CountAbout (countabout.com) is a personal finance and budgeting software platform founded in 2012 by CountAbout Corporation, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. It was built to answer a question that millions of Quicken and Mint users have asked after years of paying escalating subscription prices, tolerating advertisements, and watching their financial data get used for purposes they never explicitly agreed to: is there a simpler, cheaper, genuinely private alternative that does what budget software is actually supposed to do — help you understand your money and make better decisions with it?

CountAbout's answer is a web-based personal finance platform that is subscription-supported, completely ad-free, and explicitly committed to never selling, sharing, or mining user financial data. The platform generates revenue only through subscription fees, which means its incentives are entirely aligned with the user's interests: build a product people want to pay for, support it well, and earn renewals through quality rather than data monetization.

The Quicken and Mint Migration Problem — And CountAbout's Solution

The single most important thing that differentiates CountAbout from virtually every other personal finance software alternative is its Quicken and Simplifi import capability. This is not a partial or approximate migration — CountAbout directly imports QFX, QIF, and OFX files exported from Quicken and Simplifi, bringing over complete account histories, categories, payees, and decades of transaction data in a single import process, with step-by-step migration guides provided on the platform. For longtime Quicken users who have built years or decades of financial history in that application and assumed they were effectively locked in, CountAbout's migration capability represents a genuine exit route — one that preserves everything they have documented rather than requiring a painful fresh start.

The importance of this capability became particularly acute after Intuit discontinued Mint in 2024, leaving millions of Mint users without a home for their financial tracking history. CountAbout was one of the few platforms that could absorb Mint data intact, and the resulting wave of Mint refugees added significantly to CountAbout's user base during that period. CountAbout also imports data from Simplifi, extending its compatibility to users of Quicken's newer platform.

Core Features — What CountAbout Actually Does

CountAbout is a web-based application that runs in any browser with no software to install, and it offers full-featured iOS and Android mobile apps with real-time sync. The platform's feature set covers the full workflow of personal financial management:

Automatic Bank Sync — CountAbout Premium connects automatically to 12,500+ financial institutions including banks, credit unions, credit card issuers, investment accounts, and retirement accounts (401(k) and similar). Transactions are downloaded automatically, making it easy to review all activity across all accounts in one place without manually entering each transaction. The Premium tier also connects to investment account balances, giving users a complete net worth picture across their full financial footprint.

Projected Register Balance — one of CountAbout's most distinctive features is the Projected Register Balance, which lets users see their future account balance on any specific date by factoring in scheduled recurring transactions, upcoming bills, and expected income. This forward-looking view of cash flow is a practical tool for avoiding overdrafts, planning large purchases, and understanding the downstream impact of financial decisions before making them.

Custom Categories — CountAbout supports unlimited custom categories that can be created, renamed, merged, or deleted to match any user's actual spending patterns and financial priorities. Unlike apps that impose rigid category systems that require users to adapt their thinking to the software's structure, CountAbout adapts to the user. Categories persist across years and can be applied consistently across imported historical data, so the categorization work a user does once continues to pay off in every report and budget comparison thereafter.

Budgeting Tools — the budget builder is straightforward rather than complex, allowing users to set spending targets by category and track real-time progress throughout the month. CountAbout supports both zero-based and category-based budgeting approaches, and budgets are designed to accumulate progress year-round rather than resetting at the end of every month — a meaningful difference for users tracking longer-term financial goals like debt payoff or a savings target.

FIRE Tracking Widget — a standout feature for users pursuing financial independence, the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) tracking widget tracks monthly expenses against passive income and projects the user's financial independence date. This is a feature that users of other budgeting apps typically have to calculate manually with spreadsheets, and CountAbout's built-in implementation makes it accessible to anyone using the platform.

Receipt and Document Attachments — users can attach receipts, invoices, and supporting documents to any individual transaction, making CountAbout practical for tax preparation, warranty documentation, and business expense tracking. This feature is available as an add-on at $15/year and works particularly well for freelancers and sole proprietors who need to document business expenses for Schedule C or Schedule E reporting.

Invoicing Add-On — small business owners and freelancers can add the invoicing module ($10/year additional) to create, send, and track invoices directly within CountAbout, integrating billing with the same platform they use for financial tracking.

Multi-User Access — every CountAbout plan includes the ability to invite partners, family members, or bookkeepers by email, with each invited user receiving their own secure login and either Full Access (view and modify) or Read Only (view-only, enforced server-side). There is no additional cost for multi-user access and no limit on the number of invited users.

Pricing — The Cheapest Legitimate Budget Software Available

CountAbout's pricing, which was updated effective April 1, 2026, is among the lowest in the personal finance software category:

Basic Plan at $19.99/year covers manual transaction entry, QIF file import from banks, customizable categories and budgets, custom reporting, recurring transactions, the Projected Register Balance feature, Quicken/Simplifi import, and multi-user access. Basic is the right plan for users who are comfortable manually reviewing and categorizing their transactions and do not need automatic bank sync.

Premium Plan at $54.99/year adds automatic transaction downloading from 12,500+ financial institutions via Yodlee, making it a fully automated financial tracking system. Premium is the recommended plan for users who want their bank and credit card transactions to appear automatically without manual entry or file downloads.

Both plans are dramatically cheaper than comparable alternatives: YNAB costs $109/year, Quicken Simplifi costs $47.88/year, and Quicken Classic ranges from $47.88 to $119.88/year. Neither YNAB nor Quicken offers the complete Quicken/Simplifi import capability, the FIRE tracking widget, or the data privacy guarantee that CountAbout provides.

Active Military — Free Basic Plan Permanently

CountAbout offers the Basic plan free permanently to active-duty military members, with no trial period and no credit card required — a standing program that Quicken does not match.

45-Day Free Trial — No Credit Card Required

All new CountAbout accounts start with a 45-day free trial of the full Premium feature set, including automatic bank sync, document attachments, and invoicing. No credit card is required to start the trial. At the end of the 45 days, users choose between the Basic and Premium annual plans or cancel at no cost.

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