


Do you ever feel like your money just disappears?
It’s a common problem.
You need a good system to manage your money, but picking the right tool can be tricky.
Quicken and Expensify are two popular choices, but they do very different things.
So, which one is right for you?
Let’s compare Quicken and Expensify to help you figure out which is the best fit for your financial needs.
Overview
We’ve used both Quicken and Expensify.
We put them through real-world tests. This helped us see their strengths and weaknesses.
Now, let’s compare them side-by-side.
Want to take control of your finances? With Quicken, you can connect to thousands of financial institutions. Explore it for more!
Pricing: It has a free trial. The premium plan at $5.59/month.
Key Features:
- Budgeting Tools
- Bill Management
- Investment Tracking
Join over 15 million users who trust Expensify to simplify their finances. Save up to 83% on time spent on expense reports.
Pricing: It has a free trial. The premium plan starts at $5/month.
Key Features:
- SmartScan Receipt Capture
- Corporate Card Reconciliation
- Advanced Approval Workflows.
What is Quicken?
So, you’re wondering about Quicken?
It’s like a tool that helps you see all your money stuff in one place.
Think of it as your digital money organizer.
It can help you track your bank accounts, bills, and even investments.
Pretty handy, right?
Also, explore our favorite Quicken alternatives…
Key Benefits
Quicken is a powerful tool for getting your financial life in order.
They boast over 40 years of experience and have been a #1 best-selling product.
Their various plans can connect to over 14,500 financial institutions.
You can also get a 30-day money-back guarantee to try it out risk-free.
- Connects with thousands of banks and credit cards.
- Creates detailed budgets.
- Tracks investments and net worth.
- Offers retirement planning tools.
Pricing
- Quicken Simplifi: $2.99/month.
Pros
Cons
What is Expensify?
Okay, so let’s talk about Expensify.
It’s a tool that helps you keep track of all your business spending.
Think of it like a helper that remembers where your money goes.
It can grab info from your receipts and bank stuff. Pretty handy!
Also, explore our favorite Expensify alternatives…
Key Benefits
- SmartScan technology scans receipt details and extracts them with over 95% accuracy.
- Employees get reimbursed quickly, often in as little as one business day via ACH.
- The Expensify Card can save you up to 50% on your subscription with its cash back program.
- No warranty is offered; their terms state that liabilities are limited.
Pricing
- Collect: $5/month.
- Control: Custom Pricing.
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison
Deciding between these financial software alternatives requires a clear understanding of your needs.
Quicken and Expensify serve fundamentally different purposes: one is designed for comprehensive personal and basic business finance planning, and the other is built to streamline the expense management process for employees and employers.
1. Core Purpose and Focus
- Quicken is a personal finance software platform that helps users manage their entire financial picture. The Quicken Business version is a key feature that allows for managing business personal finances, investment accounts, and retirement savings alongside income and spending.
- Expensify is a dedicated expense management platform designed to simplify and make reliable the process of capturing, submitting, & getting expense requests approved. It’s built to manage costs for the entire company, including contractors.
2. Expense Capture and Entry
- Quicken offers the ability to connect to bank accounts to log transactions for monitoring and analysis. Users must manually file receipts by attaching them to entries.
- Expensify makes receipt capture a key feature. The mobile app allows employees to snap a photo of a receipt, and the data is extracted in a few seconds. This significantly cuts down on time spent and manual data entry.
3. Reporting and Reimbursement
- Quicken’s reporting is focused on giving the user control over their overall financial picture, including balances and budget planning. Reports are for self-management and tax preparation.
- Expensify is built around creating and submitting real time expense reports. The platform handles the approval process so employers can quickly reimburse employees. Expensify reviews highlight its efficiency in this area.
4. Accessibility and Platform
- Quicken software is primarily a desktop download for Windows or Mac. While a mobile app is available, the full functionality is best experienced on the desktop.
- Expensify is a cloud-based platform that is accessible via web and a powerful mobile app. It is designed to be used immediately to capture expenses and respond to requests on the go.
5. Pricing and Plans
- Quicken offers multiple versions like Quicken Deluxe and Quicken Premier through an annual subscription, with the cost depending on the feature level. The price is affordable for individual users.
- Expensify uses flexible pricing that often revolves around the number of active users or reports per month. It also offers the Expensify Card, which automates the entire expense management process for the company.
6. Investment and Wealth Tracking
- The Quicken brand has been on the market for decades and is the superior tool for investment accounts monitoring and planning for retirement. It gives you a full financial picture of your assets.
- Expensify does not offer any functionality for tracking investment accounts or overall personal wealth analysis. Its focus is solely on business-related spending.
7. Integrations and Ecosystem
- Quicken’s integrations are limited, as it is primarily a personal financial management tool. It does connect to banks to import credit card transactions.
- Expensify offers seamless integration with core accounting platforms like QuickBooks. This ability to export data simplifies the final accounting tasks for the organization.
8. Business-Specific Tools
- The Quicken Business version allows users to manage business income and spending, track rental properties, and create basic invoices for customers.
- Expensify provides powerful tools for categorization, allowing employees to code expenses to specific categories, projects, or tags. It also has automatic mileage logging.
9. Security and Future Outlook
- Both software vendors protect their users’ financial details. Quicken was acquired by Aquiline Capital Partners, which shapes its future on the platform.
- Expensify uses advanced security measures, but its expensify reviews sometimes mention issues where user actions that could trigger a security block or malformed data may be blocked. Users are advised to resolve these by contacting support via phone.
What to look for in an Accounting Software?
Here are some extra things to think about when choosing financial software:
- Scalability: Can the software grow with any of your business? When you’re at the beginning, you might only need simple tools to track your sales and manage expenses. But as your small business grows, you’ll need more. You must evaluate the value of the software based on its ability to scale. Look for a system that can handle a larger volume of transactions and doesn’t limit the number of users who need access.
- Support: What kind of help is available if you have questions Good support is essential for completing your business finances accurately. Check a Quicken review or other alternatives to see what users say about the help center. You should feel expected to get prompt assistance to resolve issues, especially during the initial setup process. The software should also make it easy to save data and access it.
- Ease of Use: Is it something you and your team can learn quickly? A clean user interface is key. If the software is complicated, it will take more effort and waste time. Quicken’s interface is often praised in a quicken review for its straightforward design. The goal is to make daily tasks, like bill tracking and manage expenses, simple enough for even a small number of team members or a non-accountant manager to handle.
- Specific Needs: Does it handle the unique things your business does?Your software should simplify your unique workflows. This could include how easily you can manage expenses by simply snapping a photo with your mobile app in your pocket or if it provides a secure connection to your bank. For a small business, a system that effectively handles bill tracking and sales tracking in one place offers the most value.
- Security: How safe is your financial data with this software?Data security must be a top priority. Your financial information should be securely stored in the cloud or on your computer. Ensure the software has strong measures to protect your information and that access is controlled, perhaps through multi-factor authentication. If you ever run into a security block, the system should clearly indicate the error (e.g., the page is blocked) and provide a path to resolve it.
Final Verdict
So, Quicken or Expensify?
The choice is simple. It depends on your needs.
For managing your personal money, budgeting for your home, and tracking investments, Quicken is our pick.
It’s made for your own finances.
But if you run a business or need to track work expenses, Expensify is better.
Its receipt scanning and reporting are great for business.
We’ve tested both. You can trust our advice for your money.
More of Quicken
- Quicken vs Puzzle: This software focuses on AI-powered financial planning for startups. Its counterpart is for personal finance.
- Quicken vs Dext: This is a business tool for capturing receipts and invoices. The other tool tracks personal expenses.
- Quicken vs Xero: This is popular online accounting software for small businesses. Its competitor is for personal use.
- Quicken vs Synder: This tool syncs e-commerce data with accounting software. Its alternative focuses on personal finance.
- Quicken vs Easy Month End: This is a business tool to streamline month-end tasks. Its competitor is for managing personal finances.
- Quicken vs Docyt: This uses AI for business bookkeeping and automation. The other uses AI as a personal finance assistant.
- Quicken vs Sage: This is a comprehensive business accounting suite. Its competitor is an easier-to-use tool for personal finance.
- Quicken vs Zoho Books: This is an online accounting tool for small businesses. Its competitor is for personal use.
- Quicken vs Wave: This provides free accounting software for small businesses. Its counterpart is designed for individuals.
- Quicken vs Hubdoc: This specializes in document capture for bookkeeping. Its competitor is a personal finance tool.
- Quicken vs Expensify: This is a business expense management tool. The other is for personal expense tracking and budgeting.
- Quicken vs QuickBooks: This is well-known accounting software for businesses. Its alternative is built for personal finance.
- Quicken vs AutoEntry: This is designed to automate data entry for business accounting. Its alternative is a personal finance tool.
- Quicken vs FreshBooks: This is accounting software for freelancers and small businesses. Its alternative is for personal finance.
- Quicken vs NetSuite: This is a powerful business management suite for large companies. Its competitor is a simple personal finance app.
More of Expensify
- Expensify vs Puzzle: This software focuses on AI-powered financial planning for startups. Its counterpart is for personal finance.
- Expensify vs Dext: This is a business tool for capturing receipts and invoices. The other tool tracks personal expenses.
- Expensify vs Xero: This is popular online accounting software for small businesses. Its competitor is for personal use.
- Expensify vs Synder: This tool syncs e-commerce data with accounting software. Its alternative focuses on personal finance.
- Expensify vs Easy Month End: This is a business tool to streamline month-end tasks. Its competitor is for managing personal finances.
- Expensify vs Docyt: This uses AI for business bookkeeping and automation. The other uses AI as a personal finance assistant.
- Expensify vs Sage: This is a comprehensive business accounting suite. Its competitor is an easier-to-use tool for personal finance.
- Expensify vs Zoho Books: This is an online accounting tool for small businesses. Its competitor is for personal use.
- Expensify vs Wave: This provides free accounting software for small businesses. Its counterpart is designed for individuals.
- Expensify vs Hubdoc: This specializes in document capture for bookkeeping. Its competitor is a personal finance tool.
- Expensify vs QuickBooks: This is well-known accounting software for businesses. Its alternative is built for personal finance.
- Expensify vs AutoEntry: This is designed to automate data entry for business accounting. Its alternative is a personal finance tool.
- Expensify vs FreshBooks: This is accounting software for freelancers and small businesses. Its alternative is for personal finance.
- Expensify vs NetSuite: This is a powerful business management suite for large companies. Its competitor is a simple personal finance app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Quicken create an invoice?
Yes, Quicken (especially Quicken Home & Business) can create and track an invoice. It helps you manage payments from clients and keep professional records for your business.
How do user reviews compare for Quicken vs Expensify?
User reviews generally praise Expensify for its excellent receipt scanning and ease of use for business expenses. Quicken users appreciate its comprehensive personal finance features, though some mention occasional software issues.
Is Expensify good for managing vendors?
Expensify is primarily for expense reporting, not full vendor management. While you can track payments to vendors, it doesn’t offer robust tools for managing vendor relationships or purchase orders directly.
What is the typical ranking of Expensify in expense software?
Expensify often holds a high ranking among expense management software. It’s well-regarded for its automation and ease of use, especially for businesses needing quick expense tracking and reimbursements.
Is there a clear winner when comparing Expensify vs Quicken?
The “winner” in Expensify vs Quicken depends on your needs. Quicken is ideal for personal finance and budgeting. Expensify is best for business expense tracking and reporting.