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Mint vs PocketGuard (best budget apps / software)

Compare
Winner
Usability
Features
Customer Support
Security
Syncing
Budgeting tools
Expense tracking
Reporting features
Mobile App
Cost
FREE / PAID
Mint is free to use but monetizes through ads and partnerships. Offers credit score services for a monthly fee.
PocketGuard is free but offers PocketGuard Plus for $3.99/month or $34.99/annual for advanced features.
Conclusion

Mint is an all-encompassing budget tool with comprehensive features, though its ads can be intrusive.

PocketGuard provides simplicity in budget tracking but lacks in-depth features. Great for simple budgeting!

Mint Pros & Cons

Top Pros
  • High security standards

  • Provides effortless financial syncing

  • Comprehensive financial reporting tools

  • Effective expense tracking

  • Excellent mobile app

PocketGuard Pros & Cons

Top Pros
  • HIGHLY user-friendly

  • Helps identify recurring bills and subscriptions

  • Solid customer support

  • Helps to easily see left-to-spend sum

  • In-App PocketGuard Plus with added features

  • Largely free!

Top Cons
  • Can have too many ads

  • Customer support can be slow

  • Some find interface busy and overwhelming

  • Push notifications can be excessive

  • Limited options to customize budget categories

  • Difficult to fix syncing errors

Top Cons
  • Limited backward looking capability

  • No multi-currency support

  • Basic money management tools

  • ⚙️ Limited customization

  • Limited bank syncing capability

Other best budget apps

3

🧾🚀 YNAB takes an educational approach to budgeting, suited for those who need help managing their money. 💡💵

4

🌈💼 Goodbudget focuses on envelope budgeting and sharing, excellent for families. Not so much for complex financial tracking. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🔐

5

💡💰 EveryDollar offers a user-friendly interface but requires manual input for the free version. Prime choice for Dave Ramsey followers! 👌🏼🗄️

FAQ

The Mint app is designed to assist users in managing their finances effectively. It provides various features including budget creation, setting financial goals, tracking spending, receiving bill reminders, seeing credit score, and even synchronizing accounts.

Yes. The Mint app can be used on different platforms. It’s available for download on both iOS and Android devices.

Yes. Mint is a free application. It provides a range of budgeting and financial management tools without any cost. However, there might be some in-app purchases for premium features.

PocketGuard helps with money management by enabling the tracking of spending habits, bill payment reminders, and linking multiple accounts. Notably, it also includes an ‘In My Pocket’ feature which shows the amount of disposable income remaining for the day, week, or month.

Mint app takes security very seriously. It uses multi-factor authentication and encryption to protect your financial data. In case of any suspicious activity, alerts are also provided.

Yes. PocketGuard offers a visual display of your finances to offer clarity into your spending habits. These include pie charts showing different spending categories to make planning and adjusting budgets easier.

Yes. PocketGuard has a feature that helps identify where you could be potentially overspending on bills and assists in finding better deals to potentially cut down costs.

While PocketGuard has a basic free version, it also offers a ‘PocketGuard Plus’ version that comes with a cost and offers additional features.

Mint does not directly provide investment advice, but it does track your investments and compare your performance with market benchmarks.

PocketGuard stands out for its ‘In My Pocket’ feature. This tool calculates the cash available after accounting for bills, savings goal contributions and budgeted purchases.

No, Mint will not sell your financial data. Users’ anonymity and the confidentiality of their financial information are both highly valued.

No. While Mint is essentially free to use, it may display personalized ads for financial products and services for which they may earn a commission, but these ads do not imply additional costs to the users.

Mint can help improve your financial habits by providing insights about your spending, and suggesting personalized budgets based on your spending patterns. It also provides bill pay reminders to help prevent sudden account deductions.

Yes. PocketGuard can connect to a wide range of account types, such as checking, savings, credit, and even investment accounts. It aims to provide a holistic view of your financial situation.

Mint has an extensive Help Center where users can find answers to common queries. For more specific issues, users can also contact Mint’s support team.

Yes, PocketGuard makes budget setting straightforward. It offers an easy-to-use interface where users can set individual budgets for different categories based on their income and expenses.

While Mint does show ads, the frequency is generally not disruptive. These ads often offer financial products and services that could be beneficial to the users, as they are personalized based on the user’s financial situation.

PocketGuard respects user privacy and does not share or sell personal identifiable information to third parties for their marketing purposes. Details can be checked in their Privacy Policy.

While Mint does not have a specific feature designed for couples, sharing an account can help both parties keep track of their joint finances, visualize combined spending and jointly plan a budget.

Currently, PocketGuard only supports U.S. and Canadian bank accounts. However, they are planning to further expand their services in the future.

The Mint budget app provides a comprehensive view of all your accounts and delivers real-time budgets. It also offers suggestions based on your spending patterns, provides free credit score assessment, reminds you about upcoming bills, and provides alerts about unusual account activity.

With PocketGuard, users can track their income, bills, and recurring subscriptions, evaluate their spending habits, and identify potential savings. By categorizing all your expenses, it provides you with an accurate estimate of how much money you have for everyday use, also known as ‘In My Pocket’.

Yes, apps like Mint and PocketGuard are compatible with both iOS and Android platforms, and can also be accessed through their respective web versions, ensuring seamless access across various devices.

Mint not only helps users manage their finances but also encourages financial literacy by providing personalized insights and advice based on their spending habits and financial goal.

Yes, PocketGuard has a feature called ‘Lower Your Bills’ where it reviews your recurring subscriptions and bills and then suggests alternatives that could potentially save you money.

Both Mint and PocketGuard are free to download and use, but they also offer premium versions with additional features for a monthly or yearly subscription fee.

The premium version of Mint, known as Mint Live, provides access to certified financial planners who can offer personalized advice. Additionally, it provides priority customer support, custom categories, and the ability to track your net worth over time.

The premium version of PocketGuard, called PocketGuard Plus, allows users to track cash spending, create custom spending categories, manage ATM deposits and withdrawals, and even adjust the ‘In My Pocket’ calculation if desired.

Mint and PocketGuard both use bank-level encryption to ensure the security and privacy of your financial information. Also, they offer an additional layer of security with multi-factor authentication.

Both Mint and PocketGuard continuously sync and update the account details to provide real-time information to the user. However, the frequency of updates can depend on the financial institution linked to the app.

Yes, Mint app can track and manage your investment accounts, provide your portfolio’s performance overview, and offer comparisons to major market benchmarks.

As of now, PocketGuard only supports US and Canadian currencies. It doesn’t offer support for other foreign currencies.

Yes, the Mint app allows you to link your PayPal account to help you track and manage your PayPal transactions.

Both Mint and PocketGuard provide robust customer support. They have extensive FAQs on their websites, and they also provide email support for more complex issues. In addition, Mint Live users get priority customer support as part of their subscription.

No, only the user has access to the budget reports. Mint and PocketGuard prioritize user privacy and do not share personal information or financial data with third parties without your consent.

Yes, Mint allows users to export data in CSV format which can easily be viewed and manipulated using any spreadsheet software.

Yes, PocketGuard allows users to export their financial data. They can export transactions, category balances, and other financial details for further analysis or for record-keeping purposes.

Absolutely! Both Mint and PocketGuard apps allow you to customize your notification preferences to alert you on new transactions, upcoming bills, and potential savings.

Beyond budgeting, Mint also helps users check their credit scores for free, provides snapshots of bills and investments, and gives valuable financial insights to help manage money better.

Aside from budgeting and expense tracking, PocketGuard comes with built-in features like financial goal-setting, ‘Lower Your Bills’ to help find savings, and the ‘In My Pocket’ feature, which calculates how much spendable money you have after accounting for bills, goals, and necessities.