I’ve been a loyal Mint consumer for years. This $0 budgeting app lets me see my spending at a look, follow my finances and regulate my objectives in actual time when sudden bills pop up. Greater than as soon as I believed, “It’s too good to be true.”
And now, it seems it was. The budgeting app disappeared on March 23, 2024. You possibly can migrate your data to Credit score Karma, which Mint says has “a few of Mint’s hottest options.” However Credit score Karma’s web site states, “Credit score Karma doesn’t at the moment present budgeting options the identical means that Mint has prior to now. We all know that many Minters love our budgeting options, so we perceive this can be disappointing.”
I imported my Mint knowledge to Credit score Karma and was upset. Credit score Karma can give you a high-level overview of your spending by displaying you your newest transactions and the way a lot you spend month-to-month. However that’s the place its budgeting options finish.
So, I went on the hunt to search out one of the best Mint different. And I discovered some nice choices, together with the budgeting app I’ll be utilizing going ahead.
Budgeting apps I examined
I selected to check a choice of widespread budgeting apps that supply totally different worth factors, options and budgeting approaches. All of them can be found for each iOS and Android, and all of them (excluding WallyGPT) help you import your Mint knowledge to make the swap simpler.
PocketGuard: Free model out there; $12.99 month-to-month or $74.99 yearly for PocketGuard Plus
Rocket Cash: Free model out there; $4 and $12 a month for Premium (select what you pay) ($4 and $5 choices are billed yearly)
YNAB: $14.99 a month or $99 a 12 months (free 12 months for school college students)
Quicken Simplifi: $3.99 a month, billed yearly ($2 a month if ordered by March 31, 2024)
WallyGPT: Free
Particularly, I used to be on the lookout for an app with options much like Mint’s, together with:
Customizable classes
The pliability to regulate my finances as bills crop up
A easy, intuitive consumer expertise
Easy, useful insights
An reasonably priced worth
How I examined these budgeting apps
I linked my accounts to 4 totally different budgeting apps and tried them out concurrently for a number of weeks to see how they stacked up. (There was a fifth app I attempted to check, however was unsuccessful after a number of makes an attempt.)
On the finish of my testing, I discovered two apps that Mint customers may get pleasure from — Rocket Cash and PocketGuard — and two choices that aren’t much like Mint however present a unique strategy to budgeting. The final choice, WallyGPT, isn’t a viable match for Android or iOS customers, based mostly on the glitches our workforce encountered.
My new budgeting app: Rocket Cash
9.2/10
CNET Ranking
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Noteworthy options:
Hyperlinks to exterior accounts
Automated financial savings*
Account sharing with a associate (in beta testing)*
Credit score rating viewing
Credit score report monitoring*
Web value monitoring*
Invoice negotiation
After a number of weeks of making an attempt out these apps, my selection to interchange Mint is Rocket Cash. Each PocketGuard and Rocket Cash felt like comparable substitutions for Mint, however I discovered Rocket’s interface cleaner and simpler to make use of, and I’m a fan of its sliding pricing scale. I’ve been utilizing it since I concluded my check and proceed to search out it delivers the knowledge I would like with the simple consumer expertise I choose.
Rocket Cash has quite a lot of the identical options as Mint, providing free primary budgeting options and extra superior choices — automated financial savings, internet value monitoring and credit score reviews — with its paid tier. Like PocketGuard, it additionally gives invoice negotiation as a separate service, which prices a portion of your financial savings if it’s profitable.
Rocket Cash’s interface is easy and intuitive to navigate. It’s simple to scan your budgeted spending, precise spending and projected financial savings to see how nicely you’re doing at a look. Enhancing finances classes and transactions was intuitive and required fewer steps than with PocketGuard.
I additionally liked what number of notification choices Rocket Cash supplies. You possibly can decide to obtain alerts for a large number of vital monetary stats that will help you determine potential finances derailers and new alternatives to trim your bills.
Along with an easier consumer expertise, what set Rocket Cash other than PocketGuard for me is its seven-day free trial to check out premium options. In the event you determine you wish to improve, you’ll select to pay between $4 and $12 a month. You get the identical options no matter how a lot you pay.
Not like PocketGuard, Rocket Cash doesn’t provide debt payoff planning. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it surely might give PocketGuard the sting for customers who worth this function.
How the opposite budgeting apps in contrast
PocketGuard: An in depth second
PocketGuard works equally to Rocket Cash. You possibly can hyperlink exterior accounts, create a customizable finances and categorize your transactions. It additionally gives invoice negotiation via its associate Billshark, which prices a portion of your financial savings if it succeeds.
PocketGuard’s free model is fairly primary however gives some budgeting instruments, expense monitoring and spending reviews. Its paid model supplies extra customization, together with superior options like a debt payoff plan and automatic financial savings options.
However I disliked that PocketGuard doesn’t provide a free trial so you’ll be able to discover its paid tier to see if it’s definitely worth the worth. And since its paid model is likely one of the pricier ones I examined — $12.99 a month or $74.99 a 12 months — this looks like a missed alternative for the service.
As somebody used to working with Mint, I discovered the expertise of utilizing PocketGuard acquainted. It didn’t overwhelm me with pointless data, and I preferred that I might see all my primary finances data at a look, together with classes I’ve overspent in and the way a lot cash I’d have left on the finish of the month.
My largest difficulty with Pocket Guard was that it’s not as intuitive as Mint. To edit how a lot I’d allotted for a class, for instance, I needed to click on on that class, choose “settings” after which select “edit finances.”
In comparison with different apps the place you’ll be able to tweak a class’s budgeted quantity on the identical display because the finances abstract, I discovered these further steps irritating, particularly when first organising my finances. Enhancing transactions was the same multistep course of that left me pissed off.
YNAB: Strong, but it surely received’t work for everybody
YNAB (which stands for You Want a Funds) makes use of the zero-based budgeting methodology. With this methodology, you are taking the cash you’ve earned and assign every greenback to a selected class till you will have $0 left. You possibly can assign your cash manually or use Auto-Assign for recurring payments and bills.
By earmarking all of your funds, you discourage your self from spending cash you haven’t earned but. However, ought to one thing come up and you end up spending greater than you’ve allotted for a class, YNAB helps you to reassign {dollars} from a class that has funds out there. This enables for some flexibility, which even probably the most rigorously crafted of budgets sometimes wants.
The primary YNAB finances display reveals you ways a lot you’ve allotted to every class, the place you’ve overspent and the place you will have funds out there. Alerts up prime point out areas requiring your consideration. YNAB additionally gives mortgage payoff planning and free dwell workshops.
I can see how YNAB might be nice for many who wish to discover ways to get higher management of their spending or preferring to dive into the nitty-gritty of how every greenback is used. However the zero-based budgeting methodology isn’t how I wish to handle my cash. I choose to see upfront how a lot I count on to earn for the month and the place that cash might be going. With YNAB, you’ll be able to solely allocate cash you’ve acquired, which I discover irritating.
YNAB can be the priciest app on this listing at $14.99 a month or $99 a 12 months. However there’s a prolonged 34-day trial to present it a check run earlier than committing.
Quicken Simplifi: Not as intuitive as Mint, however value contemplating
Quicken’s budgeting app, Simplifi, gives budgeting and plenty extra, together with the power to observe your investments, property and liabilities and observe your internet value. Simplifi additionally has some distinctive budgeting options that will help you keep on prime of your money circulate, resembling:
Tags, which allow you to additional categorize transactions inside a selected finances space
Watchlists to trace how a lot you spend for a selected payee, class or tag
Projected Balances, which estimate your stability over the following 30 days
You can even create quite a few extremely customizable reviews, which you’ll filter by date, class, payee and extra.
Those that need an general snapshot of their funds past merely budgeting, however who aren’t fascinated with zero-sum budgeting, may discover this an excellent different for YNAB.
Nevertheless, regardless of what the title may suggest, I didn’t discover Quicken Simplifi notably easy to make use of. The finances menu doesn’t present you your particular transactions or classes. As an alternative, you need to click on on “Deliberate Spending” to see your finances classes, which requires quite a lot of scrolling. My telephone display solely confirmed me a few classes at a time.
Transactions that haven’t been categorized are below “Different Spending.” When you’ve sorted these transactions into classes, you need to toggle again to the “Deliberate Spending” display to see how this adjustments how a lot you’ve spent in every class. Different apps help you view miscellaneous transactions on the identical display as your categorized transactions. Total, I discovered the consumer expertise for budgeting to be clunky and never all the time intuitive.
As well as, Simplifi doesn’t provide a free model, and with no choice to pay month-to-month, it’s essential to decide to a full 12 months upfront. With no free trial, meaning you may pay for a 12 months’s value of options you received’t actually use. I’d relatively pay slightly extra for the billing flexibility and talent to make sure I’m getting one of the best product for my wants.
WallyGPT: A no-go
I used to be trying ahead to testing WallyGPT, the primary AI-powered budgeting app, however I by no means received the possibility. I might set up the app on my Android system, however once I tried to create a brand new account, I received caught on an limitless loading display. Different CNET Cash editors with Androids had the identical difficulty.
IPhone customers had been equally out of luck — WallyGPT isn’t even out there on the App Retailer now. We reached out to WallyGPT however haven’t heard again.
Ultimate ideas
Budgeting apps are extraordinarily private. What works for me could not work finest for you. Whereas I feel Rocket Cash is one of the best Mint different, you is likely to be happier with PocketGuard or one of many apps that work slightly in a different way. And since most of those budgeting apps provide free trials, you’ll be able to run your personal discipline check to search out one of the best match for you.
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