Best Personal Finance Software Online
April 21, 2009
The best personal finance software sites are free! This review of personal finance budgeting online takes a look at sites like Quicken Online, Mint, Wesabe, and others and how you can manage your money online for free. Thanks to Kelly Whalen for doing the research and compiling this list.
Money Management Online
Recent news suggests savings rates are on the rise and use of credit is declining. it’s clear many Americans are changing the “charge now, pay later” attitude. One way to combat overspending is to create a budget. With dozens of free sites offering money management tools online, we have a new way to keep track of our money. But which one is worth your time?
I examined several of the big names in online money management, which will help you find the right fit. Unless otherwise indicated, each of these sites is free to use.
Favorite Sites
Mint – Many people swear by Mint, and rightly so. The site offers a clean interface, and easy to read graphics. Inputting info is easy, and Mint sends a weekly financial snapshot email, as well as an email to let you know when your credit card payments are due.
Great tools for budgeting, tracking past spending, totals for all accounts, networth calculator. Mint has a clean, easy to read interface, tracking for investments, and it is easy to set up.
The only drawbacks are the advertising to “save” you money, slow response time for problems/issues with the site, and the site doesn’t play nicely with all banks. Despite these points I would recommend this site to everyone.
Wesabe – If you aren’t on the Mint bandwagon, chances are you would like Wesabe. Wesabe offers many of the traditional tools (tracking for all accounts but loans, and a cash account feature), but also has created a manual uploader for the accounts it does not currently support. They also are ad free!
Wesabe offers one of the best customer support models available. Users interact with the team at Wesabe and can submit suggestions, and feedback. Another great feature is their “Groups” feature which allows you to talk to other users, including folks like CEO of Wesabe, Marc Hedlund.
Wesabe is recommended for those that want a community with their personal finance software, excellent and interactive customer service, and more control over categorizing expenses.
Quality Option
Quicken Online – Signing up for Quicken Online is an easy and quick process. Quicken ties in to TurboTax so managing deductions at tax time is easy. QuickenOnline gets high marks for their future transactions feature. A big, bold area in the middle shows “What you earned – What you spent = What’s left.”
They support investment accounts, loans, credit cards, savings and checking accounts. During my user test QuickenOnline locked me out of one of my accounts several times, and customer service took several days to clear it up.
This site is best for people who already use Quicken, or those who want a tie-in to Turbo Tax.
Functional but Not Outstanding
My Spending Plan – This tool was nixed as soon as I signed up, the “interview” process which is supposed to help you create your spending plan was really just a way to show you advertisements. Once I got beyond that, the features were decent, but not as good as other sites.
Geezeo – No spam, but plenty of ads, a confessions tab, and tracking for goals and networth. Features include creating a budget and goals, as well as automatic uploading of account info were all the usual features. The site had a bland look, ads take up a lot of space, and did not offer much of a community.
Other sites:
Mvelopes: (pay) Free 14 day trial, monthly fee afterwards. Includes BillPay for folks who don’t have it at their bank.
Buxfer: (free) Simple, clean financial site, no bells and whistles.
Rudder: (pay for extra transactions) 200 Transaction maximum, updates and advertising sent through emails.
The bottom line? Tons of options out there, so you’re bound to find one that works for your specific needs.
All posts by Ben Edwards
All of these personal financial programs definitely offer some great features and tools for budget planning and expense tracking. But I needed a software that would allow me to handle my personal finances in multiple currencies at the same time since I travel a lot – I’ve started using inexfinance
For the benefit of those who are interesting in personal budgeting without involving access to bank account and without giving personal identity, Out Of The Dark (OOTD) on-line budgeting I think belongs in the list of recommended websites.
It’s very functional, very easy to use, anonymous and safe, packed full of excellent context sensitive help and guidance, and it is free of charge and advertising too.
Happy budgeting
I recently found that a few of my friends have been keeping a record of all their credit card statements with the help of rudder.com. So thought of using rudder to manage my finances!!! and guess what, I found it very helpful and Rudder is one that provides reviews of all accounts in one place, track all your bills and also help you with budget and cash flow management. The service is satisfactory.
Thanks to Rudder it made my life simple and easy.
This is a great wrap-up! We recently posted some research comparing these sites’ ability to help people visualize where they’re spending money. Here’s the URL if anyone wants to check it out..
http://blog.findabetterbank.com/spending-time-visualize-your-finances/
Rob
Quite the wrap-up here! Thanks for looking into Quicken Online. One thing you might not have noticed is the new cash tracking feature within the product. You can keep track of where that $40 from the ATM actually goes by adding the expense manually into Quicken Online.
Again, thanks for considering Quicken Online a quality option. I’m sorry you had some trouble accessing one of your accounts. You can also reach out to us on Twitter and we’ll try to get you a quick answer whenever possible (@QuickenOnline, @PRGully, @QuickenPRChels).
– Chelsea, Quicken Online