Quicken outperforms Monarch as the only personal finance platform
that manages all your money in one place, with predictive insights & proactive
guidance.
While Monarch only shows you where your money went, Quicken reveals where it's going. Get predictive cash flow forecasts, spending alerts before you overspend, and make smarter financial decisions.
See where you stand and what it’ll take to get there. Quicken’s Retirement Planner helps you model scenarios, track progress, and make smarter moves toward the future you want.
Manage business and personal finances all in one platform. No more switching between apps or spreadsheets. Quicken Business & Personal is a complete view of cash flow, taxes, investments & more.
You get proven financial technology plus something Monarch doesn’t offer: real human support through free phone and chat assistance, plus expert guided onboarding to get you started off right.
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 Quicken Simplifi
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 Monarch
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Pricing |
MUCH more for less. $71.88/year (5.99/mo)
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More expensive for less capability. $99.99/year (8.33/mo)
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Financial foresight |
Proactive notifications, insights, scenario planning, & personalized watchlists |
Financial hindsight: tracking and aggregation features tell you only what happened, not what to do next |
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Cash flow |
Spot opportunities & risks before they hit with predictive cash flow and see how balances change with upcoming income, bills, & subscriptions |
No cash flow projection, just past cash flow tracking |
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Budgeting |
Spending Plan can be customized based on budgeting preferences so you know what’s left to spend, save & invest |
Traditional category-based budgeting. |
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Reports |
Comprehensive and customizable reports |
Limited reports and customization options |
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Investment |
Analysis tools like performance & balance charts, holding & transaction tracking & a personalized news feed |
Only tracks holdings and allocations, with limited performance analysis |
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Retirement |
Build and explore different scenario projections |
No retirement planning |
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Taxes |
Built-in schedules A & B, with export to tax programs |
No tax reports |
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Watchlists |
Custom watchlists track & monitor areas of spending by category, payees, or tags. Includes interactive graphs, monthly averages, and projections. |
No spending watchlists |
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Customizable transactions |
Custom categories, tags, flags and more to easily track & manage spending
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Can’t create custom categories, only sub-categories. Plus, you can’t modify pending transactions.
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Support |
Free phone and chat support, plus guided expert onboarding
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Email help only
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$2.
99
/month
Billed annually
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Quicken Simplifi
Mobile
Web
Forward-looking & guided insights to make smarter financial decisions
See your entire financial life in one simple, comprehensive app
Access real human support with expert onboarding and ongoing help
Quicken Business & Personal
Mobile
Web
Have a small business or freelance income?
Why should I choose Quicken over Monarch?
Monarch only helps you track your money. Quicken helps you track your money with the analytical depth and forward-looking insights you need to optimize your financial future. Quicken gives you a complete picture of your personal finances in real time — all in one app. While Monarch helps you track spending and budgets, Quicken goes further with dynamic spending plans, projected cash flows, investment performance tracking, and a built-in retirement planner. Backed by Quicken’s decades of expertise, Quicken is designed not just to manage today’s money, but to help you plan for tomorrow.
What are the main differences between Quicken and Monarch?
Both apps provide budgeting and expense tracking, but Quicken is designed to be more forward-looking. With proactive spending plans, cash flow projections, retirement planning, and integrated investment performance tracking, Quicken helps you understand not just where your money has been, but where it’s going.
Why is Quicken’s budgeting capability better than Monarch’s?
Quicken’s budgeting is dynamic and proactive. It automatically builds a monthly spending plan, updates in real time as you spend, shows what’s safe to spend after bills and goals, and links directly to your long-term cash flow and savings outlook. Monarch offers customization, but Quicken delivers the extra layer of foresight — projecting how today’s choices impact your financial future.
What insights and reporting does Quicken offer that Monarch doesn’t?
Both apps provide helpful reporting, but Quicken is unique in how it ties reporting to future outcomes. Real-time customizable dashboards show spending trends, projected cash flow, investment performance, and retirement outlook all in one place. That way, you don’t just see what happened — you can see what’s ahead.
How does Quicken’s investment performance tracking compare to Monarch’s?
Quicken integrates investment tracking and performance metrics such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWR) into your overall financial plan. You can monitor balances, allocation, and performance side-by-side with your budget, spending plan, and retirement savings. While Monarch also tracks investments, Quicken makes them part of a holistic, forward-looking view of your finances.
What support and resources does Quicken offer that Monarch doesn’t?
Quicken gives you free chat and in-person support from live experts, access to a large community of Quicken You, and resources built on decades of financial expertise. Along with real human support, you also get guidance and tools that project your financial future — so you’re never left guessing if you’re on track.
Which provides better value: Quicken or Monarch?
Quicken gives you more forward-looking tools — including spending plans, cash flow projections, investment tracking, and retirement planning. With Quicken, you’re not just tracking your money, you’re optimizing your financial future.
#1 best-selling with 20+ million customers over 4 decades.
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Rest assured, we’ll never sell your personal data.
Get a full refund if you cancel for any reason in the first 30 days.