Curl Budget vs Monarch Money — The Mint Successor in 2026

Mint shut down in 2024, and the post-Mint world is paid: Monarch, YNAB, Copilot, Curl. The shift is healthier for users — Mint stayed free by monetizing your transaction data, while paid apps answer to the household writing the check. Monarch Money became a default paid replacement: clean dashboard, household sharing, reliable bank sync, all in one app at $99/year.

On April 21, 2026, Monarch launched Monarch Plus. Forecasting, retirement planning, and advanced investment analysis now sit in a separate tier at $199/year — adjusted down from the initial $299 list price after community feedback. The base tier is still $99/year, but the all-in-one experience is now split. Mint's appeal was that all-in-one — the true successor offers that breadth at a price households can keep.

Curl Budget offers every feature in a single $50/year subscription. This article compares the two on what Mint users actually want: feature breadth, pricing stability, and whether your budgeting app can replace your spreadsheet. (Skip to the full feature list →)

Quick Comparison

Retirement Planning, Included

Households are asking why retirement planning belongs behind a higher-priced tier in the first place — it is a fundamental part of household finances, not a business or power-user feature. We agree, which is why Curl Budget's Retirement Planning is included for every subscriber.

The simulation runs 1,000 Monte Carlo trials per plan, with each year's return drawn from a realistic volatility distribution rather than a flat assumption. That captures sequence-of-returns risk — the reality that a few bad market years early in retirement matter more than the same returns later.

The result is a success probability, an FI target, and a monthly savings goal calibrated to hit 80% confidence. The chart below visualizes the spread of possible futures.

Reddit users in r/MonarchMoney comparing the two approaches noted the methodology gap. From a 56-point thread: "I am shocked to find the forecasting tool only does a basic linear growth model." Households are asking for table-stakes planning features — fan charts, success probability, sequence-of-returns — the kind of capabilities Curl Budget already includes for every subscriber.

Configure for your situation

Plans aren't read-only. The simulation pulls defaults from your real spending and account balances — so you can get a baseline in seconds — and every assumption is yours to tune.

Cash Flow Projection

Curl Budget's Cash Flow projection projects your next twelve months from your actual transactions, with two views:

• Actual: when money will move, including expected lump sums in the months they hit
• Spread Adjusted: smoothed across the months each cost actually covers

Tap any projected month to see which recurring rules drive that total. Filters apply to projections too — project just groceries, just one account.

Monarch's equivalent (Plus only) is a long-horizon scenario modeler aimed at decades-out planning. Different goal, different tier.

Spread Transactions: Replace Your Spreadsheet

Pay $1,200 for car insurance in January? Most apps blow your January budget and make February look artificially fine. Spread Transactions automatically distribute the $1,200 across the twelve months it actually covers — and the same applies in reverse for quarterly bonuses, annual profit-sharing, or commission income.

Set the rule once; matching transactions are amortized automatically. Monarch has no equivalent in Core or Plus. Recurring income auto-detection is in development to take this further for variable-income households.

Pricing Stability

Monarch is funneling new feature investment into its new tier. The CEO explained on r/MonarchMoney that the two-tier structure is what lets Core hold at $99 — new development is going into Plus instead. For Core subscribers, that means the product they pay for today is largely the product they keep, with new work landing at the higher tier.

Curl Budget commits differently:

• Personal-finance features stay in one subscription. Categorization, budgeting, retirement, cash flow projection, spreads — every feature households need to manage their money is included, not gated behind an upsell.
• Your rate does not go up. Whatever rate you sign up at is the rate you renew at, even if list prices change for new subscribers.
• $50/year today — lower than every full-featured competitor.

Transaction Integrity

A few smaller features that matter day to day:

• Removed transactions preserved. When Plaid removes a transaction after sync, Curl marks it as provider-removed and lets you decide whether to keep it or confirm the deletion. Monarch deletes it silently.
• Smart duplicate detection flags likely duplicates by amount, date proximity, and merchant similarity.
• Flexible rule engine. Two levels of nested boolean logic, 11 match conditions (including day-of-month, amount ranges, and merchant patterns), and 11 action types — with more in development.
• Original merchant names preserved — Curl keeps the string your bank sent.

Why Monarch Might Still Be the Right Fit

A few reasons Monarch could be a better choice for you today:

• Web app available now. Curl is mobile-first (iOS and Android), with web access on the roadmap. If you need a desktop interface immediately and can't wait, Monarch already ships one.
• Per-holding investment tracking. Curl tracks investment account balances (and uses them in retirement modeling), but does not yet break down individual holdings, asset allocation, or cost basis. Monarch — especially Plus — covers that in detail.
• Estate planning bundle. Plus includes one will via Trust & Will. If estate planning is on your list this year, it is a real perk — though a one-off will from another provider is typically less than the annual price difference between Curl and Monarch Plus, so you can pick whatever tool fits and still come out ahead.

Everything Included

Every feature below is included with Curl Budget at $50/year:

One Subscription, for Every Household

Retirement planning, cash flow projection, and spread transactions are not power-user features — they are what households need to plan a vacation, an insurance bill, a retirement. Curl Budget includes them at $50/year because every subscriber should have access to them, not just the ones willing to pay for a higher pricing tier elsewhere.

Power users get the same depth in the same subscription: nested boolean rules, day-of-month and amount-range matching, custom spread periods up to 120 months, configurable withdrawal strategies, and inflation assumptions. One subscription covers both.

Curl Budget offers every feature in a single subscription at a price designed to stay there.