Quicken Inc. announced the next version of its self-titled flagship product, Quicken for Mac 2018 (and Quicken for Windows). The company has three different version of the accounting and billing software, Quicken Starter, Quicken Deluxe, and Quicken Premier. Following the lead of other companies, Quicken said the upgrade will be available by subscription, only.
At the end of this article, we have links to Amazon pricing that includes three free months.
New Features
Chief among the new features is access to online bills from more than 11,000 billers. They’re integrated into what Quicken called, “a streamlined bill workflow.” There are also expanded investment capabilities with specific lot tracking; a “highly” customizable portfolio view; and, loan tracking features that include “what-if” loan analysis.
DropBox Storage Bonus, Yelp and PayPal Integration
Subscribers get an additional 5GB of additional storage from DropBox included with their subscription. Premier memberships also include the ability to include Yelp links and PayPal payments in bills.
Quicken for Subscriptions
Subscriptions (or “memberships”) are sold in one or two-year increments. The company pitched this pricing as allowing customers to get a continual stream of updates, rather than buying major new versions. They may be counting on Mac users forgetting the long, long, long passages of time that passed between Quicken for Mac updates when Intuit still owned it.
That said, many will likely see this pricing as reasonable. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Quicken Starter (Mac & Windows):
- One-year membership: $34.99
- Two-year membership: $49.99 (available at retail)
- Quicken Deluxe (Mac & Windows):
- One-year membership: $49.99
- Two-year membership: $79.99 (available at retail)
- Quicken Premier (Mac & Windows):
- One-year membership: $74.99
- Two-year membership: $119.99 (available at retail)
Quicken for Mac 2018 is available now at Quicken.com, Staples, and Amazon. Amazon has 27-month subscriptions for the two-year prices listed above (Starter, Deluxe, Premier)
Intuit spun off Quicken very recently; they kept Quickbooks. I wonder what this means for future development of Quicken for Mac.
I still don’t understand why the Windows and Mac versions of Quicken can’t have feature parity and a common file format. MS Office files work on both Mac and Windows versions, why not Quicken?
Following up on @geoduck’s thoughts:
I used to run a Windows VM to use Quickbooks on my Mac because the Mac version of QB lagged behind the Windows version. Once Intuit tried to catch up the Mac version, they change the formats making the Mac and Windows version incompatible. This caused problems with my accountant.
Last year, I started using Quickbooks online. While I am worried about the security, I had to swallow some of those worries to get the job done. But QB online helps in dealing with my accountant and allows me to work from home at night doing data entry while watching television.
Besides, if you keep updating the installed software, it is about the same price as the subscription. Since both Quicken and Quickbooks is a great help at tax time, you get the automatic updates. In the end, I just had to deal with the security issue and go with the online subscription. It is still cheaper.
It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Quicken for Mac lags behind Windows in features. Fewer Mac people use Quicken. Quicken figures they aren’t making back their development costs. They let the Mac version drop farther behind. More Mac users jump ship. Quicken goes to a subscription model for software that is way way behind both the Mac version of Quicken, and packages from other vendors. The argument that this is to help fund development falls on deaf ears. More Mac users wave the middle finger bye-bye. Quicken for Mac is dropped with the manufacturer citing “low interest and sales”.
If you are still using quicken, it’s time to find an alternative. I give this a year or two at most before it’s gone for good. And if you are then on the subscription plan you will then be truly and severely $crewed. It will be work but you need to exit5 now while you can do so gracefully.