Better finance program than Quicken?

Orogogus

Is there a better personal finance program than Quicken for the PC? I have Quicken 2006, and while I'm happy with the portfolio management and pretty graphs, it seems like every time I need to enter data it feels like I'm stuck in Windows 3.11. Basic navigation is cumbersome where it doesn't have to be; for example, when entering a paycheck using a form, pressing up or down arrow moves you into the next cell, but doesn't highlight the cell contents and you have to either use the mouse or delete the cell contents one digit at a time. Copying and pasting an existing paycheck inexplicably deletes the old entry instead of just copying it. And so on.

It's not completely broken, but it would be nice to switch to something more pleasant to use when Intuit cuts off support (i.e. online stock updates) to the 2006 version. Is Microsoft Money any good?

fforde

Microsoft Money isn't bad. It has all the pretty graphs and everything and as I recall, the interface was pretty easy to use. Most of it seems to be HTML based though. I don't know if it is all HTML or not, but every screen feels like your interacting with a web page, for better or worse. I didn't really like it, but that's just personal preference. Functionally though it is a good product, and they have a free trial.

As far as other products go, there is not a lot out there. You have MoneyDance, which is pretty good but pretty simplistic. If you want minimal fluff this may be the one for you.

If you have a linux box you might want to check out KMyMoney or GNUCash. I like the former better, but GNUCash is supposed to be pretty well developed too, it's just not as easy on the eyes in my opinion. Unfortunately though it seems like most of the open source solutions (like these two) only run in linux.