Best Mint Alternatives in 2026: What to Use Now That Mint Is Gone

Mint was the dominant personal finance app for 15 years. Then in January 2024, Intuit shut it down and redirected users to Credit Karma — a completely different product that doesn't do what Mint did.

If you were a Mint user, you lost automatic transaction syncing, budget tracking, net worth monitoring, and bill alerts. Credit Karma is a credit monitoring tool, not a budgeting tool. It was a frustrating bait-and-switch.

The good news: several excellent alternatives have emerged, and most Mint users who've switched report being happier with their new app than they ever were with Mint. Here's the full breakdown.

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What Mint Actually Did (And What You Need a Replacement For)

To pick the right Mint replacement, it helps to know which Mint features you actually used:

• Automatic transaction syncing from bank accounts and credit cards
• Spending categorization — automatically tagging transactions as groceries, dining, etc.
• Monthly budget tracking — setting spending limits by category
• Bill reminders — alerts for upcoming bills and due dates
• Net worth tracking — connecting all accounts to see assets vs. liabilities
• Free credit score — Mint showed your TransUnion VantageScore

No single app replicates all of these at the same price point (free). But depending on which features matter most to you, one of these five alternatives will be the right fit.

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The Best Mint Alternatives in 2026

1. Monarch Money — Closest to Mint, Best Overall

Cost: $14.99/month or $99.99/year Platforms: iOS, Android, Web

Monarch Money is the most direct Mint replacement. It does everything Mint did, does it better, and has been actively developed by a team that clearly learned from Mint's failures.

What's better than Mint:

• More reliable bank connections (Mint's Plaid integrations were notoriously buggy)
• Cleaner, more modern interface
• Better collaborative features for couples
• Goals tracking built in
• Active development team that releases regular updates

What's different:

• It costs money. Mint was free; Monarch is $99.99/year. That's the main trade-off.

Monarch Mint import tool: Monarch built a specific tool to import your Mint data (transactions, budgets, categories) directly. If you have years of Mint history you want to preserve, Monarch is the only app with a proper migration path.

Bottom line: If you can justify $100/year (~$8.33/month), Monarch is the upgrade Mint should have been.

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2. Empower (Personal Capital) — Best Free Mint Alternative

Cost: Free Platforms: iOS, Android, Web

If you want free and comprehensive, Empower is your answer. It covers the key Mint features — transaction tracking, spending analysis, net worth — at no cost.

Where Empower genuinely excels over Mint:

• Investment tracking — Mint's investment features were basic; Empower's are excellent. You get portfolio analysis, fee breakdowns, and a retirement planner.
• Net worth dashboard — cleaner and more comprehensive than anything Mint offered
• No paywalled features for the core budgeting and tracking functionality

Where it falls short:

• Budgeting is less structured than Mint. Empower tracks spending but doesn't have Mint's rigid monthly budget system.
• Ads/upsells — Empower will contact you about their wealth management service. The calls can be persistent.

Bottom line: Best free Mint alternative, especially if you have investment accounts to track.

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3. YNAB (You Need A Budget) — Best If You Want Actual Financial Change

Cost: $109/year or $14.99/month Platforms: iOS, Android, Web

YNAB isn't a Mint clone — it's a completely different philosophy. Instead of tracking what you already spent, YNAB has you proactively assign every dollar to a purpose before you spend it.

If Mint wasn't actually changing your financial behavior, YNAB will. The learning curve is steeper than Mint, but the results are dramatically better for people who commit to it. YNAB reports their average user saves $600 in their first two months.

The catch: it requires more active engagement than Mint. If you liked that Mint was mostly automatic and hands-off, YNAB's approach will feel like work at first.

Bottom line: Best for people who want to genuinely change their relationship with money, not just monitor it.

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4. Copilot — Best Experience (iPhone Only)

Cost: $13/month or $95/year Platforms: iOS only

Copilot is the best-designed personal finance app available, period. If you're on iPhone and willing to pay for it, nothing comes close to the user experience.

What makes it special:

• Machine learning that gets better at categorizing your transactions over time
• Smart rules — teach it once how to handle a transaction and it remembers
• Flexible budgeting — more adaptable than Mint's rigid category budgets
• Beautiful interface that makes you want to check your finances

The iPhone-only limitation rules it out for Android users, but for iPhone users it's worth serious consideration.

Bottom line: Best Mint replacement if you're on iPhone and want the highest-quality experience.

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5. PocketGuard — Best Free Option for Simple Budgeting

Cost: Free (limited) or $12.99/month / $74.99/year for Plus Platforms: iOS, Android

PocketGuard is the closest thing to a genuinely free Mint replacement that focuses on budgeting rather than investing.

The core feature is the "In My Pocket" number: after accounting for bills, savings goals, and necessities, it tells you exactly how much you can safely spend. It's a simple guardrail that works well for people who just want to avoid overspending.

The free version is limited compared to Mint — you can only link two bank accounts and create one budget. The paid Plus tier removes these restrictions and adds bill negotiation tools.

Bottom line: Best free option if you want simple spending guardrails without paying.

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Quick Comparison: Mint vs. Top Alternatives

Feature	Mint (RIP)	Monarch	Empower	YNAB	Copilot
Cost	Free	$100/yr	Free	$109/yr	$95/yr
Auto sync	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Budget tracking	✅	✅	Basic	✅	✅
Net worth	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Investment tracking	Basic	✅	✅	No	Basic
Bill reminders	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Android	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Mint data import	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌

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Which Mint Alternative Should You Choose?

If you want free: Start with Empower. It's the most capable free option.

If you want the closest Mint experience: Monarch Money — it's essentially Mint rebuilt from scratch, minus the bugs.

If you want to actually change your financial habits: YNAB. It's not for passive monitoring, but it genuinely works.

If you're on iPhone and want the best experience: Copilot.

If your finances are simple: PocketGuard's free tier may be enough.

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What About Credit Karma (Intuit's "Replacement")?

Intuit directed Mint users to Credit Karma, but Credit Karma is a credit monitoring tool, not a budgeting app. It shows your credit score, suggests credit products, and monitors for identity theft. It does not do automatic budgeting, spending categorization, or comprehensive net worth tracking.

For credit monitoring, Credit Karma is fine. As a Mint replacement for budgeting, it simply doesn't work.

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The Bottom Line

Mint's shutdown was frustrating, but the alternatives are genuinely better. The Mint product hadn't been significantly updated in years, the bank connections were unreliable, and the app was effectively being used to funnel users toward financial products.

The paid alternatives — Monarch, YNAB, and Copilot — all outperform what Mint ever offered. If $100/year feels steep, consider that coffee out twice a week costs more. For a tool you interact with daily that directly affects your financial decisions, it's a reasonable investment.

Start with a free trial. Most apps offer 30 days. You'll know quickly which one fits how you think about money.