• Take advantage of the best budget software for Mac to help you take control of your finances without the hassle. Budgeting tools come in many shapes and sizes, so selecting the right one for you depends on personal preference and previous experience with managing money.
• Moneydance is a powerful yet easy to use personal finance app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and iPad. With online banking, online bill payment, investment management and budgeting, Moneydance provides all the features of Quicken plus benefits such as ease of use and no sunsetting of features.

Budgeting is a discipline that’s not often met with excitement. Many assume that budgeting is something reserved for companies or, say, freelance workers. However, personal budget software is just as important as corporate one — it’s a fundamental understanding of where money is coming and going.

Personal Budget Software. Personal Budget Software lets users gain total control of their money. This budgeting tool can be used for saving money, finding out your total expenses and paying off debts. It helps to smooth out the cash flow, let you stop overdrafts, reduces stress levels and helps to achieve financial peace. Affectionately known as YNAB, You Need a Budget is an extremely popular personal.

Take advantage of the best budget software for Mac to help you take control of your finances without the hassle. Budgeting tools come in many shapes and sizes, so selecting the right one for you depends on personal preference and previous experience with managing money. Handy tips for budgeting tools. In this article, we are going to be looking at some of the best personal accounting software for you to choose from. Some are free, others charge a small fee but each one has features that are designed to make it easy for you to keep track of your money. Top 5 Best Personal Accounting Software for Mac and Windows #1.

You may consider it to be boring, tiring, time-consuming, or difficult, but managing your finances well can help you achieve goals and stave off the stress of a rainy day. Thankfully, there are tools and apps on Mac which can help you get on top of budgeting, no matter how experienced you are.

Why Should I Use Budget Tracking Software?

If you haven’t done a budget before, you should start now. You never know when you might need a particular sum of money to solve an issue, meet a goal, or take advantage of a sudden opportunity.

Budget programs help you reduce the stress and uncertainty that comes with not knowing where you stand financially. If you don’t have a home budget software, you might be tracking towards a situation where you run out of money, without even knowing it. If you do have a budget, then you’ll have a documented plan of action to improve your situation.

Importantly, you don’t need any qualifications to do a budget, nor do you need to be good with numbers. Take advantage of the best budget software for Mac to help you take control of your finances without the hassle. Budgeting tools come in many shapes and sizes, so selecting the right one for you depends on personal preference and previous experience with managing money.

Handy tips for budgeting tools

If you’re ready to start your budget, it’s best to consider a strategic approach to ensure maximum utility. Too often, budgets sit collecting dust after being created, and sometimes the act of creating a budget could feel like enough to satisfy financial concerns — it’s not. Here are some tips for making the most out of your budget.

First of all, definitely use an app to help you manage a budget. App developers invest a lot of time and money into figuring out how their software can make your life easier and better, so rather than trying to understand all the nuances for yourself, let a dedicated app do it for you. There’s even some free budget software around, so you have very few excuses not to try!

If you run a business (or freelance on a side), a little bit of work each week means end of year taxes are a breeze. It’s not about doing a marathon of work in a few days, but making a habit to consistently do a little bit here and there. Try aiming for 10 minutes every few days. The best tax preparation software will also have reminders and notifications to help you achieve this goal.

It might sound contradictory, but budgeting isn’t always about getting the numbers 100% accurate. When it comes to tax preparation software — sure. But budgeting is mostly about understanding where your money is being spent and then using that information to make more informed decisions going forward. Therefore, make sure you categorize your transactions so that it’s easier to spot those minutiae differences and trends. The best finance apps should do this for you automatically.

In summary, you want to ensure you take advantage of the online budgeting tools available to you, aim to update your records frequently, and focus on categorization over accuracy.

Features of good personal budget software

The best personal budget software for Mac is easier to pin down when you know exactly what you’re looking for. Not all apps are the same — they vary by function and pricing. Generally speaking, there are a few key features you want to see in your budget software for Mac:

Best Free Personal Finance Software For Mac 2019

• It should be simple and easy to add new records or transactions

• Importing bank and credit card statements should be possible

• Automatically synchronizing statements will take the edge off your manual inputting

• Useful dashboards or visuals will help you understand your situation at a glance

• You should be able to categorize your transactions into groups

Out of those five key points, the ability to import is often the most essential. Importing saves you the hassle of adding each transaction into the money management software line-by-line, which adds up to a lot of time. It’s hard enough already to schedule frequent updates to your budget, so if you can remove the largest friction point of manual entry, then you’re in a good place.

The best budget software for Mac comparison

When it comes to programs to help budget money, there are countless options. It’s easy to get lost diving deep into each budget software review, but here are some of the best available, ranging from beautifully basic to powerfully advanced.

You’ve probably heard of Quicken, given that the name has been around since the early 80s. Even then, it was known as one of the best tax software companies around. That says something about the strong product, which carries all of the basic functions you’ll need to manage your budget well.

Right away though, you might notice that the interface has become somewhat dated in comparison to the newer contenders out there. But one of Quicken’s praised features is the ability to download bank statements and have the records automatically categorized, which can drastically reduce the time it takes to input your information, so you can spend more time making sense of it. Sadly, the Mac version is somewhat limited when it comes to advanced features, unless you splash out for the Home and Business edition.

MoneyDance is very similar to Quicken in terms of its basic features, including the ability to create a budget with notifications for bills and invoices. It also allows you to make your own charts and graphs to monitor spending habits over time, which can be seen on the homepage for a quick glance of your activity. Out-of-the-box integrations with online banking services also make it easy to send payments.

Unlike Quicken, Moneydance has some more advanced features including an investment monitor, which tracks your investments and their fluctuations — a useful addition, although best for the intermediate to advanced user. The app also has a developer API system in place to allow extended functions, mostly good for power users. Importantly, security is not an issue, as Moneydance utilizes end-to-end encryption for your data to give you that extra peace of mind.

You Need A Budget, also known as YNAB, is budget tracking software that runs on both Windows and Mac via web — saving automatically to the cloud, which is a bonus for multi-platform users. It also features native apps for iOS and Android, so you can literally tackle your budget from anywhere.

The app itself follows a simple design language, which is perfect for beginners, but if you find yourself needing help you can sign up for a personal instructor. YNAB doesn’t let you slack at all, and if you start to stray from your budget, the app will raise a red flag through it’s built-in Accountability Partner.

Although YNAB doesn’t support the ability to download and automatically categorize records from bank statements, it could be argued that entering them manually helps the user pay more attention to where their spending is going. Still, it’s a more time-consuming process that might be problematic for users processing hundreds or more records each month.

MoneyWiz stays true to its name — a comprehensive budget software and investment tracker that’s packed full with over 400 useful features. View your financial situation quickly by browsing accounts, groups, or searching for individual records. Speaking of records, you can enter them manually or have them automatically sync with leading banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and financial services for an accurate real-time understanding of your accounts.

With all of this data in hand, MoneyWiz can prepare and export over 50 reports to help you gain deeper insights into your finances. Your data could be accessed from its cloud-based app or straight from the native software for Mac. All in all, MoneyWiz is extremely powerful: accessible for beginners and interesting for the most advanced users.

Receipts is yet another money management software for Mac, and is specifically well-known for its clever handling of invoicing. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, Receipts automatically reads and translates important information about your bills, such as amount, date, currency, and more (even if the text is in another language).

Besides, Receipts can issue payments for invoices directly using third-party providers, such as iFinance and BankX. The OCR technology alone makes it a strong contender against other more simple online budgeting tools. Not least, Mac users will be glad to see how this application was designed to look and feel like a macOS product. Using a familiar user interface could make life a little easier after all.

Between the five options above, you have a strong starting point for your budgeting tools depending on your experience. Remember that importing is one of the key features to look for in budget programs. Still, in order to find the best fit you might need to try a couple of different options.

Personal Finance Software For Mac

Thankfully, both MoneyWiz and Receipts have a free 7-day trial that you can take advantage of by heading over to Setapp, an app subscription service for Mac that gives you access to over 150 macOS apps, including all the necessary budget tools. Getting MoneyWiz and Receipts at once? You won’t be disappointed.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

Sign Up

Free Personal Finance Software For Mac Uk

Quicken was once the go-to budgeting tool. I used it when it was first released in the 1980s. Today, it’s been eclipsed by apps that enable you to manage every aspect of your finances, often for free. Here are the best Quicken alternatives to consider in 2021.

Editor’s Top Picks

Of all the options out there to replace Quicken (and Mint for that matter), three stand out among the rest:

1. Personal Capital–It’s both free and comes with the a robust set of features unmatched by other alternatives. It easily handles budgeting, net worth, cash flow, retirement investments and taxable investments. It also comes with excellent tools, including a retirement calculator, investment fee analyzer and investment portfolio analyzer. Personal Capital can now even track Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and thousands of other tokens. It’s the tool I use every day.
2. Tiller–If you are a diehard spreadsheet fanatic, Tiller is the answer. It integrates with Google Sheets and can connect your bank accounts and credit cards. It also offers daily email updates to track your spending. You can try it free for 30 days, then it’s $79 a year.
3. YNAB (You Need a Budget): For those who want to focus exclusively on budgeting (no investments), then YNAB is an ideal choice. It does budgeting as well as any app available today, and its community is second to none.

Alternatives to Quicken

• Top Quicken Alternatives

Top 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.

I’ve written a detailed review and guide of Personal Capital that you can check out.

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 several months for both my personal budget and my small business budget. It’s clear that Tiller is ideal for those who love working with spreadsheets. I will caution you that setting up Tiller can be a bit intimidating. 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.

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.

Best Budgeting Software Free

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).

9. GnuCash–Best for Small Businesses

For those who tracked business income and expenses with Quicken and a reluctant to move up to Quickbooks, GnuCash may be the answer. It uses double-entry accounting, ideal for businesses and accounting nerds, like me. It tracks investments, schedules transactions, and generates reports and graphs.

10. Mint–Best Mobile App

I used Mint when it first came out more than a decade ago. Today, many are looking for Mint alternatives, including several of the apps listed here. Still, Mint is a worth consideration if you are replacing Intuit’s Quicken. It’s free, for starters. It’s easy to link your accounts and track your spending. It includes a budget planner and credit score tracker. Of course, there are great Mint alternatives as well.

11. GoodBudget–Best for Envelope Budgeting

I’m old enough to remember the envelope method of budgeting. My mom used it. When the money in the grocery envelope ran out, we stopped going to the grocery story until payday (seriously). Today, the envelope budget is still a smart way to manage money for those living paycheck-to-paycheck. If you want a digital version of the time-tested budgeting system, give GoodBudget a try.

Goodudget is an app based on the envelope system. You can sync and share your budget, and set goals to save for big purchases. It also has tools that let you track and payoff your debt.

Quicken Alternatives FAQs

Personal Capital is the best free Quicken replacement. It comes with nearly every feature Quicken offers, and money additional tools. It’s particularly well suited for those who want to manage all of their money in one place, including investments.

Sadly, no. Like so many other software packages and apps, Quicken is now only available as a subscription.

If you want to migrate Quicken data to a new budgeting app, CountAbout is a solid option. It has features enabling users to migrate data from Quicken or Mint.

PocketSmith is a good choice as it offers a calendar view of your budget.

Free Budget Software For Mac

With both Tiller Money and YNAB, you can plan future bill payments. Tiller offers a Bill Payment Tracker template and YNAB enables you to allocate funds to bills you plan to pay in the future.

Free Home Budget App For Mac

Whatever tool you choose, the key is to pick one that works for you. For me, that’s Personal Capital. One or more of the above Quicken alternatives, however, should suit the needs of most looking to better manage their money.