What happened to Mint
Intuit announced Mint's shutdown in late 2023. Existing users were nudged toward Credit Karma — also owned by Intuit — with a "your data will come with you" promise.
What actually came with you: your balances, some categorization, and a much more aggressive credit-card-recommendation UI. What didn't come with you: a real budget tool, custom categories that worked, and the slim "this is just for me" feel that made Mint loved in the first place.
"I came to Credit Karma to budget. Now my homepage is six credit cards I 'pre-qualify' for. This is not the same product."
Why Credit Karma isn't a real Mint replacement
It's worth being precise here. Credit Karma is a free product because it sells leads to lenders. When you log in, the homepage is optimized to convert you into a credit card or loan applicant, because that's how Intuit makes money on it.
Mint had the same business model. The difference is that Mint at least tried to also be a budget tool. Credit Karma's "budgeting" section is an afterthought tacked onto an ad platform.
None of this is evil. But it means that if you came to Mint to budget, Credit Karma is not what you wanted. You wanted a tool that helps you — not one that helps advertisers reach you.
The Mint replacement landscape
Since 2024, a lot of people have shopped around. The usual contenders:
- Monarch Money — closest in spirit to Mint, but $99/year. Cloud-based.
- Copilot — beautiful UI, $95/year. Mac/iOS only. Cloud-based.
- YNAB — envelope budgeting cult favorite, $109/year. Steep learning curve. Cloud-based.
- Empower (formerly Personal Capital) — free, but the business model is funneling you into wealth management calls.
- Spreadsheets — free, infinite flexibility, but you have to build everything.
- Centsai — $10 once. Lives on your device. No cloud, no upsells, no calls.
Centsai vs. Credit Karma (and the rest)
| Centsai | Credit Karma | Monarch | Copilot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $10 once | "Free" | $99/yr | $95/yr |
| How they make money | You pay $10 | Credit-card & loan leads | Subscription | Subscription |
| Data stored locally | Yes | No | No | No |
| Built primarily as a budget tool | Yes | No — credit / loan marketplace | Yes | Yes |
| Shows you ads / recommendations | Never | Constantly | No | No |
| Works offline | Yes | No | No | No |
| Cross-platform (incl. Linux/ChromeOS) | Yes | Web | Web only | Mac/iOS only |
The privacy point most people don't think about
When you connect Mint, Credit Karma, Monarch, or Copilot to your bank, you're authorizing a third-party aggregator (usually Plaid) to fetch your full transaction history. That data then sits in their cloud — and in the connected app's cloud — indefinitely.
That's a lot of dossier on you. Where you eat, who you pay rent to, what subscriptions you have, what doctor you go to, what time you bought coffee. All of it sitting on someone else's hard drive, attached to your email address.
Centsai doesn't auto-sync with your bank. You import a CSV (about 2 minutes a week) or log transactions manually. In exchange, your data never leaves your device. For most people, that's a fair deal — especially at $10 once instead of $100/year forever.
Who should pick Centsai
You want a Mint replacement that's actually about you, not about selling you a credit card. You don't want a subscription. You don't want your transaction history sitting in someone's database. You'd rather spend two minutes a week importing CSVs than spend $100/year for the privilege of being marketed to.
Who shouldn't pick Centsai
If your dealbreaker is automatic bank syncing, stick with Monarch or Copilot. If you want envelope budgeting, YNAB is the gold standard. If you have a complex investment portfolio, look at Empower. Centsai is for the person who wants a clean, private dashboard — not a hub for every financial product in their life.
Get the Mint replacement that replaces Mint
One file. $10. Lifetime access. 30-day refund.
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