The Best Mint Alternatives in 2026 (After the Shutdown)

For over a decade, Mint was the default free budgeting app. Then, in March 2024, Intuit shut it down and pushed its millions of users toward Credit Karma. The problem: Credit Karma is a credit-monitoring product, and it does not budget the way Mint did. If you are still looking for a proper Mint replacement in 2026, here is an honest guide to your options.

Why Credit Karma is not a Mint replacement

Intuit owns both Mint and Credit Karma, so migrating users there was convenient for Intuit. It was not convenient for budgeters. Credit Karma can show linked accounts, net worth, and transactions, but it does not offer real budgets, custom categories, or the spending-versus-plan view that made Mint useful. For most people, the move felt like losing budgeting entirely and keeping only a credit score.

What to look for in a Mint alternative

• A real budget, not just tracking. Categories and clear targets, so you can see where you stand.
• Automatic categorization, so you are not tagging transactions by hand.
• A free option, because Mint was free and paying $100 a year is a big jump.
• Secure bank connections through a trusted aggregator like Plaid.
• A calm, modern interface, because Mint's ads and clutter were a big reason people left even before it closed.

The main Mint alternatives, compared

Monarch Money

Monarch Money absorbed a large share of Mint's users, partly because it was co-founded by a former Mint product leader. It is a tracker with net worth views and features aimed at couples. The catch is that it is subscription-only at around $99.99 per year with no free tier, so the very thing Mint users valued most, a free product, is gone.

YNAB (You Need A Budget)

YNAB takes a very different approach from Mint. It uses zero-based budgeting where you assign every dollar a job, which is demanding to keep up. At $109 per year with a steep learning curve, it is a big leap for someone who just wants Mint's simple tracking back.

Copilot Money

Copilot Money is an Apple-focused app with machine-learning categorization. But it has no free tier at $95 per year, and it still has no Android app, so a large slice of former Mint users cannot use it at all.

Rocket Money and Empower

Rocket Money has a free tier, but its focus is subscription cancellation and bill negotiation, not budgeting, and its bill-negotiation service takes a cut of your savings. Empower offers a free dashboard, but it is built for tracking investments and net worth, not for budgeting a paycheck, so it leaves the actual budget unsolved.

The closest thing to what Mint should have become

If you want Mint's original promise, free, automatic, and genuinely helpful, without the ads and clutter, otterfund is the closest fit in 2026. It keeps the free starting point that made Mint approachable, adds the calm design Mint never had, and does what Credit Karma refuses to: actually budget your money.

• Free to start with unlimited manual accounts and the full needs, wants, and savings budget.
• Automatic categorization and secure Plaid bank connections on paid plans.
• A native 50/30/20 model instead of a wall of forty categories.
• An AI advisor that reads your own numbers and offers quiet, plain-language guidance.
• No ads, ever, and your data is never sold.