Published on July 22, 2026
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Our verdict
If you're leaving Quicken or Simplifi and refuse to lose years of financial history, CountAbout is built for you. It's ideal for couples, families, freelancers, and rental property owners who want real control and zero data-selling. Skip it if you want a pretty, hands-off app that does the thinking for you.
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Most budgeting apps want two things from you: your money and your data. CountAbout flips that. It's an independent, subscription-funded finance tool that imports decades of your old Quicken and Simplifi history — the only app that actually does this — so you never have to start from scratch. No ads. No data selling. Just a place to see exactly where your money goes, and where it's headed.
CountAbout launched in 2013 with a stubborn idea: your financial history belongs to you, and moving it shouldn't mean torching years of records. Anyone who's tried to leave Quicken knows the pain. You've got a decade of categorized transactions, and every alternative asks you to abandon it.
So they built a company that isn't owned by a bank and isn't funded by advertising. That matters more than it sounds. When a free app makes money, it's usually selling your spending patterns to someone. CountAbout doesn't. You pay a subscription, and that's the whole business model.
That independence shapes every decision. There's no venture-backed pressure to harvest data or upsell you into products you don't need. The focus stays on the people actually using it — couples splitting bills, freelancers tracking deductions, military families managing money across moves. It's a quieter, more honest kind of software, and after more than a decade it's still doing the same thing it set out to do.
Here's the feature that genuinely sets CountAbout apart: it imports decades of transaction history directly from Quicken and Simplifi. Not a partial export. Not a messy CSV that loses your categories. Your actual history, brought over intact.
No other app offers this. If you've spent fifteen years building a detailed record in Quicken, that history is worth something — for taxes, for spotting trends, for knowing what your life actually costs. Most competitors force you to walk away from it. CountAbout carries it forward.
Then there's the automation. CountAbout uses three layers of smart automation that learn how you categorize things. Tag your coffee shop as "Dining Out" once, and the app remembers. Over a few weeks, the guesswork mostly disappears. Their promise — "categorize once, never again" — is close to the truth in practice.
Behind the scenes, CountAbout connects to your accounts through three independent data aggregators: MX, Plaid, and Yodlee. Why three? Because no single aggregator connects to every bank. If one can't reach your credit union, another probably can. That redundancy means far fewer of those maddening "connection failed" errors. It's an unglamorous engineering choice that pays off every single day you log in.
CountAbout sells personal budgeting and finance management software, plus small business accounting features layered on top. It's offered in two tiers.
The Basic plan covers core budgeting — manual entry, categories, and reporting. It's for people who want to track spending by hand and keep things simple. The Premium plan adds automatic bank connections through the three aggregators, plus the standout tools: Projected Register Balance and Schedule C & E tracking.
That Schedule C and E tracking is aimed squarely at freelancers, the self-employed, and rental property owners. If you file those tax forms, having your transactions pre-sorted into the right buckets all year is a genuine time-saver come April.
You also get unlimited categories and transaction splits, so you can carve up a single Costco run into groceries, household, and pet supplies without hitting a wall. Multi-user access is included too — full or read-only permissions — which suits couples and small teams who need shared visibility.
Most apps tell you what you spent. CountAbout tells you what you'll have. Projected Register Balance is the feature I keep coming back to, and it's deceptively powerful.
Here's how it works. You enter your recurring income and bills — rent, salary, that annual insurance payment. CountAbout then shows your projected account balance on any future date you choose. Want to know if you'll have enough on the 28th to cover the mortgage and a car repair? Pick the date. There's your answer.
That's a different way of thinking about money. Instead of reacting to overdrafts, you see them coming weeks out. For anyone living close to the edge of their paycheck, it removes the guesswork and the dread.
Typical budgeting apps only look backward, or give you a vague "you're on track" nudge. CountAbout gives you an actual dated number. It's the kind of tool that turns "I think I can afford this" into "I know I can." For families juggling irregular income or freelancers waiting on invoices, that clarity is worth the subscription on its own.
This is the question that sinks most budgeting apps, so let's answer it head-on. Bank connectivity is where cheaper tools fall apart — they rely on one aggregator, and if your bank isn't supported, you're stuck typing everything by hand.
CountAbout hedges against that with three aggregators. When you add an account, you're effectively getting three shots at a stable connection instead of one. Regional banks and small credit unions — the ones that usually cause trouble — are far more likely to work here.
Connections still occasionally break; that's true of every app in this space because banks change their systems constantly. But you've got real customer support to lean on, not just a chatbot. When something snaps, there's a person who can help. That's rare at this price.
Buy this if you're leaving Quicken or Simplifi and can't stand to lose your history — you're the exact person it was built for. It's also a strong fit for couples and families who need shared access, freelancers and self-employed folks tracking Schedule C, rental property owners handling Schedule E, and military households (it's free for active members).
Privacy-conscious people who hate the idea of an app selling their data will feel at home too.
Skip it if you want a glossy, do-it-all-for-you app with beautiful charts and zero setup. CountAbout rewards people who want control and are willing to spend a little time up front. If that's not you, a more automated app will feel friendlier.
CountAbout sits in budget territory, which is remarkable given what it does. You pay an annual subscription — the Basic plan is cheaper, the Premium plan adds bank syncing, Projected Register Balance, and Schedule C & E tracking. Compared to Quicken's yearly cost, it's easy to swallow.
The value math is straightforward. Multi-user access is included, not an upsell. There are no ads, no data sales, and no surprise tiers hiding basic features. Active military members pay nothing at all.
For a couple or a freelancer, the Premium plan pays for itself the first time Projected Register Balance helps you dodge an overdraft, or Schedule tracking saves you an hour at tax time. It's not free — but free apps cost you your data. This one just costs money, honestly.
CountAbout isn't trying to be the prettiest app on your phone. It's trying to be the one you actually trust with your financial life — and it earns that. The Quicken and Simplifi import is unmatched, Projected Register Balance is genuinely useful, and the no-ads, no-data-selling stance is refreshing in a category built on surveillance.
If you're a Quicken refugee, a freelancer chasing deductions, or a couple who wants shared control without giving up your history, sign up for the Premium plan and import your data on day one. You'll wonder why you waited. Want zero effort and slick visuals? Look elsewhere.