Product is too Expensive

Garrett

First off, I want to say that I’m happy overall with the Simplifi product and I love that you guys put great care into the app (I don’t use the website). It works for what I need it to do (primarily transaction/spending categorization and tracking). I was a Mint user and switched when that product got axed and you guys had your 50% off promotion running. When I got charged ~$76 for my 2nd year, it was more than I expected and frankly more than I wanted to pay. Alas, I noticed the price increase after I had already been charged. You guys sent an email notification, but I didn’t see it in time to do anything.

When I initially signed up, I was okay with paying the advertised ~$50 USD per year rate (which is saying something since Mint used to be free…). I know product pricing is a challenging subject, but is there a way to get back to the previous ~$50/yr?

As it stands, I don’t plan to renew next year if the price stays the same or increases. I really just want a piece of software to aggregate my transactions from my various accounts and let me categorize them so I can see monthly totals. This would be painful to do in a spreadsheet on my own, hence why I’m willing to pay for your software. The fact that you all are adding new features is great and all, but I don’t really care about those things, so it doesn’t justify a price increase to me. Granted, I’m just one data point in your pricing puzzle, but I wonder what % of your customers have a similar use case…

SRC54

I agree with you that Simplifi is a bit pricey, but I don't think it will come down. There are other aggregators out there that may be around the $50 price but those likely include ads or sell your information so you get offers from other companies. Quicken doesn't do that. You just get offers from them. And I think you can limit those.

The price increase was last summer so I don't expect an increase this year, so it will probably not go up for a year or two. But I say this as another user and I could be wrong.

DryHeat

Simplifi costs a bit more than my previous on-line personal financial software, but I am getting a lot more out of it. On the other hand, QBP is probably not a good value for people who need to share financial information with others in a business.

The Good: The software I previously used basically served as a passive repository for transaction data where I could look up information when I needed it. The Simplifi Spending Plan (and to a lesser extent Savings Goals and Projected Cash Flow) provide me with a much more active way to engage with my finances. I can already see an improvement in the way I manage my funds and anticipate future situations.

The Bad: That said, I am also using QBP to manage finances for a small non-profit and an LLC and I find the lack of more traditional reports to be a serious negative. The "just look at it on the screen and click to expand things" approach is ok for managing individual personal finances. But once you need to share financial information with others you begin to see the limitations of that approach. My hope is that reporting will be beefed up before I need to provide any annual reports.

Bottom Line: I think QS is fairly priced for personal financial management. I think QBP would be fairly priced if it included typical reporting capabilities.