Best Free Mint Alternatives in 2026 (Honest Roundup)

Mint, the free budgeting app many people used for years, shut down on January 1, 2024. Intuit encouraged users to move to Credit Karma, according to CNBC’s report on the shutdown.

If you liked Mint because it was free, the good news is that you still have choices. The catch is that "free" means very different things from one app to the next. This roundup covers what each free plan actually includes, including the limits of our own app.

What to look for in a Mint replacement

Before you pick an app, decide what you actually used Mint for. Most people used it for one of three jobs.

•       Seeing where money went. Automatic tracking of past spending.

•       Planning ahead. Knowing what is due and what is left before payday.

•       Keeping an eye on everything. Balances, credit score and subscriptions in one place.

No single free app does all three well. Pick the job that matters most to you, then look at the free plan for that job. If you want a refresher on the basics, how to track your spending covers the habits behind any app.

The free options at a glance

What each free plan includes, from each company’s own pages. Checked October 2026.

Prices checked October 2026 on each company’s own pages (linked). Prices change; check before you sign up.

1. Clear-Budget (our app, so judge us harder)

Clear-Budget is free, with no premium tier. You build a budget over any dates you like, such as a month or the days until your next paycheck.

Each item has a due date, and you see a running balance after every one. Paychecks and bills can repeat weekly, every two weeks or monthly. There are also buckets for paying down debt and saving toward goals.

Honest limits

•       No bank sync. You type items in yourself. That is a deliberate privacy choice, but it takes a few minutes a week.

•       No automatic spending history. It plans what is coming; it doesn’t pull in what already happened.

•       No shared budgets yet. Couples who both want to edit one budget should look at Goodbudget or YNAB.

•       Bill reminders on the phone are coming soon, not available today.

Best for: people paid weekly or every two weeks who want to plan payday to payday, without giving any app their bank login.

2. EveryDollar (free version)

EveryDollar’s free version lets you create a monthly budget with unlimited categories, enter transactions by hand, set up sinking funds, split transactions and set due dates for bills. It works on phone, tablet and computer, and you can reach a live person for support.

Connecting your bank is a Premium feature. So is planning your spending around payday and bill due dates, plus custom reports and CSV export. Premium is listed at $79.99 a year or $17.99 a month, with a 14-day trial for new users.

Best for: people who like a classic monthly budget and don’t mind manual entry. More detail in EveryDollar free vs Premium.

3. Goodbudget (free plan)

Goodbudget uses digital envelopes. According to its plans page, the free plan includes 10 regular envelopes plus 10 more, one account, two devices, one year of history, debt tracking and community support.

Premium costs $10 a month or $80 a year. It adds automatic bank sync for US banks, unlimited envelopes and accounts, five devices and seven years of history.

Goodbudget also lets a household share a budget, which Clear-Budget doesn’t do yet. See Goodbudget vs Clear-Budget for a side-by-side.

Best for: envelope fans and couples who want to share one budget across two phones.

4. Rocket Money (free plan)

Rocket Money is the closest to Mint’s "connect everything" style. Its help center says the free plan includes subscription tracking, budgeting and bill reminders.

Premium uses a sliding scale where you choose what to pay; Rocket Money’s own pricing article puts it at roughly $7 to $14 a month. Premium adds things like custom budget categories, real-time account syncing and subscription cancellation. If its bill negotiation service lowers a bill, you pay a one-time fee of 35% to 60% of the first year’s savings.

Best for: people who mainly want to spot and cut subscriptions, and are comfortable connecting their accounts.

5. A spreadsheet

Google Sheets or Excel cost nothing extra if you already have them. You control every column, and nobody else sees your data.

The trade-off is upkeep. You build the formulas, you fix them when they break, and the phone experience is clunky. Many people start with a sheet and move to an app once they know what they want.

Worked example: picking the right one

Jordan takes home $2,050 every two weeks. He used Mint mostly to check whether he could afford things before payday, and he was never comfortable with the bank connection.

•       Rocket Money is built around connected accounts, so it doesn’t fit his privacy preference.

•       EveryDollar free is monthly. Planning around payday is a Premium feature, at $79.99 a year.

•       Goodbudget free works without bank sync, but its envelopes track categories, not paydays.

•       Clear-Budget lets him set a budget from payday to payday, for $0.

Jordan enters his two paychecks and 11 bills once and sets them to repeat. After that, his weekly upkeep is adding groceries and gas and swiping items paid. That takes him about 10 minutes on Sunday.

His sister Ana wants the opposite: automatic tracking and a shared budget with her partner. For her, a paid plan like Goodbudget Premium or YNAB makes more sense, and that is fine.

How to switch without losing momentum

Moving apps is a good moment to simplify. You don’t need years of old transactions to budget well next month.

1.    Write down your income and paydays. Amounts after tax, and the dates they land.

2.    List your bills with due dates. Your bank statement from last month is the quickest source.

3.    Pick three spending numbers to watch. Groceries, gas and eating out cover most surprises.

4.    Set up one month (or one paycheck) in the new tool. Don’t try to rebuild your whole Mint history.

5.    Check in once a week. Fix anything you missed while it is small.

Is a free budgeting app safe without bank sync?

An app that never asks for your bank login can’t leak it. That is the main reason we built Clear-Budget without bank connections.

The cost is a little typing. If that trade sounds right, our guide to budgeting without linking your bank shows how to keep a manual budget accurate.

The bottom line

If you want Mint-style automatic tracking for free, Rocket Money is the closest match. If you want to plan ahead and keep your bank login private, a manual app or a spreadsheet works well.

If paycheck-to-paycheck planning is what you need, try Clear-Budget free. Sign up with Google or email, and a guided tour on a practice budget shows you around in a few minutes.

FAQ

When did Mint shut down?

Mint shut down on January 1, 2024, and users were encouraged to move to Credit Karma (CNBC).

Is there a free budgeting app that connects to my bank?

Rocket Money’s free plan includes budgeting and subscription tracking with connected accounts. EveryDollar and Goodbudget only include bank connection in their paid plans.

Does Clear-Budget import transactions?

No. Clear-Budget never asks for a bank login, so you add items yourself. Repeating paychecks and bills cut most of the typing.

Which free option is best for couples?

Goodbudget lets a household share one budget. Clear-Budget doesn’t have shared budgets yet. A shared spreadsheet is another free option.

This article is for general information only and is not financial advice.