Mint is closing: Develop a Budgeting App like Mint to Attract Gen Z Users

Quick Overview: Having various income or earnings sources to enhance the lifestyle makes it difficult to manage the finances efficiently. Having a personal finance management app like Mint gives you proficiency in managing budgeting. Putting financial needs in one secure place saves your efforts and time. Mint is closing, which has created a buzz to adapt to new and powerful applications. However, the dissolution of Mint can indicate the evolution of your budgeting app, read and explore how to create a budgeting app like Mint! 

From minting money slang to using Mint for money management, the world has grown towards budgeting app solutions. It has emerged as the tool for keeping records of finances today. Financial uncertainty and overspending are the major problems the current youth is facing. Mint, a personal finance app has been the one-stop solution for such problems.

Even after being people’s favorite application for years, Mint is being shut down by Intuit. Perhaps it is declining post-pandemic downloads. Yet the market of personal finance budgeting apps has groundbreaking strength. Hence, you can even make your debut in the market and transform the Mint users towards your business. 

Budgeting and money management apps are the core needs especially for working professionals today. In addition to that, the closure of Mint has made the buzz of a new app for users. So, the chances of your app’s success are tremendously higher. Considering that, the article will portray Mint’s success story and strategy to develop a budgeting app like Mint. Or else you can directly discuss with app developers to kickstart your project. 

Success to Shutdown: Mint’s Story 

Mint is a top-rated budgeting cum personal finance app officially launched in 2007. Aaron Patzer is the Founder and CEO of Mint. Within no time it has captivated the audience and sort of attained an overnight success tag. Majorly its unique product and strong marketing strategies have worked wonders for it. 

Eventually, Intuit bought Mint in November 2009 for $170 million. It has pushed the Mint user numbers to millions. Moreover, it streamlines your earnings, spending, investments, and financial goals in one place.  Users can link their bank accounts, credit cards, investments, and loan details.

At the moment, it has 10+ million downloads on Google Play Store and a 4.8 rating on Apple Store. Over a decade, the Mint app has served a large and wider audience to manage their finances. It has become a basic necessity for modern-day people. As Patzer has cleared the Bank Level Data Security, Mint has adhered to the security regulations mentioned on its homepage earlier. So, it has won people’s trust instantly. 

However, Intuit Inc. also has other finance and tax-related apps for users. Among them, Credit Karma is a credit, loans, mortgage, and money tracking app solution. It is also a kind of Mint but has a broader scope than it. Credit Karma has also gathered millions of users, but Intuit wants to expand extensively. As a result, it has decided to close Mint and redirect it to Credit Karma. Now, Mint users need to sign up for Credit Karma to access personal financing services.

Subsequently, users don’t need to use Credit Karma. But this decision has left them needing clarification about acquiring an authentic and trustworthy app like Mint. Although there are few other options available explained further.

Alternatives of Personal Finance App after Mint

• YNAB (You Need A Budget)

  The interactive budgeting solution, YNAB offers financial controlling and savings tools to serve users across the USA and Europe. 

• Moneyhub

  As the UK-based efficient finance management app, Money hub provides six-month premium access for free automatically.  

• Empower

  Making your financial goals management into a retirement plan, Empower is an intuitive budgeting solution in the USA. 

• Buxfer

  The centralized budgeting and expense tracking application automated synchronization to the major banks in the Netherlands. It gives access to future forecasts to assist users in making accurate finance decisions. 

• Goodbudget

  The American-based company, Good budget application provides expense tracking and home budgeting planning functionality for individuals.  

• PocketGuard

  With serving users in the US, the UK, and Canada, Pocket Guard is a reliable Finance planner with easy-to-use features.

• Starling Bank

  Starling Bank is a form of neobank application, with user-friendly personal budging facilities. It has a wider scope to all the European countries and the United Kingdom. 

What makes your Budgeting App Capture the Mint user’s Attraction? 

As the time of the Mint app is about to end, it is a win-win time to develop and deploy your budgeting app like Mint. Currently, Mint users are rigorously searching for better alternatives. Accordingly, you can enter the market with your fresh and innovative personal finance management app. 

To make you understand the customer’s POV, there are a few things you can implement. It will grab the attention of the existing Mint users or new users of your budgeting app. 

• Permit to transfer Mint app files or data
• Automatically synchronize the past year’s information
• Making a customized budget plan
• Integrating the account or cost management functionalities
• Auto-generating the financial statement 
• Credit card bill reminder
• Incorporate the Crypto wallets 
• Linking the app with payment systems

So, to make a personal finance app like Mint or better than it, you need to evaluate your app idea based on the current market. However, your budgeting app should necessarily have the relevant features from the following section. 

Underlying Features to Make a Personal Finance App

To grab the trust of Mint or any budget app users, you have to plan your app features to be more user-centric and tech-driven. After considering the recent data, here are the important features necessary to build a personal finance app like Mint. 

• Account Creation & Registration

Creating your account is the most common and basic feature to start using any app. Your budget app like Mint must offer an easy and quick registration process. Ensure to initiate the account creation by setting up two-factor authentication. So, the user’s details and credentials remain safe.

• Data Analytics and Reporting

The budget and personal finance app must request the users’ financial data like net worth, investment, loans, bills, etc. So, it assists in maintaining proper data records to analyze the monthly spending. Thus, it enables the preparation of financial reports inclusive of all the necessary details.

• Data Synchronization

Merely collecting the data doesn’t make sense to end users’ money management needs. The app synchronizes the relevant information and presents it in a systematic format. Thus, the users can access and oversee the finances easily. Further, it assists in setting the limit on spending to better organize your finances.  

• Budget Management

Building a personal finance budgeting app like Mint must incorporate the budgeting feature. It is the most appreciated by its users which correlates with the above features as well. Your budget app should allow users to link their accounts and cards to it. So, it will keep accurate track and record the cash inflows and outflows, allowing you to plan your budget and make expenses accordingly.

• Robust Security and Privacy

The purpose of creating a budgeting app like Mint is to have the financial details of the user from cards, bank accounts, financial statements, etc. So, the demand for highly reliable security measures increased, along with privacy of the sensitive personal data.

Build a personal finance app like Mint, that must encompass multi-factor authentication with tracking the devices. So, access to different devices will send the code to the email ID given by the genuine user initially. Aside from that, 4-digit code, face or fingerprint sensors are the common measures to unlock the mobile app.

• Real-Time Notifications

Sending notifications or alerts on all users’ activities remains updated with the finance. Notifying the information on a real-time basis enhances the user’s financial habits. From giving bill reminders, subscription payments, loan repayment, and other alerts can be sent to users’ mobile devices from the app.

• Bills, Expenses & Investment Tracker

By keeping a check on bills, monthly expenditures, and investments, the app gives an overview of users’ cash flow. Such tracking features showcase all the spending and transactions in the form of interactive colorful pie charts or graphs. So, it makes you remain aware of your money and can verify the transactions.

• Personalized insights

Giving the personalized touch makes your app’s functionality appealing to users. It is more crucial for new visitors to turn them into app users. Comparing the previous month’s data and analyzing your spending habits, the app gives insights into money-saving measures for individual users. Hence, it boosts the user engagement rate on your personal finance management app. 

• Gamification

Making the budgeting and finance management entertaining with attractive offers for users. To get better user interaction giving users reward points for financial goal accomplishment or unlocking other benefits. As a result, it allows users to set budget targets and achieve them in order to win points. 

• AI-powered Financial Advisor

In this technology-centric era, you can’t miss out on the ease of  AI-based financial assistance. Using the AI algorithms, the AI advisors suggest investments and other money management choices. It is an efficient way to guide the users and help to make smart finance-related decisions. 

• Free Credit Score

It’s evident to offer free credit scores when you have been managing all the financial aspects of the users. As the app reviews the transactions and monitors the bill repayments, it can give correct credit scores to users. Thus, users can remain informed and maintain good credit scores.

• Bill Reminder

Enabling the users to set bill reminders or automated bill settlement solutions makes them remain stress-free. So, bill reminders help you stay updated with the bills and avoid paying late fees.

Well, the list of features might have made you think of the cost to build an app like Mint. But don’t worry, it will get you covered after the app launch from the high-paying business model of apps like Mint. Have a quick look at the various sources your app will generate hefty money. 

How does a Mint-like Budgeting App Make Money? 

The monetary streams to Make an app like Mint are numerous. However, some of the effective ones that will be beneficial for your app are mentioned below.

Freemium

Although the Mint app is free to download, users need to pay a premium to access certain advanced features. When you create a budgeting app like Mint, such a freemium revenue model is appropriate. Moreover, it provides efficient solutions to new users who try the free features initially and later upgrade to advanced ones.

Subscription plans

The subscription plan for your budgeting app is a great monetary source. Users can pay monthly or annual subscriptions to utilize the budgeting app.

In-app advertisements

Based on your app’s popularity with time, you can also integrate the in-app advertisement model. Collaborate with other financial institutes on showcasing their services to your app. You can earn commissions from the companies for displaying their ads.    

After having the clarity of the revenue model, let’s look into the whole procedure of personal finance management app development from scratch.

Steps to Build Personal Finance Budgeting Apps like Mint

• Perform Market Analysis 

Begin with conducting thorough market research and examining the customer behavior, competitor’s app, etc. It will give you an exact analysis to list down your project requirements. So, you can define your targeted audience and plan the development process accordingly. 

• Determine your App Goals

Now, that you have the data on various factors, you can set your business goals. It will assist in selecting the technology stack, platforms, and other necessary matters for your project. Moreover, you can perform pre-launch marketing to accomplish the objective. 

• Choose the Technology Stack

Picking the popular technology stack for your project redefines the idea into reality. It will depend on the platform you want to deploy your app like Mint. When you select Android app development, you can utilize Kotlin and Java as the programming languages. While iOS needs the proficiency of Objective-C and Swift. You can use Flutter app development services to build the cross-platform app launch of both platforms at the cost of one.

• Onboard the Development Team

As you have your needs mentioned properly, you have to establish the development team for starting the development stage. You can consider a remote software development team. We have a skilled development team who meet your project needs and come up with a unique approach based on your requirements.

• Create MVP

With onboarding the development team, begin with MVP app development. It will authenticate your app idea and give feedback to the initial audience. So, you can examine the loopholes and make necessary changes accordingly.

• Enhance UI/UX Design

The eye-catching design and animating elements are the hook that decreases the abandonment rate of visitors. So, you need to create an app like Mint with unique and meaningful UI/UX elements.

• Coding and Third-Party Integration

The developers’ main task of coding and API integration begins as the design components are finalized. It is the most time-consuming and lengthy stage. Thus, it demands an in-depth analysis of the development environment as per the accurate method to make an app like Mint. 

• Testing and Deployment

The testing procedure debugs errors and troubleshoots the mistakes during development. Moreover, the testing process checks the quality, performance, and scalability of the app for the long run. After verifying the app it will be moved ahead to the deployment part. 

Google Play Store or Apple Store, whichever platform you choose, get your app examined with the guidelines of the respective platform. Alongside the platform fees, you need to pay to publish your app. After finishing with these, your app is live and accessible to the end users on their devices.

Besides that, you have to market your app solutions to grab the investors’ attention. Build a personal finance app like Mint with attractive brand-building strategies. The best way would be to perform social media marketing. So, you will create an app like Mint at the affordable price mentioned below and resolve the budgeting problems of people. 

What is the Average Cost of Personal Finance App Development?

The cost to develop a personal finance management app like Mint is defined by undertaking different factors. With the aforementioned steps and features you integrate the timeline of the project completion is decided. Accordingly, it will show the complexity of the app development which influences the cost. 

Aside from all these, the most critical aspect is the app developers’ location. The app developer’s hourly rate from India or other Asian countries is lower than in Western countries. Your overall budgeting app development cost will range between $15,000 to $140,000 when you outsource the project to Indian developers. 

Furthermore, you can reduce the development cost by choosing a dedicated model. No matter how advanced a project you are aiming for, hiring a dedicated development team from India will suffice your budget limit. 

Why Outsource to Rlogical?

To accomplish the optimal tech-driven solution for your project, you have to partner with a well-experienced team. With 14+ years of exponential growth, our dedicated mobile app developers have been the major contributors to the success of many big software projects. 

Particularly for the Fintech sector, we have delivered emerging solutions, one of them is PayAngel. Accordingly, we have developers with a work portfolio of fintech projects, which makes a win-win situation for you. Get a comprehensive evaluation of your budgeting app project by scheduling a meeting!