Kemback vs Quicken: How It Compares to Simplifi and Quicken Classic

Quicken now sells two quite different products. Quicken Classic is the desktop program many people have used for decades, for Windows and Mac. Quicken Simplifi is a newer app for the web and phones, built around spending, budgets and planning. Kemback sits between them: it aims for Classic’s accounting depth, delivered as a cloud service you can share with your household.

This comparison covers all three honestly, including where Quicken is clearly ahead. Quicken’s prices and plans change often, so check its pricing page before deciding. The details here are what Quicken published when this post was written.

The short version

• Quicken Classic is the most complete of the three: desktop software with investment tools, tax reports and, on some plans, bill pay and business features. It’s a yearly subscription.
• Quicken Simplifi is a lighter, mobile-friendly app with automatic bank sync, budgeting, investment monitoring and cash flow projections. Also a yearly subscription, and cheaper than Classic.
• Kemback is free, runs in the browser (with an iPhone app in beta), and offers a Classic-style register with reconciliation, envelope or category budgets and a household with roles. It imports bank files today; automatic bank sync is coming with Plus. It doesn’t track investments yet.

Side by side

	Quicken Classic	Quicken Simplifi	Kemback
Price	Yearly subscription in several tiers (Deluxe, Premier, Business & Personal); first-year offers for new members	$6.99 a month billed annually, with a lower first-year offer	Free plan, complete. Plus coming soon at $79 a year or $7.99 a month
Renewal	Renews automatically at the then-current price	Renews automatically at the then-current price	Free has no renewal
Where it runs	Windows and Mac desktop, with companion web and mobile apps	Web, iPhone and Android	Web; iPhone app in beta; Android and Windows in development
Bank sync	Transaction downloads, part of the membership	Yes, 14,000+ institutions	File import (OFX, QFX, QIF, CSV) today; bank sync coming with Plus
Investments	Yes; Premier is sold on its investing tools	Investment monitoring and performance	Not yet
Tax reports	Yes (built into Premier)	Check Quicken’s site	Not yet
Sharing	Check Quicken’s site	Share with one other person	Household with shared and private accounts and roles
Register and reconciliation	Yes, including reconciling to a paper statement	Check Quicken’s site	Yes, with splits, transfers and locked reconciled transactions
Bringing history	Your existing data file	Can import from Quicken Classic	Switch from Quicken wizard reads a QIF export, every balance checked to the cent

Quicken Classic: the deep end

Classic is what most people mean by “Quicken”: a full register, years of history in a data file, reports for almost anything, and investment tracking with the detail serious investors want. Quicken describes Premier’s investing tools as best-in-class, and Classic includes built-in tax reports. Business & Personal adds tools for running a small business alongside household money.

If you rely on investment lots and cost basis, tax reports or business features, Classic does things Kemback doesn’t do yet. That’s the most important point in this comparison.

The trade-offs are the ones that lead people to look around: the main data file lives on a desktop computer, with the web and mobile apps as companions to it, and the yearly subscription renews automatically at whatever the current price is. Quicken’s first-year offers apply to new memberships, so long-time members typically pay the regular rate. Quicken’s renewal price explains how to check what you’ll actually pay.

Quicken does offer reassurance on leaving: its Data Access Guarantee says that if your membership expires, Deluxe and higher versions still let you view, edit, export and manually enter transactions, while online services such as downloads, investment quotes and mobile sync stop.

Quicken Simplifi: the lighter app

Simplifi is Quicken’s answer to Mint-style apps. It connects to more than 14,000 financial institutions, categorizes spending automatically, tracks savings goals and investments, and projects cash flow with “what-if” scenarios. It runs on the web, iPhone and Android, and you can share it with one other person. It can import data from Quicken Classic.

It’s a good fit if you want automatic sync and a modern interface at a modest price, and don’t need Classic’s accounting depth.

Kemback: Classic-style depth in the cloud

Kemback was built for people who like Quicken’s precision but want it in a browser and shared with their household:

• A real register: splits, linked transfers, cleared and reconciled status, and statement reconciliation that locks reconciled transactions.
• Budgets in two modes: envelope or category, switchable without losing anything, or suggested from your past spending.
• Bills and recurring transactions with a calendar, plus a warning when a bill or subscription goes up.
• Safe to spend and a 90-day projected balance; savings goals; reports on net worth and on spending by category, payee or tag.
• A household: each person signs in separately; accounts can be shared or private; roles include owner, editor, viewer and advisor.
• Your history: the Switch from Quicken wizard reads a Quicken QIF export, splits and transfers included, and checks every account’s balance to the cent.

And the gaps, plainly: no automatic bank sync until Plus launches (you import files from your bank meanwhile), no investment holdings, no tax reports, and no native Windows or Android app yet.

On price, the Free plan costs nothing and isn’t a trial. Plus, which adds bank sync, will be $79 a year or $7.99 a month, and the first 500 people who join the waitlist on the pricing page get a founding price of $59 a year for as long as they stay subscribed.

A worked example

Pat and Lee have used Quicken Classic on one Windows laptop for twelve years. They track a joint checking account, two credit cards, a mortgage and two retirement accounts. Lee wants to see the budget on a phone; Pat wants to keep reconciling every statement.

• If the retirement accounts’ holdings and cost basis matter to them day to day, Classic stays the best fit, perhaps with the companion mobile app for Lee.
• If they mostly want spending and budgets on their phones with automatic sync, Simplifi is the natural step, and it can bring their Classic data across.
• If they want the register and reconciliation Pat relies on, separate sign-ins for both, and no subscription, Kemback fits, checking the retirement accounts’ holdings on their brokerage’s own site for now.

Which should you choose?

Stay with Quicken Classic if you depend on investment tracking with lots and cost basis, tax reports, bill pay or business features, and the renewal price is acceptable to you. Before renewing, check whether a lower tier covers what you actually use.

Choose Quicken Simplifi if you want automatic bank sync, investment monitoring and a phone-first app at a lower price than Classic, and you don’t need a full register.

Choose Kemback if you want Classic-style accuracy (splits, transfers, reconciliation) in a browser, shared with your household, at no cost, and you can live without investment tracking and bank sync until Plus.

Whatever you decide, back up your Quicken data file and export your history before your renewal date, while everything still works. Quicken offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which it says also applies to auto-renewals, so check the terms if a renewal has just gone through.

#quicken #quicken simplifi #kemback #comparisons

This article is general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. For decisions about your situation, talk to a qualified professional.