Simplifi is a mobile-friendly personal finance app designed to bring order to the chaos of the average person’s finances.
It’s not a budgeting app, exactly, because it doesn’t force users to adhere to a formal rules-based budgeting program. But it can certainly help you spend and save smarter — and should, when used consistently and to the full extent of its capabilities.
Simplifi is backed by Quicken, a well-known personal finance and business money management software with more than 40 years of financial expertise. But while Simplifi trades on the Quicken name, it’s an entirely separate product that’s less clunky and spreadsheet-y than the historically desktop-based “original” Quicken. Simplifi is built to run on a mobile device, and it doesn’t even integrate with Quicken itself due to intentional differences in data formatting.
In this way, Simplifi is a fresh start for the makers of Quicken. Just as it can be a fresh start for people whose current money management practices — whatever form they take — are no longer working.
Simplifi has earned industry recognition as PCMag’s Best Personal Finance & Budgeting App (Overall), TechRadar’s Best Affordable Personal Finance App for Everyday Use, and Forbes’ Best Budgeting App for Managing Household Expenses.
Key Features
Everything about Simplifi seems tailored to one big goal: helping users gain control over their financial lives. Its key features provide broad visibility into personal finances while enabling customized, even personalized tracking, management, and planning regardless of your income, family size, or lifestyle.
Plan and Pricing
Simplifi has a single paid plan that includes all of its features and capabilities.
Simplifi costs $2.99 per month for the first year when billed annually (50% off) – with a 30-day money-back guarantee. After the first year, the subscription renews at $5.99 per month, or $71.88 per year.
Consolidated Financial Snapshot
Simplifi makes it easy to achieve a big-picture view of your finances from a single account dashboard. The app securely connects to financial accounts held with more than 14,000 U.S. institutions through multiple top-tier data partners, including bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and installment loans like personal loans and mortgages.
In short, if it’s a U.S.-based account that directly affects your net worth or cash flow — whether positively or negatively — Simplifi can integrate it into your consolidated financial snapshot.
Personalized Spending Plan & Cash Flow Forecasting
Simplifi keeps a real-time tally of your monthly income, scheduled or recurring bills, discretionary purchases, and savings contributions. These inputs all factor into a personalized spending plan that shows you what you can safely spend for the remainder of the month. The plan works with any budgeting method you prefer — whether that’s zero-sum, envelope-style, 50/30/20, or your own custom approach.
What sets Simplifi apart is its Projected Cash Flows feature — the only personal finance app that forecasts your account balances up to 12 months ahead. By automatically calculating upcoming deposits and recurring payments, you’ll see potential balance highs and lows weeks or even months before they happen, helping you prevent shortfalls and plan major purchases with confidence.
Spend Tracking and Bill Management Tools
Simplifi has a useful set of tools to help users track spending and manage bills:
- Find and Track Recurring Bills. Simplifi identifies recurring bills and subscriptions, helping you eliminate charges that aren’t serving you well.
- Automatic Transaction Categorization. Transactions are automatically assigned to categories like “eating out” and “rent” for clear visibility into spending patterns.
- Custom Expense Watchlists. Create watchlists to monitor purchases and bills by payee, expense category, or custom tag for more granular expense tracking.
Saving Goals
Simplifi lets users create unlimited savings goals for any future objective, from building an emergency fund to buying a home to planning a vacation. Goals are fully customizable by objective, dollar amount, monthly contribution, and full funding date. Your savings goals integrate directly into your spending plan, and the app shows your progress on a monthly basis, updating after each contribution.
Investment Tracking, Retirement Planning & Reports
Simplifi delivers professional-grade investment tracking with Time-Weighted Return (TWR) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) analytics across all investment accounts — from 401(k)s and IRAs to brokerage and crypto. A retirement planner lets you adjust up to 15 variables including contributions, tax rates, and investment returns to test different scenarios.
Create unlimited customized reports with your own filters and tags to track spending trends and cash flow. Simplifi is the only personal finance app with built-in tax reports that simplify preparation for Schedules A & B and Form 1040, plus integrated credit score monitoring.
Advantages
Simplifi’s key advantages mostly relate to its ease of use and personalization potential. Its design, which adapts equally well to mobile and desktop devices, is a big selling point too.
- Comprehensive Financial Snapshot in One Account. Simplifi provides users with a comprehensive snapshot of their personal finances in one place, visible at a single glance. The fact that the app integrates with more than 14,000 U.S.-based banks and credit card issuers is a distinct advantage over money management apps that require manual updating.
- Forward-Looking Cash Flow Visibility. Simplifi’s Projected Cash Flows feature is unique in the personal finance app category. Forecasting up to 12 months ahead helps users avoid overdrafts, plan for large expenses, and make confident financial decisions based on future cash position rather than just past spending.
- Professional-Grade Investment and Retirement Tools. Simplifi goes beyond basic budgeting with investment analytics (TWR and IRR) and retirement planning capabilities that rival standalone financial planning software, potentially eliminating the need for multiple separate apps or services.
- Built-In Tax Reporting. As the only personal finance app with dedicated tax reports for Schedules A & B and Form 1040, Simplifi simplifies tax preparation and helps users identify deductible expenses throughout the year.
- Customizable Watchlists. Simplifi’s customizable watchlists help users drill down quickly on potentially problematic spending — and, if warranted, to eliminate it without the help of an expensive bill negotiation service.
- Mobile and Desktop App Are Virtually Identical. Simplifi is a mobile-friendly platform that works equally well on small- and large-screened devices. Its desktop and mobile versions are virtually identical, making for a truly anytime, anywhere budgeting experience.
- Has a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Every new Simplifi sign-up comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, during which new users are free to try the platform. If the app doesn’t meet expectations, simply cancel and ask for a refund.
Disadvantages
Simplifi has some important limitations when measured against other popular budgeting apps, including the lack of a free plan and no built-in banking or brokerage capabilities.
- Has No Free Plan. Simplifi is a paid subscription app with no free plan. This compares unfavorably with other popular money management tools, and is a distinct disadvantage for users who don’t believe they should have to pay to track spending and saving in one place.
- Has No Built-in Banking or Brokerage Features. While Simplifi excels at tracking and analyzing investments across all your accounts, it’s not a banking app or brokerage platform. It doesn’t have a built-in checking account, savings account protected by FDIC insurance, or the ability to buy and sell stocks. Users who want all-in-one banking, investing, AND budgeting will need to use Simplifi alongside separate banking and brokerage accounts.
- Doesn’t Integrate With Quicken Data. Although it’s made by the developer of Quicken and vocally trades on the better-known platform’s name, Simplifi is not compatible with the “original” Quicken financial management suite. As a user, you’ll need to choose one or the other — Simplifi can’t read Quicken data, nor vice versa.
Final Word
The beauty of Simplifi is that it’s not just another budgeting app. It’s an alternative to formal budgets that millions of Americans swear by.
Unlike strict, proscriptive apps and methods that set hard rules for when and how much you can spend, Simplifi is more of a guide that helps you avoid overspending and stay on track to reach your goals without feeling like you’re doing without.
That’s probably why the app touts its sunny “glass half full” approach. It’s more cheerleader than drill sergeant.
What’s evolved since Simplifi first launched is the depth of its capabilities. It’s grown from a straightforward spending tracker into a comprehensive financial management platform with forward-looking cash flow forecasting, professional investment analytics, retirement planning tools, and tax reporting — features typically found in much more expensive software or advisor-led platforms. For users who want these capabilities without paying for a full financial advisor or juggling multiple apps, Simplifi delivers exceptional value.
Does that mean Simplifi is guaranteed to work for you? That you’re certain to find yourself in a better financial position after a few months of consistent use?
Not necessarily. But if you’ve had mixed results with more traditional budgeting tools in the past, or you just aren’t a big fan of rules-based budgeting, you owe it to yourself to give this reasonably priced platform a chance.
