As someone who used Mint for years, I had to hunt for a new budgeting app not long ago. Intuit, Mint’s parent company, shut the service down in March 2024 and encouraged users to move to its other personal finance product, Credit Karma. I tried Credit Karma, but it didn’t feel like a real Mint substitute — so I looked for another app I could rely on to sync all my accounts, keep tabs on my credit score, manage a monthly spending plan and track goals like building an emergency fund and paying off my mortgage sooner.
I tested a range of Mint’s biggest competitors to find a budgeting app that could cover everything I needed. Here’s what I learned, and hopefully it helps you choose the right budget app for your money.
Best budget app overall
Quicken Simplifi
No pun intended, but Quicken Simplifi stands out because it’s genuinely simple. While other budgeting apps try to differentiate themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi sticks to a clean interface. The main dashboard is basically one long scroll that gives you a full snapshot of your finances: balances, net worth, recent spending, upcoming recurring payments, a quick view of your spending plan, top categories, achievements and any watchlists you’ve created. Savings goals live elsewhere in the app.
Setup was mostly smooth. I was especially impressed by how easily it connected to Fidelity, which isn’t always the case with budget trackers. It’s also one of the few services I tested that lets you invite a spouse or financial advisor to manage the account with you. That said, it doesn’t integrate with Zillow — something I wish it did. Monarch Money and Copilot Money both support Zillow, so the option clearly exists. With Simplifi, you have to add real estate manually like any other asset.
In daily use, Simplifi did miscategorize some transactions, but that’s normal across these apps. One feature I didn’t see elsewhere: while reviewing transactions, you can flag purchases where you’re expecting a refund. It also did a better job estimating my regular income than some other apps. Most importantly, I liked that I could mark some purchases from a merchant as recurring without turning every purchase from that merchant into a recurring rule. For example, I can set my two Amazon Subscribe & Save transactions as recurring while leaving the rest of my Amazon spending untouched.
The budgeting tools are straightforward. First, confirm your income is accurate, then set up your recurring payments — and label which ones are bills versus subscriptions. That matters because Simplifi shows both your total take-home income and an “income after bills” number. That second figure subtracts bills, but not optional subscriptions. From there, you can add category-based spending targets under “planned spending.” Planned spending can include one-time purchases too, not only monthly budgets. When you build a budget, Simplifi suggests amounts based on a six-month average.
Pros
- Easy-to-use app with a gentle learning curve
- Strong at identifying recurring income and bills
- Cheaper than many competitors
- Lets you share access with a spouse or financial advisor
- Useful refund tracking
Cons
- No free trial
- No option to sign up with an Apple or Google login
- No Zillow integration
Runner up – best budget app
Monarch Money
Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression — especially given that it was founded by a former Mint product manager — was that it’s harder to use than some others here, including Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it is. Things like editing categories, adding recurring transactions and creating rules feel more complicated than they need to be, particularly on mobile. (My recommendation: use the web version for fine-tuning.) Monarch also didn’t calculate my income correctly out of the gate, and I had to adjust it manually.
But once everything is configured, Monarch offers a lot of depth. In the budget section, you get a true budget-versus-actuals view by category, plus forecasting by month or year. You can define recurring expenses using more than just merchant names. For example, most Amazon spending might default to “shopping,” but specific amounts like $54.18 or $34.18 can be automatically categorized as baby supplies and treated as recurring. Oddly, though, there isn’t a dedicated way to label certain recurring payments specifically as bills.
Shortly after I first tested these apps, Monarch rolled out a detailed reporting section (web-only for now) where you can generate on-demand charts by accounts, categories and tags. As part of the same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that can automatically update your car’s value. Combined with Zillow home-value tracking, that makes it easier to include assets like vehicles and real estate in your net worth over time.
The mobile app is fairly easy to understand. The dashboard highlights net worth, your four latest transactions, a month-over-month spending comparison, month-to-date income, upcoming bills, an investments snapshot, your goals, and a month-in-review recap. The month-in-review is more detailed than most, covering cash flow, top income and expense categories, trends, changes in net worth, and asset/liability breakdowns. Another newer feature expands the net worth graph: in the Accounts tab, you can view net worth change across different time windows (one month, three months, six months, one year or all time).
You’ll also see tabs for accounts, transactions, cash flow, budget and recurring. Like many competitors, Monarch can detect recurring income and expenses automatically, even if categorization sometimes needs correction. Categories are displayed with emoji, and you can customize them if you want.
Monarch connects to banks using multiple services, including Plaid, MX and Finicity (owned by Mastercard). It also makes it easier to switch to MX or Finicity if Plaid doesn’t work. Similar to NerdWallet, I had to complete two-factor authentication every time I got past the Plaid screen to add a new account. Monarch is also one of the only apps I tested (along with Simplifi) that lets you share access with another person — usually a spouse or financial advisor.
With iOS 17.4, Monarch added support for Apple Card, Apple Cash and Savings accounts. It’s not alone: Copilot and YNAB also offer similar support through their latest iOS apps. Instead of manual statement uploads, the new flow lets apps automatically pull balances and transaction history, which makes it easier to account for Apple-related spending.
Pros
- High level of detail and customization
- Strong goals feature
- Lets you give access to another person
- Chrome extension to import data from Mint
- Month-in-review recap is deeper than most
- Car value syncing
- Zillow integration
Cons
- Harder to learn than simpler apps
- Mobile app feels more limited and less intuitive than the web version
- Doesn’t clearly separate bills from other recurring expenses
- Some mobile bugs when creating category rules
Best free budget app
NerdWallet
You probably know NerdWallet for its personal finance explainers, guides and news. It’s also one of the only budgeting apps I tested that’s truly free — there’s no paid tier and nothing hidden behind a subscription. The tradeoff is obvious: ads are everywhere.
Even with the constant credit card offers, NerdWallet’s interface is clean and easy to follow on both web and mobile. It emphasizes three main metrics: cash flow, net worth and credit score. I especially liked the weekly insights, which highlight where you spent the most, how much you paid in fees and how those numbers compare to the previous month. NerdWallet also offers very specific account-type options during setup (like Roth versus traditional IRA), which fits its broader finance-first identity.
As a budgeting tool, NerdWallet is solid but fairly basic. Like other apps, it supports recurring bills. It also uses the popular 50/30/20 framework: 50 percent of your budget goes to needs, 30 percent to wants, and 20 percent to savings or debt payments.
If that structure works for you, it’s fine — just know you can’t customize as much as with some competitors. You can’t create custom spending categories yet. The dashboard includes notes like “you’ll be able to customize them in the future” and “in the future, you’ll be able to move specific transactions” between wants and needs. A NerdWallet spokesperson wouldn’t share a timeline.
Another important point: NerdWallet had one of the most tedious setup processes of any app I tested. That might not matter if you’re only setting up one app, but I was doing several at once, and it was exhausting. The worst part was that every time I added an account, I had to go through two-factor authentication just to get past the Plaid splash screen — separate from whatever 2FA my banks required. According to Plaid, this is NerdWallet’s policy, not Plaid’s.
Because NerdWallet includes credit score monitoring, it also asks for more personal information during signup, including your birthdate, address, phone number and the last four digits of your Social Security number — similar to Credit Karma.
Pros
- Free
- Easy to use
- Useful weekly insights
- Access to NerdWallet’s library of finance explainers and guides
- One of the few options that includes credit score monitoring
Cons
- Ads everywhere
- No custom spending categories
- Weaker at recognizing consistent income
- Setup process is more tedious than most
Best up-and-comer budget app
Copilot Money
Copilot Money may be the best-looking budgeting app I tested, and it’s currently exclusive to iOS and Mac. The CEO, Andres Ugarte, has said Android and web apps are coming, but until that happens, I can’t recommend it broadly when there are strong alternatives that work across platforms.
Copilot is missing other features too, which I’ll cover, but it’s promising and worth watching. The app is fast, efficient and well designed. It uses color, emoji and graphs effectively, making it easy to understand your budgets, investment performance and debt over time. It also does an unusually good job visualizing recurring monthly expenses.
Under the polished UI, there’s real substance. Copilot’s AI-powered “Intelligence” improves as it learns how you categorize spending. You can also build your own categories with custom emoji. Like the others, it’s not perfect — it miscategorized some transactions — but fixing mistakes is easier than in many apps. Search is also extremely fast and starts narrowing results as soon as you type.
Copilot is also unusual in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations that surface transaction details. Amazon integration is handled through an in-app sign-in. For Venmo, you forward Venmo emails by setting [email protected] as a forwarding address and creating a filter so [email protected] messages auto-forward. Like Monarch, Copilot also supports Zillow integration for tracking home value.
Even though Copilot is highly automated, I liked that it flags new transactions “to review.” That’s useful for spotting fraud and staying aware of spending.
Like Monarch, Copilot has improved its ability to connect through services beyond Plaid. It also said it upgraded connections to American Express and Fidelity — two areas that can be finicky in other apps. Copilot added Mint import, too, which more competitors are starting to support.
Because Copilot is relatively new (it launched in early 2020), it’s still catching up on some standard features. Ugarte told me a detailed cash flow section is nearly finished. Copilot’s website also lists upcoming AI features built on its Intelligence system: smart goals, natural-language search, chat, forecasting and benchmarking. The benchmarking feature, Ugarte says, is meant to show how you compare to other Copilot users on spending and investment performance.
Pros
- Polished UI
- Dedicated Mac app
- Lower monthly price than some competitors
- Strong recurring-expense visualization
- Optional Amazon, Venmo and Zillow integrations
- Helpful “to review” section
Cons
- No web or Android app yet
- Misclassified more expenses than the top pick
- Many common features are still being built
Honorable mention
YNAB
YNAB — short for You Need a Budget — is, by its own description, not like typical budgeting apps. It uses a “zero-based budgeting” approach that requires you to assign a job to every dollar you earn. It’s similar to envelope budgeting: you put money into different buckets and can shift funds between them if needed. Those buckets cover essentials like rent and utilities, plus irregular expenses like gifts and car repairs. The idea is that planning for surprises makes them less disruptive.
The key difference is that YNAB focuses only on money you already have. It doesn’t require you to enter take-home pay or set up recurring income (though you can). Future income isn’t relevant because YNAB doesn’t forecast.
This app is harder to learn than anything else on the list and requires more active involvement. YNAB is upfront about that: both the mobile and web apps include tutorials and videos. While I never fully clicked with the interface, I did appreciate the app’s push toward intentional spending. Creating a fresh budget each month and reviewing each transaction can be useful. As YNAB puts it, it’s not enough to see a chart showing you overspent — you already overspent. I can see this being especially helpful for people without much extra cash month to month, or for those trying to correct habits.
My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, wrote a thoughtful rebuttal about why she’s used YNAB for years. Maybe, like her, you’re aiming for big savings goals like a wedding or a home purchase — in that case, her column is worth reading. For me, YNAB’s structure feels like more than I need.
Pros
- Strong focus on budgeting discipline
- Distinct “zero-dollar” method that many users love
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Some features are harder to manage on mobile than on the web
Other budgeting apps we tested
PocketGuard
PocketGuard used to be a decent free budget tracker, but it has since limited its “free” option to a seven-day trial. After that, you choose either $13 per month or $75 per year. When I tested it, I found it more limited than NerdWallet but still usable. The main overview shows net worth, total assets and debts, net income and monthly spending, upcoming bills, a reminder of your next paycheck, any debt payoff plan and any goals. Like Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard follows an “after bills” approach: you enter recurring bills and PocketGuard shows what’s left — and that remaining amount is what you budget as disposable income.
The UI is easy enough, but it doesn’t feel as polished. The accounts tab is cluttered and doesn’t show category totals for things like cash versus investments. Small issues — awkward copy, strange punctuation — sometimes make it feel rough. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no update existed. The web version also feels like a blown-up mobile app rather than something designed for a bigger screen. Now that the free tier is gone, it doesn’t feel like the value it once was.
How we test budgeting apps
Before I started testing apps, I did some homework. I built my list by using Google and Reddit, reading App Store reviews and asking friends and coworkers what they use. Some apps are free and rely on ads (“offers”) to stay afloat. Most, though, require subscriptions, typically topping out around $100 per year or $15 per month. (My top pick costs less than that.)
Every app I tested had to do a few basics: sync accounts, provide budgeting tools, and track things like spending, net worth and credit score. Unless otherwise noted, these apps are available on iOS, Android and the web.
After narrowing to six apps, I set them all up. To test properly, I added every single account to every app, even small ones. That meant repeating two-factor authentication over and over — hours of passwords and one-time codes for the same banks across multiple services. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.
Budgeting app FAQs
What is Plaid and how does it work?
Because all the apps I tested rely on Plaid, it’s worth explaining. Plaid is a fintech company founded in 2013, and it’s now the standard way third-party apps connect to banks. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe, and it says more than 8,000 apps and services use its network.
You don’t need a standalone Plaid app. The Plaid connection flow is built into budgeting apps. When you choose “add account,” you’ll see a list of popular banks plus a search bar. After selecting your bank, you enter your login credentials, and if you use two-factor authentication, you’ll also enter a one-time code.
As the middle layer, Plaid can pass through data such as balances, transaction history, account types and routing or account numbers. Plaid uses encryption and says it doesn’t sell or rent consumer data. Still, it’s important to note that in 2022, Plaid agreed to pay $58 million in a class-action settlement over claims it collected more financial data than necessary. As part of the settlement, the company had to change some practices.
In a statement to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said Plaid still denies the allegations and that the non-financial terms of the settlement largely involved accelerating work already in progress, including clearer transparency about Plaid’s role and maintaining data-minimization efforts.
Why did Mint shut down?
When Intuit announced in December 2023 that Mint would be shut down, it didn’t explain why. It did say Mint’s users would be directed to Credit Karma. In Mint’s blog post, the company said Credit Karma would welcome Mint users and provide access to Credit Karma’s tools, including some of Mint’s most-used features. In our testing, Credit Karma wasn’t a one-to-one replacement, but there are other strong alternatives if you’re still looking.
What about Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is another free finance app that tracks spending and supports account linking and balance alerts. With a premium subscription, it can also help cancel subscriptions. We didn’t test it for this guide, but we may include it in a future update.