If you want to get a better grip on your money, we’ve taken a closer look at the best personal finance software for Mac of 2023 that make excellent alternatives to Quicken for Mac and Mint.
If you’ve had it with bloated, subscription based personal finance tools like Quicken For Mac, the good news is there are many excellent alternatives available for Mac users.
The Mac version of Quicken has lagged behind the Windows version for years and even though things the latest version of is an improvement, the decision to make Quicken subscription only was the final straw for many faithful users.
Meanwhile Mint users were left out in the cold after Intuit announced that Mint will be shut-down on January 1st 2024.
The good news is that nowadays there’s some great personal finance software for Mac that not only do a better job of apps like Quicken and Mint, they don’t require a monthly or annual subscription to use.
We found the best personal finance tool on Mac is Empower (FREE) which blows the competition out of the water when it comes to investment tracking and even better, is free to use with no subscription or commitments.
Apart from price, other reasons the finance software here are better than Quicken and Mint include:
- Mac and macOS Compatibility: All of the personal finance apps reviewed here work on the latest Apple Silicon Macs with the M1/M2/M3 chips and the latest version of macOS Sonoma unless indicated otherwise.
- Bank Syncing: Quicken is notoriously bad at syncing with bank accounts and Mint has also been plagued with similar problems. You’ll find the apps here that support connecting to financial institutions far more reliable with more connection options. Note that Direct Connect is increasingly being phased-out by banks as a way of syncing transactions so we’ve also looked for personal finance apps that provide alternative connection options to Direct Connect.
- Mobile Support: Quicken’s mobile app is limited and nowhere near as useful as the desktop app. Most of the apps here have well designed iPad and iPhone apps which are clear and easy to use.
- Investment Tracking: The Mac version of Quicken has never been good at tracking investments and Mint’s investment tracking is limited. You’ll find software here that do a much better job of managing car loans, home loan amortization, stocks, retirement planning and more.
- Budgeting: Most of the software we reviewed make it easier to get an instant overview of your budgeting goals and targets compared to Quicken or Minot.
- Less Paperwork: By centralizing all of your accounts and bill payments with some of the tools here, you should also find that they help you if you want to create a paperless office on your Mac.
- Better Tax Tracking: You’ll also find that many of the apps here do a better job of preparing your accounts when it comes to filing taxes on your Mac.
Quick Navigation
- Best Personal Finance Software For Mac
- 1. Empower (Free)
- Quicken vs Empower
- 2. Moneyspire
- 3. Banktivity
- 4. Moneydance
- 5. Tiller
- 6. Mint
- 7. YNAB
- 8. Copilot
- 9. MoneyWiz
- 10. Money Pro
- 11. CheckBook Pro
- 12. SEE Finance 2
- 13. CountAbout
- 14. MoneyWell
- 15. MoneyWorks
- Which Is The Best Personal Finance Software For Mac?
- Which Is The Best Budgeting Software For Mac?
- Which Is The Best Mint Alternative For Mac?
- Considerations When Replacing Quicken
Best Personal Finance Software For Mac
With this in mind, here then is our list of the best personal finance apps for Mac of 2023 in order of ranking that make excellent alternatives to Quicken and Mint.
1. Empower (Free)
Empower is the best personal finance software for Mac and best of all, it’s actually free to use.
Empower was previously known as Personal Capital which has long been the best personal finance app for Mac users but Empower acquired it way back in August 2020.
However, it wasn’t until February 2023 that Personal Capital was finally rebranded as Empower although nothing has changed in the product itself.
If you’re familiar with Mint, then you’ll really like Empower because it’s got the same feel as Mint but with far more powerful investment tracking.
Around 1.8 million people use Empower and many of them have switched from Quicken or Mint, especially those with investments.
Here’s a summary of why Empower is the best personal finance software for Mac users.
- It’s free
Hard to believe for a personal finance software worth its salt but Empower is 100% free to use for as long as you want with no limitations.
Empower only charges you a small commission if you decide you want to maximize your investments via a personal consultation with one of its own Financial Advisors.
This is completely optional and not obligatory but is there if you want it.
- It syncs accounts seamlessly in one place
If you’re tired of constant syncing issues and problems with Quicken and Mint, Empower is a breath of fresh air.
It syncs extremely well with all major financial institutions, aggregates your accounts and makes it easy to get an overview of your finances.
This includes checking, savings, 401k, mortgage and investment accounts.
That’s because Empower uses the reliable Plaid data network platform which is far more reliable than Direct Connect which is increasingly being phased-out by financial institutions anyway.
That’s not to say that hiccups don’t happen as much depends on technical changes made by financial institutions but it’s so much more reliable than Quicken and Mint.
You can also download any transactions synced with Empower in CSV format.
- It analyzes your investments to save you money
What makes Empower different to many budgeting apps is that it also helps you save money on existing investments.
One of the ways it does this is via a fee analyzer and an investment analyzer.
For example, the retirement fee analyzer immediately identifies areas where you may be getting ripped-off or over charged with 401K admin or management fees.
The investment analyzer does the same for your investments to see where your existing investments and holdings can be diversified to improve your returns.
- It helps you plan for the future
By telling Empower exactly how much income you expect to have in retirement, Empower calculates exactly how on or off track you are.
It can also assess the impact on your 401k of major life events such as the birth of a child, illness, college fees etc.
Or it can be used to assess how your immediate finances could be improved if you get a lump sum and eliminate expensive premiums by getting an estimate on selling your life insurance policy.
There’s also a comprehensive cost of living retirement calculator which gives you useful insights into your average net worth by age.
In fact Empower is easily the best retirement planning software for Mac available too.
- It’s as secure as any bank out there
Like any major financial institution, Empower is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and has to adhere to the same security standards and procedures.
What’s reassuring about Empower is that it doesn’t actually handle your log in details at all. It uses Yodlee which is a highly secure financial credentials management system used by major banks and investment institutions worldwide.
This is bank level, military grade security that’s about as secure as it gets nowadays.
Even if your account were somehow compromised, Empower doesn’t actually allow transferring of funds via the interface so they cannot be touched anyway.
There are other measures that Empower takes to encrypt and protect your data which you can read more about here.
- You can talk to a human if you want to
Sometimes an app just isn’t enough if you really want to grow your money.
Especially if you’re investing large sums, Empower allows you to consult with an Empower advisor who can make specific recommendations based on your personal situation and minimize tax liabilities.
You need a minimum of $100,000 to use this service and Empower charges a commission for it but for serious investors, this is a unique bonus of the app.
Empower obviously encourages you to use one of its Financial Advisors but there’s no hard sell if you’re not interested.
- You can check your finances on the move
The Empower iOS app is one of the best personal finance apps for iPad or iPhone we’ve tried, allowing you to manage and monitor your finances wherever you are.
It’s clear, easy to use and has lots of features compared to most mobile budgeting apps.
Quicken vs Empower
| Quicken | Empower | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription Fee | ||
| Lifetime License | ||
| Easy To Use | ||
| All Accounts In One Place | ||
| Financial Advisors Available | ||
| Personalized Investment Strategy | ||
| Fiduciary | ||
| Smart Indexing | ||
| Mobile App | ||
| Customizable Portfolios | ||
| Tax Loss Harvesting | ||
| 401k Fund Advice | ||
| Portfolio Risk Assessment | ||
| Compare Mutual Funds | ||
| Track Cost Basis & Capital Gains | ||
| Income & Expense Projection | ||
| Spending Targets | ||
| Works on M1/M2 Macs | ||
| Price | $71.88/year (Premier) | Free |
Free Account Sign Up |
So what are the drawbacks to all this? Well, like any finance tool for Mac Empower is not perfect.
The biggest gripe we have with Empower is that you can’t import Quicken QIF or QFX files. This is definitely disappointing if you have years of Quicken accounts although even apps that do import Quicken files don’t usually do it very well due to the complexities of the format.
However, this is less of an issue now anyway since Quicken has removed the option to export files in QIF format from the Mac version anyway (although the Windows version of Quicken still exports to QIF).
Quicken for Mac now only exports in QXF which is a proprietary Quicken format that can’t be imported into any program. Therefore, there’s no way to import Quicken files into Empower unfortunately.
As regards importing your Mint data however, you can easily do so in CSV format.
Unfortunately as well, you can’t change transaction dates in Empower. If you have a fixed payment (such as salary or pension) that posts on the 1st of every month and it falls on a weekend or holiday, the transaction will appear in Empower as the last banking day before that. This means Empower will show that you have a double payment in the same month which messes up your budget.
Finally, another slight drawback to Empower is that it doesn’t help you much at tax time.
Although there’s dedicated tax software for this, there seems little reason why Empower can’t make things easier when it comes to declarations.
Overall though, Empower not only helps you budget better but it manages your investments too and it’s so convenient to have that all in one app.
You can also open an Empower account for free to judge for yourself.
For more information, you can check out our full Empower review.
Pricing: Free
2. Moneyspire
If Cloud based apps are not your thing and you want a dedicated Mac desktop app, Moneyspire 2024 (formerly Fortora Fresh Finance) is an excellent no-nonsense personal budgeting software for both Mac and Windows.
Moneyspire doesn’t store your accounts in the Cloud, doesn’t require you to upgrade regularly or subscribe like Quicken and you can download it onto your Mac.
Even better, at the moment, Moneyspire is 25% off at just $79.99 compared to the normal price of $99.99 which is definitely a good deal for a desktop personal finance software for Mac on this level.
Moneyspire allows you to import QIF files from Quicken and export your accounts to QIF if you move back to Quicken at a later date.
You can also import Mint files in CSV format into Moneyspire.
If you’ve got a lot of accounts saved in Microsoft Money on Windows, Moneyspire can also import MS Money files.
Moneyspire supports online bill payments though its own free Moneyspire Connect service which is similar to Intuit’s Direct Connect service.
Moneyspire Connect supports over 15,000 financial institutions so it’s safe to say, your bank is probably supported by it.
Like many personal finance app bank syncing services, Moneyspire Connect doesn’t always work perfectly (although neither does Intuit’s Direct Connect) but this is often due to security changes on the bank side.
You may have to re-authenticate your Moneyspire Connect connection with the bank periodically but this is for security purposes.
Moneyspire Connect is free for the first year although you have to purchase an annual upgrade to Moneyspire every year (which is discounted for current users) to continue using it.
Moneyspire is a very complete alternative to both Quicken and Mint on Mac which tracks bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments and more.
You can set bill reminders, budgets and generate detailed reports and charts to monitor your outgoings and if you run a small business, you can also create professional invoices and track payments.
It can even print checks which most finance apps no longer support anymore on Mac.
One of the things we like most about Moneyspire is that it doesn’t over complicate things. It gives a very clear overview of everything from accounts and details of spending to bill reminders and budgets.
The Bill & Deposit Reminder provides a very clear overview of upcoming payments:
You can generate detailed reports and charts to see exactly where your money is going to make tax reporting less stressful and much easier.
Other useful features in Moneyspire include Balance Forecast, Reconcile Statements, Online Banking, Import & Export of Data and Cloud syncing.
Reconciling of accounts in particular is a very useful feature when it comes to budgeting and you can see how it works below.
For mobile users, there’s a free Moneyspire app for iPad and iPhone which allows you to check your account balance, edit transactions, see upcoming bills and keep an eye on how your budget is doing.
Moneyspire used to be available in different versions but has now simplified its pricing policy.
There are now only two versions of Moneyspire. The standard version for $79.99 or the professional one for $99.99 which includes invoicing.
Normally the standard version retails for $99.99 so that’s 25% off.
The impressively reliable Moneyspire Connect service is even included in the price (which previously used to cost an extra $49.99 per year) although you must purchase an annual upgrade to Moneyspire to keep using it for free.
If you do decide to purchase Moneyspire, you have a 30 day money back guarantee if you’re not happy with it.
Unlike with Quicken, updates to Moneyspire are free but major updates usually require an upgrade fee which is discounted for existing users.
Currently if you upgrade from an older version of Moneyspire to Moneyspire 2024 you can get 50% off.
You can also try Moneyspire on Mac for free if you want to see what it’s like for yourself.
You can also check our full Moneyspire review for more.
Pricing: Standard $79.99 / Pro with Invoicing $99.99. Free Trial available.
3. Banktivity
Banktivity (formerly iBank) is designed specifically for Mac and has long been one of the most popular desktop personal finance apps for macOS.
Long before Quicken for Mac, Banktivity supported things like online banking integration, bill pay, envelope and full year budgeting, loan amortization and multi-currency support.
Some of these things have now been introduced in the latest version of Quicken but Banktivity still remains an excellent home and personal accounting software for Mac.
Here are some of the things we like the most about Banktivity:
- Account Importing
Banktivity will import your accounts from Quicken, Minit and other finance software.
Although it’s not perfect, the import tool does a pretty good job and saves valuable time manually entering old accounts. You can see how this works below.
- Bank Syncing
Banktivity will automatically connect to and download transactions from your bank or other financial institution in real time.
It offers various ways of doing this with the most reliable and widely supported being Direct Access.
Direct Access is Banktivity’s own syncing service and generally works very well via Yodlee although it costs an extra $44.99 on top of the cost of Banktivity.
Other free ways of connecting are available though.
- Detailed & Customized Reports
The reports generated by Banktivity are very well-organized due to tags and categorization.
There are Quick Reports for instant overviews of the essentials and you can create highly customized reports for virtually any kind of spending.
- Budgeting
Banktivity supports traditional and envelope budgeting with useful setup wizards to get you going.
You can filter budgets by time frame to see exactly when you’ve gone under or over budget and set budgets for scheduled and unscheduled expenses.
- iPad, iPhone and iWatch Apps
Banktivity is designed exclusively for the Apple ecosystem with iOS apps to help you monitor and enter transactions on the move.
The apps sync with the desktop version of Banktivity and there’s even an iWatch app with spending alerts to help keep you on budget.
Investment management isn’t Banktivity’s strong point but there is a separate free Banktivity Investor app (formerly iBank Investor) which syncs investment data specifically.
So for example, you can see all of your holdings with the current gains or losses in real time with data pulled from Yahoo Finance.
Previous versions of Banktivity were available as a standalone purchase with Direct Access costing extra.
However, the latest version of Banktivity 9 is subscription only but includes Direct Access as standard with the Bronze plan starting at $49.99 per year.
For investment features you’ll need the Silver Plan ($69.99 per year) and for multi-currency support you’ll need the Gold subscription for $99.99 per year.
You can find details of all Banktivity Plans here.
For a more in-depth look, you can also read our full Banktivity review.
Pricing: Bronze plan $49.99/year, Silver $69.99/year, Gold $99.99/year
4. Moneydance
Moneydance has many satisfied customers that previously used Quicken or Mint and is an excellent personal finance solution for Mac users.
Moneydance has all of the features of Quicken and Mint including online banking and bill payments, bill attachments and arguably has better investment tracking and budgeting tools than both Quicken and Mint.
Moneydance is particularly good at handling investments and transactions in multiple currencies so is an excellent choice for those that hold investments or make purchases in currencies other than US dollars.
Moneydance provides a very clear overview of your finances. It gives you all the essentials such as account balances, upcoming and overdue transactions and exchange rate information.
The calendar overview is particularly useful for a quick oversight of upcoming credits and debits so you can manage your finances for that month more easily.
Moneydance can import Quicken files in QIF format although we noticed several duplicate transactions which had to be manually adjusted.
Moneydance can also import Mint files in CSV format.
Moneydance can automatically download transactions and make bill payments online to hundreds of financial institutions.
However, online banking is only available via Direct Connect and we found this can be tricky to setup in Moneydance.
Moneydance can sometimes be unreliable at retrieving bank data with Direct Connect especially from credit card accounts but it does offer an enhanced bank syncing service Moneydance+ for connecting via Plaid for an extra $4 per month of $40 per year.
However, there’s no support for connecting to bank accounts via EWC+ instead which is an increasingly popular alternative to Direct Connect being used by banks.
Investment tracking is also easier to navigate and more powerful than Quicken or Mint, with support for stocks, bonds, CDs and mutual funds among others.
You can see the total value of your investments or the performance of individual stocks and mutual funds over time. Moneydance will also download stock prices automatically in real time.
Moneydance also has some powerful reporting tools that compare favorably with Quicken or Mint and it can generate reports for any of your accounts, savings or investments.
The Moneydance iPad and iPhone apps are both free so you can manage your budgeting on the move although it’s only really useful for manually inputting transactions.
Slightly concerning though is the fact that Moneydance only syncs the Mac and iOS app via Dropbox which doesn’t feel very secure compared to Banktivity’s encrypted Direct Access features.
You can also extend its functionality with add-ons and extensions for such things as a Balance Predictor, Debt Insights and a Find and Replace extension.
The most recent version of Moneydance 2023 features a new balance adjustment feature so that you can easily sync with bank statements.
There’s also an enhanced undo feature so that you can reverse unwanted changes such as an accidental deletion or batch changes.
The register allows you to filter more precisely now too such as by a specific date to make it clearer exactly which transactions are being displayed.
Overall Moneydance is a solid financial software for Mac to replace Quicken or Mint especially if you need reliable online banking integration.
Moneydance 2022 is $69.99 from the Mac App Store with a 90 day money back guarantee and there is also a free Moneydance demo for up to 100 transactions.
Note that currently, there is a revised version Moneydance 2023 but it is not yet available in the Mac App Store. It is only available for purchase directly from the developer for $99.99.
You can also check out our full Moneydance review.
Pricing: $69.99 for Moneydance 2022 or $99/$9 per month for Moneydance 2023. Free trial available.
5. Tiller
If you prefer spreadsheets as a way of managing your finances then take a look at Tiller.
Tiller is an automated spreadsheet software that automatically fills in data as you feed it with financial data.
If you use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to track your net worth then Tiller can automatically pull in the data for you from them.
Tiller is even recommended by Microsoft to those that use Money in Excel or that are Microsoft 365 subscribers (formerly Office 365).
You can use one of the many templates provided by Tiller to get started or you can start from scratch.
Tiller can be used to track pretty much any financial metric you want from your net worth to managing your budget.
Tiller does take some time to setup and use, especially if you don’t use one of the ready-made templates but it’s extremely customizable compared to Quicken as you can track anything in it.
Tiller isn’t just dry spreadsheets – it can also be used to generate reports and dashboards to make it all easier to digest and monitor your finances.
Most recently Tiller introduced a new Spending Trends dashboard to keep a track of where your money is going including dashboards for annual and monthly budgets.
The other big advantage compared to Quicken and Mint is that none of your data is stored in the Cloud with Tiller – it’s all automatically processed in a spreadsheet on your desktop.
If you’re a fan of spreadsheet budgeting then you’ll absolutely love Tiller although if you prefer the more glossy approach of Quicken it may not be for you.
You can try a 30 day free trial of Tiller.
You can also check out our full Tiller review for more.
Pricing: $79/year
6. Mint
November 2023 Update: Mint will shortly be removed from this list as Intuit has announced it is shutting-down.
Mint is owned by Intuit the makers of Quicken and is basically a free, lighter and less powerful version of Quicken.
The biggest difference between Mint and Quicken is there is no automatic online bill pay feature in Mint so if this is a deal breaker for you, move on.
Mint has improved a lot over the years and has faced less criticism than Quicken, partly because it doesn’t cost a cent to use.
In fact many people use Mint for day-to-day budgeting alongside Empower to manage their finances.
Mint is all about getting your money in order and is based around three things:
- Budgeting: Mint will automatically suggest a budget for you based on your income and goals. You can factor in one off expenses and of course recurring monthly costs.
- Bill Tracking: All your bills are clearly labelled and managed in one place. You can see when bills need paying and set alerts to let you know before they’re overdue.
- Credit Score Analysis: Mint performs a free credit score analysis if you verify your identity. It also gives you recommendations on how you can improve it.
- Spending Summary: You get a weekly summary of where your money has gone. This is useful for seeing which areas you’re spending most in and is handy to compare month-by-month. Mint will also alert you to unusual or large transactions.
- Spending by Category: Mint can also categorize transactions to make it clearer where you spent your money. If you’ve ever looked through your bank statement and can’t understand the codes and jargon used for certain transactions, this is useful. It also separates ATM withdrawal amounts from ATM withdrawal fees so you can see just how much your spending in charges and other hidden fees.
- Investment Tracking: The investment tracking features in Mint are very basic and certainly nothing like the financial tools in Empower but for 401(k) accounts, mutual funds and IRAs it gives a basic overview.
Mint also has one of the best mobile apps out there for budgeting. The Mint iPad and iPhone app looks good, gives a clear overview of your finances and is easy to navigate.
The biggest problem you”ll encounter with Mint is connecting to banks to update your accounts.
Like many personal finance apps, Mint can take time to update your balances and transactions and can be affected by changes made by your bank to the way third-party apps communicate with it.
Sometimes this means you have to delete an account in order to reconnect it and the problem with this is that you lose your account history in Mint.
It’s also important to note that although Mint and Quicken are both Intuit products, there is no integration between Quicken and Mint. They are completely separate products.
Overall however, as a more basic free alternative to Quicken, Mint is an excellent budgeting tool for Mac users.
Pricing: Free
7. YNAB
Although You Need a Budget (YNAB) can’t fully compare with Quicken, if you’re looking for the best budgeting software for Mac, its definitely a contender and a solid replacement for Mint.
YNAB claims that new users save on average $200 in their first month and more than $3000 by month nine although this of course won’t be true for everyone.
Because of the way it approaches budgeting, YNAB has proved very effective at helping users to save money and get their finances in order which is made it very popular with Mac and PC users alike.
More recently, it’s now added online banking support via Direct Connect to conveniently sync and update all of your accounts and transactions in one place so you can keep tabs on your money better.
There is no support in YNAB for Bill Pay however.
Direct Connect is however increasingly being phased-put by banks in favor of EWC+ which is not supported by YNAB meaning if your bank doesn’t support Direct Connect anymore, it won’t sync with YNAB.
The developers of YNAB strive to help you manage your money more efficiently by encouraging you to use a Four Basic Rule method which can genuinely help you save money or get out of debt.
The four golden rules are:
- Give Every Dollar A Job: Every cent is accounted for
- Embrace Your True Expenses: Break down large purchases into monthly payments
- Roll With The Punches: Create an overflow for the unexpected
- Age Your Money: Deal with bills as they happen
YNAB is structured around these four principles and helps you to structure your budget accordingly.
YNAB can import bank files and transaction ledgers and can retrieve your balances from over 12,000 banks via Direct Connect (but there’s no support for Express Web Connect+).
YNAB also does not support multiple currencies or investment tracking so it’s not really suitable for those who have a big investment portfolio.
It does however allow you to factor mortgages and simple investments into your overall budget and gives you a very clear overview of where your money is going.
YNAB is also one of the only personal finance apps that has an iWatch app but even more unusual, an Alexa app which can automatically check category balances or record new spending at your command.
Although YNAB can sync across all devices, note that it uses Dropbox for syncing and doesn’t offer its own Cloud syncing service or syncing via iCloud.
More recently, YNAB has also added new features such a Net Worth Calculator which clearly illustrates spending and net worth reports.
YNAB now costs $14.99 a month or $99 per year direct from the developer.
If you’re a US college student, YNAB is absolutely free.
You can also try a 34 day free trial of YNAB before deciding whether its for you or not.
If you’re struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month, YNAB is an excellent straightforward budgeting software alternative to both Quicken and Mint.
Pricing: $99/year or $14.99/month – Free Trial
8. Copilot
Copilot is a slick money tracking application that used to be only available on iOS but now has a Mac desktop app.
Copilot looks great on macOS and can track spending, budgets, investments and net worth.
Copilot features useful daily snapshots to give you an instant overview of how your spending was on any particular day.
There are also bill reminders for upcoming payments and a well organized spending by category summary. If you fall within your budget, you can also set Copilot to carry-over your budget into the following months too.
If you mainly budget on your iPad or iPhone but want a synchronized Mac app for using it on your desktop too, Copilot is a beautifully designed personal finance app for macOS.
Note that at the moment, Copilot is only available in the USA but there are plans to roll it out in other countries soon.
You also can’t download the Copilot app from the Mac App Store but it is available for both Intel and Apple Silicon apps from the Copilot website.
Pricing: $13/month or $95/year
9. MoneyWiz
MoneyWiz is easily one of the best value personal finance apps on the Mac App Store with the desktop app free and subscriptions starting at just $29.99 per year.
What we also like is that MoneyWiz allows you to try a free demo so you can play around with it before you decide whether its worth paying for or not.
These are some of the things we really liked in MoneyWiz:
- The interface is gorgeous – MoneyWiz is made specifically for Apple devices and it shows
- Very clear overviews over time of Net Worth, Balances, Expenses and comparisons over time
- Supports all types of accounts including everyday banking, credit card, investments, cryptos, loans (including custom loans), savings and retirement
- Automatic stock price retrieval from Yahoo Finance and CoinMarketCap
- The Mac app and iPhone/iPad app are exactly the same so there’s no missing functionality in macOS
- The syncing between maOS and iOS is far more reliable than many personal finance apps
- Likewise syncing with bank accounts works very well due to the fact you can choose from three different connection services so if one doesn’t work well, you can switch.
- MoneyWiz also supports investment tracking syncing with stock trading platforms like Robinhood
- The developer provides quick support for any issues and problems
There were a few things we didn’t like about MoneyWiz:
- All syncing features require a subscription although the cost of this is reasonable compared to other apps
- In-app live chat Help feature isn’t available in the Mac desktop app, only in the iOS version
- Syncing connections still break-down although this is often out of the hands of the developer as it’s down the the financial aggregator used (such as Plaid).
Overall, we loved MoneyWiz and think its an excellent alternative to apps such as CoPilot, Banktivity and Moneydance.
This is definitely one to watch.
Pricing: Free desktop app / Standard Subscription $24.99/year / Premium $49.99/year or $4.99/month
10. Money Pro
Money Pro is a slick budgeting tool that has a simple user interface that supports budgeting, bill planning and account syncing.
Here are some of the things we like about Money Pro:
- It works on Mac, iPhone and iPad so it syncs across all device via iCloud
- Calendar view makes it easy to see when Bills are due or schedule recurring bills.
- Today view that predicts transactions that you may have not added manually based on your spending behavior
- Alerts when bills are due
- Budgeting by specific time frames including budget rollovers with a clear overview of your daily, weekly and monthly targets
- Checkbook register with support for an unlimited number of accounts including checking, savings and credit cards. You can also attach photos of purchase receipts.
- Manual account reconciliation with automatic calculation of your balance
- Importing of bank statements in OFX and CSV format
- Automatically connects to your bank and downloads transactions (Gold subscription is required for this)
- Easy to search transactions across all accounts
- Detailed monthly reports inlcuding income and expense, cash flow and projected balances
- Multiple profiles for family members and real-time notifications of overspending based on profile budgets
- Supports multiple currencies
Some of things we didn’t like about Money Pro are:
- The app itself is $18.99 which is reasonable but then many features such as bank syncing and cloud syncing require in-app purchases going up to as much as $49.99 for the Gold version.
- No envelope style budgeting
- Bank syncing can be hit and miss depending on the financial institution you’re connecting it to
- iCloud syncing can also be slow with iOS devices sometimes showing different balances to the Mac app
- No free trial
Overall though, Money Pro is an excellent personal finance app that’s well integrated with the Apple ecosystem and certainly much better than spreadsheet budgeting.
There’s no free trial but you can download Money Pro from the Mac App Store.
Pricing: $18.99 plus in app purchases for Plus features $11.99 and Gold features $49.99
11. CheckBook Pro
If you’re looking for the best checkbook software for Mac then CheckBook Pro may be exactly what you’re looking for.
CheckBook Pro is a check register that’s designed to help you answer the time honored mystery “where’s does all my money go?”.
CheckBook Pro is personal finance software at its most basic but for those that simply don’t need all the bells and whistles of most finance apps, it’s a breath of fresh air.
Here’s what we liked with CheckBook Pro:
- One of the few checkbook registers for Macs that doesn’t require a subscription to use
- Simple and intuitive to use
- Lots of video tutorials to help you get up and running
- Generates useful reports for all your accounts
- Easy to search transactions
- Includes reminders alerts for upcoming payments
- Ability to manually reconcile your accounts
- Excellent migration support from other finance apps. Imports Quicken files in QFX format plus OFX, QIF, CSV and TXT files.
- Supports check printing (Pro version only)
- It keeps your financial data offline although you can choose data syncing via iCloud too (Pro version only).
Here’s what we didn’t like about it:
- Although you can add multiple accounts, it only feels suitable for one or maximum too accounts such as a checking account and credit card.
- There’s no automatic syncing with accounts so it requires a lot of manual data entry work
- Importing and then sorting-out accounts from other financial apps also takes a long time and is tedious.
CheckBook Pro costs $19.99 with no subscription which is very reasonable for a checking app.
There’s also a slightly cheaper version called CheckBook which is $14.99 but it doesn’t include features such as iCloud syncing, check printing, account wide reporting and more precise search tools.
Pricing: $19.99 from the Mac App Store and there’s a free trial.
12. SEE Finance 2
SEE Finance 2 is designed specifically for Mac and used to be the closest thing you could get to Quicken before Intuit finally released Quicken for Mac.
Despite the launch of Quicken, the makers have continued to develop SEE Finance into a very reliable, robust and feature packed personal budgeting app for Mac.
In fact the latest version of SEE Finance 2 has been built from the ground up and is a big improvement on SEE Finance 1 (which is still available) in terms of both looks, functionality and affordability.
We found that SEE Finance 2 is one of the best personal finance software for Mac when it comes to importing Quicken QIF data accurately.
Unlike apps such as Banktivity and Moneydance, there’s less chance of duplicated transactions when importing large QIF files into SEE Finance.
Mint users can import their accounts into SEE Finance 2 in CSV format and you can also import files in QIF, QMTF, QFX and OFX format.
Investment tracking is also very well done in SEE Finance 2 with a clear and varied overview of your investments with lots of different reports.
SEE Finance 2 is also very good at handling multiple currencies with over 150 different currencies supported.
You can connect to banking institutions via Direct Connect which will automatically download transactions and import data from others.
This is easy to setup and use in SEE Finance and pretty reliable at syncing and updating account.
Note that SEE Finance 2 does not support Bill Pay though which is usually available in personal finance apps such as Quicken and Moneydance that support Direct Connect.
A bigger concern however is that Direct Connect is being phased-out by banks in favor of EWC+ for syncing which SEE Finance 2 does not support.
In which case, if your bank doesn’t support Direct Connect then you won’t be able to sync it with SEE Finance 2.
More recently there’s now an SEE Finance iOS app for iPhone and iPad that syncs with the Mac version via iCloud. It also works with OFX Direct Connection downloads if your bank supports it.
SEE Finance 2 is a massive improvement on the first version and remains a fast, reliable and slick app to manage your finances on Mac.
Note that although SEE Finance 1 is still available in the Mac App Store but we strongly recommend using SEE Finance 2 instead as it’s far more modern, includes an iOS app and is more likely to be supported by the developer in the future.
You can also try a 30 day free trial of SEE Finance.
Pricing: $39.99 – Free Trial
13. CountAbout
CountAbout is a simple but effective budgeting app that can import Quicken QIF files and Mint files in CSV format.
The Quicken import tool is one of the best we’ve tried and accounts are imported with very little need for manual adjustment.
CountAbout automatically downloads transactions from your bank including investment balances like 401k’s. There is no support for Bill Pay though.
CountAbout offers two subscription plans – one for $9.99 per year and a premium subscription for $39.99 per year.
The difference is that the Premium subscription includes Direct Connect which allows you to automatically download transactions from bank, credit card and investment institutions (although this is being phased-out by banks).
CountAbout is very good value for money and considerably cheaper than most personal finance software that support Direct Connect.
If you’d like to try it out before you buy, CountAbout offers a free 45-day trial.
You can see a quick overview of what CountAbout can do below.
Pricing: $9.99/year or $39.99/year with Direct Connect
14. MoneyWell
MoneyWell is a slick, simple but effective money management software designed specifically for Mac.
MoneyWell is unique in that it uses an envelope budgeting system to help you manage your finances better.
Rather than setting targets that you either hit or miss, envelope budgeting works on the basis that any money you save or overspend is constantly adjusted to show the effect on your incoming bills.
MoneyWell also supports Direct Connect so that you can automatically pay bills from your bank account.
However, Direct Connect is being phased-out by banks and being replaced by Express Web Connect+ which as yet, is not supported by MoneyWell.
MoneyWell is clearly well thought out with some really smart interactive reports. In fact the graphs and reports in MoneyWell are some of the best we’ve seen in any budgeting software for Macs at this price.
Unfortunately, MoneyWell used to be available as a one-off purchase but like most personal finance software, has moved to a subscription pricing model of $49.99 per year or $5.99 per month.
If you ever stop your subscription, you’ll still have access to your data, be able to run reports, make amendments to transactions and even sync data but it will be limited to 200 transactions.
The latest version of MoneyWell 2023 will also add other bank connection tools other than Direct Connect such as Express Web Connect+ (EWC+) which many banks are switching to.
Although it was discontinued for a while due to syncing issues, MoneyWell Express is also available again on iPhone which allows you to check your accounts on the move.
There’s no iPad version of MoneyWell yet but the developers are working on one for 2023.
Pricing: $5.99/month or $49.99/year
15. MoneyWorks
Finally, if you’re looking for something that can double as both a budgeting app and accounting software on your Mac, MoneyWorks might be for you.
MoneyWorks was one of the first ever finance apps for Mac and made its debut on OS X way back in 1992 – before Windows 95 was even invented.
If you’re a treasurer and use Quicken or Mint to keep track of your organization or company budget, MoneyWorks may be ideal for you as it’s designed for small businesses, organizations and accountants in mind.
MoneyWorks can import data from QuickBooks, MYOB, Xero and Greentree although it doesn’t support importing Quicken data.
MoneyWorks also doesn’t support Direct Connect, Bill Pay or EWC+ though so it’s not suitable for those that want to sync it with their bank.
MoneyWorks is however well-integrated with other business software on Mac including Daylite, FileMaker, Numbers and Microsoft Office.
If you need something that can manage payroll, CRM and POS systems on Mac, then MoneyWorks is a particularly good choice.
MoneyWorks is also generally very good at representing complex business data in graphs and produces custom reports via the MoneyWorks Gold report writer.
It’s also a good option for those that need to share their accounts with Windows-based accountants as it works on both Mac and PC.
MoneyWorks comes in 5 different versions aimed at differing sizes of business and all are available for standalone purchase or via subscription.
MoneyWorks Cashbook is completely free to use and is ideal for small organizations that need a simple financial management solution.
You can also try MoneyWorks free for 45 days.
If you’re looking for a personal budgeting tool with a focus on accounting and cashflow, MoneyWorks is a powerful solution for Mac users
Pricing: Free/$18 per month+/$274 for MoneyWorks Express/$549 for MoneyWorks Gold
Which Is The Best Personal Finance Software For Mac?
If you’re looking to maximize your investments as well as manage your budget, then Empower is still the best of the lot.
The fact that you can use it completely for free is obviously a massive advantage compared to any other personal finance tool out there.
It also just makes budgeting and maximizing your assets so easy compared to Quicken or Mint and it also looks like something that’s made for Macs compared to Quicken which was originally made for Windows and later ported to Mac.
Which Is The Best Budgeting Software For Mac?
If you want something that just helps you manage your budget but don’t need investment tracking and other features, then we think You Need a Budget (YNAB) is the best budgeting software for Mac.
As the name suggests, YNAB is built specifically around helping you stick to budgets.
Alternatively, if you want something with a really slick Mac and iPhone/iPad app then Copilot has the best budgeting app for both Mac and iOS.
Which Is The Best Mint Alternative For Mac?
Many Mint users were left disappointed by the decision to shut it down on 1st January 2024 and Intuit is encouraging users to switch to its other personal finance platform Credit Karma.
Credit Karma has some Mint features such as the ability to view bank accounts, transactions, spending, cash flow and net worth but crucially NOT monthly budgeting or budgeting by category.
In our testing and research, we found that Empower is the best alternative to Mint on Mac.
We found that Empower not only offers much more than Mint especially when it comes to investment tracking, but it also helps that it’s completely free to use.
Considerations When Replacing Quicken
If you’re looking to replace Quicken, then the best Quicken alternative for Mac really depends on your specific needs.
Some people need things like Bill Pay and Online Banking while others are more focused on investments.
To help you in your decision though, here’s a checklist of features to bear in mind when deciding which Quicken replacement to choose.
You can see whether the application you’re interested in supports these features by checking the comparison table above.
- Online Banking Integration
This is essential for those that want their accounts to be regularly updated with real time bank transactions.
Direct Connect (known as QFX in Quicken products) is the standard method that most banks support although increasingly, users are finding it very unreliable.
Sometimes this is not an application’s fault and is due to changes made by banks on how third party software connects to them.
Many banks such as Citibank and Bank of America have even dropped support for Direct Connect in favor of Express Web Connect (EWC+) instead.
As a result, some applications such as Moneyspire, Banktivity and Moneydance have developed their own version of Direct Connect although this usually costs extra.
However, Moneyspire’s reliable Moneyspire Connect service is now included for free in the price of the product which makes it a very good deal indeed.
Note that some banks may levy a small charge for connecting your account to a third-party app via connection methods like Direct Connect so it’s always wise to check with your financial institution first.
- Bill Pay
It’s important to be aware that just because an app supports online bank syncing, doesn’t necessarily mean it supports Bill Pay.
Bill Pay enables an application to automatically pay your bills to help keep on top of them.
Of course, you can do this easily by setting up a Direct Debit with your bank for things such as utility bills but Bill Pay enables your finance app to track them more easily.
Direct Connect is the only connection protocol that supports Bill Pay but many banks are dropping support for Direct Connect in favor of Express Web Connect+ (EWC+).
However, EWC+ doesn’t support Bill Pay so paying bills and transferring money between accounts from personal finance apps is becoming increasingly difficult.
- Account Reconciliation
Not all personal finance apps allow you to reconcile accounts manually.
This is essential if you’re trying to manage a budget but get payments that fall on the first of the month but it happens to be a weekend or holiday.
In such cases, many apps will automatically enter the transaction on the last previous banking day and there’s no way to change this.
- Encrypted Connections
When it comes to security, remember that any connection made between finance apps and your bank are only as safe as the application accessing it.
Make sure that the application takes security seriously and uses encrypted connections to your bank to prevent unauthorized interceptions.
A few apps such as Empower add an extra layer of protection by not actually storing your financial credentials but managing access via specialized encrypted service Yodlee.
This is also used by many financial institutions and adds an extra layer of protection to your data.
- Investment Tracking
This is essential to track loans, assets, stocks, shares and bonds etc.
One of the big gripes Mac users have with Quicken is that it doesn’t do a good job of tracking basic things like car loans or home loan amortization (although fixed interest rate tracking was introduced in Quicken 2017).
Although Quicken has improved investment tracking in the latest version of Quicken For Mac Premier and Deluxe, it’s still not Quicken’s strongest point.
Alternatives such as Empower, Banktivity and Moneydance all feature robust investment tracking as standard.
- Mobile Apps
If you like to manage your money or check accounts on the move, make sure the software you choose has a mobile app.
Most apps that have a mobile app sync accounts with your iPhone or iPad although many are limited in functionality and don’t allow you to make many transactions. Some user their own servers to sync while others offer syncing via iCloud.
If you like to take photos of receipts and invoices to sync with your Mac later, make sure this feature is supported.
- Quicken Import Support
If you want to import your Quicken accounts into another application, you can easily do so by exporting them into QIF format.
Unfortunately, Quicken 2019 has removed the option to export files in QIF format. It now only exports in QXF which is a proprietary Quicken format that can’t be imported into any program.
Therefore, there’s no way to import Quicken 2019 files into any personal finance app anymore but earlier versions of Quicken can.
Note that not all personal finance software supports QIF importing so if this is important to you, make sure you can migrate from Quicken easily.
Note that no Mac personal finance app will import Quicken files 100% perfectly – there will always be some manual correction necessary.
- Multiple Currencies
For those that travel a lot or that deal with foreign transactions regularly. The Mac edition of Quicken is still lagging behind when it comes to multiple currency transaction support.
Those that imported foreign currency accounts into Quicken 2018 for example found that they were suddenly converted to dollars.
Make sure foreign currencies are supported if you do a lot of trade abroad to avoid some major headaches when importing data.
- User Profiles
If you share the software with a partner, other members of your family or colleagues, support for creating multiple profiles is very useful.
It allows you to track spending and create budgets for each individual member whilst also preserving the privacy of each user.
Some financial software only allows one user per license and some don’t support more than one profile so bear this in mind if you’re intending to use the program with other.
We hope this article has helped you be more informed when choosing a replacement for Quicken on your Mac.
This is by no means a definitive list of programs to replace Quicken with on your Mac.
There are other options such as LiquidLedger but we haven’t included them as most are now very dated and can’t compare to the latest version of Quicken anymore.
If you have any other questions, experiences or suggestions regarding the Mac personal finance apps featured here, let us know in the comments below.
GnuCash is an excellent, free, open source alternative.
GnuCash is a good open source alternative if you have the time to work out how to use it properly and don’t want any online banking integration. There’s also no native version for Apple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs and since it’s open source, there’s no official support if you run into any issues.
I really like See Finance 2, but when I tried to contact for support (during the free trial), I received no response- after 3 emails, since that is the only way to contact them. I heard that last year they had some medical issues, but they have responded to reviews. Others have said they purchased the software, it didn’t work and then no response from the developer. I’ve tried many on this list, but I’ll check out Moneydance.
Same comments than Jill L. A very good software with no support at all for the time being.
I just joined Personal Capital to try it. It did speedily connect to my bank and credit cards accounts. I have a financial advisor and don’t need another. On Quicken (subscription) I edit or assign categories (grocery, restaurant, kids (subdivided by names), utilities, etc.) I am not certain I can do that with PF. I can enter checks I write on Quicken. It has a different purpose for me than F.
I am am currently using Quicken Essentials 2013. When I updated my MAC operating system a few years ago I lost 20 years of iQuicken data. I did not want to pay for a Quicken annual subscription so I had someone help me remove the MAC update so I could get my “checkbook” back. I do not import any data or pay bills. I use Quicken to track my checkbook and credit card charges, use bill reminders, and reporting. I manually reconcile each account monthly. I want to store the information on my computer and not virtually in a cloud somewhere. I want to be able to load the software on my computer and don’t want to connect to anything online. Will any of these products work for this old timer?
Probably the closest desktop replacement for what you’re looking for is Moneyspire.
Of your 10 recommendations, which ones allow more than 1 user profile?
Thank you!
Most personal finance apps only allow one profile per license. However, apps like Personal Capital support both individual accounts, joint accounts and sibling accounts in one dashboard if you’re happy to manage and view them altogether.
I just need personal finance software that essentially has the same capabilities as Quicken 2007. it needs to be able to import files from Quicken 2007, have a register for each account that can be reconciled, have a “category detail report” that I can use at tax time, and I would like to be able to download bank and credit card information accurately. I’m not interested in budgeting or tracking investments. I have been using an older MacPro so I could keep using Quicken 2007; but, I have recently had to upgrade to a newer computer. I just need something simple to easy to use. From reading your article, it looks like Moneyspire might be my best choice if it can download Quicken 2007 files. Thank You
If you need Quick import support then yes Moneyspire is a very good option although you’ll find that with any personal finance software that imports Quicken files, there are always issues and manual errors to correct.
Not sure how old this comment is, but I would advise to not go with Moneyspire. I’ve tried almost all the apps listed here and Mondeydance works the best, IMO. The developer at Moneyspire is unresponsive when asking him questions and trying to resolve issues. The devs at Moneydance respond pretty quick and they have a user forum, as well. I would say, that I do not use Moneydance to pay bills or even connect with any of my financial institutions online. I personally don’t trust any software to do that and just use the institutions’ websites to track stuff and enter it manually. Just my preference.
Moneyspire Connect DOES have a cost after the first year: you ave to upgrade the software for it to continue to work.
Yes you must purchase an annual upgrade to MoneySpire (which is at a discounted rate) if you want to keep using MoneySpire Connect for free.
I need a program that has check numbers listed on the report, and has a manual reconciliation feature
Moneyspire allows you go through your reconciled data and compare it with your bank statements to manually make adjustments if that helps.
That is only partially true. There are still downloads that work.
Quicken Mac 2007 cannot do downloads from banks effective Jun 2020. The problem is not Quicken, but with its creator Intuit. The downloads are processed by a link at Intuit, and Intuit has disconnected that link.
@Elliott C. What makes you think that QM2015 will not run on Catalina? It IS 64-bit software.
Note however that Banktivity still charges a subscription if you need to download data from the FIs.
If you are willing to put up with a reminder banner that takes up about 25% of your screen to renew (on a laptop size screen), you can buy Quicken and turn off the Auto-Renew feature. At the end of your subscription, you will still be able to use Quicken in manual data entry mode, as long as you do not have the Starter version, which makes your data file become read-only.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7861717/which-version-of-quicken-is-compatible-to-macos-catalina
You’re most welcome, Charlie. Re the updates, Oracle pushes updates to the VirtualBox application. Updating it doesn’t affect the Virtual Machines inside it. The updates are usually the typical performance and stability improvements. You’ll have the choice to ignore them or install them. I always run the current version, which also means downloading and installing the latest Enhancement Pack to go with it. But, if everything works to your satisfaction, there really won’t be any reason to update, it’ll be your choice.
Looking forward to your reports on your progress.
Moneydance comments– I’m continuing my quest for a suitable replacement for QM2007. I liked several things about Moneydance, but it doesn’t measure up to the efficiency and features of my old standby.
IMPORTING QID from Quicken. The process went quite smoothly overall. But, it created some duplicate accounts with the same name with X added. The transactions in the X account were ones which had the same account name in the category field and in the Register itself. I had done this when I had placeholder transactions with $0.00 amount. After changing those transaction problems and exporting again, Moneydance was happy.
The second import problem was duplicates. I tracked them down and found that they occurred only when a transaction had 3 or more splits. Fortunately, those duplicates had not been reconciled, so could be sorted for and deleted as a group. After that, the account totals matched the original Quicken ones. The Cash account required a lot of sifting through manually to locate the 3+ split transactions. I could find no way to reconcile the cash account and set all records to cleared before exporting.
After this effort, the Export/Import of the 27k records resulted in balances that matched the original.
TRANSACTION ENTRY was relatively efficient. When entering my usual grocery store, the groceries category was automatically filled in. For other transactions, it did an intelligent lookup and autofill for the category I started to key in. And it showed a popup for me to choose the subcategories. That required me to use the up/down arrows or the trackpad to select the full category. I could get used to that. But for sheer efficiency, QM2007 still rules. I enter a few category characters, it autofills the top level category, I press “:” and key in the a character of two of the subcategory and I’m done. Hands stay in the home position.
Entering amounts is reasonably okay. Monedance can evaluate math expressions, but it lacks customizable QuickMath functions. Often when I split a transaction, use a category for the nontaxable items and then total and prorate the tax for taxable items. I live at the boundary of two sales tax districts. With QuickMath, I press “s” and the sales tax for the City of Seattle is added. If my purchase is made next door in Shoreline, I press “w” to get Shoreline’s sales tax added.
Monedance does have a VAT/GST feature which allows for changeable values, but it doesn’t get me the same function.
REPORTING: The reporting system allows for some customization, but is limited compared to QM2007. The printed reports also use a LOT more paper. The screen reports are handy for drilling down to see individual transaction detail. One serious limitation in Moneydance is there’s no way to get a year to year comparison report.
SUMMARY SCREEN: There is good flexibility for choosing what appears on the Summary screen. For example, I have a large number of inactive accounts that I don’t need to see there. The summary page makes it easy to browse activity by category for a chosen period. I wish there were a preference for date order.
ONLY ONE WINDOW OPEN AT A TIME! — I think this is a really big limitation. In QM2007, I often have several registers open at once and can do side browse information at will and comparing registers.
I don’t use any online banking features, so have not evaluated them. I also have taken only a quick look at setting up future transaction reminders. The calendar presentation of those is nice.
If forced to leave QM2007, I could probably live with Moneydance. In terms of data entry efficiency, Quicken is still the best in my view. Remarkable about Quicken (knock on wood), is that I have generated 27K transactions since January 1999 and through crashes and other odd events, I have not suffered any lost data or data corruption.
Regarding Virtualbox, etc…. I have installed Windows a few times in different versions of VMware Fusion. I have never created a bootable Max OS disk or image and installed it in a virtual machine. There is something incestuous about installing Mojave in a virtual machine on a Mac running Catalina. Since I’ll be starting with a new Mac that I’m not relying on to do anything, I can give it a try without much worry. In the best of all worlds, I install the software and make no further changes for years. Hopefully the many updates you mention do not mean I’ll have to constantly reinstall the software. Anyway, thanks for your encouragement Scott. I’ll have the computer in a about a week.
I’m the treasurer for a Mac Users Group and use Quicken 2015 on my iMac running High Sierra. I’ll be upgrading to a new iMac soon and this Quicken 2015 will not run on Catalina. We cannot justify an annual fee for the new Quicken. Is there an alternative that will import 10 years of Quicken 2015, will run on Catalina, and is not subscription based?
Your best bet would be to try either Moneyspire or Banktivity. However, you may find with both that there issues importing Quicken transactions that go back 10 years and you will probably have to manually edit some entries yourself.
Hey, Charlie…you install virtualization software like any other software: it installs the application to your Mac. Once installed, you then create a Virtual Machine from the software. You then need an installation file for the OS that you plan to install into that empty virtual machine (macOS, Windows, Linux, etc.). You then install the OS just like you would to a standalone computer. The OS installation does not “know” that it isn’t a computer — hence, “Virtual Machine” — it treats the VM as if it’s a standalone computer. Once you have a macOS installation in a Virtual Machine, you then install Quicken for Mac 2007 into that OS, just like any other software install. I have never had to use Terminal that I can recall, with either Fusion or VirtualBox. I started with Fusion version 1, into which I installed WinXP Pro from a CD. When I decided to switch to VirtualBox after getting a new Mac, I found excellent instructions online complete with screenshots, and the transition went perfectly, carrying my WinXP Pro installation over to VirtualBox.
One important note: both Fusion and VirtualBox use a separate “Tools” application (VirtualBox calls it an “Extension Pack”) that gives you access to external devices like CD reader/writers, USB ports and drives, etc. So, if you want to be able to transfer files from the Virtual Machine to an external drive on your Mac, you’ll need to install that after you install the virtualization software (you can even drag and drop files from the VM directly to the Mac desktop). I have a separate “virtual drive” setup that exists on the Mac but is written to by the virtual machine, and that is where I put any files that I want to be captured by Time Machine for backup purposes. If you run Time Machine, you’ll want to exclude the virtual machine from backups, because the VM is typically 20GB in size (although I suppose you could make a smaller VM if you’re only planning on running QM2007). You don’t want to clog up Time Machine with a 20GB backup every time you run the VM. I compress the entire VM and then copy that to an external drive on a semi-regular basis, but any Windows files I change when in the VM I copy to the virtual drive on the Mac to get backed up by Time Machine. The compressed file gets copied by Time Machine also during its regular routine. This way, I can restore an entire Virtual Machine from the external backup if need be, and then use Time Machine to recover the more-recently changed files.
I know it’s a bit daunting at first, but once setup it just becomes another routine. Good luck!
https://www.virtualbox.org
Thanks Scott… I’ll take another look at Virtual Box. Perhaps I missed an easy set of steps for getting Mojave and QM2007 installed. I saw one set of instructions that involved a lot of steps using Terminal, to me an application that is fraught with danger. Perhaps someone can point me to an easier set of steps to follow. I haven’t committed to any such software yet. I have ordered a newer iMac that I can use as a “Sandbox” for testing my path for Catalina.
I highly recommend VirtualBox from Oracle. It is Open Source virtualization software, that for your purposes does everything Parallels and VMWare Fusion do, but it’s free. I’m a former Fusion user, I got worn out by VMWare requiring a paid upgrade with every MacOS upgrade. I successfully moved my Virtualization over to VirtualBox, complete with my WinXP Pro Virtual Machine, which runs as robustly under VirtualBox as it did under Fusion. Plus, Oracle pushes updates out regularly.
Keep us posted, please.
Thanks. I’m leaning in that direction. I saw a fairly straightforward set of instructions to install Parallels and then install Mojave in it. What I found for doing the same with VMware Fusion seemed much more involved. Sticking with QM2007 via embedding Mojave seems viable.
As talked about before, you may consider using QM2007 in a VM on Catalina and beyond. It works fine based on feedback by several here:
Share your experience running QM2007 in a Virtual Machine (VM)
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7853691/share-your-experience-running-qm2007-in-a-virtual-machine-vm/p1
I was notified by Ebay that the seller of the QM2017 I ordered has been removed as a user due to lack of inventory. It is possible my copy is in transit, but I doubt it. I got an email from the seller with a URL to download the product, claiming no registration or serial number was required. I’ll not do that. I expected an unopened box. Looks like I’ll be applying to Ebay for a refund. {sign}
I did some extensive testing of SEE Finance 2 today and sent the comments along to the publisher. The app has some good features but the biggest drawback for me is the limited reporting. Not only are the printed reports better in QM2007, but the ability to drill down to the actual transactions direct from the screen reports is hugely useful. I’m still impressed by SEE Finance 2’s flawless and fast import.
—————-
I am a long time user of Quicken Mac 2007 and earlier back to 1999. Since I don’t like the later version for Mac and my current version can’t run under Mac OS Catalina, I’m looking for alternatives.
Today I started testing a trial version of See Finance 2 Version 2.1.6 (1029), running on my MacBook Pro 2019 with Mac OS Mojave.
I started by importing over 27k transactions via QIF and that was flawless! I found QuickMath features and customizable coluimns. I like a lot of the features.
So far, I have one big deal breaker, a small one, and wishlist item or two.
1. I am used to seeing transactions broken down and summarized through my complete category hierarchy with all the transaction detail.
For example, I have
Expenses:Autos
which has subcategories of Toyota Prius and Chrysler Van.
Each of those has a subcategory of Insurance-License, Maintenance, and gas.
My Category Detail reports show me breakdowns for each of those last categories by vehicle, the subtotal by vehicle, and the total for all autos.
The same breakdown applies for the rest of the category hierarchy.
I would probably give up on using that report for categories and revert to an Account by Account transaction report.
I don’t think See Finance can do this.
Well, it can sort of in the Categories report. That report is compact, but puts the major category totals above the totals for their subcategories. It has its own logic, but I’d much prefer the grand total to show below that of the constituent subtotals.
—————
2. In Quicken, I do all my navigation through categories during data entry without needing to leave the keyboard, simply by entering a few characters until it quickfills the main category, after which I enter “:” and key part of the next subcategory which quickfills, and on to the next subcategory the same way. I might get used to using the popups to choose the subcategories, but right now, the popup is too narrow to show the entire category hierarchy after entering the top category. It is possible to do this with the keyboard by pressing right arrow followed by “ – “ which then gets you the chance to key the beginning of the next subcategory. That is awkward. Maybe I’ll get used to using the vertical arrow keys or the trackpad but its less efficient for me at best.
———
The transaction reports should be more compact in my view. For comparison, my 2019 transactions generate a 195 page report in SEE Finance and 35 pages for the corresponding report in Quicken. Quicken supports drilling down live from a report line to the actual transaction.
Another report I’d miss is a year to year comparison by category showing differences.
————
Quicken allows me to assign keyboard shortcuts to each Account. So Cmd-0 takes me to my Savings account, and CMD-2 takes me to my Alaska Airlines credit card account. This is another small time saver.
It is good to know that you are working on improvements to your application. It does so many things well already.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Charlie
Thanks for suggestion. I did cast my vote for QuickMath functionality. This has been a topic in the Quicken discussion group for several years. I have begged for that feature and others many times on the phone with Quicken I’m dubious that anything will come of it. The app would have to be fantastically better before I would go for the subscription model anyway.
The other feature that I have been ever more dependent on in QM2007 is the user-assignable keyboard shortcuts. I have 9 or so credit cards and several other accounts, each assigned their own code. I have assigned codes 0-9 and changed the credit card names appending the codes to the end of the names. This is all about transaction entry efficiency. I have no interest in automated bank access of any kind, old fashioned, I know. By the way, some credit cards are only used occasionally, all paid off monthly. 😉
Banktivity is testing out okay for me but QM2007 will stay my preference. The QIF import to Banktivity went quite well, all my transactions since 1/1/99 !! So far, I’ve noticed only two very minor problems in the import. I might try running the same export/import again.
I use QuickMath a lot too. Add you vote for this feature here:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7310447/add-quickmath-functionality-to-quicken-for-mac-103-legacy-votes/p1
It was recently submitted to the development team for consideration.
Be sure to click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count in the blue banner, so your vote will count (it may take a moment for your vote to register).
(If it is black, your vote has been registered)
Good idea regarding QM2017. As a hedge, I just ordered a copy on Ebay. That source says I got the last one. Not sure if I’ll use it. There are some features of Catalina that tempt me, but upgrading to it would require other expensive upgrades, And I’m happily using Office for Mac 2011. Meanwhile, I’ll try out a few other choices reviewed here. Some of these products are being actively improved. Perhaps their developers can be encouraged to support customizable keyboard shortcuts and QuickMath functions. I use QuickMath for sales tax calcs in two jurisdictions. I’m on the border of two with different tax rates.
Hi, Charlie. I decided to stick with QM2007 indefinitely. I bought a copy of QM2017 – the last non-subscription version – on eBay to future-proof my QM data. I installed it on one machine and converted my data file over so I could mess around with it and learn it. I decided I like what I’m used to, so I’m staying with QM2007 but can migrate to QM2017 if I HAVE to at some later date. I haven’t checked the QuickMath functionality, but I don’t think it’s there in QM2017 – and I use it in QM2007 for sales tax calculations, so thanks for reminding me of another reason to stick with 07. Down the road I’ll have two choices: run a VM or commit to QM2017. At least I have a choice…
Hi Scott- Going through same decision process, looking ahead to Catalina. Running VM with Mojave is too hard. I looked at Banktivity tonight. Do you have observations on other choices. I use QuickMath and custom keyboard shortcuts a lot in Quicken Mac 2007 and will miss those features.
np
QM2007 automatically-generated backups are really just copies of the data file; the “restore” process consists of copying or moving the “backup” file to the location where you store your QM data file, and renaming it to the original file name. In preferences you can decide how many “backups” it saves, I’ve always kept 5, I didn’t realize the limit is 10.
Thanks for elaborating on not shutting down the VM. I now understand what you meant. I’m familiar with the “Safe Sleep” option, though that’s certainly not without some risk. For my purposes, having to run virtualization software just for QM2007 isn’t worth it. The Automator application has sufficiently solved the off-disk backup issue for my purposes, it takes one click.
Thanks again.
First, QM2007 CAN create backups like QWin but ONLY only HFS+ volumes. IT can keep up to the last 10 backups and one gets created every time you quit QM2007.
Re: VM, you indicated a concern of firing up the VM just for QM2007 under Catalina (or eventually beyond). I was suggesting you use the Safe Sleep mode (equivalent to hibernation on Windows), so you never quit the VM (or any other app) OR use the “Reopen windows…” feature / checkbox found in the dialog box when choose Shutdown or Restart, which would at least automatically reopen your VM the next time you start up.
Thanks, smayer97. I’ve already created an Automator application and have it on the doc, after QM2007 closes I just click it and it copies my data file to my flash drive. Since QM doesn’t actually create a backup like QW does, just a copy of the data file, for now this solves my problem.
Creating an HFS+ partition just for the QM2007 data file is an interesting idea. I’ll definitely think about it.
I don’t understand your comments on using a VM for QM2007, if you care to elaborate.
Thanks again.
P.S. I still ONLY use QM2007.
To address your issue with QM2007 and APFS, consider creating an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) partition to run QM2007. QM2007 auto-backups will work in that situation as long as you store BOTH your data file AND backup files on the HFS+ partition (the app does NOT have to be on the HFS+ partition).
As for using a VM to run QM2007, consider NOT shutting off your computer or even using the “remember open windows” feature in macOS to automatically open everything up. Once all is open, it is easy to navigate.
Thanks for the idea. I already run WinXP on my desktop Mac via VirtualBox, but it’s not practical for me to run it on my MacBook Air, where I do all of my banking, especially while traveling. Plus, I’d have to convert back to QW from QM. Another VM option would be to keep an older macOS installation just for QM2007, but I use Quicken at least every other day or so, so having to launch a VM just for that seems excessive. As for lack of support for QM2017 after this month, I’ve been running QM2007 for years without support, though they did patch it a few years ago (for Yosemite?). I forgot that I first used QM2005 before QM2007, not that it matters.
Change is daunting, especially financial software. I’m so used to QM2007 and I rely on it so much that, while it’s not urgent to give it up, the necessity for something to eventually succeed it is now apparent. Paying annually for the privilege of using software is abhorrent to me.
In the meantime, I can keep using QM2007 so long as I don’t move to Catalina or beyond…that gives me time to try one or more options that you’ve so thoroughly reviewed. In the short term, I just have to manually back it up — I learned a long time ago to have it automatically back up to a flash drive every time, but that’s now gone because of APFS, despite the flash drive being FAT32…and, yes, I run Time Machine but not every day, so it’s really important to me that I have a fresh backup after every use. I suppose I could automate it.
Thanks again, your review is very helpful, as are your comments!
Thank you for this thorough review, and everyone for their comments. I’ve been using QM2007 since moving to Apple in 2008, converted from QWH&B. I wanted nothing to do with Essentials. I know QM2007 and its quirks.
I recently had to upgrade to High Sierra for other reasons, and the upgrade converted my SSD to APFS; now QM2007 won’t automatically backup, to either the MacHD or an external. Strike 1.
QM2007 is 32-bit, therefore it will not run on Catalina, only up to Mojave. Strike 2.
QM2020 and 19 are now subscription-based. No thanks. Strike 3.
So, I’m looking for an alternative, for future compatibility. One option is QM2017, but I’ve got to find a copy. Support ends 4/30/20, regardless. Strike 4.
Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing your experiences with Quicken. Certainly using QM2017 would not be a good idea at this stage for many reasons not least the lack of support after the end of April 2020. In your situation and if you want to stick with Quicken despite all the alternatives featured here, you may want to think about running Windows on your Mac so that you can continue using the PC version of Quicken.
I’ve been using Quicken for almost 30 years (Quicken for DOS starting in 1989, before Windows). My habit, up until now, was to upgrade every other year since financial institution interfaces lasted for 3 years with each upgrade. I’m going to wait until 2019 comes out before I upgrade, and then I’m going to take a look at other programs before I commit to an annual purchase for an unreliable product
To me, the biggest issue with Quicken is the “fragile” data base. I admit I haven’t cleaned out my Quicken file in about 12 years now (accounts have data going back to 2006) so I’m probably stressing the file more than I should. But a fully functional financial program should use an SQL database with new tables for each year (or fiscal year). An annual closeout, that closes the previous year and starts a new one, should happen automatically on the first entry for the new (fiscal) year. I had a situation recently where
I withdrew a large chunk of money from a Savings Goal. The withdrawal from the goal worked but Quicken must have crashed before it put the money into the originating account, leaving me $thousands short of cash until I found the error. Recently (starting in July), Quicken started duplicating some downloaded transactions in multiple accounts:
I have 4 accounts with my investment broker and when a dividend was received in 1 account, Quicken put it in 2 others, even though those accounts didn’t have any of the stock that was paying the dividend. I discovered this in August through a reconcile process that wouldn’t balance: Quicken had $hundreds of “bogus” transactions that had to be manually deleted. I don’t know if this was the fault of Quicken or the financial institution.
I have been using MoneySpire for almost a year. Initially tech support was great and Elijah helped me with any problems. He is no longer there and support has been poor ever since.
I repeatedly have problems importing current transactions for checking and credit cards. I have tried both direct connect and Moneyspire Connect. I have had problems with both. Lately the MoneySpire Connect has been slowed by a “refresh” every time I download data. For the last couple weeks it never finishes refreshing and I have to close Moneyspire to get back to an account register. I have not been able to update for over 2 weeks. Now the Sales/support number does not work at all. Another phone number says to send an email for support problems. Emails for help have not helped either.
Thus I am looking for an alternative for both Quicken for Mac and MoneySpire.
Just downloaded Moneyspire free trial with the best walk through customer support in a decade or more. If all you want is simple no frills accounting, this is superb. File transfer from quicken was seamless, and within 15 minutes had everything set up to generate income/expense detail reports and beyond. Skipping the 30 day free trial and buying the software now. Thank you for your reviews and postings
I’m glad I ran across this as I might not have found out about or gave SEE Finance a chance otherwise. I’ve been fed up with Quicken for way too long and am glad to finally get away from it.
Something that should be pointed out is how some of these apps are making money. Personal Capital, Mint and others that are “free” aren’t really free. If you’re not paying for a product then you are the product. You find that out really quick with telemarketing calls from Personal Capital. Others are making money off of selling your data to the highest bidders if you read the fine print.
I appreciate you guys taking the time to review the functionality of these different apps. It was the most in-depth reviews of multiple apps I found. Thank you!
I don’t see how you can give Banktivity an acceptable score given its reporting tools. The primary issue is that when a payment or expense is specified in a Split, reports only show the containing transaction. You must then manually drill down to see what’s there. To me, it makes it unusable.
Thanks for the feedback Jonathan. The reporting features in Banktivity can sometimes involve a lot of clicking around to drill down data. But it’s a small factor in the overall evaluation of the package. It’s still far more tailored to Mac users than Quicken is and although the reporting features in the latest version of Quicken 2018 have improved, they’re not very comprehensive either.
I agree with your concerns. That said, I have yet to find an alternative that handles data as well as Quicken 2007, though it still has limitations. A lot of what others offer may look nice, but a lot is stuff I have not significant need. So far, none other can handle my data the way I need it.
At least recently, Intuit hired a new team to work on making significant updates to Quicken for Mac. Hopefully they will deliver. Seeing behind the scenes (being involved with beta testing) they have a lot of good stuff planned AND in the works. Only time will tell.
For now, Quicken 2007 still is the best option for me. It may still be for others too. And since it is still available, though not widely publicized, it should still be presented as a viable option, with caveats.
We look forward to seeing the beta. In the meantime, we will take another look at Quicken 2007 for Mac and if it merits inclusion, we’ll add it to the article.
You are incorrect about online banking. It still works as I still use it everyday. So it is still a viable option. And Quicken 2007 still has features that many new software still do not have today…better reporting and manipulation of data.
Apologies – You’re correct that Quicken 2007 does support online banking integration. But it still doesn’t change the fact that Intuit don’t have a very good reputation on Mac with Quicken. The fact that the last major release of Quicken for Mac was back in 2007 and it took 2012 before it supported direct bill payments and that still today it lacks functionality compared to the Windows version, means many Mac users have lost patience and gone for some of the alternatives above.
As of mid-October 2014, Quicken 2007 no longer is able to download bank transactions. The app gives an error OL-290 which Intuits says is because banks changed their security protocols.
Thanks for the update. Unbelievable that Intuit have removed online payments for the only Quicken for Mac product that actually supported it!
That information is incorrect. Yes, there was a problem that took a week or 2 to fix. Most financial institutions now have been fixed.
That said, there are several institutions where the problem persists. BUT all of this has been a coincidence.
The root problem, in great part, is due to the fact that a hole in the SSL security protocol was found in Sep 2014 and many companies updated (read…turned off) their security protocols which has made them incompatible with Quicken 2007 and older. (do a search on POODLE and SSL to learn more).
So at this time, most Quicken 2007 users are ok again, though some still experience some problems. So YMMV.
Quicken 2015 has filled in the gap…there are still many shortcomings with this version that make in impossible for many users to move to this new version, but Intuit at least now has a dedicated team to move the product forward. Only time will tell if they sustain the momentum they have finally achieved.
Thanks for clarifying the online payment problems with Quicken 2007 for Mac.
Why not still list the original Quicken for Mac 2007? It is still available for only $15. Though it may be old, it is feature rich and has many capabilities, works PPC & Intel, from OS 9 through OS X Mavericks (OS X 10.9). Though it may be dated and missing some modern features, it is still the best out there that is still available.
It can be downloaded here:
http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/quicken-2007-osx-lion.jsp
or here:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/42231/quicken-2007
Note that a new version is actively in the works (in beta testing right now), based on Quicken Essentials but more feature rich that will become more comparable to Quicken for Mac 2007.
The problem is it’s very dated now. In particular, it doesn’t support online banking and for most people looking for serious personal finance software for Mac, that’s a basic requirement. The support from Quicken is also very poor for Mac users. It took far too long for Quicken 2007 to be updated to work on Lion and above and although they released Quicken Essentials as a more updated version for Mac, it’s nowhere near as good as the Windows version.