10 Mint Alternatives We Recommend for 2023
Budgeting isn't fun or glamorous, but it's necessary if you want to reach your financial goals. Thankfully, budgeting apps can make the process a lot easier.
Intuit Mint—or simply Mint—is one of the longest running and most established of these apps. The ability to securely link to different bank accounts and automatically log and categorize expenses is still a major selling point for many users.
But over the past few years, budgeting apps have rocketed into the future. Now, you’re more likely that ever to be able to find an app that suits your spending habits and lifestyle. Meanwhile, Mint has gotten a little less shiny over time, with users complaining about functionality, security and convenience.
Below, we break down some of the most common complaints that we hear about Mint. Then, we list 10 of the best Mint alternatives that could save you time and hassle if you're willing to make the switch.
Common Mint Complaints & Reasons To Switch
Mint is still a very popular free budgeting app. But some users have have found the platform to be a disappointment in one or more ways. Here's a quick list of the most common complaints that users make about Mint:
- Problems With Synchronization — Mint has trouble connecting to certain banks, credit unions and other financial institutions (AmEx-linking in particular seems to be a recurring problem).
- Poor Customer Service — It's not uncommon for questions to go unanswered for weeks or to have problems never resolved.
- Lack of Report Generation — The only way to generate a report is by exporting a CSV file to a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel. You can only do this through their website, not the app.
- No Reconciliation — You cannot reconcile against your monthly bank statements. Mint assumes the data downloaded is always correct. For financial information that’s not linked to your bank, you can only add them to your account manually through the Mint.com website.
- No Import Option From Quicken — You cannot import your data from Quicken into Mint.
- Hard to access outside the US and Canada — Mint users located around the world have complained about the spotty ability to log into the website. With many apps seamlessly available around the world for travelers, this seems noticeably shortsighted.
- Mistakes in Labeling Purchases — Mint attempts to label your purchases as they come in, but it can get it wrong. Users have to check their purchases to make sure things are sorted into the right budget categories and to make sure that less common purchases are labeled appropriately.
While many features on Mint have improved (for example, users can now opt to spend $0.99 a month for an ad-free experience—a low-barrier solution to a previously common complaint), that doesn’t mean you can’t have a look around to see what’s out there.
10 Popular Mint Alternatives
Whatever your reason for feeling like Mint isn't the right fit for your budgeting needs, this guide can help you find a suitable replacement. Here are 10 of the best Mint alternatives available today.
1. Simplifi Juggles Hard Targets and Nice-To-Haves
Simplifi provides a streamline dashboard that lets you see all your investments, loans, bank accounts and credit cards in one place and automatically categorizes each expense into goals that you’ve set.
Most of us don’t have just one savings target: Often, we’re paying down student loans, building up our emergency funds, tucking money away for a kitchen reno and an upcoming vacation. Simplifi by Quicken lets you set hard budgets (for debt repayments and big life expenses) and watch lists (to keep an eye on upcoming holidays and fast food budgets), and analyzes your spending and cash flow to show you where you can free up money and where you can spend a bit more.
After a 30-day trial, Simplifi costs $47.99 a year. This is more expensive than Mint, but Simplifi is better for managing all of your finances, including investments, under one roof.
Read More: Check out our full review of Simplifi
2. Empower is a Hybrid Platform
Empower is primarily an investment management platform, but it also has budgeting tools that are similar to Mint like:
- Account Dashboard is the primary link of the budgeting suite. It allows you to sync external financial accounts so that you can gain insights into cash flow, spending by category, savings rate, debt, net worth, and other metrics.
- The retirement planner tool allows you to estimate how much you'll need to retire under various scenarios and develop a plan to reach it.
- Investment Planner allows you to compare your portfolio allocations to what it considers ideal allocations based on your age and risk preferences. It also provides information on the 529 accounts you may have opened for your children's college.
3. YNAB (You Need a Budget) Sets Rules to Live By
YNAB has long been one of the strongest Mint alternatives if your goal is to become debt fee. It helps spenders break the habit of living paycheck to paycheck by encouraging them to live solely off the money earned the previous month and setting intentions for each dollar that comes in.
YNAB makes recording expenses and goal-setting a breeze with the ability to categorize expenses and link bank accounts to automatically log your transactions. On top of instructing you to stick to spending only last month’s income, YNAB has three other rules:
- Give every dollar a job. You allocate every dollar based on spending priorities that you've previously established. To gain the most from this feature, you'll need to spend a bit of time upfront setting up those priorities.
- Embrace your actual expenses. If you have annual expenses, you'll break them up over 12 months so that you set aside a little each month.
- Roll with the punches. Address overspending when it happens by readjusting over other categories. Then move on.
YNAB is fee-based, priced at $14.99 a month or $98.99 a year but offers a 34-day free trial. It has several iterations, including Web, Android, and Apple. You can read our Mint vs YNAB post for a complete comparison of these two budgeting apps.
Further Reading: A full overview of YNAB
4. Tiller is For Spreadsheet Fans
Tiller, also known as Tiller Money, syncs with more than 18,000 financial institutions across the United States. It uses the information from these accounts to automatically track and categorize expenses into their custom-created spreadsheets. If you're a spreadsheet nerd, Tiller is one of the best Mint alternatives on the market today.
Tiller works with a “Foundation Template” that allows you to create budgets, or you can create a customized spreadsheet. It also includes tools for freelancers and small business owners, saving them the madness of receipt-digging around tax season.
On top of logging daily expenses, Tiller also sends emailed budget summaries and organizes your monthly expenses into easy-to-read graphs so you can spot where you’ve overspent. After a 30-day free trial, Tiller charges $79 annually.
5. Goodbudget Takes the Envelope Method Into the Digital Age
Goodbudget uses an envelope system where part of your monthly income goes toward specific expenses. You manually add account balances, debts, and income, then assign the money toward envelopes. This helps you avoid overspending and is one of the older budgeting systems out there.
Goodbudget also allows you to sync budgets with other family members. It offers a free version that gives you 20 envelopes and two devices. The Plus version costs $8 a month.
If you're mostly interested in avoiding overspending, this is one of the best alternatives to Mint you can use.
6. PocketSmith Helps You Forecast For The Future
PocketSmith is similar to Mint in that you can aggregate all of your banking and investing accounts with one app. From there, you can create custom budgets and spending categories to stay on top of your finances. It also summarizes your transactions just like Mint.
But we like PocketSmith as an alternative to Mint because of its forecasting features. It has a cash-flow forecasting tool that highlights how your current spending habits influence your net worth and future wealth. Its budgeting calendar also provides a nice visual layout of your upcoming expenses and income, so it's an excellent app for highly-visual budgeters, not spreadsheet fans.
The downside versus Mint is that you need to pay for PocketSmith to get most of its features. For most users, the middle-tier Premium plan, which costs $9.95 per month or $90 per year, is enough to get the job done.
You can read our PocketSmith review for more info, and Investor Junkie readers get 50% off their first two months of a Premium plan.
7. PocketGuard Provides a Simplified Snapshot
PocketGuard provides a simplified view of your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, and bills. It also shows you how much you have left for discretionary spending. Not only does it allow you to get a full overview of your finances, including your net worth, it also analyzes your bills to show you where you can negotiate for better rates.
It comes in a free version and paid version at $7.99 a month. This is more expensive than Mint, but the bill negotiation feature is one of its unique selling points.
8. Wally is a Mint Alternative With a Global Network
Wally is a super-secure budget tracker with a global presence. It automatically syncs with your external accounts and credit cards, with a network of over 15,000 banks in 70 countries. Its distinctive feature is that the app automatically analyzes your last two years of spending.
You can also upload all your bills and warranties to keep them in one centralized location, and Wally will shoot an alert on when bills are due. The rest is what you would expect of a top-tier budgeting app: Sync with your household, set spending limits for your chosen categories, track progress in real-time, and set aside money towards your savings goals.
It has a free version and an upgraded version (Wally Gold) for $74.99, which throws in currency conversion and advanced insights. If you have bank accounts in multiple countries, it's an excellent app like Mint to consider.
9. Honeydue Splits Finances, Saves Relationships
Anyone who lives with a partner knows that personal finance is never a solo venture. That’s where Honeydue comes in. Ideal for combined finances, Honeydue links to all accounts, automatically splits bills, sends overdue reminders to whoever’s paying which bill, and even has an in-app chat feature for when you need to talk money.
Users can also open a joint Honeydue checking account that instantly notifies the partner of their financial transactions. The app is available for both iOS and Android.
A downside of the app is that it provides no reporting or analytics and lacks a tool for tracking progress toward goals—but a major plus is that it’s free to use. If anything, you can use apps like Mint for budgeting and then use Honeydue to split bills and for sending bill reminders.
10. Digit Saves Your Money For You
Digit is a “smart” app that does just about everything automatically once you set it up. It first made a splash when it launched for its ability to tuck tiny, inconspicuous amounts into your savings goals for you, but since then it’s grown into a saving powerhouse.
Whenever you make a deposit, it moves money into a separate account for bills to cover monthly necessities so you can stay ahead of your bills. Want to invest but don’t know how much money you can spare? Digit analyzes your spending, calculates how much you can afford to put into the market, helps you choose the right ETF mix for you based on your goals and tucks money away for you.
Digit is free for 30 days and then $5 a month after that. Ultimately, it's one of the best alternatives to Mint if you want a microsavings app that also lets you invest.
Check out: Our full Digit review
How Do You Choose The Right Mint Alternative?
The right Mint alternative for you depends upon several factors, including the device you'd like to use it on, your personality, your goals, the fee structure, and what exactly you want the app to accomplish. Here are a few questions to consider when deciding which app is the best for you.
Do you want to manually log your expenses or have them automatically updated and categorized for you?
Ultimately, the budgeting app that will work best for you depends on your style. If you need to be fully in control and actively tracking to stay accountable to your goals, we suggest a clean, visual app like PocketSmith. If you want a hands-free approach, Digit puts your savings on autopilot and does your budgeting for you.
Do you prefer mobile-only, desktop-only, or do you want the flexibility of both?
Never near a desktop? Always near a desktop? Some of these apps (like Wally) are mobile-only, while others (YNAB) let you do all your budgeting on a desktop app (and a mobile app). If you don’t mind doing some tasks on a computer while monitoring on your phone, or prefer the flexibility of being able to toggle between both, may we suggest—gulp—Mint?
Do you want a birds-eye view of your entire financial picture?
Want to keep an eye on your investments, loans and credit cards as well as your checking and savings? Here’s where you might opt for Pocketguard or Empower.
Will you be syncing your budget information with a partner?
For family budgeting or combining finances with a partner, Tiller, Honeydue and Wally lets several devices and account types on at once.
Are you looking to rewire your savings approach?
If you’re looking to form good spending habits while doubling down on your savings or debt repayment goals, consider picking up a method-based goal-setting app like You Need A Budget or Goodbudget.
The Bottom Line
Keeping and maintaining a budget is critical when it comes to reaching our financial goals, whether they are to reduce debt or save for vacations, retirement, or your kids' education.
While Mint does a decent job of budget tracking and syncing, there’s a world of budgeting apps out there with tailored approaches to your savings style while offering security, reliability and functionality. If you’re stuck with Mint just because it was one of the OGs, the benefits you’ll see in your savings plan could far outweigh the small hassle of tinkering with some new apps.
So which of these Mint alternatives will you choose to kickstart your financial future?
