Moneydance Review 2026: Pricing, Features and QIF Export

Moneydance is desktop personal finance software for Mac, Windows and Linux that you can still buy outright instead of renting. Automatic bank downloads are a separate add on called Moneydance+, which Infinite Kind lists at roughly $4 a month or $40 a year, and there is a combined subscription at roughly $9 a month or $90 a year. It exports QIF properly, which very little modern software still does, and that alone makes it worth considering if you ever want your history somewhere else. The trial has no time limit, only a 100 transaction cap on manual entry, and one time purchases carry a 90 day money back guarantee.

Last updated August 29, 2026. Pricing, trial terms, platform support and export formats were read the same day from infinitekind.com and the Infinite Kind support knowledge base. Where the vendor's own pages contradict each other, this review says so rather than picking the number that reads better.

Moneydance belongs to a category most people assume died: personal finance software that lives on your computer, keeps your data in a file you own, and does not send you an invoice every January. Quicken moved to subscriptions. Microsoft Money was discontinued in 2009 and its online services ended in 2011. Mint closed. What is left is a short list of buy once programs, and Moneydance is the most capable of them.

This review covers what it actually costs, the one pricing decision that can lock you out of your own program, how it handles getting data in and out, and where it loses to Quicken. If you are here because you are shopping for a Quicken replacement, the short version is that Moneydance wins on ownership and loses on polish.

How much does Moneydance cost?

This is harder to answer than it should be, and that is the first thing you should know about buying it. Infinite Kind does not print the one time license price on its main purchase page. The page lists three options, buy once, subscribe monthly and subscribe annually, and shows no dollar figures next to any of them. You find out what you are paying by clicking through toward checkout.

The company's own knowledge base is more forthcoming about the subscriptions, though it hedges the figures with the word approximately, because prices vary by currency:

That last row is the single most important thing in this review, and it is the detail that catches people out. Moneydance has two subscriptions that sound similar and behave completely differently. If you own a license and add Moneydance+, cancelling costs you convenience. If you took the combined subscription instead, cancelling costs you the program: it drops back to trial mode, which means the 100 transaction manual entry cap applies again, and you have to buy a license to carry on.

So if you are attracted to Moneydance specifically because you are tired of renting software, make sure you are buying the license and adding Moneydance+ on top, not taking the all in subscription. The all in subscription is Quicken's model with a different logo.

One genuinely good piece of licensing: it is one license per household, no matter how many computers you install it on, across any mix of operating systems, users and data files. Most competitors count seats.

What does the free trial actually let you do?

The trial is unusually generous in one dimension and limited in another. There is no time limit at all. You can run Moneydance for a year while you decide. What is capped is manual entry: 100 transactions you type in yourself. Imported transactions are treated differently, so bringing in a QIF or OFX file is the sensible way to give it a real test.

Note one inconsistency worth knowing before you sign up for anything. Infinite Kind's purchase page describes a 14 day free trial for Moneydance+ subscriptions, while the support knowledge base says 30 days free. Those cannot both be current. Check what the checkout screen says on the day you buy rather than trusting either page, and diary the cancellation date.

Does Moneydance export QIF?

Yes, and this is the strongest practical reason to pick Moneydance over most of its competitors. It exports three formats: QIF, tab delimited text and raw JSON. On export you choose specific accounts or select All Accounts, so you can pull one checking account or the entire ledger.

That matters more than it sounds. Most current personal finance software will only hand your history back as CSV, which loses account structure, transfers and split detail. Quicken Simplifi exports CSV only, from the web app only, and leaves out splits, tags and notes. Quicken for Mac has had no QIF export since Quicken Mac 2007. Moneydance giving you a real QIF file of your whole ledger means you are never trapped, and it means your data can reach accounting software: you can convert that QIF to a QBO file and import it into QuickBooks Online, which has no Quicken or Moneydance import of its own. The converter at the top of this page does exactly that, and writes deterministic transaction IDs so re running the same file does not double post anything.

Coming the other way, Moneydance imports QIF, OFX, QFX and CSV, so moving in from Quicken Classic for Windows is straightforward.

Does Moneydance work on Mac, and is there an app?

Moneydance runs natively on Mac, Windows and Linux, which is a wider spread than almost anything else in this category. Banktivity is Mac and iOS only. Quicken Classic is Windows and Mac with meaningfully different features on each. Moneyspire covers Windows and Mac. If you have a Linux machine anywhere in your life, Moneydance is close to the only serious option.

There are free mobile apps for both iOS and Android. Be realistic about them: they are companions for entering transactions on the go and checking balances, not a second full copy of the program, and the Android build has historically lagged behind the iOS one. If mobile is central to how you manage money, this is not the product for you and a web first app like Quicken Simplifi or Monarch will suit you better.

Is Moneydance better than Quicken?

On ownership and cost over time, clearly yes. Buy the license once, add Moneydance+ at about $40 a year if you want automatic downloads, and you are paying roughly half what Quicken Classic Deluxe costs annually, with no renewal price you cannot look up. Quicken advertises Deluxe at $6.99 a month billed annually and states that rate is for the first year only when you order direct, without publishing what year two costs.

On features, no. Quicken Classic on Windows includes the Lifetime Planner for retirement projections and Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray for looking through funds at your real asset allocation. It has deeper tax reporting, mature rental property handling in the Business & Personal tier, and a bank connection that simply works more often. Moneydance's investment tracking is competent rather than impressive, and its reports are plainer.

The interface is the honest sticking point. Moneydance looks like software built by engineers who care about correctness, because it is. Nothing is hidden and nothing is decorative. People who came from Quicken 2010 tend to like it immediately. People who came from a phone app tend to bounce off it. Use the untimed trial, that is what it is for. We put the two side by side in detail on Moneydance vs Quicken.

Moneydance vs Moneyspire: which one?

These are the two realistic buy once choices and they split cleanly. Moneyspire publishes its price openly, $59.99 for a new license and $49.99 to upgrade, so you know what you are paying before you start. Moneydance makes you click through to find out, but covers Linux, ships both mobile apps, and exports QIF plus JSON where Moneyspire is quieter about its export formats.

Pick Moneyspire if transparent pricing and a slightly friendlier interface matter most. Pick Moneydance if you want the widest platform support, the strongest export story, or you are on Linux. We compare them properly in Moneyspire vs Moneydance and review the alternative on its own in our Moneyspire review.

Who should not buy Moneydance

Anyone who needs bookkeeping rather than personal finance. Moneydance is a categorized register, not double entry accounting. There is no invoicing, no accounts payable, no payroll, no accountant login and nothing a tax preparer will accept as a set of books. It also has no bill capture, so if you run a side business the supplier bills still get typed in one at a time, and running those PDFs through a step that turns scanned invoices into a spreadsheet is the usual way people avoid that data entry before it reaches their ledger.

Anyone whose priority is a polished mobile experience, for the reasons above. Anyone who wants their spouse to log in separately with their own account, which desktop software fundamentally does not do. And anyone who needs a US bank that Moneydance+ does not cover, which is worth testing during the trial before you pay for anything.

Is Moneydance worth it?

Yes, for a specific and reasonably common buyer: someone with years of financial history who wants it in a file on their own disk, who resents paying a subscription forever for software that does not change much, and who is comfortable doing slightly more of the work themselves. For that person Moneydance is the best remaining option, and the 90 day money back guarantee makes trying it close to risk free.

It is not worth it if you want the software to think for you. Quicken Classic does more, Quicken Simplifi and Monarch are nicer to use daily, and if what you actually need is books an accountant can read, none of these are the answer and you want QuickBooks instead. Our Quicken alternatives comparison lays out the whole shelf, and if you are weighing a subscription budgeting app against desktop software, YNAB vs Quicken covers that decision.

If you do buy it and later decide you want your transactions in QuickBooks Online, export QIF from Moneydance, convert it to QBO with the tool at the top of this page, and import the result as a bank file. That path works, it is the only one that does, and it is the reason a converter site is reviewing desktop finance software in the first place.