Moneyspire Review 2021 – Free Budgeting Software
Cost - 8
Customer Service - 9
Ease of Use - 7.5
Tools & Resources - 7
Synchronization - 7
Accessibility - 8
What Is Moneyspire?
Moneyspire is a personal finance management software service with many features similar to Moneydance and Banktivity. The company name is a portmanteau of the words “money” and “inspire,” encapsulating their quest to “inspire people to manage their money in more effective and meaningful ways.”
With Moneyspire, you can either import your accounts through Direct Connect or manually enter each one. Once you’ve done that, you can:
- Streamline the task of money management
- Establish a budget (or multiple budgets)
- Track your spending and produce reports detailing how you spend your money
- Review your net worth and see how you’re trending
- Automatically import transactions from online banking services
- Reconcile your checkbook, track credit cards, receive bill reminders, set up automatic bill pay and more
Moneyspire provides an overview of your financial situation on one easy-to-read screen. It includes a free companion mobile app (available in iOS) that allows you to record transactions and check account balances when you’re out shopping.
Moneyspire Features
| Price | Min: $0.00, Max: $59.00, Term: none |
| Budgeting | |
| Bill Payment | |
| Investment Tracking | |
| Access | Web Based, iOS, Android |
| Credit Score Monitoring | |
| Bill Management | |
| Retirement Planning | |
| Tax Reporting | |
| Reconcile Transactions | |
| Custom Categories | |
| Import QFX, QIF Files | |
| Two-Factor Authentication | |
| Online Synchronization |
- Multiple Data Import/Export Choices — Transactions can be entered manually, downloaded automatically, and/or imported from a QFX/OFX, QIF, or CSV file. And your financial data can be exported to a QIF file or a spreadsheet and printed out to share with your accountant.
- Apple iOS App Support — You have two ways to share your data with your mobile device. You can use a cloud server (Dropbox, which gives you 2 GB of storage free, is recommended by Moneyspire), or if you don’t want to put your data on the cloud, you can share it manually through your iTunes account.
- Security — Your data is encrypted and stays on your computer. Moneyspire does not collect or store your financial information. Your data is accessible only to you.
- Multiple Currency Support — All world currencies are supported on Moneyspire.
- Free Customer Service — Users can access support via email and telephone.
- Account Integration — Service is through Direct Connect, which connects directly to financial institutions rather than a third party.
| Highlights |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 9.5/10 | 8.5/10 | 7/10 |
| Budgeting | |||
| Investment Monitoring | |||
| Retirement Planning | |||
| Bill Payment | |||
| Manual Entries | |||
| Bill Management | |||
Plans and Pricing
Moneyspire offers a free version of their software for personal use (available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux) that allows you to manage one account and set up to 9 reminders.
There is also a paid version with unlimited accounts available for a one-time fee of $54. For personal use, you need to purchase only one copy; the software can be used on all computers in your household. For business use, you much purchase one copy per computer.
After you purchase Moneyspire, it can be used indefinitely, and software updates are free. Technical and customer support is provided for the lifetime of the product. Moneyspire is refundable in the first 60 days.
Moneyspire uses AES 128-bit military-grade protection to encrypt your password. Online banking features are done through encrypted SSL connections. Moneyspire’s website also uses SSL encryption when purchasing products.
Moneyspire never receives or has access to any of your financial information. It resides only on your hard drive or wherever you decide to save it. However, if you want to use the Mobile app, you must store your financial data on the cloud.
How It Works
- Download the Moneyspire app on your computer.
- Link your accounts, create budgets, set up bill pay and bill pay reminders (if you wish).
- Download “Moneyspire Go” on your iOS mobile device and then share your files via either the Cloud or YouTube to access your real-time personal financial data whenever and wherever you are.
Help manuals are easily accessible on their website and there is a very helpful YouTube video tutorial detailing how to sync your mobile device with your Moneyspire account on your desktop.
Moneyspire Pros & Cons
ProsOne Screen View —Simplicity is a key factor. You can do everything on one screen so there’s no need to jump in and out of screens and menus to effectively use Moneyspire.Good Customer Service —From our testing, Moneyspire was very prompt in answering questions.Linux Support —Not many other personal finance software apps provide Linux platform support. |
ConsCumbersome Setup —In order to use Moneyspire on your mobile device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch), you have to download the free companion app called “Moneyspire Go” and synch up your mobile account with your desktop account. And that process is not intuitive or easy.No Android Support —iOS is the only mobile platform on which you can currently use Moneyspire.Possible Bank Fees —My bank, Wells Fargo, charges a monthly fee to use Direct Connect in order to synch my checking account with my Moneyspire account. I realized this only after signing up and then had to call Wells Fargo to remove the service since you can’t disconnect it online.Free App Is Limited —While there is a free version of the software, it gives you the ability to set up only one account. If you regularly use a credit card and checking account, for example, you need to upgrade to the paid version to keep track of both of those accounts with Moneyspire. |
Moneyspire Screenshots
Summary
While it’s not intended to be a full-fledged accounting package like Quicken, Moneyspire seems to be a decent tool for budgeting, with some nice features not found in other personal finance software apps. For example, you can print checks and optional check vouchers to make manual bill paying easy. You can also easily split transactions into multiple categories for super-accurate budgeting.
I found the software setup to be somewhat cumbersome and a little frustrating. There are multiple steps, a few of which I took the option of skipping during initial setup, thinking I could easily go back and do them later, but that turned out not to be so easy after all.
While the video tutorial is well done and the help manuals detail everything in an organized way, navigating the software could be more intuitive and user-friendly.
The mobile setup was very involved, particularly if you didn’t already have a Dropbox account or cloud storage set up. You must do that before you can share data with your mobile device.
Finally, while there is a free version of the app, you can run into monthly fees from your financial institution when linking your account(s) to Moneyspire.
I have been using Moneyspire since 2020, but it has begun to seriously corrupt my data. I would definitely NOT recommend it!
I am a bit concerned about this company. I always try to check out their background. Their mailing address, which is listed on their web site is a mail drop, “The UPS Store”. In this day and age I worry about software created that then uses your financial log ons and passwords.
Waste of time and money. Moneyspire cloud doesn’t work and customer service doesn’t reply.
Don’t waste your TIME or money. This product cannot mannage many accounts – won’t properly update.
Customer service is non existant. I asked for a refund within 30 day period and got no reply.
Moneyspire was a godsend. My work computer went down and with it my very old Quickbooks. Well, since I bought QB many years ago the new models of accounting software are subscription based and/or ridiculously expensive. For my needs I basically want a glorified checkbook register with the ability to do a couple simple reports. Most everything was way too much money/features or garbage and not intuitive.
I was able to import my bank info (2 banks) no problem though I had to go through each transaction to assign it the proper category for a profit and loss statement.
This is definitely not the program for a lot of businesses that need lots of features but it was perfect for me. The cost is very reasonable and it just does what I want. I see there are features Moneyspire has that I probably won’t bother with but that’s the point. I just wanted a simple way to keep track of my spending, account balances and to be able to print up some reports at tax time. Believe me, I spent weeks test driving demos, signing up for all the monthly subscription type services and they were all too much time and money for my needs.
I think that is Moneyspire’s strength, not sure how they need to market it though, haha.
It only allows for import of QIF files … none of my banks allow for these files … too bad it looked like a great replacement for the nightmare monthly subscription to Quicken
After using Quicken for over 15 years, I too became frustrated with the quirkiness of downloaded transaction category assignments and I do not like their subscription membership direction. I trialed Moneyspire, asked a few questions via email and received answers within 24 hours. I purchased the software, imported my Quicken data and started downloading transactions from my banks and credit card companies.
I don’t track investments so don’t miss this functionality.
I use Moneyspire on a Mac without any problem. Being able to search across all accounts would be a plus for me.
I just spent a few weeks using Moneyspire and it’s been extremely disappointing. I spent a great deal of time setting up all of my accounts (bank, credit card, retirement, etc.), and connecting to them using Moneyspire Connect. I attempted my latest sync with them yesterday and not all transactions are downloaded. That makes this software completely useless if that’s what you want to do. All the time I spent setting it up was completely wasted!
None of my balances are correct in the accounts because transactions are missing. I am using large financial institutions, one of the largest banks, one of the largest credit unions, and large retirement institutions. If Moneyspire can’t work with them I don’t see how they have a viable product. I can’t even get it to connect to my credit union anymore. When I try to refresh the connection I get an error message and when I try to sync my credit union accounts it texts me a security code but there is no where to enter it.
The Moneyspire Connect service is free and you get what you pay for.
Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and avoid Moneyspire.
I had been a Quicken user for almost 20 years. When they recently changed hands and went to the subscription based model, I became disenchanted. My Quicken files were also becoming corrupted with no clear way to fix them. MoneySpire has now replaced it for the past 6 months. It isn’t near as robust as Quicken, but we really don’t need all those bells and whistles. MoneySpire gets the job done for us just fine. They are receptive to suggestions I make for product improvement and are quick to respond to me support questions. And I paid for it once and for all, unless there’s a major new release.
Moneyspire isn’t yet ready to play with the big boys. Too many quirky behaviors. Too little functionality.
Moneyspire is an excellent app to manage your finances very easy to use and feature rich. Kudos to them they are really doing a good job improving the app
I just downloaded Moneyspire, and so far, it appears they have been listening to the comments here. First off they now have a full featured 45-day trial. They are still not focused on investments, but for those of us that use Quicken for account tracking, reconciliation, and online bill pay, it works great!
They do not Inspire me. A week ago I sent an e-mail about their product which is still without reply. There are plenty more providers who are anxious for business – leave these amateur also rans alone
Moneyspire has discontinued the free version and automatically overwrote my free version with a 14-day trial that will expire unless you purchase the paid version. Warning: If you download and install the software update that pops up, you will overwritten and out of luck.
I do NOT recommend this software, nor their deceptive business practices.
Thank you for your review Ms. Lyons. There’s a large number of Quicken users who are concerned about what is happening as HIG Capital has gone completely quiet since April when they acquired Quicken from Intuit.
It sounds like there is not much in the way of capabilities in MoneySpire to manage investment accounts. It is primarily a cash management, budgeting and spending tracking tool. Is that so?
Hi Barry,
Yes that is true. There are other apps that are better suited for investors. We have done reviews on several of them. Personal Capital is one of our favorites. Here’s a link to the review:
https://investorjunkie.com/13093/personal-capital-review/
Here, also, is a link to the comparison chart of many of the personal finance software apps:
https://investorjunkie.com/45904/personal-finance-software-comparison/
Stop back and let us know which one you choose and how it works out for you.
Best,
Ruth
I have been with Microsoft Money Plus Sunset for many years and like it very much. Now they are discontinuing the program. Who do you recommend for this replacement. I tried Quicken – no = did not like = Moneyspire certainly does not have good review here. I used my personal computer for farms and all personal accounts, including CD, investments, annuities, and my personal and farm income and expenses. I have two files – one for farms and one for personal income and expenses. I like Money Plus very much as I used this program for so many years I can enter information with my eyes closed. Please, can you help?