CountAbout Review: Budgeting at an Affordable Price

Everyone has a different style when it comes to budgeting and tracking their money. Some people prefer relying on bank statements, others like spreadsheets (think Tiller), and others like apps. CountAbout is a budgeting app that is fully online.

Unlike some other budgeting apps, this is a paid product only (but they do offer a free trial to see if you like it.

Not sure if CountAbout is for you? Check out our CountAbout review and share your thoughts in the comments below.

Who Is CountAbout?

CountAbout is an online budgeting app. It doesn’t require any desktop software installations to run. Of course, the mobile app must be installed to use it on your smartphone. CountAbout is based in Madison, WI.

What Do They Offer?

CountAbout is a web-based, affordable budgeting app. You don’t have to worry about ads. CountAbout is able to run the app without ads because there isn’t a free version, although you do get a free 15-day trial.

After creating an account and logging in, you’ll be presented with the transactions tab. You can set up accounts from here. Transactions can be edited and tags can be added or changed.

CountAbout will also analyze your spending and display it in an easy-to-understand graph. CountAbout lets you “memorize” transactions, which is another way of analyzing spending habits.

Import from Quicken or Mint.com

Like most people using budget software, if you are currently using Quicken or Mint.com, you can import transactions from both apps, allowing you to start from the same place in CountAbout. This also lets you continue using your current budgeting app while you try out CountAbout.

Sync All of Your Accounts

Entering every credit card, checking, retirement, and savings account transaction into your budgeting software can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Throw in the occasional mismatched balance, and it can be enough to make you want to throw in the towel on budgeting.

Like most budgeting apps, CountAbout eliminates manual entry of transactions by letting you sync all of your accounts to CountAbout. To protect your data and logins, CountAbout uses a service called MX.

Reporting

CountAbout has some great reporting options. You can choose from several report templates, and each report is customizable, allowing you to choose date ranges, tags, and categories.

Plans

CountAbout offers two plans: Basic for $9.99/year and Premium for $39.99/year. The Premium plan lets you automatically download and import transactions from your financial institutions. You can also import from Quicken and Mint.

Feature Comparison

CountAbout has a great feature set for budgeting. Below are some of the features you’ll find in financial software that aren’t necessarily related to budgeting, but some people may expect to be in CountAbout anyway. These aren’t included:

• Bill pay
• Investment tracking
• Financial planning

Mobile App

CountAbout has a mobile app available for iOS and Android.

Customer Service

CountAbout’s customer service is initiated through the contact form on their website. There is no phone number you can call for customer support. This doesn’t mean there is no phone support. CountAbout tries to resolve any issues through email. If that doesn’t work, CountAbout switches to phone support so the issue can be resolved.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes — CountAbout fees are charged annually. The Basic plan is $9.99/year and the Premium plan is $39.99/year. There are also a couple of add-on services. Adding images to transactions costs another $10/year and for small businesses, invoicing is available for $60/year. Other than that, there are no fees.

There is a free 15-day trial, which starts you on the Premium plan. If you don’t cancel after 15 days, you’ll be charged the annual fee based on the plan you choose.

How Do I Open an Account?

You can open an account here and then click the green “Sign Up” button.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes — CountAbout follows many of the same security practices that banks follow. The website uses encryption. Your data is not stored at CountAbout. The only data about you that CountAbout has is your encrypted email address.

CountAbout also uses two-factor authentication, which makes it more difficult for someone to hack your account.

Because CountAbout uses a data aggregator called MX, CountAbout doesn’t see any of your financial information.

CountAbout doesn’t offer a free version of its service. Most free software has to support itself through ads, which means that users must give up some of their personal data. CountAbout claims it will never give or sell your data.

CountAbout gets around the privacy issues related to ads simply by not offering a free version of its software.

Is It Worth It?

For anyone who doesn’t want to spend a lot on budgeting software, CountAbout is a great option. It has many of the features needed for good budgeting at an affordable price.

If you’re on the fence, CountAbout is an affordable option to try out for a while and see if you like it. Keep in mind that it isn’t uncommon for people to use more than one financial or budgeting app. There’s nothing wrong with using Quicken and CountAbout together.