When Intuit shut down Mint in March 2024, millions of people lost their primary budgeting tool overnight. Two years later, many Canadians are still looking for a replacement that works as well as Mint did — or better.
If you landed here after searching for "Mint alternative Canada," you are not alone. Here is an honest look at what is available and what works best for Canadians.
What happened to Mint
Mint was free, connected to your bank, and categorized your spending automatically. It was not perfect, but it was useful. Intuit shut it down to focus on Credit Karma, leaving a gap in the market that has not been fully filled.
The key thing Mint did well: it showed you where your money was going, without asking you to pay for it or learn a complicated system. Any good alternative needs to do the same.
What to look for in a Mint alternative
Before comparing apps, here is what actually matters:
- Canadian bank support — Can it connect to RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, EQ Bank, Tangerine, and credit unions?
- Cost — Mint was free. How much does the alternative cost?
- Ease of use — Mint was simple. If the replacement takes hours to learn, most people will not stick with it.
- Privacy — Mint required your bank login. Do you want to do that again?
- Budgeting features — Can you set budgets by category and track your progress?
The best Mint alternatives for Canadians
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple is the biggest name in Canadian fintech. Their app includes budgeting alongside investing, crypto, and trading.
Pros: Full-featured, bank sync works well, Canadian company, free tier available.
Cons: The budgeting feature is one small part of a much larger product. If you just want to track spending, the app can feel overwhelming. Their focus is on getting you to invest, not on helping you budget. Recent expansions into prediction markets and international payments suggest budgeting is not their priority.
Best for: People who already use Wealthsimple for investing and want everything in one app.
Price: Free tier with paid premium options.
KOHO
KOHO combines a prepaid Mastercard with budgeting features. You load money onto the card, spend from it, and the app tracks your spending.
Pros: Good UX, automatic categorization, cashback on purchases, rounds-up savings.
Cons: You are locked into using their card. If you want to see spending across all your bank accounts and credit cards, KOHO only shows what happens on their card. It is not a full picture of your finances. They are also pursuing a banking licence, which may change the product.
Best for: People who want to simplify their spending with a single card and do not need a cross-bank view.
Price: Free tier with paid plans starting around $4-$9/month.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB is a powerful budgeting tool that uses a zero-based budgeting method. It has a dedicated following.
Pros: Excellent budgeting methodology, strong community, detailed reporting, works in Canada.
Cons: It is expensive at $99 USD per year. The learning curve is steep — most people need weeks to get comfortable with the zero-based approach. It is US-centric, so some features (like automatic bank sync) do not work as smoothly with Canadian banks. The price alone puts it out of reach for many Canadians.
Best for: Dedicated budgeters who want deep control and are willing to pay for it.
Price: $99 USD/year (approximately $136 CAD/year).
Monarch Money
Monarch Money is a modern budgeting app with a clean interface and bank sync.
Pros: Beautiful UI, good bank sync, collaborative budgeting for couples, strong reporting.
Cons: US-focused. Canadian bank support exists through Plaid but can be unreliable. At $99.99 USD per year, it has the same pricing problem as YNAB. Limited Canadian-specific features.
Best for: Couples who want a shared budget view and value design.
Price: $99.99 USD/year (approximately $137 CAD/year).
Simple Cents
Simple Cents is a Canadian-built budgeting app designed to be simple, visual, and privacy-first.
Pros: Canadian-first (CAD, Canadian banks, Canadian financial norms), no bank login required (CSV import), automatic column detection for any Canadian bank's CSV format, clean and simple interface, free during early access.
Cons: Newer app, so fewer features than established competitors. CSV import instead of automatic bank sync (though this is also a privacy advantage).
Best for: Canadians who want a simple budgeting tool that works with any bank, respects their privacy, and does not cost $100+ per year.
Price: Free during early access.
Spreadsheet budgeting
Many former Mint users went back to spreadsheets. Google Sheets and Excel can track spending effectively.
Pros: Free, fully customizable, no data shared with third parties.
Cons: Manual entry is tedious. No automatic categorization. No visual dashboards unless you build them yourself. Hard to maintain consistency over months.
Best for: People who enjoy spreadsheets and have the discipline to update them regularly.
How to choose
The right choice depends on what mattered most to you about Mint:
- If you want the closest thing to Mint's simplicity: Simple Cents. It focuses on what Mint did well — showing where your money goes — without the complexity.
- If you already invest with Wealthsimple: Use their built-in budgeting feature.
- If you want a card-based approach: KOHO.
- If you want deep budgeting methodology: YNAB (if you can afford it).
- If you want a beautiful, shared budget: Monarch Money.
What about open banking?
Canada's Consumer-Driven Banking framework became law in March 2026 (Bill C-15). This will eventually allow apps to connect to your bank through secure APIs instead of screen scraping. However, the framework is still being implemented by the Bank of Canada, and it will be 12-18 months before most consumers see the benefits.
Notably, the framework excludes derived data like spending categorization and budget recommendations. That means the app you choose still matters — the quality of budgeting features will differentiate apps even after open banking launches.
Moving on from Mint
Mint is not coming back. The good news is that the Canadian market now has more options than it did two years ago. Take advantage of free trials and early access periods to test a few options before committing.
If you want something simple, Canadian, and free to start, Simple Cents is accepting early access users.