The Best Mint Alternatives After the Shutdown (2026)
The Best Mint Alternatives After the Shutdown (2026)
Intuit shut down Mint in early 2024, folding parts of it into Credit Karma and leaving millions of users to find a new home for their financial lives. Two years on, the dust has settled, and the alternatives are better than Mint ever was.
If you are still hunting for the right replacement, this guide covers the strongest options in 2026, what each one is good at, and which approach fits if privacy matters to you.
What Actually Happened to Mint
Mint was free, ad-supported, and enormously popular for budgeting and account aggregation. Intuit officially retired it, pointing users toward Credit Karma, which never fully replicated Mint's budgeting and net-worth features. Intuit's own Mint shutdown notice confirmed the migration path, and many users found the destination underwhelming.
That gap is why so many people are still looking. The good news: the market filled it.
The Best Mint Alternatives in 2026
There is no single "best" replacement, because Mint did several jobs at once. Here is how the leading options stack up.
| Tool | Best for | Bank sync | Cost (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Money | Full budgeting + net worth | Yes | Paid subscription |
| Empower (Personal Capital) | Investment + net worth dashboards | Yes | Free, advisory upsell |
| YNAB | Zero-based budgeting | Yes | Paid subscription |
| Spreadsheets | Total control, no fees | Manual | Free |
| MyMoneyViz | Private net-worth + portfolio tracking | No, manual | Free to start |
Monarch Money
Monarch became the default recommendation for ex-Mint users who want the full package: budgeting, goals, and net worth in one place, with bank syncing. It is a polished, paid product. If you want a near drop-in Mint replacement and do not mind a subscription or connecting accounts, it is a strong pick.
Empower (formerly Personal Capital)
Empower's dashboards are excellent for investors. The net-worth and portfolio views are free, funded by an advisory business that may reach out about managed services. Budgeting is lighter than Mint's. Great for people whose wealth is mostly in investments.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB is not really a Mint clone. It is an opinionated, zero-based budgeting system with a devoted following. If your main pain was overspending rather than tracking net worth, YNAB is arguably better than Mint ever was. It is a paid subscription.
Spreadsheets
The original alternative, and still a good one. A Google Sheet or Excel file gives you total control, zero fees, and no data sharing. The cost is setup and maintenance. We compared this path in detail in spreadsheets versus apps for tracking net worth, and it remains a legitimate choice for the spreadsheet-minded.
The Privacy Angle Most Lists Skip
Almost every Mint alternative above keeps Mint's core design decision: connect your bank accounts so the app can sync automatically. That convenience comes with a tradeoff, because syncing usually means a data aggregator logs into your bank on your behalf.
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been actively regulating how this financial data is shared and who controls it, a sign of how sensitive it is. After living through one shutdown, plenty of former Mint users are also reconsidering how much account access they want to hand out at all.
A Manual-First Alternative
This is where a tool like MyMoneyViz fits differently. It is built manual-first: you enter and update your balances yourself, nothing syncs, and no bank credentials ever leave your hands. Because nothing is connected, nothing silently breaks when a bank changes its login flow.
It focuses on net worth and portfolio tracking rather than transaction-level budgeting:
- 13+ asset types, including stocks, ETFs, crypto, real estate, and collectibles
- Multi-currency support, useful for expats and couples
- Net-worth curve over time, allocation breakdowns, and portfolio analysis
- Goal overlays showing target versus actual
- A quick monthly update that takes about five minutes
It will not replace YNAB-style envelope budgeting, and it asks for a few minutes of manual upkeep each month. But if your priority is a private, durable view of your whole financial picture, it covers ground the synced apps do not. The reasoning behind that design is in why we don't connect to your bank.
How to Choose
A simple way to decide:
- Need detailed budgeting and do not mind paying or syncing? Look at Monarch or YNAB.
- Mostly want investment and net-worth dashboards? Empower is hard to beat for free.
- Want maximum control and zero cost? A spreadsheet still works.
- Care most about privacy and a clean net-worth picture? Go manual-first with MyMoneyViz.
There is no wrong answer, only the one that matches how you actually manage money. The Investopedia overview of personal finance software is a useful neutral reference if you want to compare further.
Start Fresh, on Your Terms
Mint's shutdown was a nudge to rethink the whole setup, not just swap in a clone. If you want budgeting, pick a budgeting app. If you want a private, accurate view of everything you own and owe, try the manual-first route.
MyMoneyViz is free to start, never asks for a bank login, and gets you a real net-worth picture in a few minutes. Enter your first snapshot this week and leave the broken syncs behind.
