Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

If there was one piece of desktop software that I think the world definitely needs an alternative for it's Quicken. I've got about 15 years of my financial life in my Quicken file, and I probably have used the software at least twice a week, religiously, during that time period. I've grown so dependent on it in a way I've never grown dependent on any other software. If it were to stop functioning tomorrow, I'd be screwed.

It's funny because I'm sure I don't even use like 95% of Quicken. I don't use the budget, or the bill paying, or the charts and reports, or the tax crap, or the retirement planning or all the other various bells and whistles Intuit has decided to bolt on to its vast menu structure over the years. I use it as a checkbook register and as a way to plan the month so I don't overdraw my checking account (which would probably happen monthly if I didn't have Quicken), and to download credit card transactions weekly to watch for fraud. That's it. Surely those two functions are the MVP for any alternative.

There is no way in hell I am going to upload 15 years of financial history to "the cloud". Not a snowball's chance in hell. And yes, I've tried GnuCash. It's just not as good. Clunky UI, double-entry accounting, Yuck.

I use Moneydance for my business, and I like it quite a bit. It's geared towards personal finance more than small business, and the double-entry accounting stays out of the way if you want it to, though it was a selling point for me. It has some functionality to auto-download bank/CC statements, but none of my banks are supported (except for US Bank which charges), so I download and import monthly, which isn't that big of a hassle.

Me, too! Moneydance is stable (no UI churn) and effective. I was able to import all my Quicken transactions and I can do online banking (downloading transactions).

The day I got off Quicken was a very good day for me. I had developed real hatred of the software and the company.

What is super sensitive that you couldn't export to something like Mint? They don't store your account numbers on their cloud after you've completed the link.

Not a compelling argument, imo. Seems like almost every major website is getting hacked, and finance sites are probably a big target.

It doesn't work like Quicken. It's too limited. Won't prevent you from bouncing a check, for one.

I keep my Quicken files on Dropbox so they sync just fine. I am also protected from data loss due to versioning. I also like the idea that the company storing the data is separate from the company that makes the software, so I can be assured that my accounts cannot be data-mined and everything works exactly the way I want it to.

> I use it as a checkbook register and as a way to plan the month so I don't overdraw my checking account (which would probably happen monthly if I didn't have Quicken)

Why are you running your financial life so close to the edge? Keep two months' spending as buffer in your checking account. That's what I do. The mental load saved of not having to worry about overdrawing my account is completely worth it.

You might be interested in You Need A Budget (YNAB classic, the non cloud version)

I've used both. YNAB is not even close to a replacement for Quicken.

I've also used both, and I agree: Quicken sucks. The easiest way to explain the difference in fundamental approach between Quicken and YNAB is this: Quicken looks backward, and YNAB looks forward.

Nothing listed athttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_sof... does what you want?

Same reasoning here. Like my financial data local. I also use own toolset using ledger cli for reporting and entry. People developed tools to convert CSV from banks to ledger format.

Using text only and my own toolchain I can setup how I want. Get reporting how I want it. You just need some time for the initial startup.

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