Fortunately, there are alternatives that are less expensive than Quicken, and there are even some good free choices out there. If you’ve been on the hunt for an alternative program for both personal and small business finance tracking rather than paying for and using Quicken, there’s plenty of good news for you. As Quicken goes on the sale block, we wanted to suggest three alternatives to the software. https://skirenew324.weebly.com/macworld-the-best-mac-hard-drives-for-2018.html. The best part is they are all free and they work in the cloud. I’ve used desktop and online products and I’m a fan of the cloud.
Quicken 2018 5.8.2 - Complete personal finance solution. Download the latest versions of the best Mac apps at safe and trusted MacUpdate Download, install, or update Quicken 2018 for Mac from MacUpdate. Quicken® Premier 2018, 2-Year Subscription, For PC/Mac, Traditional Disc is rated 3.7 out of 5 by 14. Rated 5 out of 5 by Tony from Quicken premier edition Been using quicken over 10 years Love the software I update every 2 years.
Improved Bill Management, Expanded Mac Lineup, and New Membership Program Make It Easier Than Ever for Customers to Take Complete Financial Control
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Oct. 23, 2017 – Continuing the momentum since becoming a standalone company, Quicken Inc. announces its 2018 releases of Quicken for Windows and Mac users. With the updated product line, both offerings deliver on the company’s commitment to revitalizing Quicken. They include improved online bill management, new investment features, and simpler upgrades with Quicken’s membership program, which provides automatic access to the latest versions. From staying on top of finances to managing investments, the 2018 releases of Quicken help customers manage their finances at every stage of life.
Expanded Mac capabilities For the first time ever, Mac users now have access to a choice of products, including Quicken Starter, Quicken Deluxe, and Quicken Premier. This gives Mac users more flexibility to choose the offering that best suits their specific financial needs.
Quicken for Mac now includes all-new access to online bills from more than 11,000 billers, which are integrated into a streamlined bill workflow; expanded investment capabilities with specific lot tracking and a highly customizable portfolio view; and new loan tracking features including “what-if” loan analysis.
New features for Windows Windows users now have improved access to online bills from more than 11,000 billers, including PDF bill download and a streamlined bill and payment dashboard; new report formatting and customization options; direct report export to Excel spreadsheet; enhanced investment performance analysis (for Premier and above); and simplified emailing of invoices and rental reminders in Home, Business & Rental Property Manager, with additional invoicing options such as web links.
“We are always listening to customer feedback and the 2018 releases of Quicken reflect the balance of new features and refinements to existing capabilities that we know our users want,” said Eric Dunn, chief executive officer of Quicken. “With our latest products, Mac offerings are more robust, our interfaces are more intuitive, and our new membership program ensures that customers always have the latest and greatest Quicken without the pain of manually upgrading.”
New membership program Quicken is now sold on a membership basis. Rather than purchase upgrades every year, customers automatically continue to receive the latest version of Quicken as long as they maintain their membership. Quicken offers both one- or two-year memberships (two-year initially available only at retail) to customers. In addition, Premier and Home, Business & Rental Property Manager members will receive free Quicken Bill Pay and access to Quicken’s Premium Care.
Dropbox, Yelp and PayPal1 partnerships Users of all new versions of Quicken will receive an additional 5GB of Dropbox storage for backup and retrieval of your Quicken data through our exclusive partnership with the leading cloud storage provider. Additionally, Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property Manager users can now create and easily e-mail invoices with custom logos and colors, with new web links (Yelp), payments (PayPal), and more.
Quicken Starter (Mac & Windows): See where your money is going so that you can achieve your short-term financial goals.
One-year membership: $34.99
Two-year membership: $49.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Deluxe (Mac & Windows): Do more with your money. Take the next step toward your financial goals.
One-year membership: $49.99
Two-year membership: $79.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Premier (Mac & Windows): Maximize your investments by improving portfolio performance and minimizing taxes.
One-year membership: $74.99
Two-year membership: $119.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property (Windows): Manage your personal and business finances in one place.
One-year membership: $99.99
Two-year membership: $149.99 (available at retail)
About Quicken For more than 30 years, Quicken, the top personal money management software, has been the trusted financial solution for millions of consumers. Based in Menlo Park, California, Quicken Inc. remains deeply committed to helping individuals and families lead healthy financial lives. The Quicken product line includes solutions for Mac and Windows users, as well as a mobile app (Android and iOS) that give users anytime, anywhere access to their finances. Effective March 31, 2016, Quicken began operating independently from Intuit Inc. More information can be found at www.quicken.com.
1 iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Dropbox, PayPal, Yelp, and other parties’ marks are trademarks of their respective companies.
Quicken was traditionally known as one of the best personal finance software options for desktop users. However, the Mac version had traditionally lacked the features found in the PC version, and that was disappointing to many users. While last year's version was a big improvement, it still wasn't there for everyone.
After using Quicken for Mac 2019 for several weeks, we're happy to see that Quicken has continued the improvements over prior years. It's not as robust as we'd like to see yet, but it's definitely been moving in the right direction.
So, how did Quicken for Mac 2019 do? Honestly, it's an incremental improvement over 2018. But we like the direction it's going, and if you can get a great deal on pricing (which you typically can on Amazon or when they have a sale), it could be worth it.
Incremental improvements over 2018 version
A great mobile app with seemless sync across platforms
Price is still a concern, but if you can find a great deal, go for it
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Key Features Of Quicken For Mac 2019
Quicken For Mac continues to build on the many traditional features that Quicken users expect. As always, it comes with great spending tracking (compared to other online options like Mint and Personal Capital), it has investment tracking, and budgeting.
For 2019, they have improved the usability of the platform, but the navigation is still a little challenging. Even after using Quicken for about a week, I still find it hard to get to different reports. It's not intuitive.
They also improved the web interface for Quicken. If you don't want to use the desktop software, and prefer a web version (like what you get with Mint), you can have that now. But I prefer the app over the web version.
Quicken For Mac 2018 Trial
Here's what the home screen looks like:
Instead of being under reporting, most of the things you'll care about are actually available by clicking on the 'Acccount' sidebar - for example, your income and spending isn't viewable under 'Reports', but it's actually visible under 'Banking'.
Here's an example:
Here's another example. One silly thing that's missing is having income and expenses together on one page. I think there is a report you can run, but there's no easy to access dashboard that compares your income to your expenses (except in the mobile app, which is odd).
Quicken for Mac dramatically improved their investment tracking for 2018, but this is one area that didn't continue to improve into 2019.
There are still issues here. When I imported my accounts, some positions transferred the cost basis, while others didn't. Not a huge deal, but very odd. Also, it's still missing key reports that I valued in the Windows version - most notably the asset allocation and ability to play with your allocation in the program.
See the investment screen here:
Also, Quicken touts that you can now see investment performance, but it consistently showed 'N/A' for every account. My guess is that Quicken calculates this in the program, versus using historical data. That is a good thing in that you get a real snapshot of your performance, but a bad thing in that you need the Quicken app to consistently update to make it happen.
Here's what the screen looks like:
If you check the comments below, you can find other frustrating experiences with the investing tracking in Quicken for Mac. It has so much potential, but it's just not there yet.
Quicken 2019 Mobile App
The Quicken 2019 for Mac mobile app is probably my favorite feature that has been improved. This app has existed since the last few versions, but I found it glitchy years ago and gave up on it. For this review, I started using it again, and it's actually a bit more user friendly than the desktop version.
Here's the home screen of the mobile app:
As you can see, you get your account balances and recent transactions right at the top of the page. You can link this with Quicken's new credit card, and easily categorize your transactions on the go. It then seamlessly syncs with the desktop version.
One of the features I love on the mobile app, which is missing in the desktop version, is easily being able to see your income and expenses against each other.
Here's what that looks like:
I don't know why this can't just be included on the main page. There's also something funky up with the net income over time graph.. maybe a glitch?
The pricing for Quicken For Mac 2019 continues to be a focus point for most users. Quicken changed their pricing model last year to a subscription-based model, instead of a one-time fee. I see this as both good and bad.
It's bad, because many Quicken users kept their software for years, and never upgraded. For users, this was fine - because you could avoid bad rollouts like Quicken for Mac 2017. However, to continue to receive updates and banking information, you had to update every few years anyway or Quicken would cut you off.
It's good, because my hope is with more recurring revenue, Quicken can continue to improve their software and ensure banking connectivity.
Quicken For Mac 2019 has three price points this year. I think 90% of users would benefit simply using the Deluxe version, which is $49.99/yr at full price.
It's hard to say if Premier is worth the huge additional price. I think Deluxe is the best value, for the added features of investment and loan tracking. But I've never used BillPay, and I highly recommend that most people don't use a service like BillPay because not only does Quicken charge more, but many banks charge for the service as well.
Note: For Windows, there is also a Home and Business version. However, we think most consumers with a small business would benefit more from using a tool like Quickbooks, versus using Quicken Home and Business.
Special Promotional Pricing
As you probably already know, Quicken is notorious for running promotional pricing all the time. Recently, they were offering 40% off their prices - which I think is a fair price for the product.
I would have a hard time paying $49.99 per year for Deluxe, but paying $29.99 per year makes much more sense - especially considering that I would typically upgrade every 2-3 years, this aligns much better with the pricing I'd expect.
However, in our search for deals, we found that Amazon.com is offering a 14-month subscription of the Deluxe version for $38.49 (which is 30% off full price). Given the $49.99 price is $4.17 per month, Amazon's deal is $2.75 per month. Still not as good as Quicken's own sale, but the second best deal we've found.
Check out the deal on Amazon here.
Quicken World Mastercard
Another interesting product/feature that Quicken launched this year is the Quicken World Mastercard. The Quicken credit card provides real-time transaction notifications in the Quicken mobile app, and offers integration with Quicken for Mac desktop.
This card also gives you a free year of Quicken Deluxe when you spend at least $500 in the first 90 days. If you already have a subscription, you'll get a 1 year extension.
The card offers 2x rewards points on all your qualified spending, and has no annual fees.
Given that this card is really about integration with Quicken, we're surprised that you don't get Quicken free every year as long as you spend at least $500 per year. Otherwise, all the rewards are on par or below the other top rewards credit cards out there.
Pros And Cons Of Quicken For Mac 2019
Best Quicken Alternatives For Mac
As you can see, there are some definite improvements in Quicken for Mac 2018 versus the prior year. However, it's still not perfect and it still has a lot less features than you'll find in the Windows version.
Pros:
Great mobile app to compliment the desktop version
Improved Loan Tracking
Spending Tracking Categories and Reporting
Cons:
Poor Navigation And Not Intuitive
Still Lacking Some Key Investment Features Like Asset Allocation
New Subscription Pricing Isn't Worth It At Full Price
Final Verdict
The final verdict is that we're giving Quicken for Mac 2019 four stars. As I've been using it more and more, I'm actually liking it more than many of the free online money management tools out there. This is especially true since the mobile app has become much more useful.
Quicken Alternatives For Mac 2018
However, for those that want desktop software, AND if you can get it at a discounted price, Quicken for Mac is a much better piece of software than before.
Have you tried Quicken for Mac 2019? What are your thoughts?
Quicken For Mac 2019
Product Cost - 60
Ease Of Use - 83
Tools And Features - 90
Customer Serivce - 85
80
Summary
Quicken For Mac 2019 has continued to improve on what’s been working and has an even better mobile app experience.