CommonCentsMom.com is advertiser-supported: we may earn compensation from the products and offers mentioned in this article. However, any expressed opinions are our own and aren't influenced by compensation. The contents of the CommonCentsMom.com website, such as text, graphics, images, and other material contained on this site (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial or legal advice. Always seek the advice of your Financial Advisor, CPA and Lawyer with any questions you may have regarding your situation. Never disregard professional advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website!
Quicken and Personal Capital are both popular personal finance management programs. Both programs offer free trial periods and both provide tools to help you track your net worth, investments, and more. So which one is better? We take a look at the differences of each program in this review to be able to conclude our inquiry.
What is Personal Capital?
Personal Capital is a digital-only financial management tool that allows users to manage all of their accounts in one place. It syncs with their bank, investment and credit card accounts to show all of their assets and liabilities and transactions by category. Personal Capital gives you the best tools for managing your assets and investments to help you plan your retirement savings and investment savings campaigns. You can see how your investment portfolio is doing dynamically, and in real time.
What is Quicken?
If Personal Capital is the “new kid” budgeting tool, Quicken is the “OG” one. Quicken is the premier financial management software. It was developed in 1983 and was popular across the US. Quicken enabled people to collect all their finances in one place and quickly do things that were normally done on paper. Quicken is desktop software with a subscription-based service that lets you manage your finances easily. It offers bill pay, investment tracking, and property and business accounting tools.
Features by Category
Investing: Personal Capital is a financial planning tool that was built with investors in mind. It offers several different tools to help you track your investments and save money. Quicken has an investment tracker as well that allows you to view all of your investment accounts in one place. It also lets you view how much money you have invested in each account. You can also compare your portfolio to your plan allocations. However, Quicken is a desktop tool that only works on Windows computers.
Retirement Planning: Personal Capital’s Retirement Planner is a unique financial planning tool that helps you budget for a comfortable retirement. It shows you what your assets are, what your spending plans are, and what you can expect when you retire. Quicken gives you a retirement planning tool that lets you see all of your retirement accounts in one place, and allows you to look at different retirement scenarios over the course of your working life. Quicken offers similar tools, but its retirement planning features aren’t as robust as Personal Capital’s.
Budgeting: Personal Capital and Quicken have tools that help users plan how they will spend their money and track their income and expense cash flow. Using Personal Capital’s budgeting tool, users can set monthly spending targets for each category of spending and track their savings over time. You can also check to see if they’re on track. Quicken also offers a budgeting tool that allows users to see their monthly expenses, plan where they can save money and what they would like to spend. Quicken doesn’t have a personal budgeting feature available for its most affordable plans.
Security: Quicken and Personal Capital have plenty of security features built in, so you don’t have to worry that someone else might steal your information. They use the latest technologies to ensure that your personal information is safe and secure while it’s being transferred.
Customer Service: Personal Capital makes it easy for customers to get in touch with their support team. The company has chat support that allows customers to reach their team quickly. The company offers live chat support, and you can contact them by calling them or emailing them. Quicken offers several different ways for you to get a quick answer to your questions. You can ask questions in the Quicken forum, where other users will provide you with valuable feedback. If that doesn’t work, you can always contact the company via email or telephone.
Fees: When it comes to pricing, Personal Capital and Quicken are very different. Personal Capital’s tools are free. You can access your personal financial information, which includes assets, savings, budgeting, cash flow, and investing tools, all for free. You won’t pay anything unless you sign up for their wealth management services. Quicken, on the other hand, is a subscription service that charges you a monthly fee each year. You can choose between three different plans for the price that you pay. Because they have three different plans available, some features are only available to those who have the most expensive plans.
How are they different?
Personal Capital lets you organize all your financial accounts on one platform. This includes your bank and investment accounts, as well as your credit cards and other loans. Personal Capital also offers an investment checking tool that allows you to track your investments and see how they are performing relative to your goals. The Fee Analyzer allows you to see hidden fees that you may not see. Knowing how much money you are spending on investments is key to reducing these costs.
Personal Capital comes with a Retirement Planner tool that helps you plan your retirement. It can help you track where you are financially and what your expenses are in relation to your retirement goals. It will enable you to take action where necessary. It can even show you how much you are worth and compare that to the median US household net worth for your age group.
Personal Capital isn’t the best budgeting software. It fails in a couple of categories. There is no bill payment feature (although it might be something your bank offers). You also don’t have the ability to reconcile all your accounts.
Quicken is strong in the area of helping you budget your money effectively. The program lets you create realistic budgets based on your spending history and your savings. You can then set financial goals for the future and help you pay your bills.
Quicken shows you your monthly budget, and reminds you to pay your bills on time. It also shows you how much money you have, which is a very helpful feature.
Quicken provides your VantageScore from Equifax, a credit reporting agency that measures how your credit is doing over time. This is not your actual credit score, but it will enable you to understand where your credit scores stand relative to other peoples scores.
Quicken is slightly slower than other credit score providers because it is only available on a quarterly basis, not monthly.
If you only need a budgeting service platform, Quicken is the choice. But if you also want to manage your wealth, Personal Capital is the better choice. Think back again on what needs are urgent to you before choosing between the two services.
