Alternatives to Mint/Yodlee in 2012

August 28, 2012 11:13 PM

For being 2012, I am frustrated in not being able to find alternatives to Mint and Yodlee, both of which I despise both for lack of decent support and poor execution in design and performance. There MUST be beta's out there that google fails to reveal, by eager entrepreneurs wanting to take advantage of the opportunity by the poor performance of these financial management programs. Any leads you can provide?
posted by america4 to work & money (14 answers total)

I haven't looked at Yodlee and only toyed briefly with Mint, but -- are you looking for a free, web-based application that automatically syncs with your bank accounts? If you are, then I got nothin'. However if you're interested in more conventional software then take a look at YNAB. It's neither free nor web-based, but it does work well, and design and support are good. The full application is available for Mac & PC, and there are also companion mobile apps. There's a good, long trial period if you're curious.
posted by jon1270 at 12:04 AM on August 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

Seconding YNAB - it's incredible. I recommend it in every financial thread I come across. The latest version has cloud sync with Android and iPhone apps, it's based on zero-based budgeting and has a very strong methodology and it's future-focused, meaning it helps you actually plan how to use your money rather than just totting up the damage afterward. It's helped me claw out of thousands of pounds of debt and support two people on a single salary for five years. I'd be stuffed without it.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:16 AM on August 29, 2012

Thirding YNAB. Nothing further to add other than its the best of the budgeting apps I've used.
posted by howling fantods at 4:00 AM on August 29, 2012

Hello Wallet.
They pitch themselves as an alternative to Mint.
posted by special-k at 4:12 AM on August 29, 2012

I have you checked your bank's web site? A lot of banks have their own app available for tracking spending now.
posted by COD at 5:28 AM on August 29, 2012

I left Mint because of the performance problems -- just wasn't worth the hassle. Allow me to fourth YNAB for budgeting and keeping track of your bank accounts. As for investments, I've found that my broker's website has caught up a lot to Mint's functionality -- and it's free.
posted by Shoggoth at 6:01 AM on August 29, 2012

I'm with the YNAB gang above!
posted by pymsical at 7:18 AM on August 29, 2012

PearBudget is popular and been around a few years now.

After Wesabe shut down they open sourced much of their code. I'm not sure any of it has been turned into a full product though.
posted by Nelson at 7:38 AM on August 29, 2012

YNAB all the way. I started using it in February and went from being in debt to having a five-figure sum in savings. Well worth the cost of the software.
posted by makonan at 8:10 AM on August 29, 2012

Add my to the YNAB chorus. It'll import quicken type (maybe also other filtypes) files, so you can import your checking / credit card accounts from your bank, without giving it your login info etc. The budgeting is a very big strength, and they offer a free trial if you want to give it a whirl.
posted by defcom1 at 10:39 AM on August 29, 2012

For investments, especially if you want to aggregate across different brokers, SigFig is pretty decent. It's also new and features are showing up fairly rapidly, so it's entirely possible that they'll start integrating with banks soon.

Also, a little-used feature of Yodlee money center is the "Time Machine", which lets you switch to an earlier version of the product/interface. I find the 9x version to be better than the current one.
posted by toxic at 11:11 AM on August 29, 2012

Pocketsmith is similar to Mint/Yodlee, and the cashflow calendar seems like a big step in the right direction, usability-wise, although I never ended up paying to enable auto-syncing with my banks, so I am not sure how well it works when actually populated full of your data.
posted by misterbrandt at 11:13 AM on August 29, 2012

You don't mention when you looked at Mint last - their support and responsiveness has really improved over the last year or so. Most problems I've had are resolved within a couple weeks, max, when it used to take months and months. (Just for what it's worth)
posted by getawaysticks at 7:09 AM on August 30, 2012

america4: "decent support and poor execution in design and performance."

Not a very helpful critique for recommendations, there. For what it's worth, are these the entrepreneurs you seek? They seem to be angling to write software to replace bank's terribad web sites though. Willie Sutton rule strikes again.

Personally, I just use GNUCash. It aggregates data, it plans ahead, it handles budgets. It is however, about as ugly as an app can be without intentional developer intervention. And support is more of a DIY. PocketSmith seems to operate similar to how I've configured GNUCash, so you might give that a try.
posted by pwnguin at 8:49 PM on August 30, 2012