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Editor's note
Mint officially closed their doors on March 23, 2024. The parent company, Intuit, which acquired Mint in 2009, announced that its other service, Credit Karma, will integrate some of the functionalities of Mint, but not budgeting.Rocket Money vs. Mint
The best budgeting apps can make it easy to quickly check your finances whenever you need to, whether from a phone or computer. They might also help you create and stick to a budget if you’re trying to save up money or pay down debt.
Here’s how Rocket Money and Mint stacked up:
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| Type of app | Budgeting | Budgeting |
| Cost | Free, with optional paid features | Free |
| Features | Budgeting, financial tracking, savings goals, checking credit score, bill negotiation | Budgeting, financial tracking, savings goals, checking credit score, money-saving opportunities |
| Best for... | Budgeting and bill negotiation | Budgeting, savings goals, and checking your credit score |
| Visit Rocket Money | No longer available |
Why Rocket Money stands out
Rocket Money is the obvious choice since Mint is no longer available. However, the most helpful features fall under the Rocket Money Premium subscription. Choose this option if:
- You pay for subscriptions you don’t use
- You want to track your credit score
- You want help with your spending allowance
You can’t keep track of your subscriptions
If you’ve looked at your bank statements only to find you have less money than you thought because of subscription fees, it’s time to get control. Whether you signed up for these subscriptions thinking you’d use them or you signed up for a free trial and never canceled it, not canceling them wastes money.
Rocket Money offers a service that tracks these subscriptions and offers a subscription cancellation assistant to cancel them for you. While there is a cost, it saves you money in the long run by ending the subscription.
Your credit score changes often
If you are hit or miss with your bills, or you like to use credit cards, having a way to track your credit score is important. Your credit score affects whether you get approved for new credit and what interest rates or fees you’ll pay if you are approved.
Rocket Money provides your credit score, while also credit history and any changes that affected your score. It also offers insights to help you understand the changes you can make to increase your score again.
You want to stop overspending
It’s easy to overspend even after you’ve created a budget, but Rocket Money helps stop it. Not only does it help you set up a budget that works, but it tracks your spending by category and automatically determines how much you have available to spend.
If you’re anything like me, having a program to keep me accountable is key to sticking to my budget. Seeing the numbers in black and white works best for me.
... Or read our Rocket Money review.
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Rocket Money Benefits
- Helps to find and cancel subscriptions
- Slash your monthly phone, cable, and internet bills
- Save an average of up to $720 a year
When Mint would have worked
While Mint no longer exists, here were some of its top features:
- Create workable budgets
- Set savings goals
- Keep track of spending in real time
Mint didn’t have a premium version so there was never any worry about being pestered with ads or asked to upgrade. Like Rocket Money, Mint made it easy to check your credit score at any time and keep track of the factors affecting your credit. One downside was they did bombard users with deals on credit card and loan products.
Key differences between the two
There were plenty of similarities between Rocket Money and Mint, but they also had a few striking differences.
Desktop interface
Both apps were easy to navigate and understand through their mobile app interfaces. You simply navigate to the Apple Store or Google Play store and install the app. Then, you log into your account and start managing and tracking your finances. Mint only had a mobile app interface, but Rocket Money has a desktop interface, too, but the experience isn’t the same when you use a computer for the Rocket Money services.
The desktop interface for Rocket Money only shows a few things on your dashboard, including:
- Monthly summary
- Subscriptions
- Monthly bills
On the Rocket Money app, you’ll find a lot more features, including:
- Budgets
- Bank account details
- Credit card account balances
- Savings goals
The Mint mobile app and desktop experience were very similar, so you wouldn’t necessarily miss out on any features when switching between the two options.
Lowering your bills
Budgeting apps like Mint and Rocket Money were designed to help you create and stick to budgets each month, which might help you save money over time. However, Mint didn’t go far beyond helping with your typical financial features, like budgeting, setting savings goals, and checking your credit score.
Rocket Money offers unique ways to lower your bills and save money. It works to automatically identify all your subscriptions when you connect your bank accounts and credit cards. This can be helpful for tracking your spending on subscriptions, but it can also be useful for identifying and canceling subscriptions you no longer need.
In addition, Rocket Money also offers negotiation services to help lower bills that are too high or help you get refunds on fees and outages. It will cost 35%-60% of the savings or credits for these services, but saving something is still better than saving nothing.
Paid features
Rocket Money offers optional paid features to unlock additional services within the app. Mint didn’t offer any paid features, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you compared the services you’d have to pay to unlock with Rocket Money to what Mint offered for free, there’s not much difference.
For example, you can check your credit score with the free version of Rocket Money, but if you want to see the factors affecting your credit score, you must pay for its premium features. In addition, it’s easy to set up a budget with Rocket Money, but you’re limited to how many budgets you can set up for free. You have to pay if you want to unlock unlimited budgets. Rocket Money Premium membership costs between $6 and $12 each month.
Mint didn’t charge anything to use its services and features. Every member got complimentary access to checking their credit score and credit score factors, creating customized budgeting plans, and creating savings goals.
Alternatives if you’re missing Mint
If you’re missing Mint and Rocket Money doesn’t feel like the right fit, check out these alternatives.
Quicken Simplifi
Quicken Simplifi isn’t free, like Mint, but it’s cost is less than that of a cup of coffee per month. It has a user-friendly interface and helps you understand how much money you have to spend. You’ll get a personalized spending plan that doesn’t follow a strict budget plan, but instead focuses on what works best for you.
Some of its top features include:
- Track and categorize spending
- Set and reach savings goals
- Project cash flows
- Get helpful reports
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Quicken Simplifi Benefits
- Automated spending plans so you always know how much you have to spend
- Real-time alerts for everything from unusual activity to upcoming bills
- Set up and track multiple savings goals
- Customizable reports to see all of your accounts in one place
PocketGuard
PocketGuard also isn’t free, like Mint was, but it offers some robust features to help you get control of your spending. With PocketGuard you can track all accounts, such as credit cards, loans, and investments in one place. You can track your spending, including recurring expenses, and review your cash flow and net worth, very similarly to how Mint worked.
One feature that sets PocketGuard apart is its ability to help you get out of debt. Using the debt snowball or debt avalanche method, PocketGuard shows you how many months it would take to pay off your debt.
FAQs
Is Rocket Money better than Mint?
Rocket Money and Mint were similar, but they had some differences and one wasn’t better than the other. Both Rocket Money and Mint provided helpful financial services if you want to create budgets or save up money for specific goals. You could also have used either app to check your credit score and the factors affecting your credit.
Rocket Money does offer unique money-saving options like negotiating lower bills and getting refunds on common fees and outages. However, some of Rocket Money's features cost money before they’re unlocked. Mint’s features were free to use.
Is Mint the best budgeting tool?
Mint was a powerful budgeting tool, but it’s no longer in existence. Rocket Money, PocketGuard, and Quicken Simplifi are great alternatives.
Can Rocket Money actually help lower your bills?
Rocket Money might help lower your bills, depending on your situation. It offers multiple ways to help lower your bills, including professional negotiating services and finding refunds on service outages and fees for existing bills. You pay 35%-60% of what Rocket Money saves you on these bills or nothing at all if Rocket Money doesn’t end up saving you anything.
Does Rocket Money cost money?
Rocket Money is free to use, but it does come with optional paid features. For example, it’s free to create a budget in the Rocket Money app, but you can only create a limited number of budgets until you have to upgrade to the paid version. You also need a premium membership if you want to use Rocket's Money Smart Savings feature and save up money for specific goals.
If you want to lower your bills with Rocket Money, you’ll only pay money if Rocket Money saves you money in the first place. So if Rocket Money negotiates down your internet bill, you’ll pay 35%-60% of what Rocket Money saves you. If Rocket Money doesn’t save you anything, you won’t pay anything.
You get to choose how much you pay Rocket Money for a premium membership, which costs anywhere from $6 to $12 per month.
Bottom line
Figuring out how to manage your money is a lot simpler when you take advantage of helpful financial apps. While Mint doesn’t exist anymore, there are other apps out there to help you manage your finances.
It’s important to choose the app that follows the principles you use for managing money and budgeting. If you don’t jive with the app’s methods, you are less likely to use it. Rocket Money is great, but if it’s not your thing, there are other apps that offer different features.
Rocket Money Benefits
- Helps to find and cancel subscriptions
- Slash your monthly phone, cable, and internet bills
- Save an average of up to $720 a year