Monarch: Budget & Track Money Ratings and Reviews

This one is a winner!!

As a die-hard Mint user, I was horrified when I heard they were shutting it down. And after doing a lot of research, I was convinced no one else could replace it. But boy, was I wrong!! Monarch Money is SO much better than Mint was and it is worth every penny! As with any new app—especially a powerful financial one—there is a bit of a learning curve, however so much can be automated that it soon nearly takes care of itself. And in the few months that I have been using it, the Monarch team has been cranking out the improvements faster than any other app I have ever used. Truly impressive!

There are sometimes glitches with the data aggregators that automatically gather the transactions and data from your financial institutions, but Monarch is constantly and actively working to improve that aspect, so I am willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience as they work it out with the thousands of institutions they connect to. (By “inconvenience” I mean I sometimes have to re-login to an institution to re-connect it….not a big deal.)

Monarch has knocked it out of the park with this “Mint on steroids” solution that they have developed. I can’t wait to see what other fabulous features they implement that I never even knew I needed. Keep it up, Monarch!! You make me glad that Mint shut down and motivated me to find something exponentially better!

OBSESSED!!! Two suggestions…

This is extremely close to mint. Its very simple, very clean, and I like that you can add your partner if you want. No syncing issues either. Just a week of using and it’s already helping me me more mindful of what I’m spending with daily check ins. Since a lot of competitors are cheaper or even have a one time buy it feature, I would really really like to request the one time buy. Make it expensive enough for others who don’t want to commit to a budget app to stay on a month by month subscription, but just the right price for someone like me who knows what they like in a budgeting app and are willing to pay. I love Monarch. I don’t like subscriptions. Another thing that isn’t super necessary but that I would enjoy are little challenges, or rewards for in the app when I am continuing good money habits/saving. There’s a few other apps out there that do this, including Mint (RIP), and I really had fun with it.

Again, these are just suggestions. I love your app and the effort that has been put into it. It shows. Congratulations on gaining a lot of customers! I know the whole team for Monarch must be thrilled. Sometimes it just takes one app disappearing for others to take the risk on you, download your app, and absolutely love it!

Mint features for infinitely more money

This has potential to be better than Mint, but there are definitely some hurdles. I’ll focus on the constructive criticism. I’ve been using this for a couple weeks and there was a decent amount of work involved in transferring Mint data and setting everything up. But I’m glad it was possible. What’s unacceptable is that every morning at about 4am I get a 2 factor auth text message for one of my accounts. I’m not sure why that happens since it seems to update just fine. Maybe I should try linking the account a different way but I’m worried it will erase the history imported from Mint. The goals feature is interesting. I don’t necessarily have a goal in mind but I added a savings goal to test the feature and it added a savings line in my budget. What’s weird is regardless of how much I save each month that budget item stays at zero unless I designate a transaction towards that goal. But if I designate a transaction as being a part of that savings goal it’s completely detached from what I actually saved that month (I.e. selecting a paycheck for a savings goal implies I saved the entire paycheck). So in short I like this app, and it has potential to maybe even be better than Mint, but I don’t like it a $100/year subscription worth. I would consider a lifetime subscription and would recommend that to developers as an option.

Mint on Steroids is 100% Accurate

“Karen in Monterey” hit it out of the park with her review. I too came over from Mint and was worried that I wouldn’t find another app that could be as simple to use on a day to day basis while also allowing me to dig deep into my finances when I do my occasional financial realignment. BOY WAS I WRONG.

I’m now one of those folks that are GLAD that Mint shut down so that I could find this app. “Mint on Steroids” is exactly right! You can do as much or as little as you want in the app and unlike Mint, it will learn all of your finances over time if you let it. This includes automatically recording your recurring bills (which you had to manually input in Mint). In addition to that, the UI is beautiful both online and in the apps and the bank connections are pretty solid. I’ve received two or three emails about my retirement accounts disconnecting but they always reconnect themselves without me doing anything. In addition, they just added support for the Apple Card which most financial apps that I’ve seen don’t have.

I went from reluctantly switching to a paid app to now knowing that as long as they keep up this fantastic service, I’ll be a lifetime customer. I HIGHLY recommend you try it out if you’re looking for a Mint replacement.

Best budget app, only need to change goals feature

Overall, I really like simplicity yet robust feature set of the app. I use this instead of mint now because mint is very clunky and has lots going on. This app works quicker, easier to navigate, and the best feature (monthly budgets) is structured in my opinion the right way. You can see how much left to spend and it works. Also, I can finally use a budgeting app with my spouse that she isn’t confused by!

The best feature for couples is that we both can use the app!

Only feature I think doesn’t work well and if changed would truly set this app apart from everything is the Goals feature. It’s not feasible because if you contribute money to your “car savings” account, that transaction cannot be tracked in your goal category. So every time you put money in particular savings account, the goals category on your budget doesn’t track that expense in the category at all. So, you have to go into goals and manually allocate money there. Goals need to be linked to specific bank accounts so that there’s someway to track when a goal is being fulfilled monthly. Mint does this well and I think you guys should adopt this feature and everyone will use the feature more.

The perfect way to manage my financials and I can tell they’re actively working to make it better!

I’ve tried several financial apps and this is by far the best and most integrated one. All of my accounts seamlessly connect (although I wish they would update faster). I use the iOS app and the browser version on my iPad. I hope they release an iPad version soon. The UI and product experience is great, although I do wish that they made the “planning” experience feel a bit more intuitive and structured. I found it difficult to understand how to set my budgets and where to compare what my typical spending for each expense type was. Even though that was part of the process it wasn’t immediately apparent how to set things and what they meant. It’s still a better experience than any of the other apps I’ve tried. I really like that I can add my fiancé and that we can both begin to see how our combined financials look like. I like that they show what features they are currently working on and allow users to provide input directly. I look forward to using Monarch and to see them improve on an already great experience.

Developer Response ,

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying Monarch.

What we should expect

If you are a former mint user, this should feel right at home. Don’t be surprised if most of it seems borrowed, as that former product ownership is leading the charge. That isn’t a bad thing. I think Monarch closes some gaps too with a better full picture perspective of your cash flow and complete money breakdown. It is much more expensive than free, so don’t even compare that perspective. I do think the platform is more robust and reliable with its connections and multi-device usability. If you compare to Quicken Simplifi, connection compatibility is far better. If you compare to co-pilot, they may seem similar, but Monarch does let you do household management. UI is subjective, so you should compare different products if you find anything an absolute deal breaker. Overall, Monarch is easy to navigate and feels intuitive. Goals still feel a bit awkward if you are familiar with Mint, but you can now attribute transactions to goals, which makes them a bit more intuitive. The fact you need to attribute accounts to drive the behavior seems limiting at times, and forces an “envelop budgeting” feel. At this point, it seems like the best available option, if your budget allows for it. If you are hands on with your money management, this shouldn’t disappoint.

A good alternative to Mint.

Used mint for a number of years and loved it. Because the Credit Karma replacement lacks budgeting I looked for an alternative. I tested Rocket Money, Simplifi and Quicken classic. I chose Monarch because the interface was easy to adapt to. The conversion was fairly easy but it was a bit of a chore getting everything categorized properly. One thing I do miss is the calendar that let me know when credit card payments were due. I love that the reconciled tag is permanent, mint only kept the tag for the current session. It would be nice to have a hot key to tag a transaction as reconciled rather than having to go through the transaction detail then the tags selection. Overall I am very pleased. I don’t really use any information on the start up page. Would prefer to go directly to the accounts page. I like the way they are showing budget vs spending. Yes, it’s not free, but neither are programmers. And the lack of ads is refreshing. A very good value for the money. I read one review that said the wished it would update accounts faster. I am sure this is more a function of the bank and credit card company’s policies but it did seem that mint was a little faster, perhaps.

Better than Mint

I was a hardcore Mint user with data going back nearly a decade - when they shut the app down I felt like I was financially flying blind until I found Monarch. Monarch syncs well with all my accounts and well as tracks my primary home and vehicles to give the same rolling net worth calculation Mint did. The budgeting section functions in a similar way but categorizes and renames transactions more accurately and consistently than Mint did. It is very intuitive to how I budget and think about my finances. I LOVE that Monarch makes a point of showing you your personal SAVINGS RATE per month/quarter/year (something I followed in Mint but had to calculate myself). I also like that there’s no data sharing or advertising as it’s a paid product. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to bring order to their financial life, set goals and accurately track progress toward those goals. IMHO, you really need an app/program like Monarch to understand and follow your personal financial situation. After Mint, I tried Quicken Simplifi and then YNAB - Monarch is hands down the best. I hope this app stays around for a long time.

Feature Rich Budgeting tool, puts Mint in the dust!

This is a great budgeting tool with excellent features. Previously a longtime Mint user and I was frustrated by the impending switch with Mint being scrapped. When it became clear that CreditKarma wasn’t even going to come close to meeting my budgeting needs I searched elsewhere. Quicken simplify was a bust with no rollover budget options and I was not a fan of its more rigid approach.
Monarch Money may cost a $99 a year, but it is feature rich and well worth the price. It has far better connectivity, and in the few cases where they cannot connect (Apple Card) they have an extremely user friendly statement import feature solving the gap. Their flexibility with budgeting by category or Group is amazing. The rules feature is more robust and far more functional than Mint ever was. Finally the concept of a “family” or “household” allowing for flagging transactions as “Needs Review” and assigning to a family member is the cherry on top.

Truly I am glad Mint is now defunct, I only wish they had done it sooner so I would have found Monarch Money before now. 100% recommend!!