Bill Tracking & Household Finance

Mint shut down January 2024. Every "best of" article from 2023 is wrong. The 2026 household-finance landscape has consolidated around a paid-SaaS top tier (Rocket Money, Monarch, Copilot, YNAB) and a thriving OSS bottom (Actual Budget, Firefly III, GnuCash). For the self-hosted side see Self-Hosted Personal Apps; for subscription-tracking specifically see Subscription Management; for utility tracking see Utility Tracking; for the smart-home energy layer see Energy & Power Monitoring.

The Mint successors (paid hosted)

• ★ ★ Rocket Money — paid + free; Truebill rebrand; the most-used Mint replacement. Aggregates accounts (Plaid), categorizes spending, tracks bills + subscriptions, has a bill negotiation service. Free tier shows the basics; Premium ($4-12/mo, user-set) unlocks unlimited budgets, "smart savings," and faster sync.
• ★ Monarch Money — paid (~$15/mo or $100/yr); the post-Mint power-user pick in 2025-26. Joint accounts, robust budgeting, net-worth tracking, manual + Plaid accounts. No free tier beyond a trial. Loved by people who tried Rocket Money and bounced.
• Copilot Money — paid (~$13/mo or $95/yr); macOS / iOS only; gorgeous UI; younger user base. Account aggregation via Plaid + manual accounts. The aesthetic pick.
• PocketGuard — paid + free; "in my pocket" simple budgeting; smaller community.
• Empower Personal Dashboard (formerly Personal Capital) — free for the dashboard / net-worth view; paid wealth-management upsell. Best free net-worth tracker if you tolerate the upsell calls.
• Tiller Money — paid (~$79/yr); Google Sheets-based import + categorization. For people who want a spreadsheet, not an app.
• Lunch Money — paid + free trial; developer-friendly (good API, CSV import). Indie-built; self-hosted-adjacent.

Envelope budgeting

• ★ YNAB (You Need a Budget) — paid (~$15/mo or $109/yr); the envelope-budgeting incumbent. Strong methodology + community. No free tier; 34-day free trial. The right choice for "I want a financial discipline coach."
• ★ Actual Budget — free OSS; YNAB-shape envelope budgeting, self-host or local-only. The default OSS pick — see Self-Hosted Personal Apps.
  • https://github.com/actualbudget/actual
• Goodbudget — paid + free; envelope-based; older, paper-friendly methodology.
• EveryDollar (Ramsey) — paid + free; debt-snowball-flavored; works if you already follow Ramsey.

Free / OSS / self-host

• ★ Actual Budget — see above; the default OSS pick.
• ★ Firefly III — free OSS; full personal finance manager; double-entry; rich rule engine. Heavier than Actual but comprehensive.
  • https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii
• GnuCash — free OSS desktop; double-entry accounting; not pretty, very capable. Mobile companion app.
• HomeBank — free OSS desktop; lightweight; good charts.
• KMyMoney — free OSS desktop; KDE-flavored; mature.
• Beancount + Fava — free OSS plain-text accounting; Python; ledger-style. For the "I want my finances in git" people.
• Ledger / hledger — free OSS plain-text accounting; older; Haskell (hledger).
• Maybe Finance — community-revived after corporate closure; OSS. See Self-Hosted Personal Apps.

Bill due-date trackers (specifically)

• Rocket Money — bills + subscriptions in one tab.
• Prism Bills — free; bill-payment focused; aggregates from billers (not banks).
• Mint Bills — gone with Mint.
• Apple Wallet + bill PDFs — manual but reliable.
• Apple Reminders / Google Tasks recurring — for the bill-aware-but-app-fatigued.

What the 2024 Mint shutdown changed

• Plaid is the bottleneck. Most aggregators rely on Plaid; some banks (Chase, Capital One) intermittently break.
• Manual entry is back. Power users mix Plaid + manual; Monarch and Copilot are best at this.
• Bank apps got better. Many people post-Mint just use their bank's mobile app + a single budgeting tool.
• OSS interest spiked. Actual Budget downloads ~5x'd in 2024; Firefly III cloud-friendly hosts (PikaPods, Coolify) proliferated.

License / pricing snapshot

• Rocket Money: paid + free; freemium with bill-negotiation upsell.
• Monarch Money: paid only ($15/mo or $100/yr).
• Copilot Money: paid only (~$13/mo or $95/yr); macOS / iOS only.
• YNAB: paid only (~$15/mo or $109/yr).
• Empower: free dashboard; paid advisory upsell.
• Tiller: paid (~$79/yr).
• Actual, Firefly III, GnuCash, HomeBank, KMyMoney, Beancount, hledger: OSS, free.

Pick this if…

• Default Mint replacement, aggregation-first, free-ish: Rocket Money.
• Power-user post-Mint, willing to pay: Monarch Money.
• Aesthetic-driven Mac/iOS user: Copilot Money.
• Envelope methodology, premium experience: YNAB.
• Envelope methodology, OSS: Actual Budget.
• Net-worth tracking, free: Empower Personal Dashboard.
• Spreadsheet person: Tiller Money.
• Self-host, comprehensive: Firefly III.
• Plain-text-in-git accounting: Beancount + Fava (or hledger).
• Lightweight desktop OSS: HomeBank or GnuCash.