Quicken’s Simplifi Review: A Budgeting and Money Management App

Personal finance apps promise to help you effortlessly manage your money. But with so many options, it can be tough to decide which one to use.

That’s where Simplifi comes in. Simplifi is a relatively new personal finance app that aims to give you an easy-to-use, comprehensive view of your financial life.

In this Simplifi review, we’ll dive into how it works, standout features, how it compares to competitors, potential downsides, and whether it’s right for you.

Key Takeaways

• Simplifi aggregates all your financial accounts into a user-friendly interface
• Core features include spending plans, savings goals, investing tracking and more
• Its budgeting approach focuses on cash flow versus strict spending limits
• Simplifi costs $47.88/year after a 30-day free trial period
• While powerful for many, advanced users may want more complexity
• Overall an excellent personal finance app for the average consumer

What Exactly is Simplifi?

Simplifi’s Origin Story

Simplifi may seem like a brand new personal finance app, but it actually comes from an established name – Quicken.

You might know Quicken as a decades-old budgeting and money desktop software. However, Simplifi represents an entirely new approach for the digital age.

Simplifi was created to appeal to a broader modern audience through an easy-to-use web and mobile interface. It was built from the ground up to aggregate financial data and help people intelligently manage their cash flow.

So while it shares a parent company with Quicken, Simplifi operates independently with its own unique philosophy and approach.

How Simplifi Functions as a Money App

At its core, Simplifi functions as a financial aggregator. This means when you connect your financial accounts like bank accounts, loans, credit cards or investment accounts, Simplifi automatically pulls all your data into one place.

This gives you a holistic overview of your financial life, rather than having fragmented information across many accounts.

Simplifi’s automatic categorization of transactions provides rich insights. You can see exactly where your money comes from and where it’s going on a granular level.

Beyond aggregation, Simplifi really shines with actionable money management capabilities on top of your data.

It allows you to set spending plans, create savings goals tailored to your targets, analyze cash flow trends over time, and track net worth.

With these functionalities combined, Simplifi delivers robust personal finance tools for the average consumer in an intuitive package. While it may not satisfy advanced Quicken power users, it hits a sweet spot for most.

Who Can Benefit from Using Simplifi

Simplifi is designed for individuals and families looking to easily oversee their financial lives in one place.

It can provide particular value to those who:

• Need help budgeting or managing spending: Simplifi creates customizable spending plans tied to your income and outlays. This can help reign in overspending.

• Want to reach specific money goals: Whether saving for a house, vacation, emergency fund or payoff debt, Simplifi helps you achieve targets.

• Appreciate convenience and simplicity: Importing transactions and intuitive design means your financial data is readily accessible. No complicated software needed.

Overall Simplifi delivers an ad-free financial hub to control cash flow, spending and reach goals more effectively.

Navigating Simplifi’s User-Friendly Interface

A huge advantage of Simplifi is its well-designed interface providing insights at a glance. Let’s explore key elements that drive its usability and convenience.

Summary Dashboards Give You the Big Picture

Simplifi makes it easy to get the big picture view through summary dashboards for web and mobile.

Right away you can view account balances, spending compared to plans, net worth trends, upcoming bills, savings goals, investment performance and more.

These high-level dashboards allow busy users to stay on pulse financially in seconds. Yet you can still drill into any area for details.

Configuring Your Personalized Settings

While Simplifi comes pre-loaded with default spending categories and account types, you can customize these to your personal finances.

Configure spending categories like “Groceries” or “Dining Out” to match how you actually spend. Tailor account types to your specific financial mix of checking, loans, investments and so on.

This customization means the insights Simplifi generates reflect your real-world finances. As the saying goes “garbage in, garbage out” so smart setup pays dividends long-term.

Easy Account Connectivity for All Your Data

Simplifi allows you to connect accounts across over 14,000 financial institutions to aggregate data automatically. Whether you have accounts with mainstream banks, credit unions, brokers like Fidelity or cryptocurrency platforms, it can likely sync.

The quick and secure account connectivity makes getting started easy. Within minutes, your key financial data populates Simplifi for analysis instead of manually exporting and uploading statements.

This frictionless aggregation powers everything Simplifi can do by having all your essential data in a central hub.

Key Standout Features of Simplifi

Beyond its user-friendly design, Simplifi contains innovative capabilities that set it apart from other personal finance apps.

Intelligent Spending Plan Tools

What sets Simplifi’s budgeting methodology apart is its “spending plan” framework. This aims to look forward at potential cash flow instead of backward at strict spending limits.

A spending plan forecast income then subtracts out fixed expenses, planned periodic expenses (like holidays) and savings goals contributions.

The remainder is your discretionary spending ability for the month. This helps guide dynamic spending decisions based on the reality of each month.

The tool allows flexibility month-to-month while keeping your broader financial aims on track by assessing cash flow trends rather than micromanaging expenses.

Customizable Money Goals Tracker

Reaching savings milestones keeps financial plans motivating. That’s why Simplifi contains a Money Goals tracker.

You can create multiple savings targets like an emergency fund, down payment, vacation getaway or early retirement. Define the goal amount and timeline.

Simplifi’s goals tool estimates future monthly contributions needed to stay on track. You can track actual monthly progress to accelerate reaching your milestone.

Seeing your money grow towards targets, whether short or long-term, becomes a tangible way to hone financial skills and hit key markers.

Powerful Investment Monitoring Capabilities

Simplifi recently upgraded investment tracking abilities for more robust monitoring.

You can connect investment accounts across popular platforms to automatically sync holdings, balances and performance data.

It provides at-a-glance views of returns over time plus news and price changes for individual stocks. You can even see details of dividends, buys/sells and fees.

While it doesn’t offer advisory capabilities, these investment reporting features help better understand asset allocation and progress.

For those with investment accounts, Simplifi brings portfolio transparency and insights together with other financial data in one unified platform.

How Does Simplifi Stack Up Against the Competition?

Simplifi competes against other popular personal finance apps, so how does it compare? We stack it against two top alternatives.

Simplifi vs. Mint – Which is Better?

Mint is possibly Simplifi’s closest rival having also aggregated finances and budgeting capabilities.

However, there are some key differences:

• Cost: Mint has a free version with ads while Simplifi costs $47.88 annually. However, Simplifi comes ad-free.

• Design: Simplifi contains more visualizations for at-a-glance insights. Its interface feels more modern and intuitive.

• Budgeting Approach: Mint allows granular category-based budget setting. But Simplifi focuses more on overall cash flow flexibility.

• Investments: Simplifi has beefed up investment tracking abilities while Mint offers little depth.

Overall Simplifi justifies its price with better design, unique budgeting methodology and richer investment features compared to Mint. It feels more modern while Mint’s free tier appeals if you want basic money management without spending.

Simplifi vs. You Need a Budget (YNAB)

For strict budgeters, You Need a Budget (YNAB) is a popular alternative. How does it stack up against Simplifi?

Key differences include:

• Methodology: YNAB heavily focuses on zero-based budgeting and every dollar having a purpose. Simplifi looks more holistically at cash flow trends.
• User Experience: Simplifi likely appeals more to average consumers given its simpler interface, while YNAB suits die-hard budgeters.
• Account Aggregation: Simplifi automatically pulls in transaction data while YNAB needs manual import for tracking.
• Cost: Interestingly Simplifi is cheaper annually at $47.88 versus $84 for YNAB.

Overall YNAB suits those wanting a stricter budgeting framework at the expense of user experience. Meanwhile, Simplifi gives wider financial management with more automation.

The Downsides and Potential Limitations

While Simplifi contains excellent capabilities, no app is perfect. It helps to consider a few downsides based on your needs.

Subscription Fee, But Worth the Price?

Unlike some competitors, Simplifi isn’t free but rather costs $47.88 annually. For infrequent financial work, this may deter some users from using another free alternative.

However, others argue Simplifi justifies the price through actionable insights, ad-free experience and security of data. For regular financial work, it likely offers a lot of value and capabilities versus free apps.

But the fee still prohibits some user demographics like students on tight budgets. Evaluate if consistent use would warrant the price tag.

Advanced Users May Want More Complexity

One knock against Simplifi is it lacks robust functionality seen in old-school desktop applications like Microsoft Money or Quicken.

While Simplifi nails delivering an easy, attractive interface, power users may find limitations.

For example, you can’t run extremely detailed reports and analytics across years of granular transactional data like desktop tools allow.

So evaluate if you need enterprise-grade financial number crunching or easy summaries for decision making before choosing Simplifi.

Limited Credit Score Insights

One feature common in other personal finance apps but missing from Simplifi is credit score tracking and analysis.

Simplifi focuses heavily on daily spending habits, cash flow trends, and reaching money goals over evaluating credit decisions.

For those wanting a single app to also track credit scores or get borrowing advice, other options like Credit Karma provide more complete personal finance guidance.

Conclusion: Who is Simplifi Good For? Our Final Take.

Simplifi manages to balance comprehensive financial aggregation and intelligent money management with an accessible interface.

It excels at delivering digestible visibility across your holistic financial life alongside tools to hone spending and savings strategy over time.

The app best suits mainstream consumers who want convenient, actionable money guidance versus advanced analytics power users or strict budget sticklers may demand.

If you regularly feel overwhelmed by scattered financial accounts and lack cohesive plans, Simplifi rights the ship. Its unique hybrid approach fills a gap between basic expense trackers and complex accounting software.

For an individual getting started taking control of their finances or a family looking to align plans, Simplifi hits the sweet spot with the right blend of automation, customization, and financial best practices guidance.

Ultimately the 30-day free trial lets you experience Simplifi’s capabilities firsthand at no cost. The time and stress it saves could quickly offset the reasonable subscription expense with better financial habits established.

Give Simplifi’s holistic and user-friendly take on personal finance a spin to see if it meets your needs!

Frequently Asked Questions About Simplifi

Is Simplifi the same as Quicken?

No, Simplifi is made by Quicken but operates as its own separate product and service tailored specifically for easy online personal financial management.

Can Simplifi replace my budgeting spreadsheet?

Potentially yes – Simplifi’s automated transaction tracking, cash flow analysis tools, and ability to set spending plans and savings goals may provide more convenient, holistic capabilities compared to manual spreadsheets.

What happens after Simplifi’s 30-day free trial?

After 30 days, Simplifi costs $47.88 annually and will charge your payment method on file unless you cancel beforehand during the trial period.

Can multiple people use one Simplifi account?

Yes, Simplifi allows account sharing so for example spouses can access the same financial data through shared logins without needing multiple subscriptions.

Is a Simplifi subscription renewable?

Yes, after your first year Simplifi will automatically renew annually by charging the subscription fee again to your payment method on file unless canceled beforehand.