Personal finance software is an insanely popular topic for personal finance articles. While I’m sure there are some great pieces of software out there, I encourage you to look into alternative options like using a Mac and some high quality apps. I’m going to compare the four most popular Mac personal finance software reviews below and let you know how they stack up against each other.
Personal finance software can be a life-changer for people who are looking to handle their own money. There are many different programs that can help you with this including Quicken, You Need A Budget, and Mint. While there is no best personal budgeting software, there is definitely a right personal finance software for every user as each of them has different strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the free personal finance software available for Mac OS X which doesn’t require you to purchase software on CD’s or download huge files on your computer.
Personal finance is one of the most important aspects in one’s life that need to be looked at with microscopic inspection and has to be managed properly in order to ensure financial stability. To help you take care of your finances, we will let you know of some free personal finance software that are easy to use and easy to incorporate in daily life. We will present a list that lists personal finance software free to download and use. These best free personal finance software will, without a doubt, make your financial life more stable and without complications. This list of free personal finance software is highly researched and reliable.
The personal budgeting software listed below is an essential tool for anyone who wants to get a grip on their finances. The best-itemized personal finance software programs allow you to keep track of all your spending, as well as predict future expenditures. Most of them are also designed to be easy to use – ideal for personal financial management novices.
Personal finance software for mac (and for Windows) is an absolute necessity for anyone who is serious about managing their money. Quality personal finance software can help you plan and track your spending, investments and other financial goals.
How to Choose a Personal Finance Software
The first step you’ll want to take when choosing a personal finance software is nailing down what you need. For example, if you’re really pinching pennies, you won’t want to go for pricier software. And if you’re looking for help with taxes, you obviously wouldn’t want to use software that doesn’t help with that.
There are three big things to consider when picking a perfect software: your budget, your goals, and your desired features. As mentioned, you’ll want to opt for software you can afford – since saving money is the whole point in the first place. If you’re concerned about saving money on your software, PocketGuard is a great choice.
However, if you’re looking to manage different incomes and minimize expenses, then Personal Capital or Albert are good choices. There are all kinds of reasons you’d want to opt for personal finance software, so make sure you know what you want.
1. Mint
Mint is one of the most popular personal finance free software of 2016. Its UI is an absolute treat to use, along with the loaded features of personal finance management that put it at the front of the personal-finance game. Mint shows you your financial situation in a broader sense; it shows your total net worth along with each and every minute detail of every transaction that you made so you can keep track of personal and professional expenses from a microscopic lens. It allows you to connect to your PayPal so you can monitor your online transactions as well. It uses visual images to illustrate your finances, and we believe it is the best feature of Mint. It is web-based and has apps for all major platforms.
2. Buddi
Buddi helps you perform major financial tasks like budgeting, tracking accounts, creating personal finance reports and some other nifty features. You enter your transactions manually, and let Buddi take the front seat to keep the record safe and secure and record monthly reports. Buddi is available on Windows, Linux and Mac, so you can use it on your different devices. It will become your perfect buddy. Buddi is a free personal finance software that keeps your financial data encrypted and is perfect for small financial tasks that one needs to perform daily. You can add more features by downloading more plugins.
3. AceMoney Lite
AceMoney Lite is an all-rounder financial software that focuses on investment tracking and allows you to have two financial accounts that can be managed with a single one. It lets you handle all your transactions, manage them, edit them at your will and balance them at the end. You can download these transactions whenever you want and produce monthly reports based on them. It lets you manage your accounts, your banks and payees. It also lets you schedule your payments. The full version of AceMoney has a lot of other options and costs $40.
4. GnuCash
GnuCash is perfect for individuals, homes and small businesses to keep track of their accounts. It is available on Windows, Linux and Mac, along with an Android app. It lets you add accounts, schedule regular payments, and add assets. If you have been using other financial software, you can import your data from them to GnuCash in QIF and dOFX formats. GnuCash is not as simple and requires that you know your way around basic accounting. Once you get familiarized with GnuCash, it will make your financial life a lot simpler by its regular reporting, financial advisory and data analysis to help you make wiser financial decisions.
5. You Need a Budget
We chose You Need a Budget (YNAB) as the best overall option because it offers the best combination of flexibility and features, making it more than worth its monthly price. It guides you through making an intentional, forward-thinking plan for your spending. Plus, its goal tracking and reporting features help you monitor your progress. Pros
- You can link your accounts or manually enter transactions
- Real-time information is always available from any device
- YNAB teaches you how to budget, rather than just automating the process
Cons
- Subscription fees of about $15 monthly or $99 annually
- Requires a larger time commitment to manage than other options
- There’s a steeper learning curve than some other budgeting apps
YNAB is more expensive than its free counterparts and it takes more time to develop your budget. Despite these drawbacks, it’s the best budgeting software for taking control of your money because it gives you the necessary tools to create a value-driven spending plan.
The app is built around its four rules, which include giving every dollar a job. The program will guide you through the process of allocating every dollar so you can spend it intentionally. Its customizable reporting and goal tracking features, which include attractive and informative charts and graphs, help you stick to your plan. YNAB also provides comprehensive education, including more than 100 free online workshops, and offers real-time updating so you’ll always know where your money is going and can make adjustments on the fly.
6. Honeydue
We chose Honeydue as the best option for couples because it is specifically geared toward helping you manage your money with a partner. You can link accounts and customize what information you share with your partner while also communicating about money issues directly through the app. Notifications even alert you to upcoming bills or when you or your partner exceeds pre-set spending limits in your budget categories. Pros
- No monthly fee
- Choose how much account information to share with your partner
- Transactions are automatically categorized
- Customizable alerts for overspending or upcoming bills
Cons
- Only available for iOS or Android (no desktop app)
- Limited financial education
- Few reporting features that allow you to look at the big picture
Honeydue is designed to help couples manage their finances together and its features are focused on joint communication. Honeydue makes sharing information about money simpler by allowing you to respond to your partner’s transactions with a note, a thumbs-up, or other emojis. You can also aggregate your linked account information to see all of your individual and joint transactions in one place.
Honeydue makes tracking spending easy by automatically categorizing transactions as well as allowing you to add your own custom categories. And while there are fewer reporting options than with some other programs, customizable alerts help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
7. PocketGuard
We chose PocketGuard as the best option for college students because it makes it easy for busy students to see at a glance how much money they have available to spend. Its goal tracking features and intuitive pie chart help even beginning budgeters see if they’re on track. And most of its features are free, which is ideal for those on a student budget.
Pros
- Most features are available for free
- PocketGuard’s In My Pocket feature instantly shows cash available to spend
- Smart algorithms identify areas you can save
Cons
- The free version limits transaction categories and goals
- Advertisements are displayed even in the paid version of the app
- Reporting options are more limited
For college students who are newer to managing money, PocketGuard’s simple user interface and intuitive pie charts make it easy to start budgeting and tracking spending. PocketGuard’s In My Pocket feature also reduces the risk of overdraft accounts by keeping tabs on money available to spend at all times.
While the free version doesn’t include as many features as the paid option, most college students will likely find the program is robust enough and can avoid committing to a monthly subscription fee. And algorithms in the program that help you identify and cancel unwanted subscriptions can help college students identify opportunities to keep more money in their pockets.
Tips for Choosing Free Personal Finance Software
While choosing a free personal finance software, you should look for the following things:
- Available on maximum platforms. You will be adding transactions and other stuff frequently on the go, so you need a solution that is available on the platforms you use for your desktop and mobile devices.
- Provides all basic personal finance features. It should have all the necessary features and they should work flawlessly.
- Simple. We cannot stress this enough, if your personal finance software is cluttered with features and confusing, you will end up not logging your transactions on it at all.
- Best free personal finance software are always secure, please make sure you choose one that offers encryption.
Manage all of your financial accounts in a single place and gain control over your finances. Track all of the financial accounts you might have including banking, credit cards, investments and others. Generate a variety of customizable reports and budgets to keep your spending on target. Track and monitor your individual investments and your investment portfolio as a whole. Perform these tasks and more in any of the 150+ different currencies available.
Conclusion
Personal finance software for mac is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to get more out of their money. And best free accounting software for mac can be just as powerful when you are trying to get a grip on your finances. Personal finance software for mac is one of the best software out there. This software can help you to manage your money in an easier way, by helping you create budgets, manage bills and automate many of your financial tasks.
Free Personal Accounting Software for Mac The best free personal accounting software for mac is an incredibly useful tool for managing your personal finances, whether you are a student, homemaker or small business owner. Personal accounting software available for Mac is specifically designed to help people track their income and expenses and organize them into categories for easy management. Free accounting software for mac lets you set budgets and create financial reports so that you can see clearly where your money goes each month.