Friday, December 19, 2025
What Happened to Mint? Why Intuit Shut Down the Most Popular Budgeting App
Simon Chadwick
Founder & CEO
For years, Mint was the first name many people thought of when it came to managing money online. It was a simple, free, and powerful app that helped millions to create a budget, save, track their spending, and understand their net worth in one place. So when news broke that Mint was shutting down, the reaction from users was confusion, frustration, and a lot of unanswered questions.
So what actually happened to Mint? Why would Intuit (which acquired Mint in 2009), one of the biggest names in financial software, decide to shut down such a popular budgeting app?
And what did this mean for old Mint users looking for the best budgeting apps after 2024?
Let’s go through the full story, where Mint came from, why Intuit announced its closure, what replaced it, and where should old Mint users look next.
Mint: From Disruptive Startup to Becoming a Household Name
Mint was launched in 2007 by founder Aaron Patzer with a clear goal: make personal finance easier for everyday people while keeping it free. At a time when spreadsheets were the norm, Mint offered something revolutionary, a single dashboard that could connect all your financial accounts, categorize spending automatically, and help you create a budget.
This brought millions of users into the world of savings and personal finance,
In 2009, Mint was acquired by Intuit, the financial company behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, and later Credit Karma. The acquisition gave Mint resources to grow fast and expand. Over the following few years, mint.com became one of the most widely used free budgeting app platforms in the world.
By its peak, Mint reportedly served more than 17 million users. It allowed users to:
Link their bank accounts and credit cards
Categorize every transaction on Mint
Set savings goals and track their spending trends
Monitor their credit and track their net worth in one place
For many budgeters, Mint was their first real step toward learning how to manage their finances.
Why Intuit Shut Mint
So, if Mint was so successful, why did Intuit shut it down?
The short answer: strategy.
In late 2023, Intuit announced that the Mint app was closing and that users would be migrated to Credit Karma, a separate app also owned by Intuit. The company framed this move as a consolidation effort, bringing budgeting, credit, and financial insights under one platform.
In other words, Mint wasn’t failing. But within Intuit’s ecosystem, it was no longer the priority (hard to make money).
Running multiple consumer-facing finance platforms meant overlapping features, duplicated costs, and competing roadmaps. Intuit also owns TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma, and the company chose to focus consumer finance efforts on Credit Karma instead of continuing to evolve the Mint budgeting app.
That decision ultimately led to what many now refer to as the Mint shut down, which is still talked a lot about on Reddit and mourned by original “Minters”.
Mint’s Original Vision: Free, Simple, and Hard to Monetize
One of the lesser-known but most important parts of Mint’s story is its original philosophy. Aaron Patzer, Mint’s founder, built the product around a clear belief: budgeting tools should be free, simple, and accessible to everyone.
At the time Mint launched, most personal finance software required upfront payments, complicated setups, or both. Patzer wanted to remove those barriers entirely since he believed that you shouldn’t need to pay to manage your money.
That vision is a big reason Mint grew so quickly. By eliminating subscription fees, Mint lowered the friction for new users and helped millions create a budget, track spending, and understand their finances without paying anything. The decision to stay free wasn’t just a growth tactic, it was part of Mint’s core identity.
But that same philosophy also created challenges. Because Mint didn’t charge users, the app relied on referral fees and financial product recommendations to generate revenue. While these partnerships helped keep the service free, they never turned Mint into a major profit engine, especially as the platform matured and operating costs grew. Security, data compliance, and ongoing feature development only became more expensive over time.
After Mint was acquired by Intuit, the app continued to operate as a free product, but it increasingly stood apart from Intuit’s core business. Products like TurboTax and QuickBooks had clear, scalable monetization models, while Mint remained harder to justify as a long-term standalone investment. Many industry observers believe this tension, between Mint’s free-first ethos and Intuit’s business priorities, played a sinlent but significant role in the decision to eventually shut the app down.
Mint didn’t fail because users stopped loving it. It struggled because the very principles that made it popular also made it difficult to sustain within a large financial software company.
Ironically, users that budget aren’t fans of spending money.
When Did Mint Shut Down? Key Dates to Know
The shutdown wasn’t sudden, but it still caught many users off guard.
Mint announced its closure in late 2023
Users were notified that the app was shutting and data would move.
The official cutoff for Mint access was March 23 2023, with limited access afterward
By 2024, Mint was no longer operating as a standalone mobile app
For many longtime users, March 23 marked the end of nearly a decade, or more, of their daily budgeting habits using Mint, which is likely why it’s still talked about so often.
What Happened to Mint Users After the Shutdown
One of the biggest concerns was data. Mint had years of financial history for many people, including categorized spending, budgets, and long-term trends.
Intuit’s solution was to move users to Credit Karma. Former Mint users were prompted to sign into Credit Karma to access parts of their financial data.
However, this transition wasn’t seamless.
Credit Karma focuses more on credit scores, loan offers, and financial recommendations than hands-on budgeting. While it can show balances and transactions, many users felt it lacked the depth of features Mint offered, especially around creating a monthly budget, detailed categorization, and long-term tracking.
As a result, many former Mint users started searching for another personal finance app that felt more like Mint.
This led to apps like Rocket Money creating dedicated campaigns to try to attract newly homeless Mint users.
Why Credit Karma Isn’t the Same as Mint
Although both apps are owned by Intuit, they serve different purposes.
Mint’s core mission was budgeting and visibility. Credit Karma is more about credit monitoring and recommendations. The business models differ too, Credit Karma relies heavily on referral fees from financial products, while Mint leaned more on ads and optional upgrades.
That distinction matters. Some users felt that Credit Karma’s recommendations blurred the line between tools and marketing. Mint, by contrast, positioned itself as an app that would never sell user data directly and existed primarily to help users understand their money.
This mismatch in core identities and values of the loyal user base is why the question “what’s happening to Mint?” quickly turned into “What should I use instead?”
The Search for Better Alternatives to Mint
Once it became clear that the Mint budgeting app is shutting, people began comparing alternatives. The goal was to find a better alternative that could help them budget and track spending with the same clarity.
Here were some of the most discussed options.
Rocket Money
Rocket Money gained popularity for helping users cancel unwanted subscriptions and track expenses. Over time they added more budgeting features and aggressively went after Mint users post-shutdown, helping users to easily migrate their data.
Rocket Money is sleek and modern, but many top features require a subscription. For users who liked Mint’s free model, that was a trade-off.
EveryDollar
Created by Dave Ramsey, EveryDollar focuses on zero-based budgeting and debt payoff. It’s popular among budgeters who want a strict structure to get out of debt and build wealth.
The free version is basic, while the premium version of EveryDollar unlocks bank syncing and automation. Some former Mint fans appreciated its philosophy, while others missed Mint’s flexibility. The app ran aggressive campaigns where users received months of the premium version as part of promotions.
Quicken
Quicken is one of the oldest names in budgeting tools. It’s powerful, detailed, and well-suited for users who want deep control over investments and long-term planning. However, it’s not free and has a steeper learning curve than Mint ever did.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB had a loyal following even before Mint announced its shutdown. Its proactive budgeting philosophy emphasized planning ahead rather than tracking past spending. Many former Mint users admired YNAB’s educational resources and strong community, though some found its learning curve steep and its subscription cost hard to justify.
Orbit Money (Beta)
Orbit is an upcoming platform taking a narrower approach than full budgeting apps, focusing on subscription tracking rather than building detailed budgets that users need to maintain. It’s designed for users who mainly relied on Mint to spot recurring charges and manage subscriptions in an intuitive, AI-supported way, while keeping the philosophy that the core experience should remain free. For former Mint users who found full replacements too complex, Orbit can feel like a lighter, more focused alternative.
For some former Mint users, subscription visibility mattered more than full budgeting, which is why many now look to dedicated tools, something we break down in our subscription tracker comparison.
It can also be important to understand what key features to look for when choosing a subscription tracker app that's right for you.
Why Mint’s Closure Hit So Hard
The reason this shutdown felt personal is simple: Mint grew with its users.
People used it to:
Save for homes
Pay off student loans
Plan weddings
Navigate job losses
Track financial progress over years
It wasn’t just an app that helps with numbers. It helped people take control of their finances, set financial goals, and feel less anxious about money, it was many peoples’ first exposure to budgeting and personal finance, a guide and a companion.
When Mint shut, it wasn’t just software disappearing, it was a routine, a habit, and a sense of clarity for millions.
What This Says About Budget Apps Today
The shutdown also reflects broader trends in budgeting apps.
Free tools are harder to sustain. Companies want ecosystems, not standalone apps. Data, personalization, and cross-selling matter more than ever.
That’s why we’re seeing fewer truly free options and more platforms offering paid tiers, premium features, or bundled services. The era of a no-cost, full-featured budgeting giant like Mint may be over.
There’s also theory mentioned by Ron Shelvin in his Forbes article on the Mint Shutdown that discusses the death of the era of simple personal finance apps, as users want more performance and results oriented than a “do-it-yourself” money management app.
People want impact over insights, and we believe this will become more powerful with the emergence of AI in personal finance apps.
Despite this theory, it seems the demand for the best budgeting experience hasn’t gone away, whether this is a sound business model for an app still remains a question mark.
Is There a True Replacement for Mint in 2026?
There’s no single app like Mint, but there are combinations that work.
Some people pair Rocket Money with spreadsheets. Others use EveryDollar for budgeting and Credit Karma for credit. Advanced users lean toward Quicken or even QuickBooks-style tools for personal use. We have seen others like Monarch money or YNAB pop up.
The “best” choice depends on whether your priority is simplicity, automation, debt reduction, or long-term planning.
What’s clear is this: Mint’s closure forced millions to rethink how they approach budgeting, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Final Thoughts: What Happened to Mint, Really?
So, what happened to Mint?
Mint wasn’t a failure. It was a strategic decision by Intuit, driven by consolidation and shifting priorities. Mint shut down because the company believed Credit Karma could serve as its primary consumer finance platform.
For users, though, just like Blockbuster, Mint’s story is a reminder that even beloved tools can disappear. The good news? The habits Mint helped build, budgeting, awareness, and intentional money management for millions of users, didn’t vanish with the app.
Mint may be gone, but the need for smarter, human-centered money-management tools is stronger than ever.
Frequently Asked Questions About What Happened to Mint
Why did Mint shut down?
Mint shut down because Intuit decided to consolidate its consumer finance products. Rather than continue operating multiple overlapping apps, Intuit chose to focus on Credit Karma as its primary platform for personal finance tools. The decision was strategic, not because Mint was failing or losing users.
When did Mint officially shut down?
Mint stopped operating as a standalone app in March 23, 2024. Leading up to that date, users were notified and given the option to transition their data. After that point, the Mint app and website were no longer accessible in their original form.
What happened to my Mint data?
Intuit allowed users to export their Mint data or migrate certain information to Credit Karma. However, not all historical data and budgeting features transferred perfectly. Many users chose to download their data and move to a different budgeting platform instead.
Is Credit Karma the replacement for Mint?
From Intuit’s perspective, yes: Credit Karma became the replacement. However, Credit Karma is not a full budgeting app in the same way Mint was. It focuses more on credit scores, financial recommendations, and product offers rather than hands-on budgeting and spending categorization.
Many Mint users didn’t see it as worthy successor.
Is there a budgeting app similar to Mint?
There is no exact replacement, but several apps offer similar functionality. Popular alternatives include Rocket Money, EveryDollar, and Quicken. Each takes a different approach to budgeting, so the best option depends on whether you prioritize automation, debt payoff, or detailed financial tracking.
For subscription management, upcoming app: Orbit Money proves to offer an intuitive way for users to manage their money.
Was Mint really free?
Yes. Mint was widely considered the best free budgeting app for many years. It made money primarily through ads and referral partnerships rather than subscriptions, which is one reason its shutdown felt so disruptive to users accustomed to their budgeting tool being free.
Can I still access Mint.com?
No. Mint.com is no longer active as a budgeting platform. Visiting the site now redirects users to Intuit-owned services, primarily Credit Karma.
Did Mint sell user data before shutting down?
Mint stated that it did not sell user data directly. However, like many free apps, it used anonymized data and financial insights to power recommendations and offers. Privacy concerns became a larger topic of discussion after the shutdown announcement.
What should former Mint users do next?
Former Mint users should first ensure they’ve downloaded their financial data. From there, it’s best to choose a budgeting app that matches their goals, whether that’s strict budgeting, subscription tracking, or long-term financial planning.
Could Mint ever come back?
There’s no indication that Mint will return as a standalone product. Since Intuit fully absorbed its functionality and redirected users, a relaunch is highly unlikely.
Did Credit Karma buy Mint?
No. Credit Karma did not buy Mint. Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009, long before Credit Karma entered the picture. Intuit later acquired Credit Karma in 2020, meaning both apps were owned by the same parent company. When Intuit decided to shut down Mint, users were redirected to Credit Karma, which is why many people assume Credit Karma bought Mint, but the decision came from Intuit, not Credit Karma.It’s likely Intuit was the opportunity where they could make more profit with Credit Karma versus Mint.
Friday, December 19, 2025
What Happened to Mint? Why Intuit Shut Down the Most Popular Budgeting App
Simon Chadwick
Founder & CEO
For years, Mint was the first name many people thought of when it came to managing money online. It was a simple, free, and powerful app that helped millions to create a budget, save, track their spending, and understand their net worth in one place. So when news broke that Mint was shutting down, the reaction from users was confusion, frustration, and a lot of unanswered questions.
So what actually happened to Mint? Why would Intuit (which acquired Mint in 2009), one of the biggest names in financial software, decide to shut down such a popular budgeting app?
And what did this mean for old Mint users looking for the best budgeting apps after 2024?
Let’s go through the full story, where Mint came from, why Intuit announced its closure, what replaced it, and where should old Mint users look next.
Mint: From Disruptive Startup to Becoming a Household Name
Mint was launched in 2007 by founder Aaron Patzer with a clear goal: make personal finance easier for everyday people while keeping it free. At a time when spreadsheets were the norm, Mint offered something revolutionary, a single dashboard that could connect all your financial accounts, categorize spending automatically, and help you create a budget.
This brought millions of users into the world of savings and personal finance,
In 2009, Mint was acquired by Intuit, the financial company behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, and later Credit Karma. The acquisition gave Mint resources to grow fast and expand. Over the following few years, mint.com became one of the most widely used free budgeting app platforms in the world.
By its peak, Mint reportedly served more than 17 million users. It allowed users to:
Link their bank accounts and credit cards
Categorize every transaction on Mint
Set savings goals and track their spending trends
Monitor their credit and track their net worth in one place
For many budgeters, Mint was their first real step toward learning how to manage their finances.
Why Intuit Shut Mint
So, if Mint was so successful, why did Intuit shut it down?
The short answer: strategy.
In late 2023, Intuit announced that the Mint app was closing and that users would be migrated to Credit Karma, a separate app also owned by Intuit. The company framed this move as a consolidation effort, bringing budgeting, credit, and financial insights under one platform.
In other words, Mint wasn’t failing. But within Intuit’s ecosystem, it was no longer the priority (hard to make money).
Running multiple consumer-facing finance platforms meant overlapping features, duplicated costs, and competing roadmaps. Intuit also owns TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma, and the company chose to focus consumer finance efforts on Credit Karma instead of continuing to evolve the Mint budgeting app.
That decision ultimately led to what many now refer to as the Mint shut down, which is still talked a lot about on Reddit and mourned by original “Minters”.
Mint’s Original Vision: Free, Simple, and Hard to Monetize
One of the lesser-known but most important parts of Mint’s story is its original philosophy. Aaron Patzer, Mint’s founder, built the product around a clear belief: budgeting tools should be free, simple, and accessible to everyone.
At the time Mint launched, most personal finance software required upfront payments, complicated setups, or both. Patzer wanted to remove those barriers entirely since he believed that you shouldn’t need to pay to manage your money.
That vision is a big reason Mint grew so quickly. By eliminating subscription fees, Mint lowered the friction for new users and helped millions create a budget, track spending, and understand their finances without paying anything. The decision to stay free wasn’t just a growth tactic, it was part of Mint’s core identity.
But that same philosophy also created challenges. Because Mint didn’t charge users, the app relied on referral fees and financial product recommendations to generate revenue. While these partnerships helped keep the service free, they never turned Mint into a major profit engine, especially as the platform matured and operating costs grew. Security, data compliance, and ongoing feature development only became more expensive over time.
After Mint was acquired by Intuit, the app continued to operate as a free product, but it increasingly stood apart from Intuit’s core business. Products like TurboTax and QuickBooks had clear, scalable monetization models, while Mint remained harder to justify as a long-term standalone investment. Many industry observers believe this tension, between Mint’s free-first ethos and Intuit’s business priorities, played a sinlent but significant role in the decision to eventually shut the app down.
Mint didn’t fail because users stopped loving it. It struggled because the very principles that made it popular also made it difficult to sustain within a large financial software company.
Ironically, users that budget aren’t fans of spending money.
When Did Mint Shut Down? Key Dates to Know
The shutdown wasn’t sudden, but it still caught many users off guard.
Mint announced its closure in late 2023
Users were notified that the app was shutting and data would move.
The official cutoff for Mint access was March 23 2023, with limited access afterward
By 2024, Mint was no longer operating as a standalone mobile app
For many longtime users, March 23 marked the end of nearly a decade, or more, of their daily budgeting habits using Mint, which is likely why it’s still talked about so often.
What Happened to Mint Users After the Shutdown
One of the biggest concerns was data. Mint had years of financial history for many people, including categorized spending, budgets, and long-term trends.
Intuit’s solution was to move users to Credit Karma. Former Mint users were prompted to sign into Credit Karma to access parts of their financial data.
However, this transition wasn’t seamless.
Credit Karma focuses more on credit scores, loan offers, and financial recommendations than hands-on budgeting. While it can show balances and transactions, many users felt it lacked the depth of features Mint offered, especially around creating a monthly budget, detailed categorization, and long-term tracking.
As a result, many former Mint users started searching for another personal finance app that felt more like Mint.
This led to apps like Rocket Money creating dedicated campaigns to try to attract newly homeless Mint users.
Why Credit Karma Isn’t the Same as Mint
Although both apps are owned by Intuit, they serve different purposes.
Mint’s core mission was budgeting and visibility. Credit Karma is more about credit monitoring and recommendations. The business models differ too, Credit Karma relies heavily on referral fees from financial products, while Mint leaned more on ads and optional upgrades.
That distinction matters. Some users felt that Credit Karma’s recommendations blurred the line between tools and marketing. Mint, by contrast, positioned itself as an app that would never sell user data directly and existed primarily to help users understand their money.
This mismatch in core identities and values of the loyal user base is why the question “what’s happening to Mint?” quickly turned into “What should I use instead?”
The Search for Better Alternatives to Mint
Once it became clear that the Mint budgeting app is shutting, people began comparing alternatives. The goal was to find a better alternative that could help them budget and track spending with the same clarity.
Here were some of the most discussed options.
Rocket Money
Rocket Money gained popularity for helping users cancel unwanted subscriptions and track expenses. Over time they added more budgeting features and aggressively went after Mint users post-shutdown, helping users to easily migrate their data.
Rocket Money is sleek and modern, but many top features require a subscription. For users who liked Mint’s free model, that was a trade-off.
EveryDollar
Created by Dave Ramsey, EveryDollar focuses on zero-based budgeting and debt payoff. It’s popular among budgeters who want a strict structure to get out of debt and build wealth.
The free version is basic, while the premium version of EveryDollar unlocks bank syncing and automation. Some former Mint fans appreciated its philosophy, while others missed Mint’s flexibility. The app ran aggressive campaigns where users received months of the premium version as part of promotions.
Quicken
Quicken is one of the oldest names in budgeting tools. It’s powerful, detailed, and well-suited for users who want deep control over investments and long-term planning. However, it’s not free and has a steeper learning curve than Mint ever did.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB had a loyal following even before Mint announced its shutdown. Its proactive budgeting philosophy emphasized planning ahead rather than tracking past spending. Many former Mint users admired YNAB’s educational resources and strong community, though some found its learning curve steep and its subscription cost hard to justify.
Orbit Money (Beta)
Orbit is an upcoming platform taking a narrower approach than full budgeting apps, focusing on subscription tracking rather than building detailed budgets that users need to maintain. It’s designed for users who mainly relied on Mint to spot recurring charges and manage subscriptions in an intuitive, AI-supported way, while keeping the philosophy that the core experience should remain free. For former Mint users who found full replacements too complex, Orbit can feel like a lighter, more focused alternative.
For some former Mint users, subscription visibility mattered more than full budgeting, which is why many now look to dedicated tools, something we break down in our subscription tracker comparison.
It can also be important to understand what key features to look for when choosing a subscription tracker app that's right for you.
Why Mint’s Closure Hit So Hard
The reason this shutdown felt personal is simple: Mint grew with its users.
People used it to:
Save for homes
Pay off student loans
Plan weddings
Navigate job losses
Track financial progress over years
It wasn’t just an app that helps with numbers. It helped people take control of their finances, set financial goals, and feel less anxious about money, it was many peoples’ first exposure to budgeting and personal finance, a guide and a companion.
When Mint shut, it wasn’t just software disappearing, it was a routine, a habit, and a sense of clarity for millions.
What This Says About Budget Apps Today
The shutdown also reflects broader trends in budgeting apps.
Free tools are harder to sustain. Companies want ecosystems, not standalone apps. Data, personalization, and cross-selling matter more than ever.
That’s why we’re seeing fewer truly free options and more platforms offering paid tiers, premium features, or bundled services. The era of a no-cost, full-featured budgeting giant like Mint may be over.
There’s also theory mentioned by Ron Shelvin in his Forbes article on the Mint Shutdown that discusses the death of the era of simple personal finance apps, as users want more performance and results oriented than a “do-it-yourself” money management app.
People want impact over insights, and we believe this will become more powerful with the emergence of AI in personal finance apps.
Despite this theory, it seems the demand for the best budgeting experience hasn’t gone away, whether this is a sound business model for an app still remains a question mark.
Is There a True Replacement for Mint in 2026?
There’s no single app like Mint, but there are combinations that work.
Some people pair Rocket Money with spreadsheets. Others use EveryDollar for budgeting and Credit Karma for credit. Advanced users lean toward Quicken or even QuickBooks-style tools for personal use. We have seen others like Monarch money or YNAB pop up.
The “best” choice depends on whether your priority is simplicity, automation, debt reduction, or long-term planning.
What’s clear is this: Mint’s closure forced millions to rethink how they approach budgeting, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Final Thoughts: What Happened to Mint, Really?
So, what happened to Mint?
Mint wasn’t a failure. It was a strategic decision by Intuit, driven by consolidation and shifting priorities. Mint shut down because the company believed Credit Karma could serve as its primary consumer finance platform.
For users, though, just like Blockbuster, Mint’s story is a reminder that even beloved tools can disappear. The good news? The habits Mint helped build, budgeting, awareness, and intentional money management for millions of users, didn’t vanish with the app.
Mint may be gone, but the need for smarter, human-centered money-management tools is stronger than ever.
Frequently Asked Questions About What Happened to Mint
Why did Mint shut down?
Mint shut down because Intuit decided to consolidate its consumer finance products. Rather than continue operating multiple overlapping apps, Intuit chose to focus on Credit Karma as its primary platform for personal finance tools. The decision was strategic, not because Mint was failing or losing users.
When did Mint officially shut down?
Mint stopped operating as a standalone app in March 23, 2024. Leading up to that date, users were notified and given the option to transition their data. After that point, the Mint app and website were no longer accessible in their original form.
What happened to my Mint data?
Intuit allowed users to export their Mint data or migrate certain information to Credit Karma. However, not all historical data and budgeting features transferred perfectly. Many users chose to download their data and move to a different budgeting platform instead.
Is Credit Karma the replacement for Mint?
From Intuit’s perspective, yes: Credit Karma became the replacement. However, Credit Karma is not a full budgeting app in the same way Mint was. It focuses more on credit scores, financial recommendations, and product offers rather than hands-on budgeting and spending categorization.
Many Mint users didn’t see it as worthy successor.
Is there a budgeting app similar to Mint?
There is no exact replacement, but several apps offer similar functionality. Popular alternatives include Rocket Money, EveryDollar, and Quicken. Each takes a different approach to budgeting, so the best option depends on whether you prioritize automation, debt payoff, or detailed financial tracking.
For subscription management, upcoming app: Orbit Money proves to offer an intuitive way for users to manage their money.
Was Mint really free?
Yes. Mint was widely considered the best free budgeting app for many years. It made money primarily through ads and referral partnerships rather than subscriptions, which is one reason its shutdown felt so disruptive to users accustomed to their budgeting tool being free.
Can I still access Mint.com?
No. Mint.com is no longer active as a budgeting platform. Visiting the site now redirects users to Intuit-owned services, primarily Credit Karma.
Did Mint sell user data before shutting down?
Mint stated that it did not sell user data directly. However, like many free apps, it used anonymized data and financial insights to power recommendations and offers. Privacy concerns became a larger topic of discussion after the shutdown announcement.
What should former Mint users do next?
Former Mint users should first ensure they’ve downloaded their financial data. From there, it’s best to choose a budgeting app that matches their goals, whether that’s strict budgeting, subscription tracking, or long-term financial planning.
Could Mint ever come back?
There’s no indication that Mint will return as a standalone product. Since Intuit fully absorbed its functionality and redirected users, a relaunch is highly unlikely.
Did Credit Karma buy Mint?
No. Credit Karma did not buy Mint. Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009, long before Credit Karma entered the picture. Intuit later acquired Credit Karma in 2020, meaning both apps were owned by the same parent company. When Intuit decided to shut down Mint, users were redirected to Credit Karma, which is why many people assume Credit Karma bought Mint, but the decision came from Intuit, not Credit Karma.It’s likely Intuit was the opportunity where they could make more profit with Credit Karma versus Mint.
Friday, December 19, 2025
What Happened to Mint? Why Intuit Shut Down the Most Popular Budgeting App
Simon Chadwick
Founder & CEO
For years, Mint was the first name many people thought of when it came to managing money online. It was a simple, free, and powerful app that helped millions to create a budget, save, track their spending, and understand their net worth in one place. So when news broke that Mint was shutting down, the reaction from users was confusion, frustration, and a lot of unanswered questions.
So what actually happened to Mint? Why would Intuit (which acquired Mint in 2009), one of the biggest names in financial software, decide to shut down such a popular budgeting app?
And what did this mean for old Mint users looking for the best budgeting apps after 2024?
Let’s go through the full story, where Mint came from, why Intuit announced its closure, what replaced it, and where should old Mint users look next.
Mint: From Disruptive Startup to Becoming a Household Name
Mint was launched in 2007 by founder Aaron Patzer with a clear goal: make personal finance easier for everyday people while keeping it free. At a time when spreadsheets were the norm, Mint offered something revolutionary, a single dashboard that could connect all your financial accounts, categorize spending automatically, and help you create a budget.
This brought millions of users into the world of savings and personal finance,
In 2009, Mint was acquired by Intuit, the financial company behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, and later Credit Karma. The acquisition gave Mint resources to grow fast and expand. Over the following few years, mint.com became one of the most widely used free budgeting app platforms in the world.
By its peak, Mint reportedly served more than 17 million users. It allowed users to:
Link their bank accounts and credit cards
Categorize every transaction on Mint
Set savings goals and track their spending trends
Monitor their credit and track their net worth in one place
For many budgeters, Mint was their first real step toward learning how to manage their finances.
Why Intuit Shut Mint
So, if Mint was so successful, why did Intuit shut it down?
The short answer: strategy.
In late 2023, Intuit announced that the Mint app was closing and that users would be migrated to Credit Karma, a separate app also owned by Intuit. The company framed this move as a consolidation effort, bringing budgeting, credit, and financial insights under one platform.
In other words, Mint wasn’t failing. But within Intuit’s ecosystem, it was no longer the priority (hard to make money).
Running multiple consumer-facing finance platforms meant overlapping features, duplicated costs, and competing roadmaps. Intuit also owns TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma, and the company chose to focus consumer finance efforts on Credit Karma instead of continuing to evolve the Mint budgeting app.
That decision ultimately led to what many now refer to as the Mint shut down, which is still talked a lot about on Reddit and mourned by original “Minters”.
Mint’s Original Vision: Free, Simple, and Hard to Monetize
One of the lesser-known but most important parts of Mint’s story is its original philosophy. Aaron Patzer, Mint’s founder, built the product around a clear belief: budgeting tools should be free, simple, and accessible to everyone.
At the time Mint launched, most personal finance software required upfront payments, complicated setups, or both. Patzer wanted to remove those barriers entirely since he believed that you shouldn’t need to pay to manage your money.
That vision is a big reason Mint grew so quickly. By eliminating subscription fees, Mint lowered the friction for new users and helped millions create a budget, track spending, and understand their finances without paying anything. The decision to stay free wasn’t just a growth tactic, it was part of Mint’s core identity.
But that same philosophy also created challenges. Because Mint didn’t charge users, the app relied on referral fees and financial product recommendations to generate revenue. While these partnerships helped keep the service free, they never turned Mint into a major profit engine, especially as the platform matured and operating costs grew. Security, data compliance, and ongoing feature development only became more expensive over time.
After Mint was acquired by Intuit, the app continued to operate as a free product, but it increasingly stood apart from Intuit’s core business. Products like TurboTax and QuickBooks had clear, scalable monetization models, while Mint remained harder to justify as a long-term standalone investment. Many industry observers believe this tension, between Mint’s free-first ethos and Intuit’s business priorities, played a sinlent but significant role in the decision to eventually shut the app down.
Mint didn’t fail because users stopped loving it. It struggled because the very principles that made it popular also made it difficult to sustain within a large financial software company.
Ironically, users that budget aren’t fans of spending money.
When Did Mint Shut Down? Key Dates to Know
The shutdown wasn’t sudden, but it still caught many users off guard.
Mint announced its closure in late 2023
Users were notified that the app was shutting and data would move.
The official cutoff for Mint access was March 23 2023, with limited access afterward
By 2024, Mint was no longer operating as a standalone mobile app
For many longtime users, March 23 marked the end of nearly a decade, or more, of their daily budgeting habits using Mint, which is likely why it’s still talked about so often.
What Happened to Mint Users After the Shutdown
One of the biggest concerns was data. Mint had years of financial history for many people, including categorized spending, budgets, and long-term trends.
Intuit’s solution was to move users to Credit Karma. Former Mint users were prompted to sign into Credit Karma to access parts of their financial data.
However, this transition wasn’t seamless.
Credit Karma focuses more on credit scores, loan offers, and financial recommendations than hands-on budgeting. While it can show balances and transactions, many users felt it lacked the depth of features Mint offered, especially around creating a monthly budget, detailed categorization, and long-term tracking.
As a result, many former Mint users started searching for another personal finance app that felt more like Mint.
This led to apps like Rocket Money creating dedicated campaigns to try to attract newly homeless Mint users.
Why Credit Karma Isn’t the Same as Mint
Although both apps are owned by Intuit, they serve different purposes.
Mint’s core mission was budgeting and visibility. Credit Karma is more about credit monitoring and recommendations. The business models differ too, Credit Karma relies heavily on referral fees from financial products, while Mint leaned more on ads and optional upgrades.
That distinction matters. Some users felt that Credit Karma’s recommendations blurred the line between tools and marketing. Mint, by contrast, positioned itself as an app that would never sell user data directly and existed primarily to help users understand their money.
This mismatch in core identities and values of the loyal user base is why the question “what’s happening to Mint?” quickly turned into “What should I use instead?”
The Search for Better Alternatives to Mint
Once it became clear that the Mint budgeting app is shutting, people began comparing alternatives. The goal was to find a better alternative that could help them budget and track spending with the same clarity.
Here were some of the most discussed options.
Rocket Money
Rocket Money gained popularity for helping users cancel unwanted subscriptions and track expenses. Over time they added more budgeting features and aggressively went after Mint users post-shutdown, helping users to easily migrate their data.
Rocket Money is sleek and modern, but many top features require a subscription. For users who liked Mint’s free model, that was a trade-off.
EveryDollar
Created by Dave Ramsey, EveryDollar focuses on zero-based budgeting and debt payoff. It’s popular among budgeters who want a strict structure to get out of debt and build wealth.
The free version is basic, while the premium version of EveryDollar unlocks bank syncing and automation. Some former Mint fans appreciated its philosophy, while others missed Mint’s flexibility. The app ran aggressive campaigns where users received months of the premium version as part of promotions.
Quicken
Quicken is one of the oldest names in budgeting tools. It’s powerful, detailed, and well-suited for users who want deep control over investments and long-term planning. However, it’s not free and has a steeper learning curve than Mint ever did.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB had a loyal following even before Mint announced its shutdown. Its proactive budgeting philosophy emphasized planning ahead rather than tracking past spending. Many former Mint users admired YNAB’s educational resources and strong community, though some found its learning curve steep and its subscription cost hard to justify.
Orbit Money (Beta)
Orbit is an upcoming platform taking a narrower approach than full budgeting apps, focusing on subscription tracking rather than building detailed budgets that users need to maintain. It’s designed for users who mainly relied on Mint to spot recurring charges and manage subscriptions in an intuitive, AI-supported way, while keeping the philosophy that the core experience should remain free. For former Mint users who found full replacements too complex, Orbit can feel like a lighter, more focused alternative.
For some former Mint users, subscription visibility mattered more than full budgeting, which is why many now look to dedicated tools, something we break down in our subscription tracker comparison.
It can also be important to understand what key features to look for when choosing a subscription tracker app that's right for you.
Why Mint’s Closure Hit So Hard
The reason this shutdown felt personal is simple: Mint grew with its users.
People used it to:
Save for homes
Pay off student loans
Plan weddings
Navigate job losses
Track financial progress over years
It wasn’t just an app that helps with numbers. It helped people take control of their finances, set financial goals, and feel less anxious about money, it was many peoples’ first exposure to budgeting and personal finance, a guide and a companion.
When Mint shut, it wasn’t just software disappearing, it was a routine, a habit, and a sense of clarity for millions.
What This Says About Budget Apps Today
The shutdown also reflects broader trends in budgeting apps.
Free tools are harder to sustain. Companies want ecosystems, not standalone apps. Data, personalization, and cross-selling matter more than ever.
That’s why we’re seeing fewer truly free options and more platforms offering paid tiers, premium features, or bundled services. The era of a no-cost, full-featured budgeting giant like Mint may be over.
There’s also theory mentioned by Ron Shelvin in his Forbes article on the Mint Shutdown that discusses the death of the era of simple personal finance apps, as users want more performance and results oriented than a “do-it-yourself” money management app.
People want impact over insights, and we believe this will become more powerful with the emergence of AI in personal finance apps.
Despite this theory, it seems the demand for the best budgeting experience hasn’t gone away, whether this is a sound business model for an app still remains a question mark.
Is There a True Replacement for Mint in 2026?
There’s no single app like Mint, but there are combinations that work.
Some people pair Rocket Money with spreadsheets. Others use EveryDollar for budgeting and Credit Karma for credit. Advanced users lean toward Quicken or even QuickBooks-style tools for personal use. We have seen others like Monarch money or YNAB pop up.
The “best” choice depends on whether your priority is simplicity, automation, debt reduction, or long-term planning.
What’s clear is this: Mint’s closure forced millions to rethink how they approach budgeting, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Final Thoughts: What Happened to Mint, Really?
So, what happened to Mint?
Mint wasn’t a failure. It was a strategic decision by Intuit, driven by consolidation and shifting priorities. Mint shut down because the company believed Credit Karma could serve as its primary consumer finance platform.
For users, though, just like Blockbuster, Mint’s story is a reminder that even beloved tools can disappear. The good news? The habits Mint helped build, budgeting, awareness, and intentional money management for millions of users, didn’t vanish with the app.
Mint may be gone, but the need for smarter, human-centered money-management tools is stronger than ever.
Frequently Asked Questions About What Happened to Mint
Why did Mint shut down?
Mint shut down because Intuit decided to consolidate its consumer finance products. Rather than continue operating multiple overlapping apps, Intuit chose to focus on Credit Karma as its primary platform for personal finance tools. The decision was strategic, not because Mint was failing or losing users.
When did Mint officially shut down?
Mint stopped operating as a standalone app in March 23, 2024. Leading up to that date, users were notified and given the option to transition their data. After that point, the Mint app and website were no longer accessible in their original form.
What happened to my Mint data?
Intuit allowed users to export their Mint data or migrate certain information to Credit Karma. However, not all historical data and budgeting features transferred perfectly. Many users chose to download their data and move to a different budgeting platform instead.
Is Credit Karma the replacement for Mint?
From Intuit’s perspective, yes: Credit Karma became the replacement. However, Credit Karma is not a full budgeting app in the same way Mint was. It focuses more on credit scores, financial recommendations, and product offers rather than hands-on budgeting and spending categorization.
Many Mint users didn’t see it as worthy successor.
Is there a budgeting app similar to Mint?
There is no exact replacement, but several apps offer similar functionality. Popular alternatives include Rocket Money, EveryDollar, and Quicken. Each takes a different approach to budgeting, so the best option depends on whether you prioritize automation, debt payoff, or detailed financial tracking.
For subscription management, upcoming app: Orbit Money proves to offer an intuitive way for users to manage their money.
Was Mint really free?
Yes. Mint was widely considered the best free budgeting app for many years. It made money primarily through ads and referral partnerships rather than subscriptions, which is one reason its shutdown felt so disruptive to users accustomed to their budgeting tool being free.
Can I still access Mint.com?
No. Mint.com is no longer active as a budgeting platform. Visiting the site now redirects users to Intuit-owned services, primarily Credit Karma.
Did Mint sell user data before shutting down?
Mint stated that it did not sell user data directly. However, like many free apps, it used anonymized data and financial insights to power recommendations and offers. Privacy concerns became a larger topic of discussion after the shutdown announcement.
What should former Mint users do next?
Former Mint users should first ensure they’ve downloaded their financial data. From there, it’s best to choose a budgeting app that matches their goals, whether that’s strict budgeting, subscription tracking, or long-term financial planning.
Could Mint ever come back?
There’s no indication that Mint will return as a standalone product. Since Intuit fully absorbed its functionality and redirected users, a relaunch is highly unlikely.
Did Credit Karma buy Mint?
No. Credit Karma did not buy Mint. Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009, long before Credit Karma entered the picture. Intuit later acquired Credit Karma in 2020, meaning both apps were owned by the same parent company. When Intuit decided to shut down Mint, users were redirected to Credit Karma, which is why many people assume Credit Karma bought Mint, but the decision came from Intuit, not Credit Karma.It’s likely Intuit was the opportunity where they could make more profit with Credit Karma versus Mint.
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