Personal Finance Sites: Reviews

Updated April 2010

There are countless websites out there promising to help you manage your finances. To determine the most reliable and easy to use sites, ConsumerSearch editors polled finance and tech experts, who have tried out these sites for themselves. Experts say security and customer support are important factors and include them in their reviews. User feedback is scarce, but we did find lively forum discussions, mainly about customer service.

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Best personal finance website

Mint.com

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Mint.com gets more recommendations in reviews than any other personal finance website, bolstered by the fact that it was acquired by competitor Intuit in late 2009. Intuit's well-liked Quicken Online is being phased out,… expandand some of its features will eventually be incorporated into Mint, such as the ability to add cash and other transactions manually. Mint.com can track bank, credit card, brokerage and retirement accounts as well as loans. Mint works by importing data from a user's financial accounts together in one location (called account aggregation) by logging onto users' account sites, downloading the data and updating it daily. The site creates reports and sends out alerts by email or text message, and its iPhone app has won awards. However, reviewers say that what chiefly sets Mint.com apart from other online finance software is its Ways to Save feature, which suggests less expensive vendors for services consumers already use, or savings vehicles with better interest rates. Despite the fact that Mint.com may earn money when you sign up for these offers, most users say they are genuinely useful. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Moneywatch.com: Kristof tries out five personal finance sites, writes a fairly detailed review of each and rates each one on a scale of 1 to 5.

About.com: Elmblad gives Mint.com an overall score of about 4 out of 5.

CBSNews.com: CNET's Rafe Needleman reviews five personal finance sites, with a focus on how each tries to help users set goals or save money.

PCMag.com: Mint.com is once again named a PCMag.com Editor's Choice in 2009 in this follow-up review.

CNET: This review compares several financial websites.

ConsumerReports.org: ConsumerReports.org provides very brief reviews of four personal finance sites, including Mint.com.

SramanaMitra.com: Guest reviewers Charles Bush and Kathy Hwang review Mint.com along with other finance websites and rate the sites based on how well they perform in four areas: financial forecasting, education, support groups and whether they have a scorecard feature that lets users know if they are meeting financial goals.

Kiplinger.com: This excellent comparative review provides detailed looks at free finance software websites Mint.com, Wesabe.com and Geezeo.

CNNMoney.com: This comparative review rates four free personal finance websites.

Basic personal finance site for tracking shared expenses

Buxfer.com

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Like Mint.com, Buxfer.com can automatically aggregate accounts, or you can choose to upload data manually, which means you don't have to provide Buxfer with the login information for your financial accounts. Reviewers… expandpraise its ability to create simple budgets. What sets Buxfer.com apart is that you can track group spending for people who live or travel together or otherwise share expenses. It creates IOUs, and group members can pay one another from the Buxfer website using Amazon Payments. Basic members can track up to five accounts for free; unlimited memberships cost about $3 to $4 per month. Buxfer.com provides mobile access in a variety of ways, including an iPhone interface and Twitter. Besides IOUs, Buxfer tracks banking, credit card and investment accounts, but not loans or mortgages. That's why reviewers say it is best suited to college students and young people with basic financial profiles. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

CNET: This excellent review evaluates and compares five financial management sites, including Buxfer.com.

Kiplinger Personal Finance: Buxfer.com is included in this review of the six best budgeting sites.

GenXFinance.com: Lauren Fairbanks praises Buxfer.com's simple layout and notes that Buxfer allows users to set up budgets, add tags (which function as categories) to transactions, receive an email if they overspend their budget in any category and receive weekly reports by email or text.

PCMag.com: Buxfer.com and Mint.com are included in the finance category of PCMag.com's best free software of 2010.

Moneywatch.com: Kristof tries out five personal finance sites, writes a fairly detailed review of each and rates each one on a scale of 1 to 5.

More info at Buxfer.com

Personal finance site with community features

Wesabe.com

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Wesabe.com provides only basic reports and tracks only banking and credit card accounts, but it offers some unique features, namely social networking, that reviewers praise. Like Buxfer.com, it doesn't require automatic… expandaccount aggregation (though that is an option), meaning you don't have to give out the login information for your financial accounts. Wesabe.com doesn't automatically categorize transactions; it lets users assign tags that function as categories -- they're used to budget and track expenditures. User tags generate money-saving tips from others in the social network. You can also provide your own tips to other users, and join groups of people with similar goals who support one another. Another feature reviewers like is the ability to import transactions from desktop financial software like Quicken. For those who want to set goals and save money, and want a strong community to help them do so, Wesabe.com is a good fit, experts say, especially if your financial picture is relatively simple. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

About.com: This single-product review is well worth reading for its detailed description of how the social networking features of a Wesabe.com account work: you can create your own web page where you post your goals and savings tips for other users to see; subscribe to other users' goals and tips and receive them via an RSS feed; join groups where others with similar goals share information and cheer one another on; and more.

Moneywatch.com: Kristof tries out five personal finance sites, writes a fairly detailed review of each and rates each one on a scale of 1 to 5.

CNET: This review compares five financial management sites.

SramanaMitra.com: Consultants Charles Bush and Kathy Hwang review six personal finance sites and rate them based on how well they perform in four areas: future forecasting, education, support groups and a scorecard feature that lets users know how well they are doing in meeting financial goals.

CNNMoney.com: This comparative review rates four free personal finance websites.

Slate.com: This comparative review is based on hands-on testing and includes both desktop and web-based personal finance applications.

Kiplinger.com: This excellent comparative review provides detailed looks at free sites Mint.com, Wesabe.com, Geezeo.com and Buxfer.com.

GenXFinance.com: According to Lauren Fairbanks, Wesabe.com offers basic financial management tools, but also provides a useful online community.

Mvelopes.com *Est. $130 per year

2 picks including: About.com, The Wall Street Journal…

Yodlee MoneyCenter Free

2 picks by top review sites.

Thrive Free

1 pick by top review sites.