbird for Free

Dollarbird is another simple, no-frills budgeting app that makes for a good alternative to Quicken. This app is unique in that it’s calendar-based rather than category-based. What this means is that Dollarbird focuses on tracking your income and spending by day, rather than by category

When you open the app, you’ll see a calendar. From there, you have the option of adding transactions (income or spending) for each day. Although you do categorize your transactions, the app displays your net spending per day rather than a running category total.

At this time, Dollarbird does not support syncing with your online accounts. This means all your transactions must be entered manually. So, if you’re looking to go Quicken free, this may not appeal to you.

However, you can schedule recurring transactions so you’re not constantly required to enter your regular fixed expenses. If you’re paid a regular salary, you can do the same with your paychecks.

The free version of Dollarbird gives you access to one calendar – perfect if you’re doing a simple solo budget.

The paid Pro version allows up to 20 calendars and can be accessed by three people. Again, the paid option might be more practical for couples. You can opt to pay $4.99 monthly or $39.99 for the year.

11. Moneydance

moneydance logo
  • Best Uses: Budgeting, Expense Tracking
  • Price: $49.99
  • Top Features: Not cloud-based, Quicken Imports, One-time Payment
  • Try Moneydance for Free

Moneydance’s interface resembles a check register, where you see a record of all your transactions. Those transactions can be imported automatically by syncing with your online banking, or you can enter them manually. If you want to go completely Quicken free, by choosing the automated route, you can also manage bill payments through Moneydance.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a very good option for personal finance software without the ability to create a budget. Moneydance lets you create spending categories and track your expenditures. If you’re a visual person, you’ll appreciate the interactive graphing tool. You can also use Moneydance to track your investments and monitor stock performance.

If you’re technologically inclined (i.e. a tech nerd), you can actually develop extensions for Moneydance using an Extension Developer Kit they offer as a free download. But I won’t get into that today!

You can try Moneydance using their free trial, which works a bit differently than the other trials we’ve talked about. There’s no time limit on their trial, but you’re limited to 100 manually entered transactions. Still, that’s enough to decide if Moneydance is for you. After that, you can buy the full program for a one-time fee of $49.99. They also offer a 90-day money back guarantee when you purchase from their website.

Quicken Alternatives FAQs

Can I purchase Quicken without a subscription?

No. Quicken has moved entirely to a subscription model.

Which Quicken alternatives help me schedule bill payments?

Tiller Money, Pocketsmith, and YNAB all provide bill payment assistance. Each program helps you budget money for bills and track your expenses. MoneyPatrol also sends reminders about upcoming bills.

What is the best free Quicken alternative?

Personal Capital is our choice as the best free replacement for Quicken. The program allows users to view their entire financial picture in one place, including their investments. Personal Capital also includes some excellent tools and calculators, and they do it all for free.

What is the best non-cloud based-alternative for Quicken?

Moneydance is our choice for the best Quicken replacement which is not cloud-based. It also offers imports directly from Quicken and can be purchsed with a single payment.

Which alternatives help me import my Quicken data?

Several Quicken alternatives allow you to import data from Quicken, including CountAbout and Moneydance.

Quicken Alternatives: Final Thoughts

With Quicken no longer the only financial tracking game in town, there are plenty of options to choose from. Whether you’re looking for a simple budgeting program or a complete personal finance software package, there’s enough variety on this list to suit almost any need.

Although everybody has their preferences (us included), ultimately, the best financial tools are ones you’ll use consistently. So, why wait? Use one of the links above to download a free app or start a free trial to find out what program works for you.

How many of these money management tools have you tried? Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

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128 Comments

  1. Personal Capital and Mint are two of the best apps that anyone could have. From beginner to expert, they just work. I’ve used Mint for years, and it just keeps getting better and better for me! There are a few on the list that I haven’t heard of yet (surprisingly) but now I’m going to go check them out. Thanks for sharing!

      1. Erick Martinez says:

        Hello Greg
        Thank you for sharing ! I have been using personal capital since 2012. It stoped working last year and Personal Capital says they have no update or when it will be fixed. And this is with one of the top 3 banks in the US. When sending a support ticket to them- an email Is sent showing over 19 banks Not working and that there is no update. Could you help me decide which one of the apps you share are close or better than Personal Capital? Thank you for your time

    1. Robert Zidlicky says:

      How do you do statement reconciliations in them?

    2. Agree! With Mint you can change transaction dates when needed (for budgeting alignment). For us who receive a 1st of the month paycheck, which usually posts early when the 1st falls on a weekend or holiday (non-banking day), the inability to change the date completely messes up the ending month and next month budgets. Same with any bank “auto-drafts” on the 1st. Happens about 3 times a year. This makes Personal Finance (PC) worthless for budgeting. The change transaction date feature has been requested for years and PC ignores it. Poor customer service in my opinion. No thanks to PC.

      1. That’s a fair point, and there are better tools in a strict budgeting sense. Still, the tools are free and provide a great overall picture of your financial health. They’re often best used in combination with a budgeting tool.

        1. Not free, the price point is your information. Spending habits, (your) available funds, selling (your) information to marketing firms, targeting to convince you to do something you would normally not do. So far from free. The cost is in $$, frustration, exposure, risk, and time. Really expensive. Way more than a couple of bucks to get a perpetual license. Hope you figure it out.

    3. Like several others, I just want to balance my accounts and insure that I am not getting unauthorized withdrawals.
      I used an old Quicken for years, but upgraded so it would run on a newer Mac.
      I have Quicken 2017 (Mac) and time is running out for using the downloads. After March 2020, I will still be able to use Quicken 2017, but cleared transactions will have to be cleared manually. I have been told that I can download monthly statements from the institution and import them manually, but have not tried that.
      I tried using Moneyspire and it was promising. But when I tried to automatically download transactions, I had issues and gave up.
      It looks to me like I am stuck with Quicken if I want to automatically download.
      I bill pay through the banks and credit cards, so I do not need that. It is only reconciliation that is important.
      I might tell them to go pound sand, still use the software and enter cleared transactions manually. Since I now get texts for each credit card transaction, real time confirmation is not as important.

  2. We love personal capital for the grand view. We also have used Mvelopes for almost a decade and as a budgeting and cas management tool I have not found better. Very similar to the Every Dollar tool and Ramsey philosophy. Were you able to review this one? Curious your thoughts on how not compares to tbe others.

    1. I love Mvelopes too! Been using it for years 🙂

  3. I think Mint took a big step back when they shut off their bill pay functionality. A lot of folks used Quicken for the bill pay and Mint was a good answer for them, but now that Mint shut it off it’s not nearly as clear.

    1. Agreed. You can still see when your bills are due and the reminders are nice, but losing the extra step of automation kinda stinks.

    2. Famous Jemez says:

      You would think, but I pay all my bills through direct EFT and ACH withdrawals. I don’t use Bill Pay anymore.

  4. andrew patterson says:

    I like to see a projection of my available finances for the month, but so far Quicken seems to be the only one that can do that. Everything else is based on a daily snapshot of your spending. Have you reviewed any that allow you to see past today in spending?

    1. Tom Jones says:

      Started with MS Money. Moved to some paid program that was similar. My hard drive crashed and I didn’t have the activation code saved, so I could not install it again. Found Money Manger EX.

      I can put in reoccurring transactions. And drop them into the checkbook as needed. 2 weeks ahead, 1 month or more. I have my paycheck set for less than I expect. And the bills for a little more than expected. When I get paid, or write the check, I put the correct amounts in.

  5. I don’t understand how you and other “Quicken Alternatives” reviewers gloss over what I consider a “show stopper” with Personal Capital (PC)! You cannot change transaction dates. That makes it USELESS for budgeting. I have a retirement pay (military) that posts on the 1st of every month. But if the 1st falls on a weekend or holiday they post it the last banking day before that. With PC when that happens I have a double pay in one month and no pay in the next and cannot change that. Since this scenario happens about 3 times a year, PC is worthless for monthly budgeting.

    1. When it comes to straight budgeting tools, there are certainly better options (Tiller, YNAB, etc.). The tools are free, so there are going to be limits to what they can do. With that said, to track expenses and get an overall picture of your financial health, I don’t think there’s a better free option out there.

    2. Famous Jemez says:

      I deleted PC because It could not track Schwab Mortgages and My HSA. Besides I am shedding Quicken because I don’t want all my Info in the ‘cloud”. Comcast goes down once a month and online data becomes inaccesible just when you need it.

  6. I have tried PC for a few months now (running it while also still using Quicken ’16). I also tried Mint several years ago and will give it another shot.

    Two things keep me from dumping Quicken yet.

    First and foremost is the ability to have attachments on my transactions. I scan and attach all bills and major receipts/communications. This way I have a one stop shop to find an item via Q’s search feature. This has helped out many times when an appliance/device craps out and I need to find my proof of purchase to get warranty service.

    Second is the ability to have transaction reminders that can be auto-entered into the register. This allows me to look ahead to see where my expected spending and expected income is taking me (This is the closest I come to using a budget feature – but I hate the word budget). If contemplating a major purchase I’ll just plug in the transaction and see what effect it has on my outlook (Not a budget, LOL!).

    I do not use the transaction download feature for my checking account with Quicken because it ALWAYS caused me to have duplicate transactions when writing a paper check because of manually entering when written and then duplicated when cleared at the bank. VERY inconvenient. At least PC will help you correct duplicates – but no attachments.

    Bill payments through the app or program not necessary.

    1. calipence says:

      Moneydance allows attaching receipts or other documents to a transaction

    2. calipence says:

      Reading further, it looks like Moneydance would be the best alternative for you for Quicken. It also allows you to use it standalone on your computer (PC or Mac) and also allows auto-entry of transaction reminders.

    3. Famous Jemez says:

      I hate the Auto entry now because they made 2 layers out of it. If you don’t manually “Enter” the trans., it won’t clear when the bank downloads it. I also don’t use the attachments. I mostly like it for the tax prep categorization and the Offline presence of my data which is backed up to SD card. My greatest fear is the last update for QB 2017 will be the one that totally disables the software.

      1. I stopped allowing softwate updates in 2015. I heard quicken was going to a subscription platform. Still works

        1. Jeanine Schmidt says:

          I have Quicken Premier 2015 which I have never paid to update. I don’t care about automatically updating my bank and mutual fund information. I just want to keep track of it. I originally used QuickBooks; but, my computer crashed and wasn’t willing to pay yearly for that so I started using Quicken. I’ve been getting more errors lately that make me close, and reopen. That’s why I’m thinking I need to get something new before it totally stops. Not sure what the date of our post is.

  7. Carlos Palacios says:

    is any of this NON cloud… just a regular MS Windows App. I don’t trust the cloud

  8. Stewart Gooderman says:

    You are not quite correct when you say Quicken data can be seamlessly imported into any other program. In order to move Quicken data over to any other program, the data has to be converted to a .qif file. That conversion comes with a ton of restrictions, and if you do complex splitting, your data doesn’t get converted properly, and is in fact, quite useless.

    My suggestion: double up on two programs: one Quicken and another alternative for three months, then abandon Quicken, keeping it for legacy purposes. That’s what I did when I moved to Moneydance in 2006. And even then, I have not updated Moneydance past it’s 2010 version because Moneydance refuses to give the option for one line splits as of 2011, and my finances require many splits in a transaction.

    As a Macintosh user, Intuit has not been a friend. I will no longer use *any* Intuit products. There are much better alternatives.

    1. Garry Potts says:

      Stewart, I agree that Intuit has always treated its Mac constituents as unwanted step-children. And D.D. I agree that you pretty much have to choose between downloading your transactions and manually entering them in Quicken for Mac—it’s either/or. Manual entries lead to annoying duplicates if you also download your transactions. But if you do choose to download, best not make any manual entries. You’ll find yourself making sticking Post-it notes on your desk till the latest data comes in, and you’ll NEVER be able to ‘train’ repeating transactions to consistently be labeled the same way under Payees. That should be a cinch. Anyway, here’s my question to everyone: which of these apps have the most patient, responsive telephone support. Call me a thumbsucker, but I need adult supervision now & then!

  9. Dennis Simon says:

    Having Personal Capital attached to my bank accounts, how are my finances protected ?

    1. All of your data is encrypted. Additionally, you can’t actually move any money around through the app.

    2. exactly I am not thrilled at having my accounts linked.

  10. Great article. I’ve used Quicken for over 20 years, and I’m finding it difficult to find software or an app that allows me to enter my transactions manually and then gives me the ability to reconcile them to either the online bank balance or a paper statement. I realize that this puts me in the dinosaur category (and I’m not all that old), but to me, it gives me control over my finances and allows me to do the one fundamental step I was taught was essential — reconcile your bank book to your bank statement.

    Is there a good Quicken alternative I should consider?

    1. Donna Doornik says:

      I’m in the same situation. I want to manually reconcile, I want split transactions, subcategories, and the ability to run end of the year reports. I don’t care about budgeting or tracking investments. Any suggestions?

      1. Jonathan Dough says:

        Donna, I’m with you all the way. Too bad this hodgepodge of suggestions all over the internet for replacing Quicken for Mac are so confusing when it comes to just the simple functions you cite. I wish someone would create a comparison chart. I want to start with a new app on Jan. 1 (to replace Quicken), but it seems we just have to take a stab at what looks like it might have those basic Quicken-type functions and then start trying various apps… not appealing when you’re dealing with real-life receipts that pile up every day and have to be entered.

        And to whomever manages this internet page, please get off this fad of making your font almost the same invisible color as your background. Forget popular fads and us darker “ink” on the page.

        1. Garry Potts says:

          Donna and Jonathan, same here! I’m Quicken for Mac (a TERRIBLE app)…also looking to throw the switch on Jan. 1. I don’t need budgets; I just want an elegantly simple way to keep tracks of expenditures and put out year-end reports. Reading all through these reviews hasn’t sharpened my focus much. (And yes, please give us a darker font!)

          Repeating my question above, does anyone know which of these developers offer the most HUMAN assistance? Not FAQ’s, not chat. Knowledgeable people who might even be willing to screen share…?

      2. I used YNAB 4 for this, but they too have moved to an online platform. YNAB’s (You Need A Budget) main thing is budgeting – which they are awesome for.

        To track trends in cash and investments (to replace Quicken, I purchased Moneydance from The Infinite Kind. I see only 2 lacks when compared to Quicken: 1) investments don’t import as nice as Quicken and 2) the interface is not a modern / appealing as Quicken. Since you don’t care about investments, this may work for you. It has the calendar of transactions coming up, memorized transactions, bank downloads – No Sunset and costs about $50 for life. Upgrades to the next version typically come with a discount.

    2. Quicken versions from 2000 to 2003. I’m still using my 2002 version with Windows 10

    3. Jeanine Schmidt says:

      I love your post. Me exactly. I do it all manually; but, have used QuickBooks; and now Quicken for so long I know how to split transactions. Mutual funds can be a challenge to update though. Look forward to seeing what you hear for an alternative; I will not pay yearly…

    4. AF………..I have the same dilemma………..

  11. I am looking for apps like Foreceipt where you can photo receipts or screenshot email receipts and it ocr s major details and stores the photo. Not 100% accurate but even with corrections ocr is such a time saver. Lately have had some problems with Foreceipt. When I first got it and it worked well it was outstanding.

  12. calipence says:

    EveryDollar DOES link to online accounts and in my opinion is the best budgeting software out there since its updates. Please revisit this one…

  13. Bob White says:

    I have used Quicken for years. I bought the newer version and it choked on one of my accounts on downloading. I called for support. (A support contact number was not readily available on line but my bank had a contact number for support and I got through.) They understood the problem and said it was an easy fix. But, they wanted a one year subscription for support for $199. Ridiculous! Goodbye Quicken. I am leaving them. I have tried Every Dollar. It does down load from all of my accounts and credit cards which is nice and works well It is an easy program to use but they do not offer downloading of reports. I have used report generating for years to help with taxes at the end of the year. So, I am still looking for a program. I don’t mind paying an annual fee but I need a report generating capability. I basically got spoiled. I noted you did not mention this in any of the reviews. Somehow you missed that Every Dollar has the capability to Sync up to the Bank accounts and services. Do you have any update on this and the report generating capabilities of the others?

    1. Scot D Deabs says:

      An informative article and the comments offer great questions too. I nolonger use BillPay because using banks bill paying functions. I do download transactions in order to reconcile as well as downloading investment performance data. Bob White asked about tax reports and a major reason that I used Quicken in the past was the ease of producing tax reports or even exporting data to tax preparation soft ware. I don’t see an answer to Bob White’s question and would like to know how these alternatives assist me to prepare to file income tax.

        1. Ratty DeZvoti says:

          Hi Greg, the only reason I use any personal software is to generate reports at the end of the year for my accountant to use at tax time. I have only seen one comment/response here that talks about reporting and it is yours, for Tiller. Or any of the other options also report writers? I need to get off of Quicken but that is the feature that’s holding me back. Thank you in advance, Betty

  14. I use moneylover. What do you think about that?

    1. Detest Quicken says:

      This appears to only work for Vietnam?

  15. Donald mcneilly says:

    The query about cloud-based or non cloud-based has not been addressed. This is pretty critical for lots of folks. Can’t imagine why that little nugget was not included in ALL reviews. I know Q and MoneyDance are PC based software but what about the others?

    1. Quicken is moving to a subscription-only program. It is NOT cloud-based. So, my understanding is that in order to continue downloading from financial institutions you are forced to pay an annual subscription fee. I am very disappointed with this decision. At the least, we should be able to continue using older versions of Quicken, with all of the features it came with. I don’t care if the program isn’t “supported” anymore, but forcing a user to upgrade when they don’t see a need is preposterous.

  16. Jacqueline White says:

    I’ve used Mint for years, but recent changes have made it almost unusable. I bank at Capital One, and the sync is now delayed 24-48 hours. That means no more near-real-time views into my spending. The balance updates, but the transactions don’t follow quickly. I’m looking into some of the alternatives mentioned here.

  17. I moved to Moneydance when quicken moved to a subscription model – love it, a few bugs but good support helped me fix them. BUT no Canadian version, yet.

    1. I’m also a long time user of Quicken and refuse to change over to their subscription – am thinking of moving to Moneydance. What quirks/problems do you find with Moneydance with it not having a Canadian version?

      1. I am trying to use Moneydance. I may have a bad setup, but I balance my accounts several times a month. I balance to the bank, come back next week, import from the bank and I am thousand of dollars off. Nice looking program and seems to technically work ok, but the banking has to be right.

  18. Jonathan Dough says:

    I don’t see a way to post a comment or question except to “Leave a Reply.” This isn’t a reply, it’s a question.

    Is Personal Capital web based? Sounds like it must be, but there’s no straightforward statement about it here or on their website.

    Is it available as a desktop app, or just a mobile app. Some of the screenshots look to be from a desktop app, but they only picture phones on their website.

    I want a desktop stand-alone app. I don’t want any of my business going to someone else’s server or website. Does that put Personal Capital out of the running?

    Another question: Are you familiar with Debit & Credit? From what I can see, it has all the basic functions of Quicken. (I don’t use tracking, downloading bank info, budgeting, etc. I just want to categorize all my expenses for end of year reports (for taxes) and to be able to enter transactions like in Quicken.) Any thoughts about Debit & Credit?

    Thanks, and especially thank you for the yeoman’s work you have done in comparing so many financial apps. By the way, “free” is not a big factor for me (and I would think anybody). As long as a price isn’t over the top, it’s more important to have the features you need than to save a handful of bucks.

    1. Hi Jonathan,

      Personal Capital is web-based, so it sounds like it probably isn’t what you’re looking for. The free calculators and other tools may be of interest to you, however. If you’re a Mac user, Banktivity is probably your best bet.

      1. Why does NOBODY ever mention that Personal Capital is just a marketing tool provided by an investment management firm that will have access to your personal financial data and WILL CALL YOU RELENTLESSLY to try and get you to sign up for their investment management services? Go ahead, sign up with Personal Capital and find out for yourself.

  19. Kev_Chamberlain says:

    I tried to sign up to Personal Capital, can’t get past their LOG-IN / Sign up screen. It insists on a 10 digit phone number, doesn’t like mine, it is an Australian number. PC appears to only for America….. no good for me!!

  20. Any reason you didn’t include MoneyWiz? Cheaper than Moneydance.

    1. Mark Clark says:

      How is MoneyWiz cheaper than MoneyDance? MW is $49.99/year, while MD is $49.99 one time to buy the software.

  21. Henry DuBois says:

    I have used Qucken ever since the demise of Microsoft Money. I have needs that seem to me very uncomplicated: I need a product that will download my bank transactions, will track and project my monthly expenditures, and generate a report showing cleared and anticipated banking transactions for the current month. Quciken’s subscription model and its repeated pop-ups promoting renewal and upgrade (even though I opt out of “remind me again”) are annoying and I think the price is too high for capabilities that I don’t need or use. Is there an alternative that will do what I need at lower cost?

  22. Heidi Lotter says:

    I really need quicken for my personal banking. Since they want me to subscribe now, which I don’t want to, I am looking for the BEST program to replace Quicken. One that kind of acts the same, but you don’t need to subscribe. I don’t mind paying a one time fee to own the program. Please help!

  23. Susan Morton says:

    Long-time Quicken user even though I changed platforms to Mac in 209 and put up with its woefully crude version for Apple users.

    I need to know which of these alternatives will generate for me an annual summary by category of both Income and Expenses for tax purposes….. short of trying 4 or 5 of these and digging down I have no inkling of which would be useful. I also download banking and investment transactions through Quicken. So I’ll need something that does that too. Can you help? I don’t mind a fee although free is enticing, but NOT if it doesn’t give me these two things. I also have a financial manager and don’t need unsolicited phone calls.

  24. Mark Silvester says:

    Give me an accounts window (without the unnecessary folders for cash, cc, investments), individual account windows when I open them, keep the legacy register format that has been used for many decades (it just plain works and makes sense, newest on the bottom, empty one at bottom ready to be filled in), a way to run reports the way it’s done in 2007 (again, simple, makes sense, easy to get what you want out of it). STOP the incessant altering and revamping. It does not work as well for the end users.

  25. It seems there are no alternatives which do everything Quicken could, if it worked well. Not sure what I’ll do, and may even have to subscribe to Q for another year just to wait for something better.

  26. Just started a 30day trial with Banktivity. It is not mentioned above that in order to have the most seamless download experience with your banks/institutions online there is a subscription fee for this. otherwise you can manually download and input or hope that the OFX files work. So far although I have Capital One accounts 360 I have been repeatedly unable to have the Banktivity account get online despite, correct credentials, etc. I can’t waste all this time on a set-up that is arduous to set up. Maybe I’ll try it again tomorrow, but wow, that’s an hour I’ll never get back. With no results to show for it.

  27. T Emerson says:

    I am having trouble finding a Quicken replacement.
    While many of these noted here are fine check register and money management, I do not see one that includes online bill payment integration.

    Online bill payment is a key Quicken feature, schedule a payment, see it immediately in the check register.

  28. I’ve used quicken for years, and I think they are getting a bit too aggressive with their pricing. I do not use it at all for budgeting, only for investments. Tried Personal Capital, but it’s Only able to download my holdings. I am looking for an alternative that will give me my cost basis and current value. Anything out their worth trying?

  29. donald mcneilly says:

    Give MoneyDance a try. I’m trying desperately to get away from Q 2019 even though I’ve used it since 1995. I am experimenting with MD now. I imported everything even though MD says there is no qif option in Q2019. I did it and it worked amazingly well. Lot of clean up and deleting of defunct accounts, but much better results than when I tried a couple of years ago. I may have run into a problem with investment transaction classification but think I can figure out a workaround. It’s in the area of reinvested income. Q has all options available, LT, MT and ST gains can be reinvested and there can be a return of capital. MD hiccuped on the return of capital and has not recorded change in basis correctly. However, since I am not a corporation and won’t be subject to auditing, I have no problem making “adjustments” to get basis correct to move forward. I’m taking the opportunity to clear out old unused accounts and streamline the entire account list. I plan on keeping my old Q data for reference only once I actually make the switch.

    The only thing that had been holding me back was the import issue. MD seems to have everything I need; local files, no cloud, portfolio management, bank import, reasonable cost and no dicking around with silly passwords and accounts and such.

    1. Interesting. Others and the official comments by others is there’s no import in 2019. How were you so lucky?

    2. The option to export a qif file is right there in the Q export menu. I first exported my entire data file and imported into MD. Then, as I cleaned up, I found I had to re-import so I picked the specific account I needed and exported the qif file and re-imported into MD. I don’t understand either why it was bandied around there was no qif option. It is there!

  30. Detest Quicken says:

    I’m not sure how old some of these comments are since they don’t seem to be dated, but it seems that the same questions go unanswered time and again.
    – Long time MS Money user, forced to switch to Quicken some years back. Have had no end of issues with Quicken and frankly detest the software. Major issue downloading Wells Fargo transactions… WF blame Quicken, Quicken blame WF with me, as the customer stuck between a rock & a hard place (personally I think the issue lies with WF since I don’t run into the same issues with 6-7 other institutions.
    – I’ve had to upgrade for PC a few times and am done with Quicken! I also switched to Mac so only ever power up my pc for quarterly / annual reports on Quicken. Complete waste of my time!
    – I’m not interested in the ‘budgeting’ aspect of software and just want a software that easily syncs with my banks, where I can add new accounts (some accounts are offline only) add / change categories (with the option to remember previous transactions / categories since Quicken is notorious for autochoosing the wrong category which I keep having to correct every month. Really annoying! Then, providing I have categorized thousands of transactions correctly throughout the year, I simply print out a report, and hand to it my CPA as the basis of my tax returns.
    – App MUST be an ONLINE version, so I don’t have to download software and choose between mac & PC. Given the choice between cloud and downloaded desktop apps, I trust cloud more. Desktop apps are annoying and can get corrupted, as I suspect my file has become (pretty much using the same Money/Quicken file that was started in 1998, so yeah it probably became corrupted)
    – Of all the ones suggested, I have tried Countabout but support leaves a lot to be desired and I’m not sure it really be able to provide the level of tax reports I am looking for.
    It PAINS me to still be using Quicken, (hopefully 2018 tax year will be the last) and I would love to find that online solution asap to start 2019 taxes with a clean slate.

    1. Hey there,

      From what you’ve described, I would definitely look into Tiller. It started out mainly as a budgeting app, but it also runs reports on your annual spending by category and itemized deductions. The program automatically downloads your transactions and runs through Google Sheets, so it is cloud-based. Plus, it’s free for 30-days. You can use this (affiliate) link to learn more: https://clubthrifty.com/go/tiller20

      1. $59 per year is pretty steep from a cost perspective. You can get 2 years of Quicken Deluxe for $10 more. I’m not comparing the functionality of the two. One of the knocks against Quicken is that it changed its model to a yearly subscription service.

        1. That certainly is one knock against it, but most pay-to-play services have moved toward that model. People also use Quicken for different reasons (and have many different reasons for leaving), so the right program is always going to vary from person to person 🙂

          1. The one big negative I see with Tiller that stands out to me is the inability to reconcile transactions.

  31. Any info on Moneyspire as a good financial software?

  32. Is there any software that you can manually load checking acct tranactions via CSV or similar file and still track other accts online? I have checking and savings at a small credit union that does not have capabilities of allowing online linking and downloading like what seems to be almost every other financial establishment offers.

  33. Scott Sorensen says:

    I’ve been with Quicken sine 1995 but have finally and fully become fed up with Q. I want mac based (not cloud based) software and need to be able to port my data from Quicken. My needs are simple reports, and a checkbook type interface for tax purposes. I’ve narrowed my options to MoneyDance, as I understand that Banktivity is cloud based. All my devices are Apple. What do you recommend?

    1. I gave MoneyDance a spin a while ago, but I couldn’t effectively import my Quicken data into the program (I used Quicken just as long as you if not longer).

      1. Stewart Gooderman says:

        Quicken has never developed a way to effectively export its data to a standardized format so it can be used by another program. They promised it literally for decades and never came through. What I did and worked well for me is to consider everything on Quicken as legacy and begin anew with a new program like Moneydance. Back in 2006 when I did this, I doubled entry for three months, putting data into both programs, then kissed Quicken good-bye and have Quicken 2007 on my computer just to look at that data if absolutely necessary. As the years went by, I’ve opened it less and less so now I don’t open it at all, but it’s still there for reference.

      2. Recently, I did an export/import from Q to MD and was surprised at how well it went. I tried it a year or so ago, and it was a disaster. This time after seeing an article stating Q had stopped supporting the qfx format, i gave it a try for the hell of it, planning on complaining to Q. Waste of time I know, but it does make me feel better for a little bit. Anyhow, it wasn’t true and the import was quite a success. There is tons of stuff to clean up but there will be with any conversion. I haven’t completed the transition from Q because of other demands on my time but I am convinced it’s going to be successful. I’ve even re-imported some accounts after messing up balances by deleting obsolete accounts. I worked in accounting/finance for many small-to-medium nonprofits and ended up specializing in data conversion and there were always glitches and clean up to do. I am now convinced I will be able to leave Q, once and for all.

        1. quickdraw says:

          Donald, I would be very careful and not throw away Q any time soon. But it all depends on what you were using it for. If you didn’t have some of the more complex transactions, you might be fine. Most of those would be with investment accounts. See my other post.

          1. Thank you, quickdraw, for the caution. I definitely plan on running both until I’m sure things are good with MD. Five years ago, I made an archive file of Q to reduce the size of the data file and still have to pop it open so I assume the same thing will happen once I make the move. Portfolio does have some complex transactions and I think some will be a problem with MD. I haven’t fully delved into the MD investment transaction capabilities but at first glance I’m not seeing Return of Capital or Reinvested Income but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to come up with a work-around. I know how to make adjustments to keep portfolio in balance with statements and I retain cost documentation. I only have 12 stocks that would be affected by complexities, balance is mutual funds and preferred stocks. Less of a problem than Q dropping transactions and losing three months of reconciliations on banks and credit cards.

  34. I just gave Tiller a 30-day test run. I will say that Tiller makes categorizing transactions easier than any program I’ve used in the past. However, it was my experience that one really needs a PhD in spreadsheets in order to do much of the analysis and report running. I’ve used spreadsheets for 35 years , but I couldn’t get out of it what I needed without spending way too much time learning the techniques. To Tiller’s credit, they have a lot of help articles and videos. However, my time is much better spent with a simpler solution.

    To that end, I’ve been on the hunt for two years for the “perfect” Quicken replacement, but I don’t think it exists at this time. My current solution is to use Mint to manage and run analysis on my spending accounts (bank accounts, credit cards, mortgage, car loans, etc.) and Personal Capital for managing my investment accounts. I would move over to Personal Capital for everything if they would fix a few things. My biggest issue with Personal Capital is their inability to allow split transactions. Neither Mint nor Personal Capital allow for account reconciliations which would be a nice addition as well.

    1. I’ve read in other Mint/PC comparison reviews that Mint offers an “add a column” feature where users rely on the use of a column checkmark for transaction reconciliation. I am not sure if PC offers the same feature.

  35. quickdraw says:

    For many of us, who have significant historical data and relatively complex finances, Quicken is THE only option. I have tried many of the above solutions, endured hours of testing … only to find some major deal-breaker that was not obvious because of the slick, glitz and glam interfaces.

    Hate it if you will (as I sometimes do and have in the past), each one of these options above has its shortcomings, sometimes even more substantial than Quicken. However, if you are new to the world of money management and just starting out to use software to manage your finances, then one of these options may very well work for you, at least in the short run. But eventually, you will most likely realize the shortcomings of your chosen package. This could be related to reporting or tax tracking and include such things as return of capital, capital gains, short sales, stock splits, re-investments, etc. None of these solutions provide anywhere near the functionality that is available in Quicken, at least the ones that I have tried.

    Eventually, when and if these things become important to you, you will need to switch platforms to something like Quicken that can handle most anything you can throw at it.

    I don’t want to pay the annual fee, but until such time as there really is a true replacement, I guess I have no other choice.

    **For Canadians —> there are significant differences between Quicken US and Canadian versions. As always, the Canadian version is but the poorer “afterthought” of its feature-rich cousin. e.g. Quicken Canada version does not support downloading of investment transactions. (i.e. trades, dividends, interest) held in a brokerage account. Also, keep in mind that these solutions make little or no consideration for Canadians, so you won’t even be able to automatically download simple banking transactions with them. A non-starter for most of us.

  36. Salvatore cancellieri says:

    which alternative programs to quicken has the feature to automatically download the quicken data to the new software when installed?

  37. For several years I used MoneyCounts a very simple program but it was bought out and ended up being discarded by Intuit and users advised to use Quicken. I to want a simple program that will keep an electronic register on multiple bank accounts and capable of downloading bank transactions that is not cloud based.
    Some of the newer programs will do a wonderful job of budgeting but will not give a decent P&L or Income & Expense report that is helpful for the preparation of one’s tax reports.
    I tried Moneydance but could never link it to download transactions from any of my banks in mid-America. Would someone please come up with a simple accounting program. While not being a budgeting program per se if it had the capability of doing fund accounting an individual could allocate their income to the various funds and be directly subtracted when the expenditure account (whether called a Category of account is set up to come from a given fund) is posted to in the register.
    Vernon

  38. I have been using Quicken for 20 years.. probably since it first came out… I just got an update to my Quicken 2017 and now downloading transactions no longer works. When I attempt to download transactions, it starts and then causes Quicken to force close. Been going on for 4 weeks now. I keep submitting their force close error report but nobody does anything to fix it. I even installed 2017 on a second PC I have and it does the very same thing on it..

    I believe Quicken has done this on purpose to force people into their subscription service…

    With that said, I’m now hunting a replacement for Quicken.

    Depressing as I have learned all the ins and outs with quicken.. now I’ll have to learn something else.. dreadful. Lol

  39. Stewart Gooderman says:

    In your case, the question is whether the subscription service allows you to do what you want to do. If it does, then it might be better to just pay for the subscription service, or go back to the earlier version of Quicken that did what you wanted it to do and stay with that.

    That’s what I did with Moneydance. I’m using V2010 because all their updates since then force me to use two line splits which, in my case is extraordinary clutter. It still works with Mac OS 10 Mojave much to the amazement of the Moneydance staff since newer version don’t!

  40. Where do I start? Our financial structure has changed completely. We have 10 credit cards, 3 bank accounts, Roth, Soc Sec income, Rental income and mics. freelance jobs. I want to use an android/ cloud based system that i can merge all off the above to. Customer service is a big one too as I know just enough to really screw things up. I’m leaving Quick-books. It always had too many confusing facets. We don’t have employees. My accountant like QB for tax purposes. HELP I don’t have time to try 3 different apps. I think $50 a year , a good price

  41. As crazy as it may be, I’ve been using MS Money for years now and am still using it. I am on a MacBook Pro and run MS Money in Parallels. It is the only software that I run in Parallels because I can’t find a software package that can take its place, Period! I do use Mint for a quick look at finances and on my phone when away from home. Mint does a good job, but can’t replace the functionality of MS Money. I can forecast what ifs, download transactions to do check reconciliation, keep track of money transfers between accounts and do automatic transaction processing when I want to. Some transactions I prefer to do manually. I can change payment dates and control just about everything. There are some processes I lost when MS dropped support for this amazing software, but to this day I can not find a replacement for what was left. I would appreciate any suggestions you may have as a replacement for MS Money. Thanks……

  42. Moneyspire is definitely a worthy candidate to be on this list of Quicken alternatives…

  43. Zed Junkersen says:

    I have been using Quicken from 20+ years and it has ‘Just worked’ for what I need. I don’t have great connectivity living in rural Canada so online data models aren’t even something we can consider.
    The replacement has to be installed locally on the PC and the data, yup, no trust in online, has to be kept local on the hard drive.
    I can connect to register and get updates as well as download my transactions.
    Suggestions welcomed . . .

  44. Paul Hypki says:

    I just spent an hour in chat support with Quicken tonight. I couldn’t connect to my credit card account online anymore to download transactions. They informed me that their software had a problem and I can no longer use special characters in my banking passwords. I informed them that securing my bank accounts is very important to me and I can no longer use Quicken. I am outraged at their betrayal in making this change without informing their customers.

    1. Stewart gooderman says:

      That’s classic for Intuit.

  45. Greg Goetz says:

    Will Quicken, as we know it, be completely out of business soon? That was the impression I got from the article, but I’ve just been a one or two year extension for my account? Will they still be arounf in two years

  46. I too am looking for an alternative for Quicken. I’m still hoping my mother can find the disk at her house so I can install it on my new laptop! I simply want the ability to manually enter transactions and manually reconcile my bank accounts. I never allowed Quicken to connect to my accounts. I want the program physically installed and files stored on my computer, don’t like the cloud options either. I don’t currently use budgeting, investment tracking, or bill pay. I do like entering when bill payments are due however. Since we can’t itemize taxes anymore, I don’t even run any reports. Basically a checkbook register. Running Windows 10. I may just continue using my old laptop for Quicken if I can’t figure something out. Paying for a yearly subscription isn’t a wise use of my money.

    1. That large standard deduction is set to expire in 2025 or 26, I believe. So I’d be cautious about getting out of the habit of itemizing. I’m trying to hit a middle ground, acting as if I’m itemizing bot not running the reports or worrying about the detail too much. If you don’t find your disc, MoneyDance is a good alternative. Fifty bucks and your done until you want to upgrade. I’m moving to MD but taking my time and running parallel.

    2. I’m also interested in dumping Quicken. ALL I wanted and needed was a checkbook program for home, to import Microsoft Money from, when that was discontinued. But Quicken looks unstable, with it’s flashing screens, and now that it was bought out, they have NAGS all the time, to upgrade from the version I have. I’m sick of it. So when you say “free” above, is it free trial, or free permanently? Like I said, ALL I need is a checkbook program on my PC, that can import from Quicken and last me for YEARS!

    3. John straub says:

      BETH. What version of Quicken are you running and does it work well on Windows 10?

    4. Jeanine Schmidt says:

      I hear you. I don’t download anything from the bank or mutual funds; I can do it myself. I have just used QuickBooks; then Quicken for so long I don’t want to learn anything new…senior here. I have been reading these reviews but there are no dates to know when anyone posted them.
      Just want a ‘Quicken ‘ish’ program without automatic anything. HELP.

  47. I cannot tell from any of your descriptions who has access to your account #’s. I simply will not turn over account #’s to outsiders, e.g. downloading bank info and I didn’t see anything said about that aspect.

  48. I use Quicken 2011 and really like the standard “check register” look. I need two things in a replacement for Quicken-the check register look and feel and ability to import data history from Quicken 2011. Any suggestions.
    Many thanks for the help

  49. Do you know if MoneyDance can be used with any currency – especially Naira?

  50. Charles Gribble says:

    PersonalCapital weaned me away from almost everything else. For a retiree who relies on investments and investing, it’s the cats meow.

  51. Even with a portfolio that includes business income, real estate, and paper assets, I have never found a need to move away from Excel where I can custom design my fields and how I track them.

  52. Donald Mcneilly says:

    Nice that you have either so little activity or, lots of time to manually enter all your transactions rather than downloading them. Or, have you found a way of importing into Excel?

  53. Gary Luis says:

    Personal Editor’s choice seems a bit like spam in that you have to give strangers access to all your accounts. And there are payments for that in that they manage or assist you with your accounts. I don’t know about anyone here, but none of the mentioned software is free. You may end up with a free trial but no, it’s not free to use past the trial date. So there isn’t anything available today to allow you to load a program onto your desktop to have the data ‘sit’ on your desktop. My worry is that if you don’t subscribe, they may lock you out of your own account. Everything now is becoming cloud based.

  54. I also love Personal Capital as a way to see a full financial snapshot in real time. Keeping a close tab on my financial situation has made it easier for me to budget and save money. Thanks for providing this list. I definitely want to check out a few of the other tools you recommend.

  55. I was so close to pulling the trigger on Moneydance, only to discover that direct connect is the only option for downloading transactions, which is not supported by half my accounts. Dear lord I don’t want to have to buy another year of Quicken. Tried Moneywiz and it might be a usable alternative.

  56. Michael Black says:

    Have been using Quicken 2003 for years, I work as a Contract Draftsman [Sole Trader] and issue an invoice for my wages. As Quicken is finally defunct, I am looking for a replacement that has invoices and is suitable to the Australian Tax System. The invoice also contains a second entry as a negative amont [Salary Sacrifice]. I don’t see any mention about invoices on the above recommendations. Will any of those do invoices?

    1. Wave Financial (waveapps.com) will let you create invoices for free and it works pretty well for tracking them. I don’t know about the taxes portion.

      1. Michael Black says:

        Thank you, Wave does it all and more. Easily replaced Quickbooks 2003 for small business.

  57. I use Quicken to balance and monitor my checking and credit card accounts – for no other purpose than that. My 2017 is expiring and now Quicken wants $30/year, which is steep. When I read these reviews, they seem to be about tracking investments, which is not what I use Quicken for.
    So when looking for alternatives to Quicken, it is crucial for me that the software connect easily to the institutions that I deal with, download the transactions and compare them to what I enter.
    In reading other reviews, I see Moneyspire as a good replacement program for Quicken to check transactions. It is not reviewed here. Was wondering if anyone has tried it.

    1. Perhaps something like clearcheckbook.com would what you’re looking for.

  58. sharkbite says:

    Another long-time Quicken user here. I upgraded to Home & Business about a decade ago and I use it for my very basic invoicing and for tracking small business accounts for 6 or 7 very, very small LLCs. I also have multiple accounts for my personal banking – multiple banks, credit cards, loans, etc. I use the direct connection to my banks to download data and that’s probably the most important thing since I have so many accounts.

    I don’t care about budgeting or forecasting, etc. I wish Quicken had better reporting but I’ve learned to muddle along with what I’ve got.

    Deal breaker: Cloud-based software – NO, NO, NO. I will not consider any software that keeps any of my personal data (banks, account numbers, etc) anywhere but on my personal disk. Just NO. I won’t even use Quicken on a wireless computer – my desktop computer is wired to my router. And I use a VPN.

    I don’t want subscription-based software. PERIOD. If Quicken wants me to buy new versions, let them fix some bugs, upgrade their features, etc. I have been in the habit of upgrading my Quicken every 2 to 3 years.

    If someone out there has found something useful – I’m willing to buy it. Not willing to subscribe to it.

    1. I agree with everything that Sharbite wrote.

  59. Quicken has poor customer service. I asked a question on their forum. A top contributor did not read my question and typed in nonsense. I called this person out and said, read the question before running your mouth and Quicken blocked me because I was the bad person in their scenario. Quicken is stupid.

    I am looking for a replacement. I have no need for rental (subscription) nonsense. I want to privately manage my savings and checking accounts with the use of charts.

  60. garry potts says:

    I was thinking about putting out the word that of any of our participants here do bookkeeping as part of their job and want to help me transition from Quicken to….? I would be interested in hiring him/her, but this forum doesn’t let me share my e-address. Is there any way to connect us? (BTW, I’m not actually ready to roll quite yet. I have a lot of Quicken-ugly data that needs to be cleaned up before it’s ready to export!) GP

  61. My Quicken 2017 broke for downloading starting in May 2020. It appears that Quicken has disabled the function. Breaking software that I purchased should be illegal.

    Most of my activity is via credit cards. I have their Apps and they text me whenever we use the cards. I just manually enter that into Quicken now.

    Quicken sends me offers of 30% off, but it is the same amount off that new people get, which is advertised as 40% off.

  62. Wow, the fact that there are 18 software programs to review reminds me why we don’t use a software program to manage our money. We use Excel spreadsheets. We have one for our credit cards, one for our real estate, one for our consulting business, and some ad hoc ones where we track categories we want to drill down on like travel. Excel gives us all the info we need, and I find the simpler the better.

  63. agree with Sharkbite…The only option IMHO is one that is NOT cloud based. Why is everyone willing to give these companies all their personal financial information for a little convenience and store it on their servers? Think about the data they’re gathering about your habits. We need a journalist that writes to that and a version that simply resides on our PCs/Mac to keep it private. Quicken still allows you to do that, (no account downloads) I still manually reconcile accounts and lately they’re removing features bit by bit with forced updates. They’re intentionally doing this to force people to their subscription. Can anyone program a standalone financial tracking software?

  64. We’ve been using BudgetMyWay.com for some time. It is a little rough around the edges and getting it setup can be better. But once you’re rolling it just fits into your grove. Grab a coffee, add an expense. Keep in mind they don’t have any of the “bank connectors”, some might think that’s a downside, but I like the manual entry plus no privacy concerns.

  65. I had several issues with Quicken and had a hate hate relationship with them. I recently(July 2021) switched to Countabout because I was looking for something for budgeting and reports for tax time. The fact that I could transfer my data from Quicken to Countabout was also an extremely influential factor. I have had so many issues with downloading transactions I am looking to change again. I paid for the premium and have been left extremely disappointed. One of my accounts has yet to complete even one single download. They keep attempting to “repair” it but I still waiting after months. I would not recommend it unless you are looking for fresh ways to be frustrated unfortunately.

  66. How is Personal Capital free? Do they use a “FB model” of constant ads popup and data harvesting? I am seriously exploring alternatives to Quicken. However, I don’t want intrusion. How does Personal Capital make money for themselves… to stay in business?

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