People with a budget control their finances, are more secure and confident, unlike the majority who don’t have a budget and track their budget using receipts. Finance software allows you to develop and stick to a budget and there are numerous finance software programs to choose from. Not only do they offer additional features to help track your finances but they also link with your bank account making it easier to stick to your budget. In this article, we are going to take a closer between two finance software that is personal capital and mint. Let’s get started with knowing about these services.
About Personal Capital
Personal Capital primarily focuses on investing, it is a result of two services combined into one and here we are solely going to focus and emphasize Personal Capital’s free app. This is the best option for the people who want to invest for their future since it provides retirement planning, savings planner, and investment features that will help you attain your financial goals. This free-to-use service features comprehensive financial tools helping you track your finances.
About Mint
Mint is the best financial software for beginners since it is free to use, it links all your accounts into a single place, it helps you track your net worth and it provides access to your account such as your credit score. Mint has simplified budgeting by providing one website that you can use to link all your financial accounts such as credit cards, loans, and bank accounts, it shows how your spend and how they compare to the average, and these features are very useful for the beginners who are starting the budgeting process.
How Are They the Same?
• Linking Financial Services- These two services aggregate numerous financial institutions such as loans, investments, banks, and credit cards.
• Email Notifications- Even when you make the slightest change to your financial transactions, you will be notified regularly using emails of the changes you made.
• Cash Flow Reporting- These free-to-use programs will give you an overview of your monthly expenses and the categories that they fall in.
How Are They Different?
Mint
• Budgeting- Mint categorizes each spending as a budget thus giving you more precision and how you control your budgeting for subcategories such as movies or dining out.
• Savings- Mint uses machine learning technology, therefore, providing numerous ways through which you can save money. It allows you to save on investing, credit cards, loans, and insurance, also this is one of the ways that Mint makes its money.
• Credit Report Monitoring- Mint tests the impact on major decisions you make regarding your credit. This usually happens every quarter.
• Mint Credit Monitor- Mint monitors your credit spending and there is a payable additional feature that you can subscribe to get detailed reports on your credit score.
• Two-Factor Authentication- Security is a key feature to safeguard the information and finances of the users. To secure and your personal and sensitive data Mint uses two-factor authentication to protects its users.
Personal Capital
• 401 (k) Free Analyzer- As an investment platform Personal Capital cares for your retirement plan and it scales down the funds that are using up your retirement plans.
• Retirement Planner- Plan for your retirement by tracking your funds and playing out the possible scenarios.
• Financial Management- As an investment service, this platform manages your funds so that in the long run you are well prepared.
• Asset Allocation Target- As part of your retirement plan, Personal Capital ensures you acquire the assets that will come in handy in the future.
• Ad-Free Service- Personal Capital does not gain from monetizing its service which differs from Mint.
Personal Capital vs Mint Comparison Categories
Here are some of the comparisons between the services and the categories we have put them in:
• Budgeting
• Bill Alerts
• Synchronization
• Customer Service
• Investment Analysis
• Security
• Mobile Access
• Retirement Planning
Budgeting
Personal Capital is an investment platform that offers you spending tools so that you can monitor your spending. It gives you control over the list of your expenses and it is adjustable in that you can change your monthly spending however this feature has been made available to the mobile apps. On the other hand, Mint is a platform that primarily focuses on budgeting, debt management and it focuses on millennials. Through its website or app, Mint features a budgeting section that you can use to limit how you spend and the dashboard gives a picture of your financial situation.
In the budgeting category, Mint wins.
Bill Alerts
Both services have email notifications that update you on any pending bills. Personal Capital is not fully functional with their bill alert service and sometimes they miss out on the incoming bills. However, Mint does not let bill alerts go unnoticed and they ensure they accurately report the bills to you via email. Mint is very reliable for bill alerts.
In the bill alerts category, Mint wins.
Synchronization
Personal Capital uses Yodlee synchronization service to sync its financial services and this service experiences no issues. On the other hand, Mint synchronizes its financial services using Intuit which makes it unreliable. Yodlee is a more stable synchronizing service and this does not bring about any issues when the service is running. The only problem with Mint’s synchronization is that it is very unreliable because of the issues it has whereas Personal Capital is more stable and they sort their sync issues much faster when compared to Mint.
In the synchronization category, Personal Capital wins.
Customer Service
The majority of Mint users have complained about how its customer service is not functional and this is a downside for this platform. But for Personal Capital things are very different, its customer service offers a quick response within less than 24 hours and they answer any daunting questions that the user might have. No issues have been reported regarding Personal Capital’s customer service.
For this reason, in the customer service category, Personal Capital wins.
Investment Analysis
Personal Capital is an investment platform that offers numerous investment tools to ensure you are on the right track to make the best financial investment decision. Mint is a budgeting platform and it provides no investments tools for its users such as retirement planning or investment analysis on buying assets.
In the investment analysis category, Personal Capital wins.
Security
When it comes to the internet security is a key feature that is considered by any user. Mint provides a more secure platform by using two-factor authentication to use its service. For Personal Capital, its security is quite weakened since it requires you first register your computer, then you are prompted with a pin that is sent via email, text, or phone call. Both services apps have security features such as fingerprint login on any IOS device.
In the security category, Mint wins.
Mobile App Access
For a service to be widely used then it needs to be easily accessible. Things have become more digitized and both of these finance software are accessible by apps for phones that are for Apple iOS and Google Android. These services differ in their make and among the features offered by these services are only in mobile apps or their respective websites. Having these two platforms easily accessible on mobile phones has made them be favored by millennials who mostly are and use their phones.
In the mobile app access category, it is a tie between Mint and Personal Capital.
Retirement Planning
Mint focuses on budgeting while Personal Capital focuses on investment planning through retirement. Personal Capital has added a free-to-use feature that can help you plan for the future by creating your retirement plan in a matter of seconds.
In the retirement planning category, Personal Capital wins.
Mint or Personal Capital? The Overall Winner Is… Personal Capital
When comparing these two personal finance platforms Personal Capital emerges victorious thanks to its high investment features that make it the best investment app. In this article, we have greatly discussed the key features of these platforms and it would be modest to say that the best personal finance platform is the one that meets your needs. If you are all about budgeting then Mint should be your go-to option platform while if you are all about making investments Personal Capital should be your platform. Personal Capital has its downsides such as budgeting and bill pay despite it coming victorious over Mint, while Mint excels in budgeting and it falls short in investment.
As a rule of thumb, satisfying your financial needs should be your goal. Thus you can jointly use both of these finance platforms to your advantage. As your budgeting tool, you can use Mint while Personal Capital can help you with your investments.
