App Comparison

5 Best Mint Alternatives for Canadians in 2026 (Free & Paid)

Mint shut down on March 23, 2024, and left a lot of Canadians without an easy replacement. Here is what actually works, with real screenshots, honest pricing, and where each app falls short.

By Ahmad Jamal · Published Updated July 27, 2026 · 9 min read

March 23, 2024 is the day Intuit pulled the plug on Mint. If you leaned on it for years because it was free, simple, and just worked, the shutdown left an annoying hole where your budget used to be.

I went looking for a real replacement, one that actually fit Canadian banks and Canadian accounts, tried a stack of apps, and this is the honest shortlist. Some come close to Mint. A couple are better.

Quick Answer

Waypoint Budget is the best free Mint alternative for most Canadians. It keeps a real free tier (not a trial), connects Canadian banks through both Plaid and Flinks when you want automatic sync, and tracks TFSA and RRSP accounts that US-built apps skip. Monarch Money is the closest match on raw features but costs $14.99 USD/mo with no free tier. KOHO covers basic tracking free with a prepaid card.
Try Waypoint Budget FreeNo credit card required. Free forever, upgrade optional.
waypointbudget.com/dashboard
Waypoint Budget Dashboard - Canadian budgeting app alternative to Mint showing budget overview, spending trends, and account balances

Dashboard with TFSA/RRSP tracking.

What Made Mint Great (And Why It's Hard to Replace)

Before we get to alternatives, it helps to name what we are actually trying to replace. Mint got a few things very right:

What Mint Did Right

  • Completely free. No premium tiers, no paywalls.
  • Automatic bank sync. Transactions imported for you.
  • Budget tracking. Category budgets with alerts.
  • Bill reminders. A nudge before a payment was due.
  • Credit score tracking. Free monitoring.
  • Simple interface. Never overwhelming.

The trouble is finding all of that, for free, with solid Canadian bank support. Nothing copies Mint exactly. But a few get close, and a couple do things Mint never could. If price is your top priority, our guide to the best free budgeting apps for Canadians goes deeper.

The Best Mint Alternatives for Canadians in 2026

Here are the five I keep recommending, from the closest free replacement to the DIY route. Prices first, so you can see the shape of it:

Monthly Cost at a Glance

Waypoint Budget (Free tier; Plus for bank sync)Free | $7.99 CAD/mo
Monarch Money (Core)$14.99 USD/mo
YNAB$14.99 USD/mo
KOHOFree
Spreadsheets (Google Sheets or Excel)Free

Monarch and YNAB bill in USD, so a Canadian card adds the exchange rate and often a foreign transaction fee. Waypoint Budget bills in CAD.

1. Waypoint Budget (Best Free Alternative)

I will be upfront: I built Waypoint Budget after Mint shut down, because everything else was either too expensive or missing the Canadian pieces. My partner Florencia and I run it out of Calgary, a bootstrapped team of two who budget together. So take my bias as noted, and here is the honest version.

The free tier is genuinely usable on its own: unlimited manual transactions, every budget category, receipt scanning, CSV import, and 5 Smart Money Coach messages a day. When you want automatic bank sync, Plus is $7.99 CAD/mo, still well under what YNAB or Monarch charge. It connects Canadian banks through both Plaid and Flinks, so if one provider does not support your bank, the other usually does.

Waypoint Budget

Price: Free, with Plus at $7.99 CAD/mo for bank sync

What Mint users will love

  • A real free tier, not a trial
  • Canadian banks via Plaid and Flinks
  • TFSA and RRSP tracking (Pro)
  • Smart Money Coach on every plan
  • Clean, simple interface

What's different from Mint

  • No built-in credit score tracking yet
  • Bank sync is a paid feature (Plus, $7.99 CAD/mo)
  • A newer app, built after Mint with those lessons in mind
waypointbudget.com/transactions?tab=banks
Waypoint Budget Bank Connections - Connect Canadian banks like RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC automatically via Plaid and Flinks

Connect Canadian banks via Plaid and Flinks.

waypointbudget.com/budget
Waypoint Budget Categories - Budget tracking interface showing spending by category, similar to Mint but with Canadian-specific categories

Budget tracking by category.

Best for: Canadians who want a free, simple app with Canadian-specific features like TFSA and RRSP tracking. Handy if you are also trying to max out your TFSA or plan retirement with an RRSP calculator.

Try Our Free Budget Calculator

Get started with smart budgeting using our free Canadian budget calculator. Track income, expenses, and savings goals.

2. Monarch Money (Best Premium Alternative)

Monarch is the app people mean when they say they want Mint, but paid. It has a clean interface, solid budgeting, investment tracking, and it handles couples well. The catch for Canadians is the price and the focus: it runs two tiers (Core at $14.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year, plus a higher Plus tier at $199 USD/year), bills in USD, and was built for the US market, so Canadian bank coverage varies and there is no TFSA or RRSP tracking.

Monarch Money

Price: $14.99 USD/mo or $99.99 USD/yr (Core); Plus tier $199 USD/yr

Pros

  • Closest to Mint's full feature set
  • Clean interface
  • Bank sync, budgeting, investment tracking
  • Couples and household features

Cons

  • No free tier, only a 7-day trial
  • US-focused, Canadian bank support varies
  • No TFSA or RRSP tracking
  • USD billing

Best for: former Mint power users who want depth and do not mind paying in USD.

3. YNAB (You Need A Budget): Best Methodology

YNAB is not really a Mint clone. It is a method, zero-based budgeting, wrapped in an app, and it asks you to give every dollar a job. That mindset shift is the whole point, and people who stick with it swear by it. It is also the priciest option here at $14.99 USD/month or $109 USD/year (about $21 CAD/month), and the learning curve is real.

YNAB

Price: $14.99 USD/mo or $109 USD/yr (about $21 CAD/mo)

Pros

Cons

  • Most expensive option here
  • Steeper learning curve than Mint
  • USD pricing

Best for: people who want to change how they think about money, not just track it. Worth it if you are serious about zero-based budgeting.

4. KOHO (Best Free Canadian Option)

KOHO is Canadian, free, and built around a reloadable prepaid card with cash back. The budgeting is basic, and it mostly tracks spending on the KOHO card itself rather than connecting your other accounts, so it is more of a spending account with light tracking than a full budgeting tool. For free, though, it is a fine on-ramp.

KOHO

Price: Free (with optional paid tiers)

Pros

  • Free
  • Canadian built and focused
  • Prepaid card with cash back
  • Basic budgeting and tracking

Cons

  • Limited budgeting features
  • Can't connect external bank accounts
  • More prepaid card than budgeting tool

Best for: Canadians who want a free card with light budgeting and do not need full tracking.

5. Spreadsheets (DIY Option)

Never underestimate a spreadsheet. Google Sheets or Excel gives you total control and costs nothing, and for a certain kind of person that is exactly right. The trade-off is effort: everything is manual, there is no bank sync, and it is the easiest option to quietly abandon by week three.

Spreadsheets

Price: Free (Google Sheets or Excel)

Pros

  • Total control and customization
  • Free forever
  • No third-party data sharing

Cons

  • Fully manual, no bank sync
  • Easy to abandon
  • No insights or automation

Best for: disciplined people who want maximum control. Skip it if Mint's automation is what you will miss most.

Feature Comparison: Mint vs Alternatives

waypointbudget.com/transactions
Waypoint Budget Transaction View - Automatic transaction categorization and tracking, similar to Mint's transaction list

Smart transaction categorization.

FeatureMintWaypoint BudgetMonarchYNABKOHO
PriceFreeFree | $7.99$14.99 USD$14.99 USDFree
Bank SyncPlus only
Budget TrackingBasic
TFSA/RRSP Tracking
Smart InsightsLimited
Canadian FocusPartialU.S. firstU.S. first
Mobile AccessNative AppNative + WebNative AppNative AppNative App
CSV ImportLimited
Receipt Scanning
Household Budgets

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What It Looks Like on Your Phone

Waypoint Budget mobile dashboard for Canadians
Waypoint Budget transactions with Canadian bank sync
Waypoint Budget breakdown with pie chart
Waypoint Budget debt payoff goals
Waypoint Budget net worth tracker
Waypoint Budget subscription tracker
Waypoint Budget reports and insights

Dashboard Overview

Your entire financial picture at a glance: budget status, spending breakdown, and top categories.

Quiz: Which Mint Replacement Is Right for You?

Answer 3 quick questions for a personalized pick.

1. What matters most to you?

2. How do you want to track transactions?

3. Do you need TFSA/RRSP tracking?

How to Choose Your Mint Replacement

Still deciding? Match it to what you actually loved about Mint.

If you loved that Mint was free:

Try Waypoint Budget (the free tier is robust) or KOHO (simple, Canadian, free).

If you want the closest Mint replacement:

Monarch Money has the most similar feature set, but it is not cheap.

If you are Canadian and want Canadian features:

Waypoint Budget (TFSA/RRSP tracking, Canadian banks, CAD pricing). It also includes a free OSAP calculator for students and a Canada Child Benefit calculator for families.

If you want to get serious about budgeting:

YNAB if price is not a concern and you want the best methodology. Or try Waypoint Budget's Smart Money Coach for free personalized advice.

If you are extremely disciplined:

Spreadsheets give you maximum control (but require maximum effort). Check our emergency fund calculator to see how much you should save.

Migration Tips: Starting Fresh

Mint is gone and its export tools went with it, so there is no data to carry over. The upside: a clean start takes about 15 minutes, and your new app does most of the work.

You can't export from Mint anymore

Mint's data export shut off with the app, so do not hunt for a download button. The quickest way to rebuild your history is a CSV from your bank, which step one below covers.
  1. Download your bank statements as CSV. Log into your bank (TD, RBC, BMO, and the rest) and download the last 3 to 6 months as CSV. This gives you historical data to import.
  2. Import to your new app. In Waypoint Budget, go to Transactions, then Import, then Upload CSV. The app cleans up merchant names and assigns categories. Takes under a minute.
  3. Review categories, then stop touching them. Fix any miscategorized transactions. The app learns your preferences and applies them to future transactions.
  4. Connect your bank (optional). If you want automatic syncing, connect via Plaid or Flinks. New transactions import and categorize themselves in the background from then on, and your existing rules carry over.
  5. Set your income and budget. Add your monthly income and allocate it to categories. The app handles the math. Check back in a week to see how you are tracking.

The Bottom Line

Mint is gone, and that stings. Intuit pointed everyone at Credit Karma, but that is not a real budgeting replacement. The good news is you have options, and for Canadians a few are better than Mint ever was.

Want free with Canadian features? Waypoint Budget. Happy to pay for depth? Monarch or YNAB. Just need light tracking and a card? KOHO.

Whatever you pick, the only thing that really matters is that you use it. Mint worked because it was simple and you actually opened it. Find a replacement that clears that same bar and you will be fine.

Frequently Asked Questions

The best Mint alternative for Canadians depends on what you valued most about Mint. For a free option similar to Mint, Waypoint Budget offers a robust free tier with Canadian bank support and TFSA/RRSP tracking. For the closest feature match, Monarch Money is similar but costs $14.99 USD/month. For simplicity, KOHO offers basic tracking with a prepaid card.
Yes. Waypoint Budget offers a free forever tier (not a trial) with unlimited manual transactions, receipt scanning (upload photos of receipts or bank statements for automatic extraction), CSV file upload from your bank, all budget categories, Smart Money Coach (5 messages/day), and unlimited history. The Free plan requires no bank connection, so you can add transactions manually, scan receipts, or upload CSV files. Bank sync (automatic transaction import via Plaid and Flinks) is optional and available on Plus and Pro plans. KOHO also offers free basic tracking with a prepaid card. Most other Mint alternatives require paid subscriptions.
Unfortunately, Mint shut down on March 23, 2024, and you can no longer export your data from Mint. However, you can start fresh with a new app. Screenshot your budget categories from Mint if you had them set up, then reference them when setting up your new budgeting app. Most apps can import bank transaction history directly.
Waypoint Budget connects through both Plaid and Flinks, so it supports all major Canadian banks including TD, RBC, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC, Tangerine, EQ Bank, and Simplii Financial, plus hundreds of credit unions. Flinks adds deeper coverage for Canadian banks and credit unions where Plaid falls short, so if one provider does not support your bank, the other usually does. Most competitors rely on a single aggregator. Always verify bank support before signing up for any budgeting app.
Mint was shut down by Intuit (its parent company) on March 23, 2024. Intuit decided to focus on Credit Karma instead, which they acquired. Mint users were encouraged to migrate to Credit Karma, but many found it lacked Mint's budgeting features, leading to a search for alternatives.
Yes. Waypoint Budget Pro supports Canadian registered accounts (TFSA and RRSP), which few budgeting apps do. You can track contributions, room, and growth. Most US-built apps like YNAB and Monarch don’t support these.
Yes. Waypoint Budget Pro ($12.99 CAD/mo) includes household sharing: up to 5 members share one budget, the same transactions, and the same goals, and each member connects their own banks, with 5 connections shared across the household. Only the owner needs Pro, and invited members join free. Each person can also keep a private personal budget alongside the shared one with Multiple Budget Profiles, and Group Budgets (on every plan, including Free) let you pool categories like Groceries, Dining, and Coffee into one shared Food budget.
Yes. Bank connections use Plaid and Flinks, the same infrastructure trusted by major financial apps. Both connect with read-only access (they cannot move money) and your banking credentials are never stored on Waypoint Budget’s servers. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Ready to try Waypoint Budget?

Built for Canadians who miss Mint. Free to start, with TFSA and RRSP tracking and the Smart Money Coach included.

Get Started Free

No credit card required. Upgrade to Plus ($7.99 CAD/mo) only when you want bank sync.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Every person's financial situation is different, and what works for one household may not work for another. Figures and examples are approximate and may change over time. Consider your own circumstances, and consult a qualified professional before making significant financial decisions.

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