What is Mint?

Mint is a free online personal finance tool to track your spending budgeting and investing. Mint which is owned by Intuit (the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks) syncs automatically with your bank accounts credit cards and investments giving you a complete picture of your financial health.

Mint has an easy to navigate layout along with plenty of features to help you keep track of your finances. The tool breaks down your spending, tracks your individual goals, and provides insight into your financial habits. The app also sends bill payment reminders and alerts you when you’re over budget, helping you stay on track with your financial goals.

Mint is a free tool, but its fact-based business model creates profit from its relationships with financial institutions that pay to offer targeted credit card or loan offers to users. The monetization model does allow for some services to keep the app free of charge for users rather than asking users to pay for the service.

What is Quicken?

Quicken, by contrast, is a paid software program that offers a more comprehensive feature set. Mint vs Quicken has been around for years, providing personal finance management tools for Mac and Windows users alike. Quicken is different from Mint in that it is not purely web-based, though it does offer cloud syncing — it also comes as a desktop app.

You can track your expenses, manage your budget, handle investments, pay bills and plan taxes with the features available on Quicken. Quicken comes at several price tiers, depending on your required level of features. The tool works great for users who need more structure over control of their financial data and require in-depth reports, customizations, or securities tracking.

Mint vs Quicken: The Key Differences

Pricing

One of the biggest selling points for mint is that it is free. With access to almost all its features without the need to pay a recurring fee, it is a huge favorite among all those looking for a no-strings tool.

Quicken, on the other hand, is subscription based. There are many pricing tiers offered, such as:

Quicken Starter: $35.99/year – Offers basic features such as expense tracking bill pay and budgeting.

Quicken Deluxe: $51.99/year – Adds more advanced budgeting and reporting tools as well as the ability to track investments.

Quicken Premier: $77.99/year – Includes everything in the Deluxe plan plus advanced investment tracking tax planning tools and priority customer support.

Quicken Home & Business: $103.99/yr.

Options at the upper tier include more features like investment tracking, business expense handling, and access to tax tools.

Quicken isn’t free, but its subscription model is usually a trade-off for the powerful tools and better control over your financial data that it offers.

Features

Both Mint and Quicken provide essential features such as expense tracking, budgeting, and bill reminders. Each tool has its own take on these features, though, and Quicken generally has more robust options:

Mint:

Budget tracking

Transaction categorization

Investment tracking

Bill payment reminders

Credit score monitoring

Goal setting and tracking

Notifies you when you over-spend or when an unusual transaction occurs

Quicken:

All of Mint’s features plus:

Investment tracking, including detailed portfolio reports

Bill pay functionality

Tax-related reports and tools

AccessGenius: Foreign currency transactions

Categories and reports customizable

Tracking for home and business expenses (higher-tier plans)

More sophisticated budgeting tools (such as cash flow tracking and budgeting by upcoming bills)

If you’re in need of a personal finance program that does more complex financial tasks — such as detailed investment tracking or tracking business expenses — Quicken is probably the better choice. Mint is a simple, no-frills finance management tool, and while it doesn’t offer the advanced features to handle personal finance needs, it is a good tool for basic functionality.

Ease of Use

Ease of use is where Mint shines. Its user interface is clean and simple and makes sense for those who want quick access to their financial data without a steep learning curve. Mint’s automatic categorizing of transactions is simple to arrange, and users can immediately see where they stand financially, with the help of graphs, charts and summaries. It’s best for: Beginners and people looking for a simple way to manage their finances.

Quicken is more robust with features but potentially more complicated to use. With so many options to customize, this tool can seem overwhelming to first-time users. However, if you require in-depth reports, advanced budgeting features or investment tracking, Quicken’s complexity is actually a benefit, giving you the ability to make the software cater to your needs. The desktop “install” (or, whatever) might take quite some time to setup than what you would require with Mint if you are not that familiar with finance software.

Integration and Compatibility

Mint gives free and automatic syncs to thousands of financial institutions including banks, credit cards, and investment accounts. The app plays nicely with most U.S. financial institutions, although international users are not so lucky when it comes to compatibility. Mint supports direct links to PayPal, Venmo and some investment accounts, too.

Quicken also syncs with banks and financial institutions. However, they have more options and features that give them an edge, especially when the user has complex requirements. Quicken supports all sorts of financial accounts, including business and investment accounts. It also gives you more control over the syncing process. Users are able to connect to everything from credit cards and investment portfolios to loans. Additionally, more granular categories, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, can also be linked in some cases.

Quicken also syncs across the cloud through devices, but its users retain access to the desktop versions: if you’d rather work offline, that’s still an option.

Customer Support

Mint deals in free services, so its level of customer support is really quite different than Quicken’s.

Since Mint is free, it only provides customer support via online resources, including FAQs, forums, and articles. It does have an email support option but that might be less personalized than a paid service.

Quicken offers more hands-on support through its paid subscriptions. Subscribers receive phone support, live chat, and priority assistance. This is especially useful to those who require more time on technical matters or complicated finances.

Pros and Cons of Mint

Pros:

Cost: The tools are completely free to use.

Clean and simple: Ideal for those who want things to be as simple as possible.

Automatic syncing: Automatically syncs with thousands of banks, credit cards, and investment accounts.

Free credit score tracking: Users can track their credit score.

Budget tracking: Automatic categorization of transactions and difficulty to set budgets.

Cons:

Few advanced features: Lacks the level of control or detailed investment tracking that Quicken provides.

Ads and offers: You might receive targeted ads or credit card offers.

Customer support: Since this service is free, there are limited support options.

Pros and Cons of Quicken

Pros:

Comprehensive features: Encompasses investment tracking, bill pay, tax tools and managing business expenses.

Advanced reporting: Tailored-on reports for those with diverse financial requirements.

It is available: While the desktop version supports offline use.

Dedicated customer support: Paid subscription plans provide personalized help.

Cons:

Cost: Quicken has an annual subscription fee that may not be worth it for users with simple needs.

Complexity: The vast array of features may be overwhelming for learners or those looking for a straightforward solution.

Older versions tend to have some occasional syncing issues with their accounts.

Which One Should You Choose?

Mint is best fit for people who:

And a free, simple way to manage their finances.

You provide budget tracking, expense tracking, credit score tracking, etc.

Aren’t looking to have to deal with a complex platform that does automatic sync across accounts.

Quicken is best suited to those who:

Lacks more advanced financial tools such as detailed investment tracking, tax tools and bill pay options.

Are so willing to pay into a subscription to regain control of their finances.

Need offline access or to manage business expenses and other complicated financial situations.

FAQS.

Is Mint really free?

Yes, Mint is completely free to use but does earn revenue through targeted ads and offers based on your financial data.

Will I be able to see my investments in Mint?

Yes, Mint does let you track investments, but it is limited in its investment functionality compared to Quicken. If you want more in-depth investment tracking, then Quicken is the way to go.

Is there a free version of Quicken?

No, Quicken does not offer a free version. It’s subscription-based, and has different pricing tiers based on the amount of features you need.

What is better for budgeting: trousalle or squid?

Mint has great budgeting tools, as does Quicken; however, Mint is the simpler of the two and is designed for basic budgeting. Quicken offers more robust and customized budgeting features.

Can I use Quicken on mobile?

Quicken does have mobile apps for iOS and Android but is best known for its desktop version.

Conclusion

So which is better — Mint vs Quicken — all comes down to your individual financial needs. For a simple, no-cost solution with automatic tracking and budget creation, Mint is it. Yet if you want a more feature-rich tool with the ability to track investments, manage a business, compute taxes, and so on, Quicken offers a more powerful toolbox — for a price.