Quicken Online is finally free

Intuit has finally dropped the subscription fee on Quicken Online, its Web-based financial software that competes with Mint, Geezeo, Buxfer, and Wesabe. The company is still selling, as completely separate products, software versions of Quicken.

When I last covered Quicken Online in December 2007, my biggest complaint was its price. In a market with free (and very good) competitors, there was just no reason to pay for Quicken Online. This is a smart move on Intuit's part. But while Intuit Online is a solid service, the online competitors keep getting better, too. It's unclear to me that Intuit's history will translate into market share in this competitive market.

Intuit is also still preparing to release its iPhone app that accesses Quicken Online data, as I wrote in December. No word on when that ships.

High customer support costs and an angry customer base (check out the user review scores for Quicken and Money) make standalone financial apps like Quicken and Microsoft Money questionable product lines for their makers, and when the online services take hold I will expect their demise. Devoted Quicken users like me, though, will need more capabilities (like bill paying and support for complex investment transactions) before we can make the transition, and the public at large has yet to be convinced that these online financial data storehouses can be trusted.

A quick snapshot of your cashflow (2007 version of Quicken Online)

(Credit: Intuit)

See also: Quicken Beam: Your finances made cute.

There's more online financial news coming tomorrow morning from the Finovate conference. Check back here.

[humanssssss]

I wouldn't trust any website that ask me for my bank account username and password except the bank I'm dealing with. These websites will steal my money especially the liars and cheaters at Quicken.

[somani_vivek]

I have used TurboTax and loved it. I hoped to see a good product from Intuit.
I am utterly disappointed when tried to use Quicken online. Can't even get past first page. The popular /all financial accounts information never shows up. The page just keeps loading continuously.

Quicken started too late in race behind Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee and came up with a limping product that frustrates users.

[chlimouj]

The issue isn't whether or not Intuit or Mint, Wesabe, etc, will steal your data or your money. If that ever becomes the case, the courts would rule against them in a heartbeat and they'd all be out of jobs pretty quickly and most money would likely be returned. The issue is that the data in question is an obvious target for thieves, and even those of us who don't read Bruce Schneier's work understand that there's no such thing as absolute security, especially in the digital age. I, for one, don't even keep my account numbers written down anywhere in analog or digital form (and no, I don't have any checks/checkbooks), so the idea of entrusting them to a third-party is absurd. However, I'm not completely paranoid... I do use online banking. And I do use wire transfers from bank to bank, so I would trust one of my banks with my account info for another bank. It would seem natural to include financial tracking like this directly in my online banking site through my bank, and I'm not against that. At least in that case, if something goes wrong, any funds would be FDIC insured. Of course, the bank would have to treat it like a credit card... ie, if it gets stolen and used that the charges are forgiven. Short of that, you couldn't pay me to use online financial tracking.

[zerdos]

Rafe, you want more features yet it should be free?

How about more features at a reasonable price?

[TJPmta]

Yea, I found quicken on this webpage along with several others...
http://movingtoanapartment.com/money-and-finances/37-tools-you-need-to-successfully-manage-young-money.htm
...trying to figure out which ones to use. Definitely worth a try now that it's free!

[Makwa1]

I have stated my own business and was wondering if Quicken Free has the ability to make up bills of sale and keep track of sales and inventory. If not ,could you link me to a free or fairly inexpensive option.

Thank You
Makwa.

[RParks1031]

Makwa;Quicken has the programs you need in it software Quicken 2008. We use this software in our furniture store. But you have to set up your own inventory numbers. We have used this for over 8 years.
RParks1031

[mdub311]

how about doing an article comparing these websites and crowning a winner?

[SamFelis]

Sorry, Intuit, but you had months to get this thing right. Months of people PAYING you for things that other sites (cough mint.com cough) provided...for FREE!

I stuck w/ Quicken Online for a few months, hoping they would improve and add useful features (such as budgeting or splitting transactions), but the last straw was when they kept merging my account records. Duplicate checking entries would end up in my savings account. Credit card charges would appear in my money market account.

When I submitted an incident report, I was told it was my banks fault and that's the way they received the data. Sorry, I don't buy that as when I viewed my accounts on my bank's website, they were correct.

You get what you pay for, but unlike other websites (cough mint.com cough), Quicken Online (even though it's free) costs too much.

[wheels619]

A little too late? they should have released it as free when mint.com came out...

[flstc05]

Quicken Online is NOT free. I tried signing up for an account and a message comes up that the "Beta" period is over, and that a subscription is now necessary.

It's NOT free.

[skylman]

This is very deceptive marketing. Continue to say it's free. Make it free for a week to get people used to using it - then go back to subscription. I couldn't log into my account today without signing up for a subscription that was free until 12/16/2008 then it was going to be $2.99 per month. I wonder what is going to happen when other companies reevaluate the freemium business model.

[Tulsaboyw]

It is never free unless its always free.

I never even waste time on trialware.... in that context.
Never signup for 30days freee because I might forget to cancel it in 30 days.

If the trialware or other has a default of 'you are now paying when trial is over' then I wont even start with it.

The only trialware I might use is those where the functionality is limited when you decide not to pay.
That way its my choice as to whether I want it..not theres.


bESIDES the online (free or otherwise) is worthless....it was better in the past than it is now.

I reverted back to a spreadsheet way of doing my portfolio that I stopped using 10 years ago because quicken was that good... foruntatley Ive learned a lot on spreadsheets since then.

Their stuff has actually de-evolved in my view..I even tried MSMOney but its still substandard for me.
I now litterally use on the chk register & online payment part of quicken and non longer use quicken in anyform for investing information other than transaction recording (register).

Its a shame.. as a devloper I am working on now a someday possible quicken replacement.
What I hope to do is the portfolio part and some sort of addin replcement,..i doubt I will succeed at it, but ya never know.