Dec 21, 2018 Tens of millions of people looking to manage their finances without the work, however, have flocked to Inuit's - Get Report budget app Mint - popular for its easy and free budgeting services. Mint is occasionally compared to Quicken, which is also a money management software. One Mint.com review by TopTenReviews points out a few differences: Mint is an online service, Quicken is a personal budget software program; Mint works well for Mac, PC, and mobile devices whereas Quicken is best on a PC. Mint can create a budget based on your actual spending, or you can create your own. Track your spending, find places to cut back, and set realistic goals you can stick to. You'll be on track in no time. Trusted, safe & secure. Mint: This is a free budgeting app developed by Intuit, the same company responsible for Quicken. Mint is free to download and use. Once you install it, you sync it to your bank and credit card accounts, and it pulls all that information into one main dashboard. Jun 17, 2020 Mint is a well-known and popular app, and it shares several similar features with Quicken. Intuit once owned Quicken, then it purchased Mint in 2009—thus the similarities. But Mint is different from Quicken in an important way: it is free.
Budgeting is a discipline that’s not often met with excitement. Many assume that budgeting is something reserved for companies or, say, freelance workers. However, personal budget software is just as important as corporate one — it’s a fundamental understanding of where money is coming and going.
You may consider it to be boring, tiring, time-consuming, or difficult, but managing your finances well can help you achieve goals and stave off the stress of a rainy day. Thankfully, there are tools and apps on Mac which can help you get on top of budgeting, no matter how experienced you are.
Why Should I Use Budget Tracking Software?
If you haven’t done a budget before, you should start now. You never know when you might need a particular sum of money to solve an issue, meet a goal, or take advantage of a sudden opportunity.
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Budget programs help you reduce the stress and uncertainty that comes with not knowing where you stand financially. If you don’t have a home budget software, you might be tracking towards a situation where you run out of money, without even knowing it. If you do have a budget, then you’ll have a documented plan of action to improve your situation.
Importantly, you don’t need any qualifications to do a budget, nor do you need to be good with numbers. Take advantage of the best budget software for Mac to help you take control of your finances without the hassle. Budgeting tools come in many shapes and sizes, so selecting the right one for you depends on personal preference and previous experience with managing money.
Handy tips for budgeting tools
If you’re ready to start your budget, it’s best to consider a strategic approach to ensure maximum utility. Too often, budgets sit collecting dust after being created, and sometimes the act of creating a budget could feel like enough to satisfy financial concerns — it’s not. Here are some tips for making the most out of your budget.
First of all, definitely use an app to help you manage a budget. App developers invest a lot of time and money into figuring out how their software can make your life easier and better, so rather than trying to understand all the nuances for yourself, let a dedicated app do it for you. There’s even some free budget software around, so you have very few excuses not to try!
If you run a business (or freelance on a side), a little bit of work each week means end of year taxes are a breeze. It’s not about doing a marathon of work in a few days, but making a habit to consistently do a little bit here and there. Try aiming for 10 minutes every few days. The best tax preparation software will also have reminders and notifications to help you achieve this goal.
It might sound contradictory, but budgeting isn’t always about getting the numbers 100% accurate. When it comes to tax preparation software — sure. But budgeting is mostly about understanding where your money is being spent and then using that information to make more informed decisions going forward. Therefore, make sure you categorize your transactions so that it’s easier to spot those minutiae differences and trends. The best finance apps should do this for you automatically.
In summary, you want to ensure you take advantage of the online budgeting tools available to you, aim to update your records frequently, and focus on categorization over accuracy.
Features of good personal budget software
The best personal budget software for Mac is easier to pin down when you know exactly what you’re looking for. Not all apps are the same — they vary by function and pricing. Generally speaking, there are a few key features you want to see in your budget software for Mac:
Out of those five key points, the ability to import is often the most essential. Importing saves you the hassle of adding each transaction into the money management software line-by-line, which adds up to a lot of time. It’s hard enough already to schedule frequent updates to your budget, so if you can remove the largest friction point of manual entry, then you’re in a good place.
The best budget software for Mac comparison
When it comes to programs to help budget money, there are countless options. It’s easy to get lost diving deep into each budget software review, but here are some of the best available, ranging from beautifully basic to powerfully advanced.
You’ve probably heard of Quicken, given that the name has been around since the early 80s. Even then, it was known as one of the best tax software companies around. That says something about the strong product, which carries all of the basic functions you’ll need to manage your budget well.
Right away though, you might notice that the interface has become somewhat dated in comparison to the newer contenders out there. But one of Quicken’s praised features is the ability to download bank statements and have the records automatically categorized, which can drastically reduce the time it takes to input your information, so you can spend more time making sense of it. Sadly, the Mac version is somewhat limited when it comes to advanced features, unless you splash out for the Home and Business edition.
MoneyDance is very similar to Quicken in terms of its basic features, including the ability to create a budget with notifications for bills and invoices. It also allows you to make your own charts and graphs to monitor spending habits over time, which can be seen on the homepage for a quick glance of your activity. Out-of-the-box integrations with online banking services also make it easy to send payments.
Unlike Quicken, Moneydance has some more advanced features including an investment monitor, which tracks your investments and their fluctuations — a useful addition, although best for the intermediate to advanced user. The app also has a developer API system in place to allow extended functions, mostly good for power users. Importantly, security is not an issue, as Moneydance utilizes end-to-end encryption for your data to give you that extra peace of mind.
You Need A Budget, also known as YNAB, is budget tracking software that runs on both Windows and Mac via web — saving automatically to the cloud, which is a bonus for multi-platform users. It also features native apps for iOS and Android, so you can literally tackle your budget from anywhere.
The app itself follows a simple design language, which is perfect for beginners, but if you find yourself needing help you can sign up for a personal instructor. YNAB doesn’t let you slack at all, and if you start to stray from your budget, the app will raise a red flag through it’s built-in Accountability Partner.
Although YNAB doesn’t support the ability to download and automatically categorize records from bank statements, it could be argued that entering them manually helps the user pay more attention to where their spending is going. Still, it’s a more time-consuming process that might be problematic for users processing hundreds or more records each month.
MoneyWiz stays true to its name — a comprehensive budget software and investment tracker that’s packed full with over 400 useful features. View your financial situation quickly by browsing accounts, groups, or searching for individual records. Speaking of records, you can enter them manually or have them automatically sync with leading banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and financial services for an accurate real-time understanding of your accounts.
With all of this data in hand, MoneyWiz can prepare and export over 50 reports to help you gain deeper insights into your finances. Your data could be accessed from its cloud-based app or straight from the native software for Mac. All in all, MoneyWiz is extremely powerful: accessible for beginners and interesting for the most advanced users.
Receipts is yet another money management software for Mac, and is specifically well-known for its clever handling of invoicing. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, Receipts automatically reads and translates important information about your bills, such as amount, date, currency, and more (even if the text is in another language).
Besides, Receipts can issue payments for invoices directly using third-party providers, such as iFinance and BankX. The OCR technology alone makes it a strong contender against other more simple online budgeting tools. Not least, Mac users will be glad to see how this application was designed to look and feel like a macOS product. Using a familiar user interface could make life a little easier after all.
Between the five options above, you have a strong starting point for your budgeting tools depending on your experience. Remember that importing is one of the key features to look for in budget programs. Still, in order to find the best fit you might need to try a couple of different options.
Thankfully, both MoneyWiz and Receipts have a free 7-day trial that you can take advantage of by heading over to Setapp, an app subscription service for Mac that gives you access to over 150 macOS apps, including all the necessary budget tools. Getting MoneyWiz and Receipts at once? You won’t be disappointed.
Are you ready to move on from Mint? Is Mint no longer synching with some of your accounts?
If so, we will cover some of the best Mint alternatives and why you should consider the hassle of switching to another budgeting and money management software.
Mint was a great personal finance tool but competitors have caught up.
When Mint.com first arrived on the scene, it was a revelation.
Here's a free service that would aggregate all of your credit card spending and take away one of the biggest time sucks in responsible money management. In one fell swoop, you had yourself a budget just by linking up your financial accounts.
Sure, there were initial hiccups. Categorization was a pain, the tools around managing your budget were raw, but Mint.com grew itself from a disruptor of Quicken to a full-fledged competitor. So much so that Intuit would buy Mint.com in 2009 for $170 million, shut down Quicken Online, and sell Quicken to another company.
It's been over a decade since Mint.com's launch in March 2006. At that time a lot has changed. A new crop of startups, Mint alternatives if you will, built on fresh new technology and an eye to disrupt the once-disruptor.
If you're looking to move on (and if you're tired of constantly fixing your account connections!), you might find your next favorite from this list! Behringer xr18 software download mac.
Our Favorites
Why It'll Work For You
Personal Capital is our Editor's Pick as the best Mint alternative because they do the best job capturing your finances holistically. It has the best suite of investment tools available plus a robust budgeting system too. And it's free.
Hands down the best budget transition software available – it's more than just a tracker. They have these four “rules” that help change your relationship with your budget. It's a methodology on top of a tool.
Now for more in-depth looks at these and more…
Mint Alternatives:
1. Personal Capital
My personal favorite of the Mint alternatives is Personal Capital. It's web-based, focused on investing but with an eye towards tracking expenses and budgeting, and free.
Our Personal Capital review explains the service in greater detail, including how it fits in our financial workflow, but this post on why I switched from Mint to Personal Capital highlights the big reasons why I personally made the switch.
The tl;dr on why I switched was that Personal Capital has a suite of investing related tools that Mint simply doesn't. I was less interested in the expense tracking features and more interested in getting a better handle on where my investments were, whether I was doing it right, and Mint wasn't cutting it anymore. With Mint, I feel like you're looking backward. With PC, I feel like I have a better idea of where I'm going; if that makes any sense.
Like Mint, and many of the alternatives on this page, Personal Capital is free.
Mint App For Mac2. You Need a Budget
Mint is a powerful tracker but if you want to really get a handle on your budget, you need to be looking forwards and not backwards. https://wikisite520.weebly.com/blog/mac-android-texting-desktop-app. You Need a Budget, also known as YNAB, is great for budgeting for this very reason because it relies on zero-based budgeting and projecting your budget forward. (check out this head to head YNAB vs. Mint post for specifics)
YNAB focuses on four rules – Give Every Dollar a Job (ie. zero-based budgeting), Embrace Your True Expenses, Roll With The Punches, and Age Your Money – which helps you take what you're doing now and put it in a framework that sets you up for financial and budgeting success into the future.
YNAB has a $5 monthly fee ($50 if you pay annually) after an initial 34-day free trial.
(or, read our You Need a Budget review for more) 3. Tiller
If you prefer taking everything in-house and tracking your budget with a spreadsheet, Tiller is the only option on the list that lets you do that. With Tiller, you put your budget into a Google spreadsheet and they do the work of pulling your transaction data from your various financial institutions.
Founded in 2015, it's the only service that will sync your financial transactions into a completely customizable spreadsheet. It's not free though, it's $5 a month, but you get access to a ton of templates to get your spreadsheet started. (our review of Tiller)
(There's a free 30-day trial.) 4. PocketSmith
PocketSmith is a fully featured budgeting tool that leans on calendars and the idea of “event-based budgeting.” Rather than viewing your transactions strictly as a ledger, the approach uses a calendar and tracks recurring expenses alongside one-time transactions to give you a better understand of your spending. It's a novel approach to budgeting and could be helpful for those who are more visual.
PocketSmith has a free option that makes you manually import transactions, 12 budgets, 2 accounts, and projections for 6 months out. Mac add apps to launchpad. Premium ($9.95/mo) will get you automatic transaction importing, unlimited budgets, 10 accounts and 10 years of projections. Super ($19.95/mo) gives you unlimited accounts and 30 years of projections.
We have a special coupon code that gives you 50% off the first two months of Premium – make sure to enter the code 50OFFPREMIUM-5G7T for 50% off the first two months.
5. Quicken
If putting your data into the cloud worries you and you thought Quicken might be the answer, I have bad news – Quicken puts your data in the cloud now too. But like everyone else, they have bank level security so it shouldn't be too much of a worry.
One thing that Quicken does offer that these other services don't is the ability to set up bill pay, which works well for some of those smaller banks that don't offer it though it comes with a fee. It also pulls your home value information via Zillow, if that is important to you.
Quicken is a software application you purchase (starts around $30 for the Starter Edition but quickly goes up) and downloads to your computer (or mobile device).
(also worth noting, Quicken recently released Simplifi by Quicken, a personal finance app)
6. EveryDollar
EveryDollar is a budgeting tool affiliated with Dave Ramsey (Lampo Group) and works off the principle of zero-based budgeting. It's a very beautiful looking app, available on iPhone and Android, and you have the option of using the free version of the paid Plus version ($129/year).
Home Budget For Mac
The big difference between the free version and the paid version is that the paid version has phone support and automated transaction imports/downloads (this is a huge difference). So unless you pay, you have to manually enter transactions. We take a look, with screenshots, at how Everydollar works firsthand.
7. GoodBudget
Do you like the idea of envelope budgeting? If so, GoodBudget is a free budgeting app based on that method.
If you aren't familiar, envelope budgeting is where you set your budget ahead of time (rather than just tracking) into categories, which you track with envelopes of money. You don't have to use envelopes or cash but the genesis of the idea is based on actual cash in envelopes. You spend down the amounts in your envelopes and you can borrow from different envelopes if you overspend in a category.
This method is popular because it abandons credit cards as a tool, which is more often than not a detriment anyway. GoodBudget uses technology to help you manage it without envelopes and can synch with your bank to track spending and income. It's available for both iOS and Android phones.
8. MoneyDanceMint Finance Software
You may be surprised to know that MoneyDance is one of the very few personal finance tools that does not upload your data to the cloud. They offer the ability to link accounts online for automatic transaction updates or you can do everything manually.
It was lauded by the Washington Post as being a solid contender to Quicken (and thus Mint) and they offer a free trial plus a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Mint App Mac
While I haven't personally used it, I've heard good things and it's one of the few options that keep your data local. If that's important to you, give it a look.
9. CountAbout
CountAbout was built to solve the headaches of Quicken users and was founded in July of 2012. It is one of the few personal finance apps that can import data from Quicken and mint, which makes a transition to this app much less painful if you're a data junkie. Unlike Mint, it's not free but the price point is very affordable – $9.99 per year for the Basic product and $39.99 per year for the Premium. (the main difference is that Premium supports automatic downloading of transactions, Basic does not)
10. PocketGuard
PocketGuard is a freemium budgeting app that can link up all your financial accounts in one place – from credit cards to banking to investments to loans, it's a full spectrum of your finances while adding in a savings component by giving you recommendations on where you can save. You can also build a personalized budget using your data as a baseline and then use it to help set goals for yourself.
The free version has much of the same features as Mint but the Plus, which is $3.99 per month or $34.99 per year, lets you add new categories and track cash transactions.
11. Banktivity
Banktivity is a personal finance money manager built specifically for the MacOS – which is surprisingly rare. It works on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone and syncs your data on the cloud so you're always up to date. Banktivity's features include budgeting, tracking spending, scheduling and paying bills, monitoring your investments (including real estate), and pulling data from financial institutions.
It also has some great reporting features that, if you're a report junkie like me, you will probably really enjoy building, tweaking, and rebuilding. It is not free, it costs a one-time fee of $69.99 but there is a 30-day trial (no credit card required).
Best Budget Software For Mac12. WallyBudgeting Software For Mac
Wally is one of the newer entrants but it's a budgeting only tool. It's very well designed that helps you track spending and fully understand your budget, with only a few hiccups that are to be expected from a new-ish tool. The one downside and this is probably because they are completely free, is that you can't download transactions. You have to manually enter them in which can be a good thing. If it's not automatic, it means you don't have to log into your accounts through the tool, in case security is a concern for you.
What do you think? Will one of these replace Mint for you?
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