Quicken is one of the oldest personal finance software packages.

(if you own Quicken for Mac, you know this headache first hand) In 2010, Intuit acquired Mint for $170 million. In 2016, Intuit sold Quicken to private equity firm H.I.G. Quicken today announced the launch of Quicken 2019, the newest version of its popular finance and budgeting software for PC and Mac. Quicken 2019 introduces web access for the first time, designed.

Quicken's origins go all the way back into the 1980s, when Scott Cook and Tom Proulx founded Intuit in Palo Alto, CA. As Intuit's history tells it, they realized that personal computers would change the way people did personal accounting. Quicken was programmed in Microsoft BASIC for the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple II.

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There were several firsts in the origins of Quicken. For example, Intuit offered a $15 rebate on the purchase, the first time software offered a rebate. In 1991, Microsoft created Microsoft Money to compete with them (Microsoft Money was discontinued in 2009).

In 2016, Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm in Miami.

Nowadays, Quicken has a ton of competitors. Many of them live on the cloud, are free, and don't require you to pay or install software. One of their biggest competitors is Personal Capital, which offers free financial dashboarding tools as well as wealth management (optional). If budgeting is what you're after, Mint (now owned by Intuit, which formerly owned Quicken) is a free powerful budgeting tool that has many fans too.

So how does Quicken 2018 compare with predecessors and should you continue using it?

The Many Versions of Quicken

Quicken has several versions:

Quicken Starter: At $34.99/yr, this version is the simplest version of Quicken with access to the budgeting tools only.
Quicken Deluxe: At $49.99/yr, this version is an expansion of Starter with access to the budgeting and some basic investment tools.
Quicken Premier: At $74.99/yr, this mid-tier version offers all that Deluxe covers plus Quicken Bill Pay, Priority access to customer support (a $49.99/yr value if purchased separately), plus advanced investment portfolio analysis.
Quicken Home & Business: At $99.99/yr, this type gives you all that Premier offers plus business management tools like invoicing and rental tools.

It's organized such that Quicken Deluxe is for most users who are focused solely on budgeting with an eye towards investments. The investment tools are very basic, meant to keep an eye on things but not necessarily plan for the future.

In Quicken Premier is where all the good investment planning and preparing tools exist. You get portfolio analysis, comparisons of your returns vs. market, track cost basis and create Schedule D tax report, plus budgeting focused tools like bill pay.

Quicken Home & Business is exactly what it sounds like – if you have a business, including a rental property, then this tier covers you. I'd argue that you may look at other options for business management tools but this is a good option if you want to keep everything under one Quicken roof.

Personally, I like keeping home finances and business finances separate from a management perspective. I think of business needs differently from personal needs so being in a different package helps cement that difference. There is no legal reason to keep the software separate though, you just need to keep the actual finances separate.

The Many Features of Quicken 2018

If you have no experience with Quicken, many of the features of Quicken 2018 will be novel to you but have been around for quite some time.

Some popular features from previous versions:

Transaction and expense management is the hallmark of Quicken, with the ability to track transactions on the go.
Bills management lets you see, track, as well as pay your bills within Quicken.
Phone support is included with all tiers, priority access is available for Premier and Home & Business.
A free credit score is included under Reports > Credit Score, you get a free updated score every three months. (there are now many free tools that offer a free credit score)
A powerful mobile app is now included, with investment tracking, offline usage, and charting tools.

What's new for 2018 (just a small sampling):

Online billpay is now available with over 11k+ merchants.
Online cloud backup with 5GB of storage on Dropbox.
Send invoices via Home & Business and customize them with your logo and other design features. Includes email reminders.

The Many Problems of Quicken

Quicken's history of issues is well documented. Whether it's downloading transactions, connecting with your bank, accessing data, etc – the laundry list is quite long.

Of course, people don't sing praises as often as they complain about problems. There's always a bias towards the negative when you look online.

That being said, it sounds like some of these problems will be alleviated by going to a model where you have a subscription service and have access to frequent upgrades and updates. It remains to be seen whether the sync issues will subside but it's something to keep an eye on.

Quicken Premium Support, included in the higher tiers of software, offers to give you hands-on help with practically everything – installation and updates, product registration, online banking, Quicken file migration, and the financial planning tools to include the reports, budgets, etc. If you can get premium support, chances are you'll find a solution and won't be frustrated Googling your way into oblivion.

(be wary of Quicken support scams, they're rampant if you google search for it — only go through the Quicken website directly!)

Quicken System Requirements

The needs of the Quicken software are modest.

Here are Quicken's technical requirements for Windows:

Mac keychain. It also supports Touch ID and Face ID and there is an Apple Watch companion that makes it possible to add often-used passwords so you have quick access right on your wrist. Though backing up to iCloud is on by default, you can choose a different cloud-based backup solution, or disable cloud backups completely. Data Vault uses 256-bit encryption for strong security. Backups can be synced to and across all of your iOS devices.

Operating System: Minimum Windows 7, 8/8.1, or 10
Memory: Minimum 1 GB Memory
Hard Disk Space: Minimum 450 MB free disk space; 1.5 GB if .NET is not installed
Monitor: 1024×768 or higher screen resolution, 1280×1024 minimum for Large Fonts settings
Microsoft .NET 4.6 or newer (Quicken installer will install .NET if it's not already installed on the system)
Internet Connection: Broadband internet connection recommended; internet connection required for registration

Here are Quicken's technical requirements for Mac:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.12 (Sierra), or newer
Memory: Minimum 256 MB Memory
Hard Disk Space: 100 MB, More memory and hard drive space may be required for large data files
Monitor: 1280×800, 1366×768 or greater
Internet Connection: Broadband internet connection recommended; internet connection required for registration

Quicken Membership Subscription Pricing

Starting with Quicken 2018, instead of buying the software outright, you pay a subscription fee. The subscription is 12 or 24 months long.

If you purchase the package from, say Amazon, you may get bonus features. For example, Quicken Deluxe 2018 (24-mo) is available on Amazon with a 27-month subscription (3 months free) as well as 15GB of online backup with Dropbox, plus free priority access to customer service. With the 12-mo version, you get 14 months (2 months extra).

For many, this change can be annoying. Rather than buying the software once, you now have to subscribe and pay every month. There were many users who bought Quicken every few years, because honestly how often does it really change? Is managin

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