The deepest personal finance software for investors and small landlords, sold on first-year discounts that renew at full price, with bank downloads and updates that anger long-time users.
By Brand Verdicts research deskLast updated October 2026Finance tools
C+
6.6/10
Quality7.4
Value6.8
Service5.6
Policies7.6
Transparency6.0
CONSIDER
Scorecard
Why C+: Classic's investment and tax tools are unmatched and the 30-day refund covers renewals too. Introductory pricing, unreliable bank downloads and support complaints keep it in the middle of the pack.
Criterion
Score /10
Weight
Product quality
7.4
30%
Value
6.8
25%
Customer service
5.6
15%
Returns & policies
7.6
15%
Transparency
6.0
15%
Overall
6.6
derived
Overall is the weighted mean of the five rows, adjusted by a small slug-seeded offset so that brands never line up in a false staircase, and capped at 9.8. Full working on the Methodology page (v2.1).
Key findings
Every headline price is a first-year offer for new members: Simplifi shows $3.99 a month against $6.99, billed annually, renewing at the then-current rate.
The 30-day money-back guarantee runs from purchase and also from each auto-renewal date, so a forgotten renewal can be refunded if you act within a month.
If a Classic membership lapses, Deluxe and higher keep full view, edit and export of your data, but downloads, quotes, mobile sync and support stop. Starter turns read-only.
Trustpilot sits at 3.6 from about 85,000 reviews; the profile notes Quicken has not replied to negative reviews.
The most damaging one-star theme is data: updates that users say corrupted years of records, and bank downloads with debits and credits reversed or duplicated.
The product line
Quicken is the 40-year-old personal finance software brand, now run as Quicken Inc. from Menlo Park, California. It sells two families of product. Quicken Classic is desktop software for Windows and Mac that stores your data locally: Starter, Deluxe, Premier and Business & Personal, plus Family Enterprise for multiple entities. Classic is where the depth lives, with investment performance tracking, Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray on Windows, a Lifetime Planner, tax schedules and rental property tools. The cloud line runs in a browser and on phones: Quicken Simplifi for personal budgeting and investments, a cloud Quicken Business & Personal for freelancers and landlords, and LifeHub, a vault for wills, insurance policies and family documents. Everything is an annual subscription. It suits investors, retirees and small landlords who want detailed records. Casual budgeters have cheaper options.
Item verdicts
6 items. Each chip is a per-product call and can differ from the brand verdict.
Quicken Simplifi BUY
The cloud app for personal finance: a spending plan that shows what is left after bills, savings goals, projected cash flow up to a year ahead, investment tracking, a retirement planner and an AI assistant. It connects to more than 14,000 institutions. The site lists it at $3.99 a month for the first year, billed annually, against a regular $6.99. It is a good, cheaper alternative to YNAB for people who want a picture rather than a strict method. App Store reviewers report recurring bills missing from the plan and occasional balance mismatches.
StrengthClear spending plan and cash-flow projection at a low price
WeaknessFirst-year price nearly doubles at renewal
The mainstream desktop edition for Windows and Mac, with data stored on your own machine. It budgets with unlimited categories and tags, reconciles transactions, tracks investments and net worth, and includes debt-reduction tools and the Lifetime Planner. The pricing page lists it at $6.99 a month for the first year, billed annually; the regular rate was not displayed when we read it, which is itself a problem. If you stop paying, your data stays fully editable, but downloads and support stop. One-star reviews about corrupted files after updates mostly concern Classic, so keep backups.
StrengthLocal data that stays editable if you stop paying
WeaknessRenewal price not shown on the product page
Deluxe plus the investment tools that keep many users loyal for decades: IRR and ROI performance, a capital gains estimator, asset allocation, Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray on Windows only, a tax planner and bill pay to over 10,000 billers. The page shows $7.99 a month for the first year, billed annually, against $8.99. Few cloud products go this deep on investment records. For a retiree or active investor it is still the reference tool. Mac users should check feature lists carefully: some tools are Windows-only, and a reviewer notes the Mac version lags.
StrengthBest-in-class investment analysis in consumer software
The top desktop edition adds business and rental property tracking: separate business and personal cash flows, invoicing with billable hours, profit and loss reports and built-in Schedules C, E and F. It lists at $10.99 a month for the first year, billed annually, against $12.49. For a sole trader with a couple of rental units who already lives in Quicken, it saves running separate bookkeeping software. It is not accounting software, though, and anyone with employees, payroll or an accountant expecting standard books will outgrow it quickly.
StrengthPersonal, business and rental money in one file
WeaknessNot a substitute for real accounting software
The browser and mobile version of the above, built on Simplifi. It adds business income and expense tracking, unlimited invoices with Stripe online payments, mileage tracking, rental property tracking, a quarterly tax estimator and business tax schedules, and covers up to 10 businesses for one price. It lists at $4.99 a month for the first year, billed annually, against $8.99. That undercuts most freelancer bookkeeping apps. It is newer than the desktop edition and lacks Classic's investment depth, so landlords with large portfolios may still prefer the desktop product.
StrengthUp to 10 businesses and invoicing at a low price
WeaknessYounger product without Classic's investment tools
A secure vault for wills, trusts, insurance policies, IDs, Wi-Fi details and family memories, with sharing for relatives and required two-factor login. It lists at $1.99 a month for the first year, billed annually, against $3.99, and is offered in bundles with Simplifi and Classic. The idea is sound: one place a family can find the paperwork. But it sits outside Quicken's core strength, and a password manager with secure notes and file attachments, which many people already pay for, covers most of the same ground.
StrengthStructured place to store a family's key documents
WeaknessOverlaps with password managers people already own
Downloads and cloud apps; shipping fees on physical copies not refunded
Returns
30-day money-back guarantee from purchase or auto-renewal date; Bill Manager excluded
Warranty / guarantee
Data Access Guarantee: Deluxe and higher stay editable after membership lapses
Support
Phone and chat for sales; product support after sign-in; community forum
Payment options
Card or ACH, charged in full upfront; app-store billing for Simplifi
Subscription / cancellation
Annual; auto-renews at then-current price; cancel renewal in My Account
Values are short phrases taken from the brand's own pages at the time of the last update. "Not stated" means the desk could not find the policy in writing.
Watch-outs
Headline prices are first-year offers for new members only. Renewal is at the then-current rate, so budget for the higher figure, not the one in large type.
Several one-star reviews describe updates that corrupted or wiped years of Classic data. Keep independent backups before every update.
Bank downloads are a recurring complaint: duplicated transactions, reversed debits and credits, and connections that drop, according to Trustpilot and App Store reviewers.
What customers say
Quicken's Trustpilot profile shows a 3.6 from roughly 85,000 reviews, a much more divided spread than most finance apps, and Quicken has not replied to negative ones. Simplifi rates 4.5 on the US App Store from around 12,000 ratings.
Long-time Classic users praise the single view of every account and the depth of investment reporting, and some have used it for decades. Their complaints are just as rooted in that history: the move to annual subscriptions with prices that rise, interface changes that removed familiar controls, and Mac lagging Windows. The most serious reports involve data, with updates said to have corrupted years of records and bank downloads that duplicate or reverse transactions. Simplifi reviewers are happier, citing the flexible spending plan, though some find bills missing from the plan.
Compare against
YNAB
Pick this if you want a strict budgeting method and do not need investment analysis.
Monarch Money
Pick this if you want a modern cloud tracker with investments and household sharing.
Banktivity
Pick this if you are on a Mac and want desktop-grade investment tracking built for macOS.
Our call
For serious investors and small landlords, Classic Premier and Business & Personal still have no real equal, and the 30-day refund on renewals is fairer than most rivals offer. For everyone else, Simplifi is a decent budgeting app at a low first-year price. Budget for the renewal rate, keep your own backups, and expect to fix some downloaded transactions by hand. This is an assessment of software, not financial advice or tax advice. Verdict: CONSIDER.
Read quicken.com homepage, Classic and cloud pricing comparison pages and product pages for Deluxe, Premier, Simplifi and LifeHub in October 2026.
Read Quicken's refund terms, auto-renewal help article and subscription FAQ, including the Data Access Guarantee, in October 2026.
Read the Quicken support page for contact channels in October 2026.
Read Trustpilot reviews for quicken.com, overview and one-star filter, in October 2026.
Desk research only: the brand's own site and support pages plus published customer reviews. Nothing was purchased or tested by this site. Scored under Methodology v2.1.
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