Quicken Review

What Is Quicken?

Quicken software is a personal finance administration tool. It’s been on the market for 30 years, with customers all over the world. It started under Intuit, but they sold the solution to H.I.G. Capital. 

Since the sale, Quicken has improved significantly. It has become the best alternative to a spreadsheet. A change quickly reflected in Quicken reviews, which gradually became more positive. The high-end features, however, slow down older PCs. 

Here’s what else you need to know:

Quicken Features

While we researched for our Quicken review, some features stood out. They are: 

Quicken Spending Manager

The tool allows you to: 

• See Your Spending at a Glance: You can keep your financial transactions and accounts in one place. The personal checking account software lets you search by amount, payee, and expense type. It allows you to check your spending to ensure they’re legitimate. If you use it for household management, you can see members’ transactions.
• Create and Manage Categories: Using the online home accounting software, you can automatically group your transactions. You can customize spending categories. This finance computer program will automatically remember subsequent transactions. Track everything from your rent to transportation and compare each month using the trend icon. 
• Predict Your Financial Future: This feature lets you know how much you’ll have left after paying your bills. The personal finance management tool creates scheduled payments. You get flexible start and end dates. The app projects and forecasts your inflows and outflows across different time perspectives. 

Keep in mind that only those on the Quicken Starter or Deluxe plans have access to this feature. 

Quicken Budget Manager

The Quicken personal finance software lets you keep track of your spending habits. With it, you get a clear picture of your expenses versus your income. It connects your active accounts and allows you to download and categorize your spending data. 

The Quicken budget app connects you to over 14 000 financial institutions. It recommends areas with saving opportunities and allows you to uncover regular expenses. Having an unrestricted view of the latter helps you create more accurate and achievable money goals. 

You can get personalized budgets with the investment adviser tool. The software scans transactions. It creates an account based on regularly recurring expenses. 

You can create as many categories as you like and update your transactions manually or automatically. Track your budget using Quicken mobile application or on the web. The desktop or phone apps let you download additional expenses. 

You can sync everything across your devices. The feature is available on both the Starter and Quicken Deluxe plans. 

Quicken Bill Manager

You can manage your expenditures via the dashboard. With the tracker, you can keep an eye on all your transactions. Pay bills online and offline in one place.

The indicator panel shows you everything you need to pay for. This online financial management solution allows you to download electronic bills. 

Quicken’s Quick Pay gives you access to over 11 500 digital network billers. Check Pay enables you to send physical checks all over the United States. The Quicken online bill payment tool is seamless and straightforward. 

But.

Only those on Premier or Home and Business plans have access to this benefit. 

Quicken Retirement Plan

Having a retirement plan is essential, and Quicken’s free finance management software helps with that. You can have your fallback accounts in one place. With a connection to thousands of financial institutions, you will always know where you are with your savings. 

Quicken gives you a comprehensive view of your holdings and investment portfolio. The options are 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or IRAs. 

The Quicken app makes it easy to see a comprehensive record of your investment funds and portfolio. If you’re using Quicken for Windows, you can explore the optimal investing allocation.

Use the Quicken Windows Lifetime Planner to create long-term “What if” scenarios. They will show you the impact your life choices will have on your retirement. This plan is available on Quicken Premier and Home & Business. 

Quicken Investment Tracker

The personal money management software offers great investment tracking tools for growing your nest egg. This feature allows you to:

• Have a Grasp on All Your Investments: You can see and monitor all your assets with a single view. It enables tracking of liquid and retirement holdings. This includes brokerage, 401(k)s, IRAs, bonds, options, ETFs, and mutual funds. Knowing your stocks’ value will help you understand the profits you stand to make. 
• Take Advantage of the Market: Those who profit from their investments know that it’s all about timing and capitalizing on opportunities. The Quicken finance solution easily creates stock watch lists, helping you stay on top of invested funds. You can analyze your market portfolio against target allocations. 
• Discover concentrated positions with the Morningstar X-Ray tool. You can carry out IRR and ROI performance reports. Compare your portfolio’s optimization to market benchmarks. 
• Plan Tax Payments Effortlessly: The online finance software helps you see realized and unrealized gains for tax planning. With the “What-If” analysis, you can see the implication of selling your assets.
• Quickly transfer transactions to assist tariff implications. For optimal tax benefits, specify lot assignments. 

The investment tracker feature is available for all Quicken mobile apps. But the What-If, portfolio analysis, and Morningstar X-Ray benefits are only available on Windows devices. Only those on Premier and Home and Business plans can enjoy these benefits. 

Quicken Home and Business Manager

Managing your home and business balance sheets is more comfortable with this online personal finance management software. You can have your invoices, taxes, tenants, expenses, investments, and everything related to your company in one place. 

Keeping up with your investment and finance accounts has never been easier. As mentioned earlier, you can download reports from over 14 000 financial statements. The app tracks your assets and liabilities. It gives you a comprehensive balance sheet. 

If you have your personal and company accounts in the same place, you can manage them separately. Quicken stores receipts, contracts, leases, and other official documents. 

If you hate tax management, the software will take this burden off your shoulders. You can spend more time on your business and worry less about levy reports. Quicken will give you Tax Summary and Capital Gains records. 

You can export data directly to TurboTax. You get custom report and invoice templates, and you can find and track deductions from credit cards and mixed personal accounts. Customize your invoice with logos, web links, and colors. 

You can email a PDF invoice and add a PayPal payment link. The feature instantly tracks invoices and bills as payables and receivables. 

Only those on Quicken Home and Business plans can enjoy this benefit.

Quicken Rental Property Management

The Quicken business tool gives you everything you need to track rental properties in one place. You can follow your property value, bank accounts, tenant lists, loans, income, and expenses. 

With the rental dashboard, you can view your estate’s status, rents, and occupancy, with one glance. It lets you save tenant contact information, move-ins, rental agreements, move-outs, and security deposits. 

The Quicken program allows you to keep a close eye on outstanding debts. The app sends email reminders with payment links, and you can customize the rent receipts. 

Quicken reviews show that users love this option - it is a great way to track multi-property ownership. It is available for Home and Business subscribers. 

Ease of Use and Interface

The Quicken mobile and desktop tools are easy to use and understand. The software is very straightforward and has a minimalist design. The white background helps the text stand out, giving it a professional feel. Downloading financial reports is fast, with no hitches. 

While users applaud the Windows version, it’s not the same as Quicken for Mac. Navigation is more manageable on Windows. On a Mac, it’s just plain slow. Transferring information is also harder, as is the customization of templates. Quicken reviews show that users are quite disappointed.

Quicken Apps 

The Quicken mobile app is available for Android and iOS devices. Apple users should have iOS 9 or higher to download this personal finance managing software. For Android, you’ll need 4.1 or higher.

You can download the two from their respective play stores. 

Quicken has Face ID and Touch ID for added security.

But that’s not all:

Quicken Security

Information safety is essential, especially when it concerns investment funds. Quicken uses 256-bit encryption to safeguard your information. 

Additionally, the solution carries out integrity checks to ensure there’s no altering of messages and data. The personal finance online software has firewall-protected servers, connected through Express Web Connect.

You can create a password for your account, and you must enter it each time you access the Quicken web page. There is a vault where you can save your access information. 

If you use Quicken for Mac, you can store your entry details in the Mac Keychain. The solution transmits your financial information with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. 

Quicken Support 

The support is available all year round. The company also offers videos, written guides, and an active online community. We checked them out when researching for this Quicken review and we can confirm the guides were written in a simple way and that the community is extremely welcoming.

You can chat with a customer support agent 24/7 or call from Monday to Friday between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Premium Support is free for those on Premier and Home and Business plans. Those on Starter and Deluxe have to pay for it. 

You’ll have direct and fast access to customer care phone numbers for up to a year. The technical team will also be readily available to answer your questions. It sells at $49.99.

Quicken vs QuickBooks

Two brand names come up whenever personal finance and business accounting software comes up - Quicken and QuickBooks. They are the best-known names in their industry and perform almost the same functions. 

We will compare them, looking at the differences in their features, pricing, and customer feedback. 

Quicken is primarily an online accounting software for personal use. However, it includes several business finance functionalities in its Home and Business plan. 

Note that the Home and Business plan only works with Windows operating systems. 

QuickBooks caters specifically to small businesses. It has everything an employer needs for bookkeeping, accounting, and general financial management. The solution also has a mileage tracker - Quicken doesn’t. 

To use Quicken, you must download it to your computer or mobile device. The software’s hosting is local and not cloud-based. Thus, it stores all your information on your device and not on the cloud. 

QuickBooks hosting is online or web-based, allowing you to access the financial planning tool no matter where you are. 

Both Quicken and QuickBooks manage accounts payable and receivables. The two software generate financial statements, provide access to online payments, both have mobile apps. Additionally, they have adequate customer support 24/7. 

As for pricing, QuickBooks offers a monthly subscription while Quicken’s is yearly. Since the two perform different functions, their cost differs a lot. 

Quicken users love how easy the app is to use, as non-accountants sometimes find accounting complicated. 

QuickBooks lovers praise it for its advanced features but note that the high price makes it inaccessible. 

Quicken vs GnuCash

GnuCash is an asset management and finance tool. It shares some similarities with Quicken, but they have some major differences.

Quicken is available for Windows and macOS. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. 

GnuCash is for macOS, Windows, and Linux users. It is available on Android devices only and exports data to the desktop. 

GnuCash does not have any built-in security. The accounting tool creators recommend using encrypted files and folders to protect your information. 

Quicken safeguards users’ data with top-notch 256-bit encryption. It asks for a password and you’re strongly advised not to share it with anyone. For mobile apps, you get extra security with facial and thumb identification. 

Both allow you to create budgets on previous data.

Quicken comes with online and phone support. GnuCash provides only wiki help. 

Quicken offers online bill payment, GnuCash doesn’t. Both software track loans and offer payment in multiple currencies. The two do not fit medium or large organizations. 

They work best for personal use and small businesses. You can use GnuCash without paying for it.

You can only use Quicken without paying for a short time, and then you need to upgrade to a paid plan. The solution is more expensive than GnuCash, but it offers more extensive features. 

Quicken Pricing

The available pricing plans at the time of writing are: 

The financial software offers a 30-day risk-free trial period. When you get on a paid plan, you get a 30 days money-back guarantee. You can return the app or change your subscription within that time frame. 

If you sign up for Quicken today, you’ll get 10% off as a new member. 

Quicken Review - Verdict

The Quicken asset management solution is an answer to the prayer of those looking to handle their finances. You can effectively pay bills and budget what to spend and save with it. You can effortlessly track your investments and keep up with your finances.

But despite all these benefits, Quicken could use some improvements.

It would be nice if the software creators added the Home and Business feature for Mac. The customer service needs balance and equal accessibility for all. Plus, the portability could use some work for more increased efficiency. 

Despite these shortcomings, users claim in their Quicken reviews that this is one of the best accounting solutions on the market. You can trust it for all your money management needs.