Best Mint Alternatives in 2026 (Mint Is Dead — Here's What Actually Works)

Q: What happened to Mint?

Intuit, the company that owns TurboTax and QuickBooks, shut down Mint on January 1, 2024. Intuit cited a strategic shift toward Credit Karma (which they also own). After 17 years and 3.6 million active users, Mint simply stopped working. Existing users were redirected to Credit Karma, which focuses on credit scores rather than budgeting. For millions of users, the full budget + net worth tracking they relied on disappeared overnight.

Q: Is Empower (formerly Personal Capital) really free?

Yes — Empower's financial dashboard (net worth tracking, investment analysis, retirement planning tools) is completely free. Empower makes money through its optional wealth management service, which has a 0.89% AUM fee starting at $100,000 minimum. You can use the free dashboard indefinitely without ever paying. It's genuinely one of the best free financial tools available.

Q: What is YNAB and is it worth it?

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is a zero-based budgeting app built around a specific method: every dollar you earn gets assigned a job before you spend it. It's not passive — it requires active engagement. At $14.99/mo ($109/yr), it's more expensive than most competitors. Whether it's 'worth it' depends entirely on whether you engage with the method. YNAB users who commit to the system report significant reductions in spending and debt. YNAB users who treat it like a passive tracker typically churn within 90 days.

Q: What's the difference between Empower and Monarch Money?

Empower is primarily an investment portfolio tracker with free budgeting features. It excels at net worth tracking, retirement projections, and analyzing your investment portfolio. Monarch Money is a full-featured budgeting platform that also tracks investments. If you prioritize investment analysis, use Empower. If you prioritize household budget management with investment tracking as secondary, use Monarch. Many investors use both.

Q: Is Copilot Money available on Android?

No — as of 2026, Copilot is iOS and Mac only. If you're on Android, Copilot is not an option. For Android users, Monarch Money is the closest equivalent in terms of design quality and features.

Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to Empower and other financial apps. If you sign up through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Our rankings are based on actual use — not commission rates.

Mint died on January 1, 2024.

After 17 years and 3.6 million active users, Intuit pulled the plug. No migration tool. No exported data that worked cleanly. Just a redirect to Credit Karma — which, if you've used it, you know is built around credit score monitoring, not budget management.

Millions of people lost their transaction history, their custom categories, their budgets, and their net worth tracking in a single day.

Two years later, people are still searching for the replacement. Searches for "Mint alternatives" are running 165,000/month as of 2026. That's not a dying conversation — that's a community of investors and budgeters still trying to figure out what to do next.

Here's the honest answer.

The Short Answer: Two Different Tools for Two Different Jobs

After testing all the major Mint replacements, the most useful thing I can tell you is this: there's no single app that does exactly what Mint did at Mint's price (free). The apps that come closest are:

| Tool | Best For | Price | |------|----------|-------| | 🏆 Empower | Investors tracking net worth + portfolio | Free | | 💰 YNAB | Budgeters serious about reducing spending | $14.99/mo ($109/yr) | | ✨ Copilot | Apple users who want the best-designed budget app | $13/mo ($95/yr) | | 🔗 Monarch Money | Households wanting full budget + investment tracking | $14.99/mo ($99/yr) |

The decision tree is simple:

If you're primarily an investor tracking net worth, retirement projections, and portfolio allocation → Empower (free, nothing else competes)
If you're primarily a budgeter who needs to control spending and reduce debt → YNAB (more expensive, but the methodology actually works)
If you want both in one place and don't mind paying → Monarch Money
If you're on Apple devices and want something beautiful → Copilot

Let's go deeper on each.

Empower (Formerly Personal Capital) — The Winner for Investors

Price: Free (dashboard) / 0.89% AUM for optional wealth management
Platform: iOS, Android, Web
Best for: Investors, net worth trackers, retirement planners

Empower is the most underrated financial tool available to individual investors. The free dashboard is genuinely exceptional — and I mean that without qualification. It replaced Mint for my investment tracking the moment Personal Capital launched it, long before Mint shut down.

What Empower does exceptionally well:

Net Worth Tracking
Connect all your accounts — brokerage, 401(k), IRA, checking, savings, mortgage, credit cards — and Empower builds a unified net worth dashboard that updates daily. The visualization is clean, historical tracking goes back to day one, and it supports hundreds of financial institutions.

Investment Analysis
This is where Empower genuinely has no competitor in the free tier. The "Investment Checkup" tool:

Compares your actual asset allocation to an optimal target allocation for your age/risk tolerance
Flags if you're over-allocated to any single sector or holding
Identifies expensive funds in your portfolio and suggests lower-cost alternatives
Shows you total fees paid across all accounts — this alone has made some investors realize they're paying 1%+ in hidden mutual fund fees

Retirement Planner
Empower's Monte Carlo retirement simulation is as good as what some financial advisors use. Input your current savings, expected contributions, retirement age, and spending goals — it runs thousands of scenarios and shows your probability of success. Free.

Fee Analyzer
One of the most eye-opening tools for new investors. It calculates the total drag from expense ratios and advisor fees across your portfolio. Many investors discover for the first time that their 401(k) holds funds with 1–1.5% expense ratios they didn't know they were paying.

Cash Flow (Budgeting):
Empower does have basic transaction categorization and spending tracking — but it's not the focus, and it shows. The budget features are serviceable but not polished. Categorization requires more manual correction than Mint's algorithm. If budgeting is your primary use case, Empower isn't the answer.

The wealth management upsell:
Empower will regularly prompt you to speak with their human advisors who offer managed portfolios starting at $100,000 (0.89% AUM fee). You can completely ignore this. The free dashboard works regardless of whether you ever engage with their paid service.

👉 Sign up for Empower free

YNAB — The Winner for Budgeters

Price: $14.99/mo or $109/yr (34-day free trial)
Platform: iOS, Android, Web
Best for: People who need to actively control spending, pay off debt, or break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle

YNAB is the only app on this list that was built around a complete budgeting philosophy rather than just tracking what happened after the fact.

The YNAB method — "give every dollar a job" — is zero-based budgeting. You don't categorize transactions retroactively. You allocate your income to categories before you spend it. When you run out of money in a category, you either stop spending or consciously move money from another category.

This sounds simple. In practice, it's a significant mental shift from how most people manage money (spend first, categorize later, feel bad about it).

What YNAB does well:

✅ The method works — users who commit to YNAB for 90 days report average savings of $600 in the first month and $6,000 in the first year (per YNAB's own data)
✅ Debt payoff tools — snowball and avalanche method tracking built in
✅ Goal tracking — saving for specific goals with timeline projections
✅ Real-time budget sync across all family members (critical for couples)
✅ Bank import is reliable and fast
✅ Active community and extensive free learning resources (the YNAB blog and YouTube are legitimately good)

What YNAB doesn't do well:

❌ Investment tracking — YNAB is explicitly not a portfolio tracker. Your 401(k) can appear as a net worth figure, but there's no investment analysis
❌ Net worth visualization is minimal
❌ The methodology requires commitment — passive users will churn. If you won't actively engage with the budget every few days, YNAB is expensive Mint
❌ $14.99/mo is the most expensive option on this list for what's fundamentally a budgeting tool

Who YNAB is for:
If you have credit card debt, are living paycheck to paycheck, or know you need to get serious about where your money goes — YNAB is the tool that actually fixes the problem. The method is proven. The community is supportive. But you have to use it.

If you just want to see your spending categorized automatically and move on — use Monarch Money or Empower's cash flow view.

Copilot — The Best-Designed App (Apple Only)

Price: $13/mo or $95/yr
Platform: iOS and Mac ONLY (no Android, no Windows)
Best for: Apple users who want a beautifully designed, intelligent Mint replacement

Copilot is what Mint should have been. Founded in 2019 by former Apple engineers, it shows. The design is genuinely exceptional — the cleanest, most thoughtful financial app UI in the category.

What Copilot does well:

✅ Best UI/UX of any budgeting app, period — the transaction review flow is smooth and fast
✅ Smart categorization — learns your spending patterns quickly, requires less manual correction
✅ "Trends" view gives a beautiful visual of spending patterns over time
✅ Net worth tracking included
✅ Investment portfolio view (basic but functional)
✅ Budget vs. actual view that's genuinely easy to read
✅ Supports shared finances for couples

What Copilot doesn't do well:

❌ iOS/Mac only — if you or your partner are on Android, non-starter
❌ Investment analysis is shallow compared to Empower
❌ No zero-based budgeting methodology — if you need YNAB-style discipline, Copilot won't provide it
❌ Fewer integrations than Monarch Money

Who Copilot is for:
Apple users who care about design, want automatic transaction management, and want a "lite" Mint replacement that just works without requiring much engagement. If you were a Mint user who mostly used it for transaction history and spending overview — Copilot is the most polished replacement.

Monarch Money — The Best Full-Replacement for Mint

Price: $14.99/mo or $99/yr
Platform: iOS, Android, Web
Best for: People who want the closest thing to Mint's original "everything in one place" experience

Monarch Money was built specifically to be the Mint replacement. It shows. The product has been steadily improving since 2021 and has captured a significant share of the displaced Mint user base.

What Monarch does well:

✅ Automatic transaction import from nearly all major financial institutions
✅ Budgeting + investment tracking + net worth in one app
✅ Budget setup is intuitive — easiest onboarding of any app here
✅ "What If" scenarios — see how decisions impact long-term net worth
✅ Excellent shared household features (multiple users, joint accounts, shared budget visibility)
✅ Available on iOS, Android, and web (unlike Copilot's Apple-only limitation)
✅ Investment portfolio tracking included (not as deep as Empower)
✅ Strong transaction search and history

What Monarch doesn't do well:

❌ Investment analysis is not as deep as Empower — no fee analyzer, no Monte Carlo retirement simulation
❌ Doesn't have YNAB's zero-based methodology if you need budget accountability
❌ $14.99/mo is premium pricing — comparable to YNAB but less specialized

Who Monarch is for:
Households who want a modern Mint replacement that covers budgeting AND investment tracking without requiring two separate apps. Particularly good for couples managing finances together. The Android support gives it a massive advantage over Copilot for mixed-device households.

Head-to-Head Comparison

| Feature | Empower | YNAB | Copilot | Monarch Money | |---------|---------|------|---------|---------------| | Price | Free | $109/yr | $95/yr | $99/yr | | Platform | iOS, Android, Web | iOS, Android, Web | iOS + Mac ONLY | iOS, Android, Web | | Budget Tracking | Basic | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | | Investment Tracking | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | | Net Worth Tracking | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | | Retirement Planning | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | | Fee Analysis | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | UI Design | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | | Zero-Based Budgeting | ❌ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ❌ | ❌ | | Couples / Shared | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | | Android Support | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Best For | Investors | Budgeters | Apple users | Mint replacers |

The Setup I Actually Use

Here's the two-tool setup that covers everything Mint did — plus more:

1. Empower (free) for investment and net worth tracking
Connect your brokerage, 401(k), IRA, real estate estimates, and loan accounts. Let Empower give you the investment analysis and retirement projection Mint never offered. This runs in the background with zero weekly interaction required.

2. Your choice of Copilot or Monarch Money for day-to-day budgeting
If you're on Apple, Copilot has the better experience. If you need Android support or are managing finances as a couple, Monarch Money is more practical.

Total cost: $0–$14.99/mo depending on which budgeting app you choose. More functionality than Mint ever offered.

Know Where You Stand Before You Budget

Budgeting and investing are two sides of the same coin. Before you optimize your spending — know what your investments are actually worth.

Use our free intrinsic value calculator at valueofstock.com/calculator to check your holdings against their intrinsic value. Cash you free up through better budgeting can be deployed into genuinely undervalued positions.

Want Our Personal Finance Toolkit?

Budget templates, net worth tracking spreadsheets, and the allocation worksheets we use to manage cash flow alongside investment deployment — available at our Gumroad store.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to Mint?

Intuit shut down Mint on January 1, 2024. After 17 years and 3.6 million active users, Intuit redirected users to Credit Karma. The budgeting features, transaction history, and net worth tracking that Mint users relied on were discontinued.

Is Empower (formerly Personal Capital) really free?

Yes — Empower's financial dashboard is completely free. The investment analysis, net worth tracking, retirement planner, and fee analyzer all cost nothing. Empower's optional wealth management service starts at $100,000 with a 0.89% AUM fee — but the free dashboard is fully functional without it.

What is YNAB and is it worth it?

YNAB is a zero-based budgeting app at $14.99/mo ($109/yr). It requires active engagement — you assign every dollar a job before spending it. YNAB users who commit to the method report significant spending reductions. Users who treat it passively typically cancel within 90 days. Its value depends entirely on your engagement level.

What's the difference between Empower and Monarch Money?

Empower excels at investment portfolio analysis, retirement planning, and fee analysis — all free. Monarch Money is a full-featured budgeting platform with investment tracking as a secondary feature. If investments are your priority, Empower wins. If household budgeting is primary, Monarch is stronger.

Is Copilot Money available on Android?

No — Copilot is iOS and Mac only as of 2026. For Android users, Monarch Money is the closest equivalent in design quality and features.

Financial Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes personalized financial, tax, or investment advice. App pricing, features, and availability change frequently — verify current pricing directly with each app provider before subscribing. All investing involves risk, including the loss of principal.