why did Intuit buy Mint?
Let me start with a basic comparison of the two online offerings. First, Quicken Online is basically an online version of its desktop sibling. So, it is a little heavy for someone that just wants to track their spending. However, that heaviness also means you get all of the date based alerts and tons of reporting. Much of the reporting functionality seems to have trickled down from the business packages of QuickBooks. Mint takes a different approach. It does not have the staid design of Quicken, as it was born in the web 2.0 mold. Of course, Mint allows you to track your spending but the focus is not on paying bills. The focus of Mint is to track your spending against a budget and to see where you can save money. The design aspects are also important here. Quicken took the standard Intuit approach that it needs to look like a checkbook, and makes it feel like personal finance is a chore. Mint has more of the flashy graphics, and generally makes the online checkbook look cool. One of th
