So a friend in our group chat asked a simple question last week.

"What app do you guys use to track spending now that Mint is dead."

Six people replied. Six different apps.

That's when I realized this is actually a confusing space right now. There's no obvious winner like Mint used to be.

So I spent a weekend digging into every serious option and testing what I could. Here's the real breakdown.

Wait, Mint Actually Shut Down?

Yeah, this happened a while back but people still ask about it constantly.

Intuit shut Mint down on March 23, 2024. After 17 years of running it.

They pushed everyone toward Credit Karma, which Intuit also owns. But Credit Karma is not a budgeting app. It's a credit score tool.

No category budgeting. No spending targets. No budget vs actual tracking. Basically none of the stuff that made Mint useful day to day.

If you switched to Credit Karma and felt like something was missing, that's why. It's just not the same kind of tool.

So the real question became, what actually replaces what Mint did.

What Mint Actually Did Well (So You Know What You're Replacing)

Before picking a replacement, it helps to remember what made Mint good in the first place.

It connected to your bank automatically. No manual entry.

It categorized your spending into buckets without much effort from you.

It showed your net worth across every linked account in one dashboard.

It tracked bills and gave you a full financial picture for free.

That free part is the big thing nobody talks about enough. Mint did all of this without charging a cent. Most replacements now cost money.

That's just the reality of the market in 2026. Free, fully automated budgeting basically doesn't exist the same way it used to.

If You Want the Closest Thing to Mint: Quicken Simplifi

This is the one most reviewers land on when someone asks for a direct Mint replacement.

It auto imports transactions. It categorizes spending. The interface feels familiar if you used Mint for years.

It costs around 48 dollars a year, which is reasonable for what you get.

The company behind Quicken has been around for decades so there's some comfort in stability after watching Mint disappear overnight.

I'd say this is the safest pick if you just want something that works without learning a new system.

If You Manage Money With a Partner: Monarch Money

This one has an interesting backstory.

It was built by a former Mint product manager. Someone who saw exactly where Mint was headed and built what they thought Mint should have become.

Joint account access is the standout feature here. Couples who want to budget together tend to prefer this over anything else on the list.

Budget versus actual tracking is more detailed than what Mint offered. Cash flow projections help you plan ahead instead of just looking backward.

It runs about 99 dollars a year, more than Simplifi, but people who've used both usually end up preferring Monarch's polish.

We've seen a lot of couples specifically gravitate toward this app in reviews and that pattern keeps showing up everywhere I looked.

If You Want a System, Not Just Tracking: YNAB

YNAB stands for You Need A Budget and it works completely differently from Mint.

Mint showed you where your money went after you spent it. YNAB makes you assign every dollar a job before you spend it. That's called zero based budgeting.

It has a real learning curve. Expect a few weeks before it clicks.

But people who stick with it often report actual behavior change, not just better tracking. That's a different kind of value than what Mint offered.

It costs 109 dollars a year, the most expensive option here. But if passive tracking never worked for you, this might be worth the price.

If You're Mostly Worried About Investments: Empower

Empower is free, which stands out given everything that happened with Mint.

The focus here leans more toward net worth and investment tracking, less toward daily spending categories.

If the part of Mint you cared about most was watching your net worth grow across accounts, Empower actually does this better than Mint ever did.

The catch is that Empower makes money through wealth management services. So expect some sales pitches if you have a meaningful amount invested.

For basic tracking though, the free tier genuinely covers what most people need.

If You Don't Trust Apps With Your Bank Login: Spreadsheet Tools or Goodbudget

This is the camp I personally lean toward and I think more people should consider it.

Mint required you to hand over your bank username and password. That data got passed to aggregators who logged into your account on your behalf.

After the Mint shutdown, a lot of people started asking a fair question. What happens to my data if a company decides to just shut down?

Apps like Goodbudget work without linking your bank account at all. You enter transactions manually. More effort, more privacy.

There are also tools that pull your transactions automatically into a spreadsheet you control, like Google Sheets. The appeal is your data lives in a format that never becomes inaccessible just because a company changes direction.

If you've been burned once by Mint disappearing, this approach removes that risk entirely going forward.

What I'd Actually Tell My Friend

If you want the simplest swap with the least friction, go Quicken Simplifi.

If you're budgeting with a partner, Monarch Money makes the most sense.

If you actually want to fix bad spending habits and not just observe them, YNAB is worth the learning curve.

If investments matter more to you than daily categories, Empower covers that for free.

And if you just don't want to hand your bank login to anyone ever again, spreadsheets or Goodbudget are the move.

There's no single universal answer anymore. That's the actual lesson from Mint shutting down. Free, fully automated, does everything tools are mostly gone. You pick the tool that matches the specific problem you're trying to solve.

If you're someone who likes exploring software tools and workflows in general, I wrote a separate piece on how to curve text in Illustrator that might be useful if design tools are also part of your stack.

FAQs

What is the closest app to Mint in 2026?

Quicken Simplifi is generally considered the closest match in features and feel.

Is Credit Karma a real Mint replacement?

No. Credit Karma focuses on credit scores, not budgeting. It lacks category tracking and budget tools.

Is there a free Mint alternative that works well?

Empower is free and strong for net worth and investment tracking, though it leans less into daily budgeting.

What's the best Mint alternative for couples?

Monarch Money is the most commonly recommended option for joint budgeting.

Do I have to link my bank account to any of these apps?

No. Goodbudget and spreadsheet based tools let you track manually without sharing bank credentials.

Why did Mint shut down in the first place?

Intuit, which owns Mint, decided to consolidate its finance apps and pushed users toward Credit Karma instead.

Is YNAB worth the price compared to free options?

If you struggle with passive tracking and want a stricter system, many users say the price pays for itself through better habits.

Can I still get my old Mint data back?

No. Once Mint shut down, access to historical data was lost unless you exported it beforehand.

Mint had a good seventeen year run and honestly it shaped how a whole generation thought about budgeting apps.

But the landscape now is different. More choices, more price tags, and more decisions to make based on what you actually need.

Take ten minutes, figure out what you valued most about Mint, and pick the app built around that specific thing. That's really the whole strategy.