Mint budgeting app review

Maintaining a budget is hard work. Mint tries to make it easier on you.

It does this by pulling separate financial data from your personal accounts (credit cards, bank accounts, mortgage) into one place, giving you insight into your spending and debt obligations. Mint’s basic version is free of cost, so it’s a good place to start budgeting — though other services, some of which require a subscription, allow for more customization and flexibility.

All information is accurate as of October 4, 2023.

Mint basics

Mint offers a bird’s-eye view of your personal finances, including your credit score and your progress towards any money goals, such as saving up for a house or paying down student loan debt. The app earned 4.2 out of five stars with over 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store and 4.8 in the Apple App Store.

It’s free to sign up and use, though you can pay $0.99 a month to remove ads and $4.99 a month (if you have iOS) to get some perks, including a subscription cancellation service and advanced data visualization.

You can find and compare banking products on the app as well, such as personal loans, auto loans, checking accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs) and credit cards — but be aware that these products come from paying partners.

Pros

• Streamlined financial management. The ability to view all of your financial accounts in one place is helpful, especially with the free version.
• Track spending trends. You categorize your transactions and see how much you’ve spent in particular categories, such as groceries, as well as your monthly outlays.
• Customize your budgets. You can craft a budget that suits your unique needs, including savings goals and debt repayment strategies.

Cons

• Reported glitches. Over the last year, many users reported app glitches.
• No joint accounts. Two users can’t share a single Mint account. But, if you already share bank accounts with your partner, you can add the joint bank account to Mint.
• Premium version is only available on iOS. Mint Premium (costing $4.99 a month) is only available on iOS software, which comes with Apple devices.

About Mint

Accessibility 

Rather than logging into all of your accounts on different platforms, you only need to sign into Mint to see what’s going on. And you don’t necessarily have to remember your password, either. You could use biometric authentication, such as your fingerprint, if your phone allows. 

Notifications

Besides free credit score notifications (which can help with credit monitoring), you can set up reminders for when bills are due. Plus, if one of your regular costs, such as a media subscription, changes — Mint will let you know. This way it’s harder for companies to sneak in price increases on things you tend to pay automatically.

Along the way, you can take advantage of “Mintsights™” — personalized tips that show up as app notifications. They can give advice keyed to your personal budget on how to save money and make progress toward your savings goals.

Fees and premiums

You can download Mint for free on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. You have the option to stick with the free version, but you can pony up $0.99 a month if you want to be rid of ads. (Of course, you can log into your account with your desktop, as well).

While the free version will grant you most of the app’s functionality, some features require the Premium subscription, which is only available to iOS users at a cost of $4.99 per month.

When you pay for Mint Premium, you get access to detailed financial projections and breakdowns, you’re able to compare your spending habits with other Mint users and you can download your data in a spreadsheet. You’ll also have the options to play games that offer financial tips and to sign up for Billshark, which can cancel unwanted subscriptions for you.

Custom budgeting

You can set up customized budgets and have Mint categorize the transactions. For example, if you purchased movie tickets and popcorn at a theater, Mint would automatically count it towards your pre-set entertainment budget so you can easily see how much you have left.

As you use the app, it’ll recommend different ways to adjust your budget to meet your goals. For instance, it might point out that you’re only using 50% of your “eating out” budget and that you could put the extra money towards your vacation savings goal.

Connections to other products

Mint’s sister companies are Credit Karma, QuickBooks and TurboTax, all of which are owned by Intuit.

While you can use the app to look for banking products such as checking and savings accounts, CDs and loans — Mint doesn’t provide these products itself. Take recommendations with a grain of salt and do your own research before signing on any dotted line.

How Mint stacks up

Mint vs. Chime®

Like Mint, Chime* is a fintech company and it can help you stay on top of your budget through daily balance notifications and automated savings features — but that’s where the similarities end. Chime isn’t a budgeting platform. Rather, it offers banking services, including a checking account, savings account and a secured credit card.

Mint vs. You Need A Budget (YNAB) 

YNAB is a competing budgeting app that also pulls in data so you can see your entire financial life on one platform. It offers many of the same features as Mint, such as setting budget goals and tracking your progress, but it has a slightly bigger brain — allowing multiple budgets, split transactions and joint budgets, so partners can manage finances together.

The trade off? After a 34-day free trial, YNAB costs $14.99 per month for its monthly plan or $99 per year for its annual plan.

Mint vs. EveryDollar 

EveryDollar stands out by offering live, expert coaching in its premium version. You won’t find your free credit score here, but you can join financial coaching calls, ask questions and get professional tips. 

You’ll be paying $17.99 per month or $79.99 per year for a premium account, but you’ll also receive customizable budgeting, automatic spending reports and saving reminders as the app pulls in live data from your connected financial accounts. 

If you’d rather spend less as you try to save more, there is a free version of EveryDollar, though it falls behind compared to what Mint offers for free — you’ll have to manually enter your expenses. 

Mint vs. a budget binder

It can be possible, even easy, to overspend with credit and debit cards. While Mint can remind you to swipe less, the budgeting binder takes away the plastic and uses cold, hard cash. 

With a budgeting binder, you organize your dollars into different envelopes. For example, you put $300 in one marked “groceries”, $150 in one marked as “gas”, $90 in one marked as “eating out”, etc. When the cash in one envelope is used up, you’re out of money for that budget category.  

Of course, this may be wildly inconvenient depending on how your finances are already set up — but, in a digital age, dealing out tangible cash can be an eye opener.

^{*Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services and debit card provided by The Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A.; Members FDIC. The Secured Chime® Credit Builder Visa® Credit Card is issued by Stride Bank, N.A.}