Mint is gone. Now what?
Mint shut down in March 2024. Credit Karma isn't a real replacement. Most alternatives cost $100+/year. Kachink is a different kind of tracker — free, conversational, and built for people who already use AI tools.
Why Mint users are still searching
Intuit shut down Mint and pushed 3.6 million users to Credit Karma — which has no budgeting, no category tracking, and no spending summaries. Two years later, people are still looking for what Mint gave them: effortless expense visibility.
Credit Karma fell short
Credit Karma tracks your credit score, not your spending. No budgets, no categories, no monthly summaries. The things that made Mint useful are simply not there.
Paid alternatives are expensive
Monarch Money ($100/year), YNAB ($109/year), and Quicken Simplifi ($48/year) are solid — but Mint was free. Many users aren't ready to pay for what they used to get at no cost.
A new category emerged
AI assistants like Claude now support MCP integrations. Expense tracking moved from standalone apps into the conversation you're already having.
How Kachink compares to Mint alternatives
| Feature | Kachink | Monarch | YNAB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $100/year | $109/year |
| Expense logging | Natural language in Claude | Auto-import from bank | Manual + bank import |
| Bank sync | No | Yes | Yes |
| Budgeting | No — tracking only | Yes | Yes — core feature |
| Multi-currency | Yes, 30+ with auto-conversion | Limited | One currency per budget |
| Recurring transactions | Auto-logged monthly | Detected from bank | Scheduled entries |
| Category tracking | Automatic | Automatic + custom rules | Manual assignment |
| Natural language queries | Yes — ask Claude anything | No | No |
| Mobile app | Via Claude (iOS/Android) | Dedicated app | Dedicated app |
| Setup time | Under 2 minutes | 10–15 minutes | 15–30 minutes |
Picking your post-Mint path
Monarch or YNAB if you…
- Want bank sync to auto-import every transaction
- Need budgeting with spending goals and envelopes
- Want a dedicated mobile app with net worth tracking
- Are willing to pay $100+/year for a complete financial platform
Kachink if you…
- Valued Mint's simplicity and free price — not its budgeting
- Use Claude regularly and want finance in the same conversation
- Handle multiple currencies (freelancing, travel, remote work)
- Want zero setup time and zero learning curve
- Prefer asking "how did I spend last month" over navigating dashboards
The post-Mint Kachink user
Kachink doesn't replace everything Mint did. It replaces the part most people actually used: knowing where their money went.
The casual tracker
You don't want to budget. You want to see what you spent on food this month. Kachink gives you that in one sentence — no bank linking, no app onboarding.
The Claude-first worker
If Claude is already your daily tool for work, adding expense tracking to that same conversation is the lowest-friction option that exists.
The global earner
Mint handled one currency. Kachink handles 30+. If you earn in EUR and spend in USD, Kachink converts automatically — Mint never did that.
60 seconds to your new expense tracker
Add Kachink to Claude, log your first transaction, and see if it fills the Mint-shaped hole in your workflow.
https://kachink.app/mcp
Also compare: Kachink vs YNAB · Kachink vs Spreadsheets
Common questions
No. Mint had bank sync, credit score tracking, and bill reminders. Kachink is a conversational expense tracker — it replaces the spending visibility part of Mint, not the banking integration.
No. You log transactions manually through Claude in natural language. This is a deliberate trade-off: no bank credentials to share, but you do need to log each expense yourself (one sentence per transaction).
Credit Karma is a credit monitoring tool, not a spending tracker. It doesn't categorize expenses, show monthly summaries, or let you track where your money goes. If that's what you need, you need something else.
Yes. No trial period, no premium tier. You need a Claude.ai account (free tier works). Kachink runs on Cloudflare Workers and costs very little to operate.