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Accounting Software Reviews
Updated January 2008
We found the most thorough and credible reviews for personal accounting software at PC World and CNet.com. Both cover the two main competitors -- Microsoft Money and Intuit's Quicken -- in great detail, but CNet's coverage is the most complete. We also found helpful feature comparisons at About.com. User reviews at Amazon.com are helpful in seeing the pros and cons of each package -- including upgrade trials and tribulations -- from a first hand perspective. Other reviews of personal accounting software, such as a write-up from Money magazine, do a decent job running down general program features, but stop short of a final judgment. Consumer Reports hasn't reviewed personal accounting software, and PC Magazine didn't have reviews for the 2008 versions of Money and Quicken at the time of our last visit. Epinions has too few user reviews to make it a worthwhile destination. While reviews all say these two competitors are almost equally matched, the vast majority choose 2008 Quicken (*est. $30 to $100, depending on version) as best again this year because Intuit has developed so many new aspects while continuing to significantly enhance existing features. Money (*est. $20 to $60, depending on version) still makes a strong showing, but many reviewers say that new features don't make this upgrade necessary. It also still lacks some of Quicken's tools, such as the very handy tagging feature, which allows you to group expenses together that Quicken introduced in 2008. Also, Quicken now lets you download transaction data from PayPal and connect to your iPhone. However,
reviewers note that Money continues to make enough improvements every year
to keep up, so Quicken will have to continue its innovative ways to stay on
top. If you are using a recent version of either program
and it's working well for you, experts say there's no need to change.
Still, you should check out the new apps every year and consider upgrading,
especially if what you're using now is three or more years old (developers
stop supporting software after three years). We say this because most users
(understandably) don't like the often buggy hassle of upgrading -- we even
found several users who wanted to keep using their older software, but were
forced to upgrade. For those trying out personal accounting software for the
first time, Quicken is the solid favorite, though.
... Continued
Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
As you can see, Quicken beats Money in 2008, but in almost every review we found, the margin of victory is slim.
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© 2008. ConsumerSearch, Inc. A service from 
, a part of The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
ConsumerSearch and ConsumerSearch.com are registered trademarks of ConsumerSearch, Inc. Other trademarks or service marks on this site are the property of their respective owners. ConsumerSearch is not sponsored by any source reviewed, and we accept no consideration or payment for including, excluding, or ranking any reviews, products or services in our reports.
* Pricing information is approximate as of the time this report was written and is based on observed market selling prices and/or list prices. Actual selling prices may differ.
