About Quicken is a desktop application you install locally on your Windows or Macintosh computer. It’s the “grandaddy” of personal finance software, appearing first for MS-DOS and Apple II (remember them?) back in 1983. Times have changed, and now Quicken has multiple versions of its application — from Window and Mac to apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android. Quicken’s desktop software can sync up with the mobile app. But changing times have also brought a changing playing field for these types of applications. Whereas Quicken was once the only game in town, now it faces stiff competition from a number of alternative players, including Mint.
However, as part of my work on finding a replacement for Quicken 2007, I discovered that Quicken has done themselves something of a disservice with their marketing: Quicken 2018 is not a typical software subscription, it’s more of a traditional model. Quicken Essentials for Mac is Intuit's upgrade from Quicken Mac 2007. Unfortunately, Quicken Essentials for Mac also lacks some of the features users counted on in earlier Quicken Mac versions, but Intuit is still supporting Quicken Mac 2007.
Quicken can help you keep track of your money, pay bills and set — and — keep budgets. It can even help you manage your investments and — in a new feature — track the value of your home. However, it’s not without its faults. I once used Quicken every day, but now I’ve found that there are much easier and more reliable apps for day-to-day use. However, when it comes to comprehensive financial management, none of these smaller apps have all the features of Quicken. However, Mint makes for a worthy opponent.
About Mint is a free online-only personal finance app. It is a cloud-based service, and you can access Mint via any web browser or mobile app on your iPhone or Android smartphone. The Mint app was started in 2006 and was acquired by Intuit in 2009. While Quicken used to be Intuit’s lead product, Mint has become their sole focus since announcing the sale of Quicken.
The platform incorporates all of your financial accounts — bank, investment, credit cards and loans — in one place and provides a big-picture view of your entire financial situation. At initial setup you can add all of your accounts in a pretty seamless download process. After downloading and syncing your transactions, Mint’s software automatically separates them into predefined categories.
While you can’t modify the top-level categories, you can create and add your own subcategories. Once set up, Mint will remember repeating transactions so it will automatically match the same category in the future. With Mint, every time you visit the site, your financial data gets updated automatically. The software presents your financial information in a slick easy-to-use web interface, with information and pretty graphs on a user-friendly dashboard.
Jump down to the respective section to get the information you need. Features Unique to Quicken. Reconcile Bank Statements — Quicken allows you to check your recorded transactions against your current bank statement. Think of this as the online version of balancing your checkbook.
Data Stored Locally — Quicken keeps your data on your own computer, so you don’t need to worry about it being unsecured in the cloud. The Inspector — This feature allows you to see summary information about your budget, as well as provide quick options. It will let you know, for example, whether or not you’ve budgeted enough for an upcoming expense. Retirement Planning — Quicken has functionality to help with setting and meeting your retirement saving goals.
Tax Reporting — With Quicken you can either directly import into services like TurboTax, or generate tax reports to hand over to your accountant. Bill Payment — You can pay your bills with Quicken, whereas Mint no longer offers this functionality. Features Unique to Mint.
Alerts via email or SMS — Mint will alert you about pending bills and fees that hit your accounts and will suggest ways to save money on transaction fees. Credit Score Tracking — View and monitor your credit score, account usage, payment history and errors at a glance. Investment Tracking — Mint offers investment tracking although it’s okay at best.
If you’re more of a buy-and-hold than active investor, the investing section offered by Mint may be all you need. Is a possible alternative that offers better investment tools. Net Worth Report — Mint and displays that figure prominently at the top of your account. Apple Watch — Mint is accessible via an Apple Watch. The Comparison of Mint and Quicken We break down the comparison into these categories: Budgeting, Synchronization, Cost, Customer Service and Education, Security, and Mobile Access.
Budgeting Both apps are stellar at budgeting. You know where your money is going and can manage your finances well with either one. Both services are versatile enough for any budgeter to stop over-drafting, set up a systematic way to pay off credit card debt, set up savings and manage your spending. Plus get alerts for unusal activity. Quicken offers a robust budgeting tool that has greatly benefited from recent improvements. Mint’s budgeting software is also easy to use and visually appealing. And both have been around long enough that they’re viable options to choose between for basic budgeting.
Both, in fact, are excellent budgeting apps and comparable to each other in most ways. TIE — and are both good choices for budgeting. Synchronization Both platforms provide automatic synchronization of your bank, credit card and loan accounts with many financial institutions. While Mint supports a large number of banks and financial services, it also seems to have a lot of technical problems with synchronization.
This is an ongoing complaint among users; you can feel their frustration when you read their comments on synchronization on Mint’s forums. Not only does Mint seem to have a lot of disruptive issues, they seem to have a bad reputation for not fixing the synchronization issues in a timely fashion. Synchronization is an area where Quicken is somewhat better than Mint, though because it uses Intuit’s online services, it may have similar synchronization issues. If you cannot use the automatic methods to download your information pretty much every financial institution supports the open standard.QFX format with Quicken. Lastly, If synchronization breaks with Quicken, nothing prevents you from manually entering your journal entries. Whereas with Mint you cannot enter any transactions if synchronization breaks.
Therefore, we recommend Quicken over Mint in this category, though from our testing have had a better experience with. Winner — Cost If cost is your primary factor in choosing, then this comparison is an easy one. Quicken retails $39.95 to $119.95 (we list the latest on our site). Mint is free to use, and there are no hidden fees.
You might be wondering how Mint makes money. There are several ways:. Mint offers “ways to save” by recommending various financial services from which they get a referral fee. You’ll also find banner ads in various parts of the website, which provide revenue. You can sign up for premium access to your credit report for a small fee. Mint also sells the aggregate (not your individual) financial data to various providers.
Things like: consumer spending, the average credit card balance, how many retirement accounts a user might have, etc. The data is collected anonymously and does not reference back to any individual user. Winner — Customer Service and Education When you click on the support button on Mint’s website, there is a list of common questions and issues you can scroll through. If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can either email the team or hit the chat button for online help.
Response to my specific inquiry from Mint was slow. Spotty customer service seems to be a recurring experience of users who post on their website forum. Quicken has had a notorious history of poor customer service. Hopefully, the app’s new owners will address the problems that so many customers have complained about. They do offer free 24/7 technical service via phone (how useful it is remains to be seen). Typically, you get technical support that’s from India and reading through scripts to help with your problems.
As has been reported by many comments on Investor Junkie, their phone support is more than useless for all but for the simplest of issues. In addition, with Quicken (and previously with Intuit) there would be many software upgrades of the product to fix various bugs that in some cases should have been resolved before releasing the new version.
Based upon issues with both products, I cannot recommend either product as superior in customer service. From our testing we’ve had better customer service with.
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TIE — and are equally poor choices for customer service. Security Security is an important issue to anyone using a personal financial program, since your entire financial life could be exposed. In comparing Mint and Quicken in terms of security, it’s all about an internet-based service versus locally installed software on your computer.
With traditional Quicken software, all of your information is stored right on your computer. However, when using the application’s online features, Quicken uses the following to safeguard your info:. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and encryption to make your information unreadable as it passes over the internet. Firewall-protected servers. Integrity checks to be certain messages have not been changed in any way between sender and recipient.
Users can protect their accounts with secure passwords. Mint also is concerned about the security of your personal and stored information.
Key site security measures:. Two-factor authentication: In addition to password protection, Mint won’t let you access your account until you validate the device you’re using either via the email address you used when you signed up or by a SMS text message to your cellphone. Touch ID sensor for iOS: This quickly reads your fingerprint and unlocks your phone, allowing you quick access to the Mint.com app. We believe Quicken’s local data storage makes it superior when considering security protection.
8.5/10 Promotions None Price $34.99 - $99.99/year FREE Trial Period -Refund Policy 30 days - Budgeting Bill Payment Bill Management Investment Tracking Retirement Planning Tax Reporting Reconcile Transactions Credit Score Monitoring Zillow Tracking Custom Categories Manual Entries Import QFX, QIF Files Currency Support Multiple US/Canada How can you access the sevice? Website only? Via smartphone app?Access Website, Windows, iOS App, Android App Website, iOS App, Apple Watch, Android App, SMS More security to prevent unauthorized access to your account.Two-Factor Authentication Customer Service Phone: 24/7; Email Email Sign Up. Which Is Better? Between just these two services, we would have to pick Quicken over Mint.
Has much more functionality and can grow with you over time. But for some, perhaps is all you need. If you want a service that’s available online via a web browser or app, Mint is a better service for that purpose. Both Mint and Quicken are designed to show you how and where you spend your money. Both provide a user-friendly tool to improve your money management skills — and financial future — by helping you budget effectively.
Both are now online services and compatible across all the devices you might choose to use. However, Quicken’s pricing can be off-putting, especially to Millennials who just want a quick, free app to handle simple personal finance functions. For this audience, Mint is a better deal.
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Readers: Which platform do you prefer between the two?
Quicken for Mac 2018 Screenshot New Features Chief among the new features is access to online bills from more than 11,000 billers. They’re integrated into what Quicken called, “a streamlined bill workflow.” There are also expanded investment capabilities with specific lot tracking; a “highly” customizable portfolio view; and, loan tracking features that include “what-if” loan analysis. DropBox Storage Bonus, Yelp and PayPal Integration Subscribers get an additional 5GB of additional storage from DropBox included with their subscription. Premier memberships also include the ability to include Yelp links and PayPal payments in bills. Quicken for Subscriptions Subscriptions (or “memberships”) are sold in one or two-year increments.
The company pitched this pricing as allowing customers to get a continual stream of updates, rather than buying major new versions. They may be counting on Mac users forgetting the long, long, long passages of time that passed between Quicken for Mac updates when Intuit still owned it. That said, many will likely see this pricing as reasonable.
Here’s how it breaks down:. Quicken Starter (Mac & Windows):. One-year membership: $34.99. Two-year membership: $49.99 (available at retail). Quicken Deluxe (Mac & Windows):. One-year membership: $49.99.
Two-year membership: $79.99 (available at retail). Quicken Premier (Mac & Windows):. One-year membership: $74.99. Two-year membership: $119.99 (available at retail) Quicken for Mac 2018 is available now at, Staples, and Amazon. Amazon has 27-month subscriptions for the two-year prices listed above (, ). Following up on geoduck’s thoughts: I used to run a Windows VM to use Quickbooks on my Mac because the Mac version of QB lagged behind the Windows version.
Once Intuit tried to catch up the Mac version, they change the formats making the Mac and Windows version incompatible. This caused problems with my accountant. Last year, I started using Quickbooks online.
While I am worried about the security, I had to swallow some of those worries to get the job done. But QB online helps in dealing with my accountant and allows me to work from home at night Read more ». It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Quicken for Mac lags behind Windows in features. Fewer Mac people use Quicken. Quicken figures they aren’t making back their development costs. They let the Mac version drop farther behind.
More Mac users jump ship. Quicken goes to a subscription model for software that is way way behind both the Mac version of Quicken, and packages from other vendors. The argument that this is to help fund development falls on deaf ears. More Mac users wave the middle finger bye-bye. Quicken for Mac is dropped with the manufacturer citing “low interest and sales”.
If you Read more ».