Alternatives to Quicken and Money
Last week a reader emailed me with a question: Did I know of any good alternatives to Microsoft Money?
Turns out she was already a user of the program, but had become pretty frustrated with it. I suppose that's understandable, as I had issues with previous versions of Quicken. When those bugs reared their ugly heads — always at the most inopportune times — it was almost enough to make me look for other solutions.
Almost.
Now I have Quicken 2006 Premier Home and Business. I use it daily, and I love it to death. The problems I kept encountering with previous versions have been fixed, as far as I can tell. I get the feeling that when people do have problems with Quicken and Money, it tends to emanate from the downloadable-transactions features of both.
Personally, I have never once used the "downloadable transaction" thing on any version of Quicken I've ever owned. I am so demented, and so anal, that I actually enter every single money transaction by hand. (Keeps me "closer" to my spending, and my spending habits, is the way I see it.)
Another issue: Intuit (makers of Quicken) and Microsoft (makers of Money) aren't exactly giving their software away. If I recall correctly, I paid something close to $55 for my Quicken Deluxe 2005. And more than $65 for my 2006 version. For me, it's worth every penny of that price. I wouldn't do without it. But for most folks, that's simply not throwaway change. It's fine for me to sit here and recommend Quicken to everybody within earshot. It's another thing entirely for someone to actually have the forty, fifty, or sixty bucks to go out and purchase it.
So if you want to start managing your money seriously, and Quicken or Money aren't on your radar, what are the alternatives?
If you're adept at building spreadsheets, you could conceivably use Excel or Calc (the OpenOffice free spreadsheeting program) to build a bare-bones facsimile of Quicken-esque, check-register lookalike spreadsheets. This, however, could take a great amount of time. And probably not many folks would have the patience to pull it off. (I just happen to offer a Check Register spreadsheet, if you're interested.)
If the do-it-yourself-with-Excel path isn't to your capability (or liking), then it's time to take a look at some other software that's available. Here are a few links to get you started:
A creation of the folks at Computer Associates, Simply Money touts itself as "Simple ... the way Quicken used to be!" I got a free copy a year or so ago, and wrote about it on this Simply Money review. If you're looking for a bare-bones, practically-free alternative to Quicken or Money, then this could be worth a shot — especially when you consider its cost ($5 to $8).
Lots of people swear by Mvelopes. It's popular money-management software based upon the old "envelope" system of budgeting. I've not used it, but at least they offer a free trial so you can see if it's what you're looking for. (DISCLOSURE: If you sign up via my link, IYM makes $12.)
This one's a newer entry (2005/2006) to the field, and wow, does it look sharp! It's free, and online-based — which means your data and transactions are stored on a server in Internet-Land somewhere. (Can be good; can be bad.)
ClearCheckbook's creator, Brandon O'Brien, says he created the program "as an alternative to using Excel to keep track of all my purchases and deposits. I wanted something simple that I could add my purchases and deposits to, and also track my credit card purchases." Because the program intrigued me so much, I interviewed Brandon about Clear Checkbook in early 2007.
YNAB is an Excel-based money-management system. I've tried it, and liked it a lot. You can read my reviews here: You Need a Budget Review and You Need a Budget PRO Review. (DISCLOSURE: If you sign up via my links, IYM makes $7 or so.)
This one has gotten nice reviews from the folks at cNet and Computer Shopper magazine. How much that's worth, I don't know. But the "Lite" version of AceMoney is free, so you don't have much to lose, right?
A reader, Dmitriy, requested that I add Visual Money to my list. "It doesn't have such functionality as Quicken or even Moneydance," he says, "but it is intuitive, and it has nice GUI and basic functionality for personal finance managing." The screenshots I saw of version 2.1 looked very clean and basic. At a cost of only $20, and with a 1-month 100% refund guarantee, Visual Money seems worth a try.
Wow. Looks pretty good for being free!
Easy to try, I guess, since it's altogether free!
It was a longtime Linux and Mac OSX program, but now it's gone Windows mainstream, too. I've not checked it out, but if you're in need, you should probably take a look at GnuCash. The price is certainly right. (It's free.)
Financial program designed for the KDE Linux desktop.
Never heard of it; no experience with it. Roughly $30.
Never heard of it; no experience with it. Roughly $40. Free 30-day trial.
Never heard of it; no experience with it. Free trial w/feature-limited versions.
Never heard of it; no experience with it. Roughly $30.
Roughly $20. Free trial w/feature-limited version.
Roughly $20. Free 30-day trial w/feature-limited version.
Never heard of it; no experience with it. Roughly $37.
Free beginner version.
I'm fairly sure I've missed something in this list. If you've used some financial software that could be considered an alternative to Quicken or Money, let me hear about it. You never know how it might help someone else! 
