We Tried the 16 Best Quicken Alternatives in 2024 (Free & Paid)

If you're looking for an alternative to Quicken, you're in the right place.

Before web-based personal finance tools, Quicken was one of the best personal finance budgeting and bill management software available. Where else could you get software that pulled all your financial information, organized your bills, helped you pay for those bills, and was a money consigliere? The only “downside” was that you had to pay for it.

But over the years, other companies brought new offers, built from the ground up, and took advantage of the newer technology. They use code that runs faster, connects seamlessly with other financial companies (like bank accounts and credit cards), and just have fewer issues doing regular tasks like tracking your net worth. Most importantly, many are free, so you can try them yourself.

I was a fan of Quicken, but let's accept reality – Quicken breaks a lot. It doesn't sync your accounts randomly sometimes, you have password problems, screens that should appear are blank or lag, and it's not a great user experience.

The bottom line:

If you're tired of Quicken, its support and sync issues, and want a suitable free alternative or replacement – we tried some options, and here are our favorites.

Here are some of the best Quicken alternatives available:

🏆 Editor's Top Picks

We compiled a pretty big list below but here are the two that stand out among the crowd:

  1. Empower – It covers nearly as much ground as Quicken (sadly, no bill pay, but no one does that) and is regularly updated, so you don't have to worry about sync problems. It has a solid suite of investment tools, a robust budgeting system, and portfolio analysis that beats the rest. It's free and what I use personally.
  2. Tiller Money – Hands down, the best spreadsheet automation tool on the market. If you want to move to a spreadsheet you can customize to exactly what you need, Tiller Money will pull the data. It takes time to set up, but you can build it from scratch or use a template, and Tiller Money will save you a ton of time and hassle.

The Full List of Quicken Alternatives:

  1. Empower (Personal Capital) – free financial dashboard and wealth planner
  2. Tiller Money – spreadsheet automation for full customization
  3. Vyzer – sophisticated asset tracking for higher net worth
  4. ProjectionLab – gorgeous financial planning and forecasting tool
  5. You Need a Budget – best-in-class budgeting tool & mindset shift
  6. Simplifi – Inexpensive, online, & light version Quicken
  7. Lunch Money – beautifully designed budgeting app
  8. CountAbout – can import data from Quicken
  9. Pocketsmith – a budget planner, calendar, and projector
  10. Banktivity – native Mac application
  11. MoneyDance – not cloud-based
  12. EveryDollar – follows Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps
  13. GoodBudget – follows the envelope budgeting method
  14. GnuCash – open-source and free
  15. DollarBird – date & calendar-based budgeting
  16. MoneyWiz – a freemium app with cryptocurrency support
  17. PocketGuard – freemium budgeting-focused app

1. Empower (Personal Capital)

Personal Capital Logo

Quicken's strength was being a financial dashboard and helping you manage your financial life – it was more than a simple budgeting app. This is why, when considering alternatives to Quicken, we settled on Empower (previously known as Personal Capital) as the best replacement.

If you're past the “help me with my budget” phase of your financial life, then you want to keep an eye on your investments (taxable and retirement) and whether you will reach your goals – whether that's retirement, a big vacation, buying a home, getting married, … you name it. Empower has the tools to analyze your progress and advise on whether you'll reach your goals – on top of the typical budgeting tasks.

Best of all – it's free. You can get it up and running quickly, so you don't have to worry that you're investing a ton of time into a tool that's not a good fit.

You can also schedule a discussion with a financial advisor if you want more hands-on assistance. The initial call is complimentary (no cost), and you only pay if you opt for their Advisor service (optional, but this is how they are able to offer the tools for free). You can read my full review of Empower for this in greater detail.

Why it is a good alternative to Quicken: One of the big problems with Quicken is that you run into synching and connection issues – fortunately, Empower is web-based, so it is updated regularly. It also has a rich set of tools for analyzing your finances, from investment to retirement to budgeting and even intermediate savings goals like a house or education. There is also a budget and expense tracking component that works decently well.

I like their retirement planner, a tool that helps you project your future financial needs and whether you'll get there. I have never talked to an advisor there.

What could be better? The budget and expense tracking pieces are good, but it's not as old as Quicken so they aren't as complex. You can't, for example, manage your bill pay through this tool. I don't find it to be a negative because it works for me, but people with really complicated budgets may find it limiting.

As with any service that connects with many banks, there are little quirks here and there (for example, all of my holdings at Ally Invest are categorized as cash – annoying but they are working on a fix) but overall it works well.

Learn more about Empower

(since you access it with a browser, it is compatible with Mac OS!)

2. Tiller Money

TillerHQ

If you are thinking about quitting Quicken and moving to a spreadsheet stored locally (or Google Docs), you'll want to know about Tiller Money. I use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track our net worth and if you want a hand in pulling data, you'll want to check out Tiller Money.

Tiller Money will automate your spreadsheets at a low cost of just $6.58 a month ($79 per year after a free 30-day trial). With a bit of tweaking, it'll pull your data for you and put it into a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel document.

You can start with one of their free templates or build your own, but after the initial work, you'll have a fully automated spreadsheet tailored to what you need. You can use this to track your net worth, set a budget, or anything else you can imagine. (see our review of Tiller Money)

Why it is a good alternative to Quicken: Quicken offers a lot of features out of the box and Tiller requires a bit of work to get it up to the same speed and quickness – but when you do, Tiller is nearly infinitely more customizable because it's built into a spreadsheet. If you put in the work, you can create your own reports, your own dashboards, and have completely visibility into your finances.

Tiller has some great resources, including templates, to get you off the ground but it does require an investment of time. If you want to avoid putting your data into the cloud, going with a spreadsheet is your best option. Tiller makes it possible for you to get automation AND keep your data locally.

What could be better? Tiller doesn't require you to be a master at Excel or Google Sheets but it helps if you are comfortable around a spreadsheet. You don't need to know advanced functions but you have to be comfortable with the basics of spreadsheets or have a desire to learn it.

Learn more about Tiller Money

3. Vyzer

Vyzer Logo

Vyzer is a financial dashboard and management system that is designed for higher net worth individuals who are managing a variety of investments. One of the limitations of tools like Quicken is that it's difficult to track assets that don't fit neatly into one of their integrations (and even then, sometimes the integrations don't work).

With Vyzer, you're able to track assets that aren't held neatly in a brokerage or bank account. They offer a service where you can upload any form and they will parse it and add it to your assets. They literally have a person review the paperwork and fill in the information for you when you sign up for their premium plan ($79/month).

Do you rent out any real estate? Is it pain to track the cash flow? With Vyzer, they will do it for you and send that data to your dashboard. No one else offers this. This allows you to analyze your portfolio, manage your cash flow, and do all analysis you need because now those assets are being tracked.

But they also have a free tier, just added in mid-2023, where you can track three portfolios (linking up three banks/brokerages) and use with their tools to see how they compare. This isn't a timed trial, it's three portfolios tracked forever with access to a lot of their tracking and performance tools.

Learn more about Vyzer

4. ProjectionLab

ProjectionLab is one of the best looking financial tools I've ever seen. It's a financial planning tool that includes deterministic projections, historical backtesting, simulations and more to help you plan for your future. What it lacks in the budgeting department, it makes up for in the planning department.

ProjectionLab has three tiers (and a 7-day free trial) – Basic (free), Premium ($9/mo), and Pro ($45/mo). Basic lets you play around with the tool but will not save your data unless you upgrade to Premium. Premium gives you access to every non-financial advisor feature of the tool (everything a regular person would need).

Why it is a good alternative to Quicken: Quicken is primarily a budgeting tool and ProjectionLab is more about financial planning, which is ultimately what we are all working towards. Whereas Quicken focuses on spending and saving as a means towards reaching your goals, ProjectionLab can tell you if that saving (and how you are invested) will help you achieve those goals.

What could be better? It is not a budgeting tool so if that's important for you, this tool will not be a good alternative.

Our review of ProjectionLab goes into much greater detail, including a tour by the founder.

Learn more about ProjectonLab

5. You Need a Budget (YNAB)

You Need a Budget is a powerful budgeting software but it also can help you build a budget that you can grow into. But it does more than track your money, it helps you build a framework for growing your wealth.

Think of it like Quicken with a personality and a philosophy.

YNAB's philosophy revolves around four rules:

  1. Give Every Dollar a Job
  2. Embrace Your True Expenses
  3. Roll With The Punches
  4. Age Your Money

Those four pillars form the foundation for a budgeting app that has helped many people transform their financial lives and improve their spending habits.

If you're looking to transition to a financial tool that will help you (as in help you make the change, not just record expenses), you should take a look at YNAB.

(or, read our You Need a Budget review for more)

Why it is a good alternative to Quicken: Quicken only tracks your budget, YNAB does that AND helps you build a budget that meets the demands of your life and your savings needs. Sometimes you need something more than an app that connects to your bank account. If you want to change the way you budget, while still tracking it, YNAB is your solution.

YNAB is not an entire personal finance management suite – it focuses on budgeting and only budgeting. You won't get investment tools, retirement planning, or wealth management. It's strictly about building, maintaining, and transitioning into the budget you want.

What could be better? YNAB was designed to be a budgeting tool and so it is a budgeting tool – it doesn't help with broader financial needs like retirement, managing your investment portfolio, and the rest. To say it would be a better tool if it incorporated those would be ignoring how it has a straightforward, and important, mandate.

Learn more about You Need a Budget

6. Simplifi by Quicken

Simplifi by Quicken is a lightweight budgeting app built by the same team as Quicken. The app has all of basic features you'd expect in a budgeting app – tracking spending, setting a budget, setting savings goals, and detailed reports of income and expenses so you can analyze your spending. It uses Plaid so it syncs up with thousands of institutions.

It also includes light investment tracking with real time quotes, performance, and even tracks cryptocurrencies.

Simplifi costs $3.99 a month but for a limited time they're offering it for just $2 a month, making one of the more affordable paid apps available. Our Simplifi review goes into greater details.

Why is it a good alternative to Quicken? It's built by the same folks who built Quicken, but mobile first, and checks off all the boxes for a budgeting app without the clunky legacy software.

What could be better? Simplifi, much like others on this list, does not support bill pay within the app. They do offer a “Bill Connect” feature that lets you see the bills in the app (and plan for them) but there's no way to pay for them through the app.

Learn more about Simplifi

7. Lunch Money

Lunch Money is a beautifully designed budgeting app that does one thing very well – budgeting. In this, it's much like Quicken in that everything you could possibly want in a budgeting package is in Lunch Money.

You're able to sync your bank accounts or, if you prefer, upload CSVs with your transaction data. If you're a programmer, you can take advantage of their developer API too. Once your data is in Lunch Money, you can split, group, tag, and categorize all of your transactions exactly as you want. Afterwards, you can set a budget, which will link up with your transactions and give you an idea of where you are.

Finally, there's a net worth calculator that can help you understand your progress.

Lunch Money costs $10 per month or $100 per year and has a 14-day trial.

Why is it a good alternative to Quicken? It does the budgeting very well and it's simple and easy to use. It's also cheaper than Quicken and still has the ability to track your investments as well.

What could be better? Quicken offers bill pay features that very few other software packages have, including Lunch Money. Lunch Money won't be able to pay your bills for you but it can track recurring subscriptions and let you know when expenses are due. Check out our full review.

Learn more about Lunch Money

8. CountAbout

The founders built CountAbout to be a Quicken alternative. Founded in mid-2012, it is one of the only personal finance apps that will import data from Quicken. If you're looking to transition away from Quicken but worry about losing all your data, you can feed it your Quicken file and it'll populate itself. That'll make the transition far less painful!

Like Quicken, CountAbout isn't free but it costs $9.99 for the Basic subscription and $39.99 for Premium subscription. The Premium subscription includes automatic transaction downloads. A subscription model means you have complete data privacy and you won't get annoying ads like other companies.

Why is it a good alternative to Quicken? CountAbout has a lot of similar features to Quicken's: split transactions, recurring transactions, attachments, budgeting, and more.

CountAbout is web-based, with multi-factor account security, so you don't have to download a program onto your computer, and there's no need to deal with unwieldy syncing issues – all you need is a web browser. And with CountAbout's iOS and Android apps, your financial information is always at your fingertips.

Check out the key features (reminds me a lot of Quicken):

Imports data from Quicken and Mint
Thousands of financial institutions
Multi-factor login protection
Android and iOS apps
Category customization (add, delete, rename)
Tags (add, delete, rename)
Reporting for Account balances
Reporting for Category activity
Reporting for Tag activity
Report exporting
Attachments

Individual Account QIF importing
Budgeting
Running register balances
Account reconciliation
Graphs for Income & Spending
Recurring transactions
Investment balances by Institution
Memorized transactions
Split transactions
Description renaming
Invoicing

Learn more about Countabout

9. Pocketsmith

Pocketsmith Logo

Pocketsmith is a freemium budgeting tool that uses calendars and the concept of “event-based budgeting.” Being calendar-based means that rather than viewing your transactions as merely a long list of transactions, the calendar helps you understand when those transactions are happening and if they are doing so on a regular basis. This helps inform you about your spending and one of the more visual ways, when compared to others on this list.

PocketSmith has a free option that makes you manually import transactions, 12 budgets, 2 accounts, and projections for 6 months out. Foundation ($9.95/mo) will get you automatic transaction importing, unlimited budgets, 10 accounts, and 10 years of projections. Flourish ($16.66/mo) gets you 18 connected banks, 18 dashboards, and 30 years of projections. Fortune ($26.66/mo) gives you unlimited accounts and 60 years of projections.

(here's our review of Pocketsmith)

Learn more about Pocketsmith

10. Banktivity

Built specifically for MacOS, Banktivity is a personal finance money manager that will import data from Quicken so you don't lose anything in the transition process. It'll do everything you want in a personal finance app, including budgeting, track spending, schedule and pay bills, monitor your investments (including real estate), and pull data from financial institutions.

It also has some powerful reporting options that, if you're a report junkie, you will probably really enjoy building, tweaking, and rebuilding. All this is also possible across iOS devices too with seamless mobile app synchronization.

It is not free though, it has an annual subscription based on the level service you want. It starts at $49.99 a year for Bronze up to $99.99 per year for Gold.

Learn more about Banktivity

11. MoneyDance

MoneyDance is not as well known as some of the other alternatives I've listed but I wanted to mention them because they're one of the few money apps that don't rely on the cloud. If you are concerned about your data being stored online, this solution is an alternative that keeps your data local to your computer.

You can still link your accounts online, so they pull your transactions automatically, but they only store them on your computer. You can enter transactions manually if you didn't want to link your accounts.

MoneyDance looks and feels like a checkbook, with the check register for transactions, but has charts and tables for reporting. It does budgeting but can also track your investments as well, albeit not as feature-rich as others.

MoneyDance is free to download and try but it costs $65 ($99/yr subscription if you want updates). The free version has all the same features as the paid version. The free version's limitation is that you can only enter 100 manual transactions.

12. EveryDollar

Have you heard of Dave Ramsey?

Many folks swear by his approach and EveryDollar is built with that in mind. His approach takes into account human psychology, rather than relying solely on math, and explains why it is so effective. It also explains why ideas like the debt snowball work so well, we need to work with our biases and tendencies if we hope to succeed. EveryDollar is a budgeting tool affiliated with Dave Ramsey's group, the Lampo Group.

Much like YNAB, it's a budgeting tool that uses the principles of zero-based budgeting.

In zero-based budgeting, you assign every dollar to a category (or job, in YNAB parlance). It's a level of rigor that can be refreshing or restricting, depending on your personality. The app itself is beautiful, available on your smartphone, and there is both a free and paid version. The paid version costs $79.99 a year.

(paid version offers phone support and automated transaction importing… which is a big time-saver; otherwise, you must manually enter the data)

13. GoodBudget

GoodBudget is a free budgeting app based on the envelope budgeting method. Envelope budgeting is when you set aside a prescribed amount for each category of spending, then spend it down each month.

It's one of the most popular money management techniques in personal finance. The envelope refers to the manual method of managing these types of budgets where you put the money into an envelope. When you run out of money, you either borrow cash from another envelope or you make do.

GoodBudget adds technology to the mix and will synch up bank accounts to help track your income and your spending. You set the amount for each category and then watch as your spending nears the limit each month. It's available for both iOS and Android phones.

14. GnuCash

GnuCash is a free open-source accounting software that, if you're willing to put into the work, can replicate a lot of the Quicken experience for those who are willing to scale the learning curve. It features double-entry accounting (every transaction must debit one account and credit another), which is effective but will require an adjustment if you're not used to it.

It offers a lot of the functionality of Quicken like splitting transactions, categorizing transactions, managing multiple accounts, schedule transactions, and reporting that includes all kinds of charts and reports (balance sheet, P&L, portfolio valuation, etc).

The big benefit is that it does budgeting as well as investments. It's not strictly a budgeting tool.

Lastly, it offers QIF importing, so you can import your Quicken files, plus OFX (Open Financial Exchange) protocol. So you can pull in your data if your bank offers you the ability to export transactions.

15. Dollarbird

Dollarbird is another personal finance app with an eye towards collaboration and a monthly calendar. You synchronize your accounts (banking, brokerage, and credit cards) with Dollarbird and they build a schedule of future income and expenditures to help with planning. Dollarbird also offers a 5-year financial plan that lets you establish longer-term financial goals and track your performance against them.

The innovation they bring to the table is the idea of calendar-based money management. You can collaborate with other people (partner, family, or a team) to manage a team budget, though the collaborative piece requires the Pro version ($39.99 / year).

16. MoneyWiz

Of all the alternatives on this list, I know the least about MoneyWiz despite them being around since 2010. They support practically every operating system you can imagine – everything from Windows to Android to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad – and it'll sync them in real-time.

It's a powerful budgeting tool that integrates with 16,000+ banks in 51+ countries – which includes cryptocurrencies if you're in that investment class. If importing from your financial institution concerns you, you can manually enter data as well and it works just as well. For budgeting, you can work with their categories (which are multi-level) or add your own (and subcategories). You can split transactions, bulk edit, tag, and create powerful reports. It won't pay your bills for you but does have notification features.

It's a freemium product with the free version that has all the functionality minus synching across multiple devices and automated transaction downloads. For that, you need to buy the Standard ($29.99) or Premium ($49.99/yr or $4.99/mo).

17. PocketGuard

PocketGuard is a fairly simple budgeting app that links your credit cards, checking and savings accounts, investments, and loans all in one place. It has a complete picture (or at least what you tell it) of your finances but its strengths are in the budgeting – how it updates and categorizes your spending as it happens and looks for opportunities to save. Using your spending, it also builds a personalized budget based on your data as well as the goals you set for yourself.

They have a free version and a Plus version. The free version has all that you need for tracking your expenses and keep an eye on them. Plus allows you to add custom categories, track cash transactions like income and bills. Plus costs $3.99 per month or $34.99 per year.

One of these will make a fine replacement for Quicken.

Quicken Alternatives Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free alternative to Quicken?

Empower Personal Dashboard is the best free Quicken alternative because it offers budgeting and wealth management tools. Many other tools offer one or the other, Personal Capital offers both so you can get it all in one place. And if you want, they also offer an advisory service to help you with your investments too.

Is Quicken available without subscription?

No – Quicken is now a subscription-based service that cost anywhere from $41.88 to $107.88. Quicken Starter is the cheapest plan at $41.88 per year while the Quicken Home & Business can be as much as $107.88 (not counting discounts). There are often sales and discounts so if you do decide to pay, don't pay full price, but with so many free alternatives you probably won't want to.

Do any Quicken alternatives offer Bill Pay features?

Unfortunately no alternatives let you pay bills through Quicken, but tools like Tiller and You Need a Budget offer tools to help you manage your bills and bill payments so you don't miss them. You can't make the payments like Quick Pay or Check through any of these tools, you have to execute them yourself.

What happened to Quicken Online?

Intuit created Quicken Online to try to compete with Mint. Near the end of 2009, they gave up and acquired Mint. Afterward, they opted to shut down Quicken Online and sold the entire Quicken unit to H.I.G. Capital in 2016. Quicken Online no longer exists but you can try Simplifi by Quicken as an alternative.

What is the best non-cloud-based Quicken alternatives?

Some of the best tools out there are cloud-based. Many on this list store your information online. If they are somehow compromised, they potentially could leak your data. They have a lot of security protocols in place to prevent this type of thing, but nothing is 100% safe. The ones that do not store your data in the cloud are less powerful, but … they don't store your data in the cloud.

Moneydance Personal Finance, which is included in the list above, is one alternative that is a local program and stores your financial data locally. It still has the functionality of pulling data from hundreds of financial institutions so it will still save you time.

Tiller is a tool that integrates with a Google Sheet (which is cloud-based) and Microsoft Excel (which local). They do store some of your information since they have to get the credentials to pull your data but it's not like other services that contain the credentials and the data.

Which Quicken alternatives work on Mac?

Any cloud-based alternative will work on the PC and a Mac. It's cloud-based so they work in your browser, which makes them operating system agnostic.

If you want a piece of personal finance software designed specifically to run on Macs, Banktivity is your best option. It's one of the few personal finance applications built specifically for the MacOS and it has the richest feature-set. Most importantly, especially if you use an iPhone or iPad, it seamlessly integrates among the three.

What is a good accounting software alternative to Quickbooks?

I haven't used Quickbooks and I'm not familiar with the world of accounting, but GnuCash is often cited as a powerful and free alternative to Quickbooks and Quicken.

It has a lot of features present in accounting software, like double-entry accounting and small business accounting, but many folks have success using it as a personal accounting software package. It's a software program you download and install locally, which means it's not cloud-based, and it's completely free.

Will Quicken be discontinued?

It's extremely unlikely that Quicken will be discontinued. They have retired older versions of the software and given users a path towards upgrading to their subscription product (which carries no year in its name), but it's now owned by private equity firms and they're unlikely to shut down Quicken given how much they've invested in buying it.

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About Jim Wang

Jim Wang is a forty-something father of four who is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Vanguard's Blog. He has also been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money.

Jim has a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking down complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that you can use in your daily life.

One of his favorite tools (here's my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Empower Personal Dashboard, which enables him to manage his finances in just 15-minutes each month. They also offer financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell you if you're on track to retire when you want. It's free.

>> Read more articles by Jim

Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank or financial institution. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Ed
7 years ago

An important point about CountAbout is that the $9.99 or $39.99 is per year! That’s pricey, even surpassing Quicken for all but the simplest of accounts . I prefer a one-time fee rather than the constant reach into my wallet. I chose Ace Money which is a very good substitute for Quicken on a PC (the Mac version runs via an emulator…. hopeless and looks like a DOS program). As I recall it was something like $60 one time and syncs most accounts pretty well. MoneyDance I found very simple and a poor substitute. I’m happy with the switch to… Read more »

FrugalPrice
6 years ago

I’ve been a happy user of PersonalCapital and would recommend it to others. It’s free and the app tells me exactly what I need to know about my investments. It reminds me of the things I loved about Quicken way back when. Big thanks to you Jim for telling me about it!

Tom
6 years ago

I have used Quicken for many years, ever since Microsoft Money was discontinued. It used to be great but today it is fraught with errors that cause me to spend more time trying to figure out what is wrong with the application and sync than I spend managing my spending and investments. I really do not want a cloud-based application. Call me old school but like have all of my information on my personal computer or in my file cabinets. Really ready for a STABLE alternative that can download my CC and investment transaction and reconcile correctly. Kind of like… Read more »

JV Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Agree with Tom. I have used Quicken since its very first version. For me it has always been not much more than an electronic check book for all of my banking and property accounts. And I plan to continue using my old (2016) version of Quicken as long as it works. But I absolutely do not want my data stored in the cloud. So I’ll go back to using spreadsheets or paper if I have to.

MV Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  JV Smith

I agree with JV Smith. I’m using an even older version of Quicken as an electronic checkbook record. It’s wonderfully easy to get all the info you need as far as dollars in and dollars out and what’s deductable. with the exception of investments in securities.
Brokerage info has to be issued to the IRS and you get a copy of that information and that takes precedent over anything in personal records so Quicken is all I need.

Ken Pyzik
5 years ago
Reply to  MV Smith

All — if you want a good alternative Quicken – I now use Gnucash. It is a free open-source program that runs on Mac, PC, Unix and other O/Ss. I have been using it now for about 2 years (ever since Quicken announced they were going to subscription model – YUK!). Give it a try. PS — you can import Quicken data into Gnucash. Good Luck!

A. D. Stratton
5 years ago
Reply to  Ken Pyzik

I tried GnuCash- use many other open source programs. But be aware that GnuCash requires some knowledge of coding and a willingness to babysit the program until you get it the way you want. I haven’t the time or patience to do that. My finances are simple, and I want to keep managing them simple too.

Joe H.
4 years ago
Reply to  MV Smith

I still use Quicken 2001. It is the only program I’ve found that let’s you see an entire years budget on one screen. I had to install it on Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 10.

Kathy
5 years ago
Reply to  JV Smith

Me too. I agree Quicken 2016 seems to require patches, then my miracle offers 2019 as a fix. Grrr. I want a program like my MS Money was back in the day. Just a local off the cloud electronic check register.

Ahmad Ghosheh
5 years ago
Reply to  JV Smith

I am with you. I want my book keeping on my computer not on the cloud where it’s shared with everyone, yes they do share information.

Spietz1727
4 years ago
Reply to  JV Smith

Agree. I’m using Quicken 2014 using all data on local drives. With all of the negative issues of upgrades and cloud data storage, I plan to stay with 2014’s much simpler processes and local data security. I use a cloud backup with Box.com and pay bills through my bank, where I’ve never had an issue.

Ann
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Still looking for Quicken alternative. My finances are simple, just juggling multiple accounts. I don’t need (or want) the online stuff, and much prefer to work my finances offline and keep on my own computer (with regular encrypted backups). Do not want a subscription that could end unexpectedly. I had Quicken 2007 and upgraded to 2016 because I worried about having files that might be unreadable should I lose the program. Used 2016 for a couple of years, but the graphical interface is pretty awful on it. So, dumb me, I “upgraded” to 2019,- was assured that I could still… Read more »

ron
2 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Here we are …. 3 years later and still no viable alternative to Quicken. I am extremely confident of this assertion. Why? Because every year, I download most of the “alternatives” and within minutes find one or more “dealbreakers”. I am assuming that a.) a user has an existing Quicken file with moderately complex investment transactions or that b.) a user would want to perform complex transactions in their chosen software. Most reviews I have ever read over the past decade have no idea about the intricacies of what a user may require. They basically just rehash whatever the product… Read more »

Art75070
6 years ago

I have been a Quicken Home & Business user for many years, in the US and more recently in Canada. The Canadian operation has now moved to a subscription mode and the Home & Business version now has an annual subscription fee of $90 per year – to me, that’s a real ripoff. To discourage you from continuing to use your current, non-subscription version, they have now disabled two key features – downloading & categorizing transactions from financial institutions and downloading stock quotes. I have tried all the major alternatives out there, and my favorite by far is one I… Read more »

SoloNupe84
4 years ago
Reply to  Art75070

I’m a Quicken Home & Business user for almost 20 years as well and switched to using a Mac over a decade ago. I’ve kept VirtualBox on my Mac(s) only so I can continue using Quicken H&B. So I’ve been looking for a equivalent Mac product. My syncing feature on H&B 2016 end TODAY, unless I upgrade to 2019. I’m not familiar with using the double-entry accounting method (tried Quickbooks years ago and quickly gave up because I felt like I was back in Business school…there’s a reason my MBA is in marketing and not finance). Have you really found… Read more »

Sten Duncan
4 years ago
Reply to  SoloNupe84

I am also a very long-time Home & Business user. I own several rental properties – each with its own LLC and bank accounts. I also use Quicken to make invoices for my husband’s (small) consulting business. I have multiple accounts at multiple banks so the ability to download transactions is absolutely necessary. I have Quicken H&B 2017 and I have been looking for a decent alternative for years now. I absolutely refuse to go to a subscription-based software/service and I will NEVER, EVER put all of my financial information on the web. How many data breaches do we need… Read more »

Bob
6 years ago

Frustrating. Just tried MoneyDance and CountAbout – the two closest things to what I’m looking for – and found them worse than even Quicken for the features I really care about. I just want an easy to use electronic register I can enter transactions into for all my accounts then reconcile against statements as they come in. Not much to ask. And I think just about EVERYONE I know wants one too. We all hate Intuit software but are reluctantly using it because nothing else out there does the two things Intuit does reasonably well: Easy, rapid transaction entry and… Read more »

Jeff S
6 years ago
Reply to  Bob

I just read that Intuit sold off Quicken in 2016…

B Gneiser
5 years ago
Reply to  Jeff S

As was mentioned in the article.

Vernon Dickinson
6 years ago

For several years I used MoneyCounts a very simple program but it was bought out and ended up being discarded by Intuit and users advised to use Quicken. I to want a simple program that will keep an electronic register on multiple bank accounts and capable of downloading bank transactions that is not cloud based. Some of the newer programs will do a wonderful job of budgeting but will not give a decent P&L or Income & Expense report that is helpful for the preparation of one’s tax reports. I tried Moneydance but could never link it to download transactions… Read more »

Scot D Deabs
5 years ago

I’m also looking for an alternative that can produce tax reports. Does someone have a comparison that includes support for tax preparation.

Pam S
4 years ago

I, too, used MoneyCounts before they were sold off to Intuit and discarded. Excellent program, and was always sorry it had gone away. I’ve used Quicken every since, although constantly looked for a viable alternative. I do not want a web based system, and everyone seems to be going to that. (cheaper for them to provide…) I’ve looked into a couple mentioned here, but now will HAVE to be finding something else as I’m not paying the crazy subscription fees Quicken has moved to. I was able to get 2017 as my last upgrade, and will have to move to… Read more »

Jake
6 years ago

I used Quicken 2007 for home and business (Windows version) for 10 years. Tried the upgrade to 2011 but went back to 2007 version as new features were just complications. Now we have switched to Mac computers and bought 2017 Quicken for Mac. Hugely disappointed, can’t even print a reconciliation statement along with the illogical interfaces. Much more complicated than the Windows versions I’m used to. I agree with the comment above. We need a simple way to keep our basic financial accounts and good reminders when bills come due. A good “simple” old fashioned system really would sell to… Read more »

Charles Bridges
6 years ago

I have windows 7 and would lie to know if I can use Quicken home and business

Jeff johnson
6 years ago

Does anyone know if I can still use quicken 2015 to enter transactions get report or does not lockup at some point. also does anyone know if in quicken you can enter current prices manually. I do not need their price updates ?

Kyle
6 years ago

One huge knock against PersonalCapital? Canadian banks are as of right now, unsupported, and when support for Canadian banks is implemented is entirely unknown.

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