
A screenshot of a comparison between Mint and CommonSense from FindTheBest.com
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Do high-priced financial software programs manage your money better than free ones? A new site called FindTheBest.com says no. FindTheBest compiled reviews of 146 financial management programs and created a comparison that is useful and easy to digest.
A chart like the one above lists basic info about each program like its name, features, and how many stars it received. Click on a few programs that interest you and compare them in detail. The detailed comparison page has color coding to make the information easy to absorb. Each program’s star rating is an average of the reviews it received on CNET, CBS MoneyWatch.com, and PC Magazine.
FindTheBest is an aggregation site that also ranks topics as diverse as colleges, ski resorts, and dog breeds. My email exchange with Brandon Coakley, the site’s business development manager, is revealing:
Me: How does FindTheBest make money?
Him: We have investors, but are not taking in revenue yet. We are strictly focused on building a great service that can be trusted. Ultimately, we want to be peoples go to resource for comparing their options on products, services and the big decisions of life (college, work, etc).
Me: Does site make money through referrals?
Him: No we do not. We will make money from ads in the future, hopefully, but as of now we are not worried about revenue. We are strictly focused on finding the best products and services based on the data that matters for our users.
Consider it a major bonus is that FindTheBest does not receive kickbacks for recommending one software program over another. A rarity among software and credit card comparison sites.
As for free versus high-priced money management software, the No. 1 spot for financial management programs on FindTheBest is currently being held by the free site Mint.com.
FindTheBest is based in Santa Barbara and was founded in Aug. 2010 by Kevin O’Connor, the founder of DoubleClick. Hope you find this site useful in managing your money.
I have a little accounting training, so like to keep track of my finances and do things like amortizations (distributing 6 month insurance cost each month on the books). I have used Quicken for years and find it very good for tracking and planning transactions of my entire financial pictures. I tried Mint too, and it is good on my Droid to see what my balances are. However, Quicken is much better for the long haul. Unfortunately, the company is very customer-unfriendly, so you kind of have to live with the little bugs exist.