Quicken Simplifi Review [2024]: Low-Cost App That Simplified My Money Management

What is Quicken Simplifi?

Quicken Simplifi is a budgeting and personal finance app designed to help you understand and manage your money. It was launched in 2020 by Quicken, a company that has been in business for more than 40 years and is best known for its personal accounting solutions that track spending and investments online.

One of the standout features of Quicken Simplifi is its clean, intuitive interface. The app collects and presents your financial information in a visually appealing way, with colorful charts that help you quickly grasp your overall financial picture.

It connects to your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts to provide a comprehensive view of your finances. By consolidating all your financial data in one place, Quicken Simplifi makes it easy to track your spending, set savings goals, and make informed decisions about your money.

Pricing	$2.99 per month, billed annually at $35.88
Features	Customizable dashboard Adjustable spending plan Automatic customizable budgeting reports Debt balance tracking Customizable savings goals Investment and net worth tracking Manual asset tracking Subscription and refund monitoring Bill tracking and alerts Credit score monitoring
Ratings	4.2/5 on the App Store 4.3/5 on Google Play

Who is Quicken Simplifi best for?

As someone who has used Quicken Simplifi for several months, I can say it's a great fit for anyone looking to gain more control over their finances without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. The app makes it easy to keep tabs on your spending, track your net worth, and monitor your total asset values, including your car and home.

At $2.99 per month (billed annually at $35.88), Quicken Simplifi is an affordable way to access useful tools like the refund tracker, which helps you track expected refunds and notifies you when you receive them. This unique feature made it easy for me to stop worrying about whether I got my money back for returned purchases or canceled subscriptions.

Quicken Simplifi is also a great financial management app for people who like to dive deeper into their finances. Features like its customizable reports help you run automatic reports on your spending, income, savings, and more to learn more about specific parts of your financial picture. For example, I was able to set up a custom report to automatically track my food delivery expenses.

Who should skip?

While Quicken Simplifi is a powerful budgeting tool, it comes with a $2.99 monthly fee. If you're looking for a completely free app, you might prefer SoFi Relay or the free version of Rocket Money, although they don’t offer the same level of customization and insight as Quicken Simplifi.

Another drawback is Quicken Simplifi's manual asset value tracking, which lacks automated updates based on market data. This means you'll need to regularly update these values yourself to maintain an accurate net worth. In comparison, SoFi Relay supports automated vehicle and home value tracking, while Rocket Money supports automated home value tracking.

Lastly, if you're a longtime Quicken user with years of financial data stored in Quicken's desktop software, you might be disappointed to learn that Quicken Simplifi doesn't support importing this data directly. This means you'll need to start fresh with Quicken Simplifi.

My budgeting experience with Quicken Simplifi

I've tested and reviewed several budgeting apps over the years, but Quicken Simplifi quickly became one of my favorites. Here's what I liked and didn't like about using the app.

Testing the water — with a year-long subscription

To start using Quicken Simplifi, I needed to subscribe to the app for $2.99 per month. I tried to find a way to pay this amount without committing to an annual plan, but there wasn’t one. So, I had to pay $35.88 for a full year, hoping that the app would be worth it.

The app does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, which helped me feel more confident in my decision. This meant I could try out the app for a month, and if I didn’t like it, I could request a full refund of my subscription fee.

By the end of the 30-day period, I decided to keep my subscription because the app’s many useful features and streamlined interface made it well worth the fee.

Simple and straightforward account setup

Connecting my various bank, credit card, investment, and additional accounts to Quicken Simplifi was a pretty easy process.

The app supports a wide range of financial institutions, and I was able to link my checking and savings accounts from my credit union, my credit cards, my 401(k) retirement savings account, and even my health savings account (HSA).

The only accounts I couldn’t add were my Apple Card and my account with Raisin, a savings and certificates of deposit (CDs) marketplace. After contacting the app’s customer service, I learned that Apple Card support is coming soon.

Customizing my spending plan

One of the things I appreciated most about Quicken Simplifi was the ability to create an adjustable spending plan. The app analyzed my income and expenses to suggest a budget, but I was able to easily customize it to fit my specific needs and goals.

For example, I was able to allocate more money toward my dining out category when I knew I had a lot of social events coming up. At the same time, I could scale back my spending on groceries to stay on track overall. These adjustable spending plans helped me feel more in control of my finances and made it easy to see how I was pacing each month.

Keeping an eye on my debt balances

Quicken Simplifi's debt tracking feature automatically pulled my car loan balance from my connected accounts and showed me how much I owed. The app also listed all my credit card balances and allowed me to manually add any liabilities that it didn’t automatically find, such as my 401(k) loan.

Seeing all my debts in one place added to the completeness of my financial picture and highlighted areas where I could make progress by increasing my monthly payments.

No subscription forgotten or refund left behind

Another Quicken Simplifi feature I really liked was the ability to monitor subscriptions and track refunds.

The app automatically detected recurring charges and notified me when a subscription fee was due. The app also helped me keep track of a refund I was expecting from an Amazon purchase, so I didn't have to worry about following up with the merchant. All I had to do was link the expected refund to the original transaction, and Quicken Simplifi notified me when I received it.

Tracking my net worth with manual assets

Quicken Simplifi automatically calculated my net worth based on my connected accounts, but I could also manually add assets like my car or home along with their values to get a more complete picture.

Updating the value of my assets was also manual, which I found a bit tedious. Quicken Simplifi doesn't automatically update these manual asset values, so I had to remember to adjust them periodically based on market changes.

The app recently announced a planned integration with Zillow, which will allow users to update their home's value. However, this is one area where I favored SoFi Relay for its automated vehicle and home value tracking.

Tips for making the most of your Quicken Simplifi subscription

When you pay for an app, it’s important to make enough use of it to justify the cost. Luckily, Quicken Simplifi has a minimal fee of $2.99 a month, billed at $35.88 a year. Using some of the app’s core features can easily justify this cost and may even help you locate savings that go beyond it.

• Track your spending: By tracking my expenses and categorizing them, I discovered that I was spending about $20 a month on subscription services I rarely used. Canceling these subscriptions alone saved me more than six times the cost of Quicken Simplifi's monthly fee.
• Grow your savings: Another way Quicken Simplifi has helped me save money is through its savings goals feature. By setting specific targets and automating my savings transfers, I was able to build an emergency fund of $5,000 within just a few months.
• Pay down your debt: By seeing all my debts in one place and tracking my progress, I was motivated to make extra payments toward my auto loan. Over about five months, I saved over $200 in interest charges by paying down my balance faster.
• Set up alerts: In the past, I occasionally missed payments and incurred late fees ranging from $25 to $35. By avoiding just one late fee per month, I saved at least 8 times the cost of the app's monthly subscription.
• Find out if it’s the app for you: The best part is that you can take advantage of Quicken Simplifi’s 30-day money-back guarantee to fully explore the app's features and decide if it's the right fit for your needs before you fully commit to its subscription.

Other budgeting apps to consider

If Quicken Simplifi doesn't quite meet your needs or you're looking for a free alternative, there are other budgeting apps worth considering. Two popular options are SoFi Relay and Rocket Money.

SoFi Relay

SoFi Relay is a comprehensive money management app that offers many of the same features as Quicken Simplifi, including account aggregation, budgeting tools, and goal tracking.¹

One standout feature of SoFi Relay is its automated tracking of your home value and vehicle value, which can help you maintain a more accurate picture of your net worth without manual updates. SoFi Relay is completely free to use, making it an attractive option for those looking to avoid subscription fees.

Visit SoFi Relay.

Rocket Money

Rocket Money, formerly known as Truebill, is another budgeting app that focuses on helping users optimize their spending and subscriptions. Like Quicken Simplifi, Rocket Money allows you to connect your financial accounts, track your expenses, and set savings goals. It also offers a unique bill negotiation service, where the app's team will work to lower your bills on your behalf.

One of Rocket Money's most popular features is its subscription management tool, which helps you identify and cancel unwanted subscriptions. While Rocket Money does offer a free version with limited features, its premium version costs $4 to $12 per month.

Visit Rocket Money or learn more in our Rocket Money review.

FAQ

Quicken Simplifi: bottom line

Quicken Simplifi is an excellent budgeting app for anyone looking to take control of their finances and build long-term wealth. The app's user-friendly interface, comprehensive features, and valuable insights make it well worth the $2.99 monthly subscription fee (billed annually at $35.88).

Quicken Simplifi's ability to consolidate data from multiple accounts, provide customizable budgeting tools, track savings goals, and monitor debt payoff progress allows you to create a personalized plan for managing your money effectively.

While the app has room for improvement in some areas, such as asset tracking, its continuous updates and upcoming integration with Zillow and support of Apple Card demonstrate a commitment to improving user experience.

For more top recommendations, check out our list of the best budgeting apps.