Thursday, November 21, 2024

Best Quicken Alternatives for 2024 (Free & Paid Options)

Share


This article may contain references to some of our advertising partners. Should you click on these links, we may be compensated. For more about our advertising policies, read our full disclosure statement here.

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 Thankfully, there are several alternatives to Quicken that meet or exceed the performance of the outdated program – and some of them even do it for free.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 logopersonal 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 logotiller 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 LogoPocketsmith 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 appsYNAB 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 logoeverydollar 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 logocountabout 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 LogoMoneyPatrol 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

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 logoEmpower 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 logodollar 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 logomoneydance 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!





Source link

Read more

Local News