Mint is the biggest and most popular online personal finance tracking site. Founded in 2006, Mint made waves in the personal finance software world thanks to its powerful interface and ability to add transactions from thousands of financial institutions.
The company was acquired in 2009, and since then many users believe the site's functionality and support has gone downhill, sending them looking for Mint alternatives. If you want an alternative to Mint.com, here is a list of options. I have tried many of them myself so I could give you an in-depth, honest review.
About Mint.com
The site was acquired by personal finance powerhouse Intuit in 2009, and the site has undergone many changes. While some new features like credit score reporting have been added, long-time features have slipped and the switch from an outsourced account data system to the in-house system built for Quicken have caused data errors and headaches for some users who are now in search of Mint alternatives. Mint.com is free.
My Original Review of Mint.com »
Personal Capital
I used the investment analysis tools at Personal Capital to bring my portfolio in-line with my goals and save over $300 per year on mutual fund fees. If you have $25,000 or more in cash and investments, you will also qualify for a free consulting session with a Personal Capital advisor. Personal Capital is free, but if you choose to hire your advisor to manage your investments for you, there is a fee based on your portfolio size.
Mint Alternative: Personal Capital »
Clarity Money
The app is so good Goldman Sachs recently purchased the company. Hopefully, that will lead to more improvements and useful features and not an end to the app. In either case, if you want a simple snapshot of all of your money, Clarity Money delivers.
Power Wallet
Power Wallet also offers bill reminders to help you avoid missing bills and paying those pesky late charges. The insights from this site are geared toward helping you meet your own personal finance goals. Power Wallet is free.
Quicken
Because the program is desktop based, the web and mobile access lack compared to Mint, but the software allows you to own and control all of your data on your own PC. More expensive versions of the program also include tracking for small business, rental real estate, and investments. Quicken is paid software.
Quicken »
YNAB
YNAB founder Jesse Mecham believes that manually adding each transaction creates the best habits, and automatic tracking does not form any habits. When you make a purchase with cash or credit, you enter the purchase into your budget and get an update right away. This is proactive budgeting, not retroactive reacting.
YNAB is software that you purchase and download. Version 4.0 is currently available for $60, or you can just try out the free trial for 34 days.
Yodlee MoneyCenter
Yodlee MoneyCenter is their in-house personal finance tracking tool, and it is powerful and useful in its own right. The tools provided in MoneyCenter are focused on tracking account balances and transactions, reaching finance goals, and tracking your spending by category.
Yodlee MoneyCenter also allows you to track your airline miles, your net worth, and understand your investment asset allocation. Yodlee MoneyCenter is free.
LearnVest
Rather than honing in on small budget categories, LearnVest breaks your money down into income, fixed expenses, goals, and flex spending money for you to do what you want. They have a major focus on getting debt free as well. The software is free, but a paid experience is available where you are assigned a personal financial advisor to give you extra help.
The Mint Alternative Graveyard
Adaptu
The site shut down in February, 2013.
Thrive
The site was owned by Lending Tree and shut down in June, 2011.
PageOnce
In December, 2014, the tools was added to Mint.com under the name Mint Bills, which is available for signup today.
Manilla
Manilla shut down in July, 2014. See the link below for my favorite digital file cabinet replacement options.
Wesabe
Wesabe shut down in July, 2010.
This post was originally published on January 12, 2015 and updated on January 31, 2021.
Thanks Eric. I’ll need to take a look at some of these. I’ve tried a few, but always end up back to my excel spreadsheet.
While it was a great option in the past, I would never use Excel for personal budgeting today. When there are such more automated and time efficient tools available, there is no need to use so much time to type things into the spreadsheet.
Great list! I’ve been looking for a free alternative to mint, but hadn’t really been having any luck. I’ll have to check these out!
There are lots of great options. The trick is finding the one that is best for your needs.
I just found your site and am going through your reviews. I found you when I started looking for MINT alternatives. My primary checking and savings accounts cannot connect to MINT (or vice versa). You have pointed out how that could affect ones view of the tool.
I look forward to continuing to read your comparisons.
Alan
Glad you found this helpful Alan. I’ve run into the same issue with a few accounts before on Mint. It is a great service, but definitely does not work for everyone. If I can answer any questions for you, be sure to let me know.
Moneyspire is very good personal finance software and a great Quicken and Mint alternative. Their website is http://www.moneyspire.com
Thanks for the suggestion George! This is one I’ve looked into in the past, but find the cost to be a little steep when there are so many free apps out there. Have you used Money Spire yourself? What is the experience like for you?
I’ve heard of YNAB being quite good, nice touch including it. For me, I’ve been using WalletHub for quite a while, and I gotta say, it’s much more sleek, no more headaches, and great guides. I think it’s a great alternative to Mint, and many many more, blows karma outta the water.
Great suggestion Charlotte!