Quicken For Mac Review: Better, But Still Behind Quicken For PC

Who Is Quicken?

Quicken is a personal finance software company. It used to be part of Intuit. Quicken was spun off from Intuit in 2016 and was purchased by H.I.G. Capital. The CEO of Quicken is Eric Dunn. He joined Intuit as employee #4 when Quicken was still under the Intuit umbrella.

We recently named Quicken on of the Best Budgeting Apps because of their robust tracking and both desktop and mobile syncing.

What Do They Offer?

Quicken offers a personal finance software product by the same name. It is available for Windows and Mac. In this article, we’ll focus on the Mac version.

Anyone who has used Quicken for Windows and then tried Quicken for Mac probably came away from the experience disappointed. Spoiler alert — that experience hasn’t really changed much in the latest Quicken for Mac.

Quicken for Mac still trails Quicken for Windows in ease of use, interface (i.e., navigation), intuitiveness, versatility, and features. Quicken for Mac also falls a bit short when it comes to investment tools, especially in regard to its lack of automatic cost-basis calculations.

Another area that people have complaints about is the interface. For example, the home screen makes it a bit difficult to find things. There aren't any widgets or ways to customize the home screen. Additionally, if you are coming from Quicken for Windows, there isn't a one-to-one transition where everything's the same in Quicken for Mac. Some things will be familiar, while others will not and require some searching around to find.

The Quicken Home & Business subscription allows you to run your personal and business transactions within the same software. However, Quicken H&B is not as nearly business feature-rich as Quickbooks.

Quicken for Mac is still missing the H&B option. You can only get it in Quicken for Windows.

• Over 500 customer-requested improvements and fixes plus significantly improved reliability
• The most powerful connectivity to banks and brokerages of any personal finance software; more than 14,500 financial institutions and 11,000 online billers

Specifically for Mac users, the following features have been added:

• Up to twice as fast on start-up
• Charts and graphs also load twice as fast
• Backup is four times faster than prior versions
• Access to 11,000+ online billers, bill PDF downloads*
• New enhanced Portfolio View
• Refreshed overall look & feel of Bills & Income
• 5 GB of secure online backup for your Quicken files with Dropbox
• Free Quicken Bill Pay and priority access to Quicken phone support (Premier and above)
• Manage your money anywhere with Quicken on the Web

Quicken added new options to the Portfolio page for its Mac version as well as an all-new Investing Dashboard.

By selecting their account type (Investing, Brokerage, Retirement, or Education), Mac users can now view snapshots of their holdings across multiple accounts. Snapshots that have been added include:

• Holdings Type
• Allocation by Security Type
• Allocation by Asset Class

With these new insights, it will be easier for investors to analyze their asset allocation and make changes when their current mix of asset doesn't match well with their risk profile.

Quicken On The Web

Quicken on the Web is a recent development for Quicken. While most other financial apps are completely web-based, Quicken on the Web is only a companion. This means it is a scaled down version of Quicken. If Quicken can continue developing Quicken on the Web into a full-blown financial app, it will eliminate the inferior Mac user experience.

With Quicken on the Web, you can do all of the following:

• View balances, budgets, accounts, and transactions
• See spending trends by category, payee, and more
• Monitor investment performance with up-to-the-minute portfolio value
• Search and see details of past expenses
• Keep your finances continually up to date: your accounts sync across desktop, web, and mobile
• Enjoy a fresh, streamlined Quicken experience

Quicken moved to a subscription-based pricing model in 2017. Unlike many other subscription services, Quicken's software is not purely cloud-based. It is desktop, mobile, and cloud-lite. Desktop software still needs to be installed to use all of Quicken's features.

While some may balk at no longer having one-time charge licensed software, the subscription model does make better sense in the end. It means more cash flow for Quicken. And hopefully, with more cash, incremental improvement will keep coming, making the software better each year.

As of January 2023, here are current prices:

How Does Quicken Compare?

Quicken has long been a leader in the personal finance software space. It has a plethora of features and is available on multiple platforms, including Mac.

Still, it might not be the best fit for everyone. Specifically if you're a crypto investor, you'll be disappointed to find that you still can't track cryptocurrency assets on Quicken. 

Even if Quicken does everything you need it to, there are plenty of Quicken alternatives that might be able to meet your needs just as well at a lower price. Check out this table to see how Quicken compares:

How Do I Buy It?

You can visit the Quicken website to purchase and download Quicken.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes - like many other financial apps, Quicken uses encryption and secure connections to financial institutions.

Is It Worth It?

Quicken For Mac Features