Mint Shut Down. Here's What to Use Instead.

In early 2024, Intuit shut down Mint and pointed its users to Credit Karma — a credit monitoring tool, not a budget tracker. If you're still looking for a real replacement, this guide covers every serious option, explains who each one is actually for, and doesn't pretend there's a single right answer.

What Mint actually did well

Mint was free and it auto-synced everything. For millions of people it was the first time they could see where their money went without a spreadsheet. The business model was advertising and lead generation: financial product recommendations sold to banks, card issuers, and insurers. When Intuit acquired Credit Karma, Mint became redundant — and years of user transaction history went with it.

The trap most replacements repeat

Most direct Mint replacements — Monarch Money, Copilot, YNAB, Quicken Simplifi — connect to your bank via aggregation services like Plaid. That means a third party holds your bank connection, your transaction data flows through their network, and if the app shuts down (see: Mint), your history may not be portable. For most people the convenience is worth it. If privacy matters to you, it's worth knowing the strings attached.

The honest comparison

  • YNAB — $109/yr. Best-in-class zero-based budgeting with a strong community. Cloud-synced via Plaid, steep learning curve, and over $300 every three years. Best for budget-first users who want structured spending habits.
  • Monarch Money — $99.99/yr. The closest thing to Mint: clean interface, good net worth tracking, works for couples. Same Plaid dependency, no offline mode. Best for ex-Mint users who want familiarity.
  • Copilot — $95/yr. The best-looking finance app, Apple design through and through. Mac and iPhone only — no Windows. Best for iOS-first users.
  • Empower (Personal Capital) — free. Excellent investment tracking and a retirement fee analyzer. The business model is selling wealth management services, so expect outreach. Best for investors who mainly want portfolio tracking.
  • Violet Codex — $67 once. Offline-first, AES-256 encrypted, no bank logins, no Plaid, no subscription. Net worth, investments, and debt in one dashboard. Windows only, manual entry via CSV/PDF import. Best for privacy-conscious users who want to own their data and pay once.

Prices reflect each app's published annual plan as of this writing.

One thing Mint's shutdown taught us

When Mint closed, users had a limited window to export years of history in whatever format Intuit chose to provide. When your financial data lives in someone else's cloud, it's theirs with a license to you. With Violet Codex, your encrypted data file lives on your hard drive — if we shut down tomorrow, you still have it.

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