Mint shut down in January 2024. And ever since then, whenever I ask my friends and family what budgeting tool they use, they almost always mention "I miss Mint!"
And sadly, most people I've spoken to have not found a replacement they are 100% satisfied with.
Here's an honest breakdown of what the major budgeting apps actually do, who they're for, and which one is worth your time in 2025.
Why This Is Hard to Research
The budgeting app space has an affiliate marketing problem. Most review articles rank tools by who pays the highest referral commission, not by which tool works best for the reader.
The Reddit threads are better — which is why "best budgeting apps reddit" gets 14,000+ searches a month. People are looking for recommendations from users, not sponsored listicles.
This post is neither. It's a direct comparison based on what these tools actually do.
Disclaimer: Yes, the Wealth Potion budgeting tool is included in the comparison. But our budgeting tool is free and significantly different from Mint. We'll cover that shortly.
The Contenders
YNAB (You Need a Budget)
Cost: $14.99/month or $99/year. 34-day free trial.
YNAB is built on a specific philosophy: zero-based budgeting, where every dollar gets a "job" at the start of each month. You don't just track where your money went — you plan where it's going before it goes there.
It syncs to your bank accounts, imports transactions, and has strong mobile apps and reporting. The learning curve is real — YNAB's method is opinionated enough that first-time users typically need a week or two before the system clicks.
Who it's for: People who want an active, structured relationship with their spending. YNAB works best when you engage with it consistently, not passively. It's a system, not just a dashboard. YNAB is likely going to feel a lot more active than Mint did.
Who it's not for: Anyone looking for a low-maintenance, set-it-and-forget-it tracker. YNAB punishes neglect. Also, $99/year is not nothing — if you're not using the system, you're paying for nothing. A common complaint from YNAB users is that the AI isn't perfect and transactions still need manual categorization.
Monarch Money
Cost: $14.99/month or $99.99/year. 7-day free trial.
Monarch is the most direct replacement for Mint in terms of experience: it syncs all your accounts via Plaid, auto-categorizes transactions, shows you your net worth, and gives you spending dashboards.
It's better-looking than Mint was, has stronger budgeting features, and has a collaborative mode designed for couples. The UI is clean and modern. It's legitimately good.
Who it's for: Mint refugees who want the same experience with a better product. Also good for couples managing money together. VC-backed, so you know they are pouring money into development and support.
Who it's not for: Anyone who doesn't want to pay for a budgeting app, or who's skeptical of sharing bank credentials with a third party. VC-backed, so you know they need to make money from their users at the end of the day.
Copilot Money
Cost: $13/month or $95/year. 30-day free trial.
Copilot is Apple-ecosystem only (iPhone and Mac). It's perhaps the most beautifully designed budgeting app available, with AI-assisted transaction categorization that learns your habits over time and seems to have fewer complaints than other AI-powered apps.
Who it's for: iPhone users who care about the product experience and want the smoothest (relatively) auto-sync budgeting tool available.
Who it's not for: Android users (not available), anyone who doesn't want bank sync, or anyone looking for a free option.
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) — Free Tier
Cost: Free (dashboard). Paid tier is wealth management at ~0.89% AUM.
Empower's free dashboard is primarily a net worth tracker and investment analyzer, not a budgeting app. It syncs all accounts, shows net worth over time, analyzes your investment fees, and gives you a basic retirement projector.
The budgeting features are secondary to the investment focus. If you want to track transactions and spending categories in detail, Empower isn't the right tool. If you want to see your full financial picture — assets, liabilities, portfolio — it's one of the best free options.
Who it's for: People who want investment analysis and net worth tracking, not detailed spending breakdowns.
Who it's not for: Anyone looking primarily for budgeting and spending control. Bank sync + free app can also be a dangerous combination if they haven't invested heavily into privacy and security.
Wealth Potion Auto-Budget
Cost: Free with signup at app.wealthpotion.com.
Wealth Potion's Auto-Budget is built on a different philosophy than the apps above. Instead of syncing transactions and categorizing every coffee and grocery run, it applies a top-down spending framework: given your income, savings rate, and financial goals, what should your budget actually need to look like?
No Plaid. No bank credentials. You input your income and recurring expenses, and the tool calculates how much you have left to allocate — to investing, savings, and discretionary spending.
This is less granular than YNAB or Monarch but significantly lower friction. It pairs naturally with the Wealth Potion net worth tracker and Financial Freedom Calculator as part of a complete system.
Who it's for: People who want a guiding framework rather than transaction-level micromanagement. Works especially well alongside the Budget Without a Budget approach — spending deliberately by knowing your numbers, not by categorizing every receipt.
Who it's not for: People who genuinely need to control spending at the transaction level. If you're overspending and need to see exactly where it's going, YNAB or Monarch will serve you better.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| | YNAB | Monarch Money | Copilot | Empower | Wealth Potion | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Cost | $99/yr | $99/yr | $95/yr | Free | Free | | Bank sync | Yes (Plaid) | Yes (Plaid) | Yes (Plaid) | Yes (Plaid) | No | | Transaction tracking | Detailed | Detailed | Detailed | Basic | No | | Net worth tracking | Basic | Yes | Yes | Excellent | Yes | | Investment analysis | No | Basic | No | Excellent | Basic | | Platform | iOS / Android | iOS / Android | iOS / Mac only | iOS / Android | Web | | Best for | Spending control | Mint replacement | iPhone users | Investment tracking | Wealth-building framework |
What to Actually Choose
If you need to control spending at the transaction level: YNAB is the gold standard. The philosophy works — it just requires commitment. Try the 34-day trial seriously before deciding.
If you just want Mint back: Monarch Money. Same experience, better product.
If you're on an iPhone and want the best UX: Copilot. It's genuinely the most polished option available.
If you want investment analysis for free: Empower's dashboard. Sign up, connect your accounts, run the fee analyzer on your portfolio, and ignore the upsell emails.
If you want a framework for building wealth rather than counting receipts: Wealth Potion. Free, no bank link, pairs with the net worth tracker and Financial Freedom Calculator.
The Real Problem With Most Budgeting Apps
They're designed to make you feel productive while changing nothing. Take it from me, who worked at several tech and software companies over the past decade. These kind of apps wants their users coming back frequently. And this can become unproductive, or even counter-productive to your budgeting goals.
Categorizing your Starbucks purchases in a beautiful app isn't building wealth. It's just awareness without change. Awareness is step one — but most budgeting app users stop there.
If the question you're asking is "where did my money go?", then these apps will help you. But if your question is "is my savings rate high enough to hit my wealth goals?", then you need a different approach. Those are different questions, and most budgeting apps are better at answering the first one than the second.
The Simple Formula for Building Wealth — income minus expenses, invested consistently over time — doesn't require 34 transaction categories. It requires knowing your savings rate and your target number. And then acting on it. And no app can force you to take action. Not even Wealth Potion.
FAQ
Is there a free budgeting app that doesn't require linking bank accounts? Wealth Potion's tools don't require bank access. For a full budgeting-and-net-worth system without Plaid, it's the best free option. A spreadsheet also works — the tradeoff is no visualization or milestone tracking.
What's the best Mint alternative that's free? Empower for net worth tracking and investment analysis. Wealth Potion for a wealth-building framework. Neither fully replicates Mint's transaction-by-transaction tracking for free — that's now a paid feature in every major app.
Is YNAB worth it? Yes, if you use it. YNAB has one of the best success rates of any personal finance product because the method is sound. The issue is that $99/year is wasted on someone who opens the app twice a month.
What's the best budgeting app for couples? Monarch Money has the best collaborative mode. YNAB also handles joint budgets well.
Are these apps safe? Is my bank data secure? Plaid — which powers most of these apps — holds your account read credentials and is the largest financial data aggregator in the US. It's used by thousands of apps. The risk is real but statistical: Plaid has strong security practices and has not had a major breach. The bigger concern for most users is data monetization, not breach risk.
The Bottom Line
Mint is gone. The replacement you pick depends on what you actually need.
Transaction control: YNAB. Mint replacement: Monarch. iPhone aesthetics: Copilot. Investment analysis free: Empower. Wealth-building framework without bank sync: Wealth Potion.
None of them will build wealth for you. But the right one will show you clearly whether you're on track — which turns out to be most of the battle.
Want to see your full financial picture without linking a single bank account? Start with Wealth Potion for free.