Whether you run a small business or do some freelancing on the side, accounting software is a must-have tool to keep your finances in order. One popular option is Quicken, which has been in the personal finance management game since 1983. Since then, its offerings have expanded into business as well, with features like business document storage, asset management and custom reports for tax schedules.
Quicken Personal Finance Software
Where Quicken excels is its ease of use. It’s easy to generate all kinds of reports about your business, from banking to spending to net worth. It also lets you split receipts across multiple spending categories—so if you did some personal and business shopping on the same trip, you can separate these expenses easily. These features can help keep your cash flow organized so you can see where your money is going.
While Quicken offers four different subscription packages for users, the Home & Business package is likely to be the one most relevant for entrepreneurs. Most of the others focus solely on personal finances.
Unlike some other accounting software, you pay for Quicken on an annual basis. Here’s how the fees for Quicken break down, including the 10% discount on some packages for the first year:
- Quicken Starter: $35.99 per year
- Quicken Deluxe: $46.79 for the first year, then $51.99 afterward
- Quicken Premier: $70.19 for the first year, then $77.99 afterward
- Quicken Home & Business: $93.59 for the first year, then $103.99 afterward
Bill tracking is included in all packages, but you’ll just have access to bill pay in the Premier and Business & Home packages. This connects you to more than 11,500 digital network billers, helping you save time and hassle. If you like the sound of paying all of your bills in one place, you can upgrade for $9.95 a month with one of the other two packages.
The Home & Business package also includes some interesting business and rental property features, which make it easy to invest in properties and track tenants. This package also has robust tax planning features that can help you with Schedules A, B, C and E.
Other Benefits
One other type of plan Quicken offers is a subscription to its personal finance app, Simplifi. This app started back in 2020 and is intended to provide users with insights into their financial habits. However, it’s not cheap. A yearly subscription is $47.88, although you do have the option to pay $5.99 per month instead. Overall, it’s not a very valuable asset for a business owner as it’s intended for individuals tracking their spending.
You can also add a backup disc to any package for $4.99. This is just a CD copy of the Quicken software, so it’s not at all necessary to buy since you can just download the program from the web.
Fine Print
One big issue is that the Home & Business package is only available for Windows. If you’re on a Mac, Chromebook or Linux system, you’re out of luck.
Additionally, the Deluxe, Premier and Home & Business packages all come with in-depth investing features. While this sounds nice, unless your business has its own 401(k), this will likely be unnecessary to play with.
Finally, because Quicken lacks any sort of customer portal, time tracking or payroll capabilities, it’s not the best choice for companies that have several employees or deal with a lot of customers.
Quicken falls in the middle when it comes to pricing compared to NeatBooks and FreshBooks, which charge $20 per month and $4.50 per month, respectively. For what NeatBooks charges, it doesn’t offer many expanded features except unlimited cloud document storage, which could be a plus if you deal with many receipts.
What sets FreshBooks apart is its ability to track time, which is crucial if you’re a service-based business that charges by the hour. Along with NeatBooks, it also comes with a customer-facing portal that lends an air of credibility to your company—and makes it easier for customers to pay bills or place an order.
Is Quicken Right for You or Your Business?
Quicken is the best choice for your business if you’re on the smaller side, don’t have additional employees and want robust expense tracking. If you have a larger team or work primarily on a non-Windows computer, check out our best accounting software picks to find an alternative service.
Quicken Alternatives
1. Personal Capital–Editor’s Choice
Personal Capital is the clear winner when it comes to finding a substitute for Quicken. It’s free and it offers tools to manage every aspect of your finances. With Personal Capital, you can link just about every financial account you have–checking, savings, credit cards, retirement accounts, investments accounts, HSAs, and even your home (via Zillow).
Once linked, Personal Capital’s financial dashboard offers valuable insights into your finances. As an example, the tool enables you to–
- Track your spending by category
- Estimate when you can retire
- Calculate the cost of your investments
- Display the asset allocation of your portfolio
- Generate a net worth statement
- Get alerts when bills are due
- Evaluate your investment portfolio
- Save for emergencies
- New: Track Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and thousands of other tokens without giving access to your crypto wallet.
I’ve used Personal Capital for years. It’s the only option that in my opinion can handle every aspect of my finances, from budgeting to investing to retirement planning.
2. Tiller Money–Best Spreadsheet Budget
I don’t know how they do it, but Tiller Money has figured out how to turn a Google Sheet into a dynamic budgeting tool. You link your bank accounts and credit cards to Tiller’s Google Sheet tool, and it automatically downloads all of your transactions. From there you can create budgets, categorize spending and generate reports.
I’ve been using Tiller for about one year for both my personal budget and my small business budget. Tiller is ideal for those who love working with spreadsheets. I will caution you that setting up Tiller can be a bit daunting. The good news is that they have videos to walk you through each step. If I can do it, you can do it.
One thing to keep in mind is that you must manually categorize each transaction. For some, this is a show-stopper. They want the convenience of tools like Personal Capital that automate this process. For others, they would prefer to categorize transactions themselves. It forces them to look at each entry, understand how they spent money, and then properly categorize the expense. Tiller does offer an auto-category tool that you can use to automatically categorize transactions based on the description.
There is no right or wrong here. It comes down to preference. You get a 30-day free trial. After that Tiller costs $79 a year.
3. You Need a Budget (YNAB)–Best for Budgeting
YNAB is ideal for those looking just for a budgeting tool. In my view, there is no better app when it comes to creating a budget. YNAB’s interface is similar to a spreadsheet. The tool makes it easy to budget by category based on the money you actually have in the bank.
One of YNAB’s core principles is to give every dollar a job. You do that by deciding how you’ll spend every dollar that enters your checking account. As with other tools, you can connect your bank accounts and credit cards to YNAB. This allows for real-time updates so that you can track your spending throughout the month.
YNAB doesn’t have the rich feature set offered by Personal Capital. That’s particularly clear when it comes to investing. For those who don’t want to track investments, however, YNAB is a good option.
It’s not free, however. You can try it free for 34 days. After that it costs $11.99 a month or $84 a year for the annual plan. The cost is the biggest downside to YNAB.
4. PocketSmith–Best for Calendar Budgeting
PocketSmith started out as a calendar to plan upcoming income and expenses. Today, it’s a full-fledged budgeting app. You can synch your accounts with PocketSmith. Once synced, you can track your budget and you’re net worth. You can also see your income and spending in a handy calendar view.
One stand-out feature is PocketSmith’s auto-budget tool. It can create a budget for you based on past spending. It also has a cash flow feature that maps income and spending by date range.
While there is a free version of PocketSmith, it requires manual data entry. To get automatic bank fees, you’ll need to pay at least $9.95 a month, or $7.50 a month when paid annually.
5. CountAbout–Imports from Quicken or Mint
If you have a lot of data in Quicken (or Mint), CountAbout may be the budgeting tool for you. It has a feature enabling you to import data from Quicken or Mint.
CountAbout enables you to download transactions from your bank and customize both income and expense categories. You can even attach receipt images to expense transactions. You can set up recurring transactions and generate financial reports.
For the features you get, the cost is very reasonable. The basic plan costs just $9.99 a year (not a month). If you want automatic downloading of bank transactions, the cost is $39.99 a year.
6. Moneydance–Traditional Budgeting Software
With so many apps going online, Moneydance takes a different approach. You download Moneydance software rather than use it online. Once downloaded, the software works much like you would expect.
You can download banking transactions into the software and initiate bill pay. The software automatically categorizes expenses based on how you categorize them. In other words, it learns from your use of the program.
It offers a dashboard (shown above) that summarizes your finances all in one place. It can also generate reports and graphs to give you a visual perspective of your money. It comes with a mobile app, can track your finances, and can alert you when bills are due.
It costs $49.99 and is available for both Mac and Windows.
7. EveryDollar (now Ramsey+)–Best for Dave Ramsey Fans
For those Dave Ramsey founds out there, EveryDollar may be a good substitute for Intuit’s Quicken. Now the first thing to point out is that EveryDollar ain’t cheap. After a 14-day trial, you’ll pay $129.99 a year. If you want to try it for just 3 months, it will cost $59.99. For this reason, it’s not high on my list. Still, I know that some folks are passionate about Financial Peace University.
You can sync your bank accounts with the tool, set up budgets, and track spending. The budgeting app works on both computers, smartphones and tablets. It also comes with Dave’s educational materials, enabling you to take online course and join virtual groups.
8. Banktivity–Designed for Macs Only
Banktivity is the budgeting app specifically designed for Macs. It offers features that enable you to organize and track all of your finances. You can group accounts and reports, and organize the dashboard in a way that works best for you.
Banktivity enables you to follow an envelope budget. This can be ideal for those living paycheck-to-paycheck.
You can import transactions from your bank and sync data across all of your Mac devices. Banktivity also tracks investments and offers account-level reporting. You can try Banktivity for free for 30 days. After that they offer three plans ranging in price from $4.16 to $8.33 a month (billed annually).
Best personal finance software
Mint
Best budgeting app overall
Cost: Free
Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps and for good reason. It is free to use, something rare among the best budgeting apps, and you get financial budgeting shared by 24 million users.
The app allows you to create a personalized budget and will then monitor your spending. It studies your spending habits and advises how to increase your savings. It will also check your subscriptions to ensure that you are not paying for services you do not need. With MintSights, you can set goals to reach financial milestones and build a stronger financial foundation. Once you connect your accounts, you can easily navigate between outstanding account balances, your monthly expenses versus spending, and even access your free credit score. Mint is compatible with not just banking accounts, but also your credit cards, loans, and investments. You can even file your IRS taxes and receive your refund through the app’s integrated TurboTax services.
Whichever version you opt for, there’s a 30 day free trial available, so you can try before you buy to get an idea if BankTree will work for you.
Money Dashboard
The Money Dashboard iOS/Android app doesn’t try to reinvent the banking world or offer anything truly ground-breaking, but it is perhaps one of the most useful money management tools out there. Hook up every one of your UK bank and credit card accounts and you’ll be able to see each of your balances in a single place with a single login. That in itself is enough for us to recommend it.
But there’s more – Money Dashboard will track your spending, offering you an overall pie chart depicting your spending on loans, consumables, transport and the like. There’s an at-a-glance overall balance, showing exactly how much money you have available across all of your accounts, and you can compare this to the previous month’s figure to show how well you’ve been managing your funds. That’s a great motivator.
Moneydance
Made primarily for Mac users (but also out on Windows and Linux), Moneydance is a desktop money management package with a very neat single-window interface. Load it up and you’ll get an instant view of your finances, upcoming bills, recent expenses and more. Click an item in the left hand sidebar and the main content changes to reflect it.
Its reporting features are quite strong if not spectacular to look at, and one of Moneydance’s most useful sections is its account register. If you’re old-school and once managed a cheque book, this operates on a very similar principle. There’s also an iOS app for logging transactions on the go, which later syncs with the software on your desktop.
Unfortunately for UK users, Moneydance doesn’t support the connection protocols used by UK banks, so you’ll need to download your transaction history manually to keep on top of it and revert to your bank’s own app to move money around. US users, however, are well covered.
Goodbudget
Best budgeting app with digital envelopes
Cost: There is a free version with ads, or you can upgrade to an ad-free plan for $7 per month or $60 per year.
Goodbudget is a budgeting app that helps you create and stick to a budget. There is available debt tracking to keep you motivated and on track. It also helps with money management so you know exactly where your funds are and how they are performing. You will have to subscribe to Goodbudget, but once you do, you will have wide access to the app through both the web and multiple phones. This means that it is easy to share your account with others, like a spouse or family member. It helps you stay connected financially even if you are physically apart, helping to prevent miscommunications and financial mishaps. All transactions are synced to the cloud so you never have to worry about certain financial transactions going missing. Review pie charts and reports to track your spending, with generated reports to show your finances in greater detail. Digital envelopes help you categorize your finances into available funds with each envelope assigned to certain expenses. It is a visual way to improve your finances through the help of virtual tools.
Personal Capital
Best budgeting app for investors
Cost: Personal Capital is free to use.
More than 2.8 million people utilize Personal Capital, and it is a portfolio tracker specifically designed to help with your investments, offering a unique digital approach to your personal finance. The app works with several different types of accounts, including your normal banking accounts, as well as investments, stocks, and retirement funds. The exclusive Retirement Planner tool helps you view your 401K, IRAs, and also your debt so you can have a complete, well-rounded portrait of your finances at the click of a button. The Cash Flow graph stacks your income versus your expenses for an overall financial snapshot that is easy to understand, plus there is an Investment Checkup tool that checks your investments, looking for ways to minimize risk while maximizing rewards. The Retirement Planner is an excellent option when you want to create and manage your retirement. You also have the option to join Personal Capital as an investment client so you can receive direct support from its financial advisors.
Pocketguard
Best budgeting app for overspenders
Cost: There are three subscription plans, in addition to a basic plan with limited features for free.
| Type of plan | Cost |
| Monthly | $7.99 |
| Annual | $34.99 |
| Lifetime One-Time Purchase | $79.99 |
PocketGuard takes a different approach to budgeting, utilizing smart algorithms to manage and track your spending. It also monitors your bills, helping to ensure that you do not miss a payment and risk falling further into debt. There is a bill tracker and organizer available as soon as you link your bank accounts. Any subscriptions you have will be automatically flagged and built into your monthly budget. With the IN MY POCKET feature, the app will automatically calculate your monthly expenses and then advise you on what is left over to spend. It also can help you negotiate better interest rates on your existing accounts, helping you save those extra dollars. It is easy to identify what disposable income you have to spend when the app does all the calculating and reporting for you. You do not have to pay to use PocketGuard, although you will need to subscribe if you want to access all of the best features.
BankTree is more than happy to support worldwide currencies, and in fact does a solid job if you’re working simultaneously with more than one, offering balances in multiple currencies rather than rounding them off into a single total. It’s also good for keeping track of everything, allowing you to scan receipts with its mobile app and import them later on.
It’s not the prettiest software around, and it’s slightly more awkward to use than many of its more refined cousins, although BankTree does produce very neat reports which you can break down by time, or by payee. It may be worth experimenting with the free trial before you choose to invest in this one.
The desktop software comes with one year of updates and support, though you are restricted to one PC and there is a charge for any additional PC you want to run the software on. There’s also a browser-based version available.
Conclusion
Save money on your personal finance needs with Quicken and get the most out of your school costs, home, and home insurance. By taking some simple steps, you can save a significant amount of money on your individual finances.