Category: 4. Simplifi by quicken review

At $2.99 per month (paid annually) or $3.99 monthly, is Simplifi worth it? There are good arguments either way.

Some people may prefer to save by choosing a free alternative like Mint or Personal Capital. Others are happy to make a small payment to avoid ads and upselling and to get better customer service. If you are part of the second group, Simplifi is an excellent option.

• Mint: Mint is a large and well-known money tracking app owned by Quicken’s old company Intuit. It’s free and supported by ads.
• Personal Capital: Personal Capital is a free money tracking app with a focus on investments. Or pay a fee for investment management services.
• Lunch Money: Lunch Money is a newer financial app designed for people who want a numbers-driven advertising-free money tracking and budgeting experience.

Highlights	Personal Capital	Intruit mint	Quicken
Rating	9.5/10	8.5/10	8/10
Budgeting	False	True	False
Investment Monitoring	False	True	False
Retirement Planning	True	False	False
Bill Payment	False	False	False
Manual Entries	False	True	True
Bill Management	False	True	False

Simplifi uses bank-level security and encryption and I had no qualms handing over my login information. Simplifi connects to your banks and stores data using 256-bit encryption. I think that not even the NSA could break into your financial data with that level of security.

 Pros

• Easy to use: The menus and tools are easy to understand, navigate and use even if you’re not a financial pro.
• Helpful financial info: Information (including spending plans, upcoming bills and goals) help you stay on track.
• No advertising or upselling: You won’t see any ads or product suggestions. Just your financial information and advice.

 Cons

• Subscription required: Unlike some competitors, there’s no free version. You’ll have to pay monthly or annually to use Simplifi after the free trial period.
• Room for improvement in some areas: Investment features are minimal. And there’s not much help for planning to payoff debt.

Customer service is available only to users who are logged into the Simplifi platform. You can reach customer service from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Pacific Time, seven days a week via a messaging system.

According to Simplifi, they respond to most questions within a few minutes. In my test, I initially got an answer from a bot, but it was easy to click a button to “talk to a person” for human customer service. An actual human answered in about one minute. He was pretty nice too, considering my question was, “I just wanted to see if you really responded in a few minutes.”

If you’re sold on the features and want to sign up for a free trial, this is the signup process:

1. Head to the Simplifi website or download the mobile app on your phone or tablet. Then just click the “start a free trial” button.
2. When you click to sign up, you’ll go through a simple set of onboarding steps where you enter your email, a password and billing information.
3. After you’re signed up, it’s time to connect your financial accounts to start taking advantage of what Simplifi has to offer.
4. It’s easier than signing up for a bank or other financial product but a little more complicated than signing up for a social network. Overall, the signup process is easy and earns a good review.

Simplifi gives you a free trial for 30 days before you’re billed. You enter your payment card information when signing up and need to cancel before the billing date to avoid a fee if you decide Simplifi isn’t for you.

Choose from two available subscription plans:

1. You can pay $3.99 per month
2. Or save money by paying $35.99 per year

The $35.99-per-year plan comes out to $2.99 per month, which is a fairly significant savings. If you’re going to sign up, that plan is a better deal.

Once signed up, you won’t pay any more than the subscription fee. And include as many financial accounts as you want, since there is no limit.

Based on the user experience and financial tools, Simplifi is best for people who want a clear overview of their money and to receive valuable tips to stay on target.

It’s best for people who don’t mind paying a little bit for an ad-free experience. This also improves the app’s privacy and security, as you’re not seeing suggestions from other companies based on your data.

If you are opposed to paying for a budgeting app, you’ll need to look elsewhere as this one requires a subscription fee after a free trial period. But for many people, going advertising-free and getting the features they want makes it worth the cost of $3.99 (or less) per month.

Every feature in Simplifi is straightforward and simple to use. To enjoy the full power of Simplifi, connect every possible financial account. Without complete data, your dashboard and reports are far less helpful.

Simplifi doesn’t work with Quicken data. It’s an independent app with its own database. You can’t currently import data from other apps. When you sign up at Simplifi, you’re starting from scratch with a clean slate.

Simplifi currently supports banks and accounts located only in the US. Sorry, international friends.

Simplifi has a decent list of features. Here are the main features to know about if you’re thinking about signing up:

• Account and transaction tracking: The most important area of Simplifi is the dashboard. Here you view accounts and balances, your current spending plan, recent transactions, upcoming bills and other valuable financial metrics. The transaction tab keeps track of every single time money moves in or out of your accounts. Or enter transactions manually.
• Spending plan: A nicer way of saying “budget,” the spending plan section tracks your expenses to a monthly plan. You choose your budget with suggestions based on recent income and expenses.
• Bill-tracking: A calendar and list of upcoming bills help you understand what’s coming due soon, so a recurring charge or withdrawal doesn’t blindside you.
• Financial reports: The financial reports section includes graphical breakdowns of your spending, income, net income, savings and a monthly summary. You can also track refunds from stores to make sure they actually send the refund to your card.
• Investment details: The investment details page brings in a big list of all investment holdings from connected accounts. It shows only balances and today’s price change. There’s room for improvement here.
• Savings goals: Savings goals allow you to track progress toward specific goals like an emergency fund, down payment or major purchase. This useful feature ties into your budget, so you remember to set aside funds for your goals.

When signing up for a new Simplifi account, you will be prompted to connect your bank and other financial accounts. Once securely connected, Simplifi slurps up your financial data from every connected account and aggregates it into one helpful dashboard.

You can track your net worth, income, total savings and store refunds, and set financial goals, among other features.

In my testing of the app, everything worked well. I never felt stuck or confused adding my bank and investment accounts or navigating the easy-to-understand menus and dashboards.

Simplifi by Quicken Features

Price	Min: $2.99, Max: $3.99, Term: month
Budgeting	True
Bill Payment	False
Investment Tracking	True
Access	Web Based, iOS, Android
Credit Score Monitoring	False
Bill Management	True
Retirement Planning	False
Tax Reporting	False
Reconcile Transactions	False
Custom Categories	False
Import QFX, QIF Files	False
Two-Factor Authentication	False
Online Synchronization	True