The best Mint alternatives to replace the budgeting app that shut down
If you were a long-time Mint user, you probably felt the same frustration I did when Intuit announced it was shutting down the beloved budgeting app at the end of 2023. For years, Mint made it effortless to track all your accounts in one place, monitor credit scores, set financial goals, and generally keep your money management on autopilot. Its disappearance left millions of us scrambling for a replacement.
I gave Credit Karma—Intuit's other financial app—a try, hoping for a seamless transition. Unfortunately, it proved to be a poor Mint substitute, lacking the comprehensive budgeting tools that made the original so useful. So I set out on a mission: test the most popular Mint alternatives available today to find my next budgeting companion.
Our pick for best Mint alternative remains Quicken Simplifi, even months after Mint shut down, thanks to its easy-to-use interface, accurate income and bill detection, and affordable price. But plenty of other solid options exist for those with different needs. If you're also hunting for a personal finance app to replace Mint, I hope these detailed insights help you decide which of the best budgeting apps out there will be right for you.
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Best Mint alternatives in 2026
Best overall: Quicken Simplifi
Quicken Simplifi costs $4 monthly and delivers a complete, easy-to-use experience that feels the most like Mint. It tracks spending comprehensively, handles investment tracking, links to all your bank accounts, and offers both iOS and Android mobile apps.
What I appreciate about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. While other budgeting apps try to distinguish themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi maintains a clean user interface. Its landing page lets you scroll through a detailed overview of all your stats: top-line balances, net worth, recent spending, upcoming recurring payments, a snapshot of your spending plan, top spending categories, achievements, and any watchlists you've set up. The user interface feels intuitive without being overwhelming.
Another key feature I value is the ability to set up savings goals elsewhere in the app. I also love how it offers neat, almost playful visualizations without ever feeling cluttered. I felt at home in both the mobile and web dashboards after about a day—much faster than I adapted to competing services like YNAB and Monarch Money.
Getting set up with Simplifi was mostly painless. I was particularly impressed at how easily it connected to Fidelity; not all budget trackers manage this well. This is also one of the only services I tested that lets you invite a spouse or financial advisor to co-manage your account. Having used it for several months now, I do wish Simplifi offered Zillow integration for easily tracking your home value (or at least a rough estimate). Various competitors including Monarch Money and Copilot Money work with Zillow, so clearly an API is available. As it stands, Simplifi users must add real estate manually like any other asset.
In practice, Simplifi miscategorized some expenses, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to other budget trackers. As you review transactions, you can mark if you're expecting a refund—a unique feature among services I tested. Simplifi also estimated my regular income better than some other apps. Most of all, I appreciated being able to categorize some (but not all) purchases from a merchant as recurring. For instance, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring payments without creating a broad-strokes rule for every Amazon purchase.
The budgeting feature is self-explanatory and can likely accommodate your preferred budgeting method. Just ensure your regular income is accurate and set up recurring payments, noting which are bills and which are subscriptions. This matters because Simplifi shows your total take-home income as well as an "income after bills" figure—which includes bills but not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you can add spending targets by category in the "planned spending" bucket. Planned spending can also include one-time expenditures, not just monthly budgets. When you create a budget, Simplifi suggests a number based on a six-month average.
Not dealbreakers, but two things to keep in mind as you get started: Simplifi notably doesn't allow account setup through Apple or Google, and there's no free trial option, though Quicken promises a "30-day money back guarantee."
Best for power users: Monarch Money
Monarch Money starts at $9 monthly and offers a robust budgeting experience with extensive customization options. It tracks spending, handles investments, connects to bank accounts, and provides both iOS and Android apps along with web access.
Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of this budgeting app—founded by a former Mint product manager—was that it's more difficult to use than others on this list, including Simplifi, NerdWallet, and Copilot. And it is. Editing expense categories, adding recurring transactions, and creating rules is a bit more complicated than necessary, especially in the mobile app. (My advice: Use the web app for fine-tuning details.) Monarch also didn't get my income right; I had to edit it manually.
Once you're set up, though, Monarch offers impressive granularity. In the budgets section, you'll find a bona fide balance sheet showing budgets and actuals for each category, plus a forecast for the year or by month. Recurring expenses can be set not just by merchant but by other parameters as well. For instance, while most Amazon purchases might be marked as "shopping," those for specific amounts like $54.18 or $34.18 are definitely baby supplies—and can be automatically marked as such each time, not to mention programmed as recurring payments. Weirdly, though, there's no way to mark certain recurring payments as bills specifically.
Not long after I first published this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced a detailed reporting section where you can create on-demand graphs based on accounts, categories, and tags. This feature is currently available only on the web version. As part of this same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that makes it possible to automatically update your car's value. This, combined with the existing Zillow integration for tracking home value, makes it easy to quickly add non-liquid assets like vehicles or real estate and have them show up in your net worth graph.
The mobile app is mostly self-explanatory. The main dashboard shows your net worth, four most recent transactions, month-over-month spending comparison, income month-to-date, upcoming bills, investments snapshot, any goals you've set, and a link to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is more detailed than most, delving into cash flow, top income and expense categories, cash flow trends, changes to your net worth, assets and liabilities, plus asset and liability breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded the net worth graph so you can see how your net worth changed over different periods: one month, three months, six months, a year, or all time.
On the main screen, you'll also find tabs for accounts, transactions, cash flow, budget, and recurring. Like many other apps featured here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring expenses and income, even if it occasionally gets categories wrong. (They all do to an extent.) Expense categories are marked by emoji, which you can customize if you're so inclined.
Monarch Money uses a combination of networks to connect with banks, including Plaid, MX, and Finicity (a competing network owned by Mastercard). As part of a late December update, Monarch made it easier to connect through those other networks if Plaid fails. Notably, Monarch is the only other app I tested besides Simplifi that allows you to grant access to someone else in your family—likely a spouse or financial advisor. Monarch also has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, though this is really just a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you'll have to do regardless of where you choose to take your Mint data.
Additionally, Monarch recently added the ability to track Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings accounts, thanks to new functionality brought with iOS 17.4. It's not the only one—Copilot and YNAB have also added similar functionality for devices running iOS 17.4. Instead of manually uploading statements, this new functionality allows apps like Monarch to automatically pull in transactions and balance history, making it easier to account for spending on Apple cards and accounts throughout the month.
Monarch also recently launched investment transactions in beta and says bill tracking and an overhauled goals system are coming soon (though no timeline has been provided for the latter).
Best designed (iOS only): Copilot Money
Copilot Money starts at $8 monthly and delivers a beautifully designed experience exclusively for iOS and Mac users, though Android and web versions are promised for 2024. It tracks spending comprehensively, handles investment tracking, links to bank accounts, and offers a standalone Mac app alongside the iOS version.
Copilot Money might be the best-looking budgeting app I tested. It also has the distinction of being exclusive to iOS and Macs—at least for now. Andres Ugarte, the company's CEO, has publicly promised that Android and web apps are coming in 2024. But until it follows through, I can't recommend Copilot for most people when so many good competitors are available across all platforms.
There are other features Copilot is missing, which I'll get into. But it is promising and one to keep an eye on. It's a fast, efficient, well-designed app, and Android users will be in for a treat when they can finally download it. Copilot makes excellent use of colors, emoji, and graphs to help you understand at a glance how you're doing on everything from your budgets to your investment performance to your credit card debt over time. In particular, Copilot does a better job than almost any other app of visualizing your recurring monthly expenses.
Behind those punchy colors and cutesy emoji, though, is some sophisticated performance. Copilot's AI-powered "Intelligence" gets smarter as you go at categorizing your expenses. (You can also add your own categories, complete with your choice of emoji.) It's not perfect—Copilot miscategorized some purchases (they all do)—but it makes editing easier than most. On top of that, the internal search feature is very fast; it starts whittling down results in your transaction history as soon as you begin typing.
Copilot is also unique in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations, allowing you to see transaction details. With Amazon, this requires just signing into your Amazon account via an in-app browser. For Venmo, you have to set up fwd@copilot.money as a forwarding address and create a filter wherein emails from venmo@venmo.com are automatically forwarded. Like Monarch Money, you can also add any property you own and track its value through Zillow, which is integrated with the app.
While the app is heavily automated, I still appreciate that Copilot marks new transactions for review. It's a good way to both weed out fraudulent charges and be somewhat intentional about your spending habits.
Like Monarch Money, Copilot updated its app to make it easier to connect to banks through networks other than Plaid. As part of the same update, Copilot said it has improved its connections to both American Express and Fidelity—which can be problematic for some budget tracking apps. In an even more recent update, Copilot added a Mint import option, which other budgeting apps have begun to offer as well.
Because the app is relatively new (launched in early 2020), the company is still catching up to the competition on some table-stakes features. Ugarte told me that his team is almost done building out a detailed cash flow section. On its website, Copilot also promises a raft of AI-powered features that build on its current "Intelligence" platform, including "smart financial goals," natural language search, a chat interface, forecasting, and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte explains, is meant to give people a sense of how they're doing compared to other Copilot users, on both spending and investment performance. Most of these features should arrive in the new year.
Copilot does a couple interesting things for new customers that distinguish it from the competition. There's a "demo mode" that feels like a game simulator—no need to add your own accounts. The company is also offering two free months with code RIPMINT—a more generous introductory offer than most. When it finally does come time to pay, the $7.92 monthly plan is cheaper than some competing apps, although the $95 annual option is in the same ballpark.
Best free option: NerdWallet
NerdWallet offers the best free budget tracking app available, with no cost whatsoever and surprisingly few compromises besides the ever-present advertisements. It tracks spending comprehensively, handles investment tracking, connects to bank accounts, and provides both iOS and Android mobile apps along with web access.
You may know NerdWallet as a site that offers a mix of personal finance news, explainers, and guides. I see it often when I google a financial term I don't know, and it's one of the sites I'm most likely to click on. As it happens, NerdWallet also has the distinction of offering one of the only free budgeting apps I tested. In fact, there is no paid version; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The main catch: There are ads everywhere. To be fair, the free version of Mint was like this, too.
Even with the inescapable credit card offers, NerdWallet has a clean, easy-to-understand user interface. The key metrics it highlights most prominently are your cash flow, net worth, and credit score. (Of note, although Mint itself offered credit score monitoring, most of its rivals do not.) I particularly enjoyed the weekly insights, which delve into things like where you spent the most money or how much you paid in fees—and how that compares to the previous month. Because this is NerdWallet—an encyclopedia of financial info—you get some particularly specific category options when setting up your accounts (think: a Roth or non-Roth IRA).
As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is more than serviceable, if a bit basic. Like other apps I tested, you can set up recurring bills. Importantly, it follows the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you putting 50% of your budget toward needs, 30% toward wants, and the remaining 20% into savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, great—just know that you can't customize your budget to the same degree as some competing apps. You can't currently create custom spending categories, though a note inside the dashboard section of the app says "you'll be able to customize them in the future." You also can't move items from wants to needs or vice versa, but "In the future, you'll be able to move specific transactions to actively manage what falls into each group." A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to provide an ETA.
Lastly, it's worth noting that NerdWallet had one of the most onerous setup processes of any app I tested. I don't think this is a dealbreaker, as you'll only have to do it once and hopefully aren't setting up six or seven apps simultaneously as I was. What made NerdWallet's onboarding especially tedious is that every time I wanted to add an account, I had to go through two-factor authentication to even get past the Plaid splash screen—and that's not including the 2FA I had set up at each of my banks. This is a security policy on NerdWallet's end, not Plaid's, a Plaid spokesperson says.
Precisely because NerdWallet is one of the only budget trackers to offer credit score monitoring, it also needs more personal info during setup, including your birthday, address, phone number, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. (Credit Karma, which also does credit score monitoring, requires similar information.)
Related to the setup process, I found that NerdWallet was less adept than other apps at automatically detecting my regular income. In my case, it counted a large one-time wire transfer as income, at which point my only other option was to enter my income manually—slightly annoying because I would have needed my pay stub handy to double-check my take-home pay.
Best for hands-on budgeting: YNAB (You Need a Budget)
YNAB (You Need a Budget) starts at $8 monthly and promotes a transformative, hands-on approach to financial planning that has developed a cult following. It tracks spending comprehensively, handles investment tracking, connects to bank accounts, and provides both iOS and Android mobile apps along with web access.
YNAB is, by its own admission, "different from anything you've tried before." The app promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a purpose for every dollar you earn. A frequently used analogy is to put each dollar in an envelope; you can always move money from one envelope to another in a pinch. These envelopes can include rent and utilities, along with unforeseen expenses like holiday gifts and the inevitable car repair. The idea is that if you budget a certain amount for the unknowns each month, they won't feel like they're sneaking up on you.
Importantly, YNAB is only concerned with the money you have in your accounts now. The app does not ask you to provide your take-home income or set up recurring income payments (although there is a way to do this). The money you will make later in the month through your salaried job is not relevant, because YNAB does not engage in forecasting.
The app is harder to learn than any other here, and it requires more ongoing effort from the user. YNAB knows this—inside both the mobile and web apps are links to videos and other tutorials. Although I never quite got comfortable with the user interface, I did come to appreciate YNAB's insistence on intentionality. Forcing users to draft a new budget each month and review each transaction is not necessarily a bad thing. As YNAB says on its website, "Sure, you've got pie charts showing that you spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants—but you've still spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants." I can see this approach being useful for people who don't tend to have a lot of cash in reserve, or who have spending habits they want to correct.
My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, penned a respectful rebuttal explaining why she's been using YNAB for years. Perhaps, like her, you have major savings goals you want to achieve, whether paying for a wedding or buying a house. For me, though, YNAB's approach feels like overkill.
Other Mint alternatives we tested
PocketGuard
PocketGuard used to be a solid free budget tracker, but the company has since limited its "free" version to just a seven-day trial. Now, you'll have to choose between two plans once the trial is over: a $13 monthly plan or a $75 annual plan. When I first tested it, I found it to be more restricted than NerdWallet but still a decent option. The main overview screen shows your net worth, total assets and debts, net income and total spending for the month, upcoming bills, a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands, any debt payoff plan, and any goals. Like some other apps—including Quicken Simplifi—PocketGuard promotes an "after bills" approach where you enter all recurring bills, and PocketGuard shows you what's left—that's what you're supposed to budget as your disposable income.
Although PocketGuard's UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The "accounts" tab is a little busy and doesn't show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesn't take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Ultimately, now that the free tier is gone, it just doesn't present the same value proposition as it once did.
What about Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is another free financial app that tracks spending and supports features like balance alerts and account linking. If you pay for the premium tier, the service can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions. We did not test it for this guide, but we'll consider it in future updates.
What is Plaid and how does it work?
Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network—called Plaid—to pull in financial data, so it's worth explaining what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard for connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims.
To be clear, you don't need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including the budget trackers I tested for this guide. Once you find the "add an account" option in whichever app you're using, you'll see a menu of commonly used banks. There's also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, you'll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, you'll need to enter a one-time passcode as well.
As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type, and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didn't note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting "more financial data than was needed." As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices.
In a statement provided , a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that "the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaid's role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track."
How to import your financial data from the Mint app
Mint users should consider getting their data ready to migrate to their new budgeting app of choice soon. Unfortunately, importing data from Mint is not as easy as entering your credentials from inside your new app and hitting "import." In fact, any app that advertises the ability to port over your stats from Mint is just going to have you upload a CSV file of transactions and other data.
To download a CSV file from Mint, do the following:
Sign into Mint.com and hit Transactions in the menu on the left side of the screen.
Select an account, or all accounts.
Scroll down and look for "export [number] transactions" in smaller print.
Your CSV file should begin downloading.
Note: Downloading on a per-account basis might seem more annoying, but could help you get set up on the other side if the app you're using has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts.
How we tested Mint alternatives
Before I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to test, I consulted trusty ol' Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps they might be using. Some of the apps I found were free, just like Mint. These, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, "offers") to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $100 a year, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.)
Since this guide is meant to help Mint users find a permanent replacement, any services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth, and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android, and on the web.
Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps (and remember, I really was looking for a Mint alternative myself), I made a point of adding every account to every budgeting app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.
Which Mint alternative is right for you?
Choosing the right budgeting app ultimately depends on your personal financial style and what you're looking to get out of the experience.
If you want the closest Mint-like experience with a clean interface and affordable price, go with Quicken Simplifi. It's our top pick for good reason—it balances ease of use with comprehensive features better than any other app we tested.
If you're a power user who loves customization and deep data, Monarch Money is worth the steeper learning curve. The granular control and detailed reporting are unmatched.
If you're an Apple user who values beautiful design and can wait for Android/web support, Copilot Money offers a gorgeous, intuitive experience with unique integrations. Just know that it's still evolving.
If you need a free option and don't mind ads, NerdWallet is your best bet. It's surprisingly robust for a free app and offers valuable credit score monitoring.
If you want a transformative, hands-on approach to budgeting, YNAB can be life-changing—but only if you're committed to its philosophy and willing to put in the ongoing effort.
No matter which you choose, the most important thing is finding a tool that helps you feel more in control of your money. Happy budgeting.