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Is Free Personal Finance Software Really All It’s Cracked Up to Be?
In the world of home based financial planning, there are hundreds of different programs to choose from. Most will set you back around fifty bucks, but there are a few that claim to be totally free personal finance software titles. When all of their contemporaries are charging for their wealth of financial tools though, free personal finance software seems to have placed itself in a situation to be completely outgunned by the pay-for programs in terms of financial planning possibilities.
The most popular free personal finance software is currently AceMoney Lite. This program is the less robust counterpart to the financial planner, AceMoney. While the programmers did remove some of the features from the free version, it still manages your money better than you would be able to do with a pen and paper. AceMoney Lite allows you to track your income and spending on a simple spreadsheet, allows you to budget your money accordingly, lets you track your investments and bank statements and pay your bills online. All of these tools come backed with recommendations from a variety of web based review sites, which all rate the free program very highly.
Perhaps you have already tried AceMoney Lite and found it to not be the free personal finance software you were looking for. Lucky for you, many of the big guns in the financial software world allow you to try their product for free for a certain time period. Quicken, for example, lets you tinker around with the full version of Quicken Online (Editorial Comment: This article has been edited for clarity to indicate the 60-day trial is for Quicken Online) for sixty days.
Much the same principal applies to shareware programs like Easy Money. You simply download the program, use it for awhile to see if you like it, then either delete it or keep it. Of course, it you keep it you have to pay for it, but at least you had the option to give it a spin for awhile. During the time you are testing it out, shareware programs are just like free personal finance software – you do not pay a dime.
Posted by Laura Nelson-Smith
I respectfully submit this correction: Quicken does NOT offer a free trial, but a 60-day money back guarantee. From Quicken’s refund terms on Quicken.com:
All Quicken products have an unconditional 60-day money back satisfaction guarantee…. You may return these products to Intuit for any reason within this time frame and receive a full refund of the purchase price less shipping and handling fees. Once the product falls outside of the defined 60-day satisfaction guarantee period, Intuit cannot guarantee that the product refund will be honored.
( This policy does not apply to any Intuit resource guides, Education/Lab packs, and bulk software orders. )
Thanks Shelley. We have looked into it and there is indeed a 60-day for the online version, but understand the text above was confusing and have edited to clarify.