Quicken 2018 For Mac Review: Now Subscription Only

Quicken 2018 for Mac is now available and the big news is that it has officially moved to a subscription only pricing plan. If this is the last straw for you, check out our look at some of the excellent Quicken alternatives for Mac that exist nowadays such as the impressive free version of Personal. Quicken 2018 for macOS is out with updated billing features, three editions, and a new subscription plan available to Mac users. The latest version of the finance software starts with an enhanced.

There are no huge changes in the Mac release of Quicken 2018 but there have definitely been improvements to Bill Pay, Loan Analysis and Investment tracking. The overall interface looks slightly slicker too. The biggest changes are undoubtedly the introduction of 3 versions of Quicken for Mac users and the switch to an annual subscription model.

3 new versions for Mac users to choose from
Much improved Investment Tracking
Better Loan Analysis

Subscription only - no one time purchase available
Still lacks Quicken 2007 core features
Many reports still missing

3.8Overall Score

MacHow2 was the first to report that such a move was in the pipeline shortly after the release of the Canadian version of Quicken 2017 for Mac although Quicken Inc later denied any decision had been made about the US product. Now however, it’s official that all Quicken 2018 products are only available on a subscription basis. In this review, we look at what this means for you and what’s new in Quicken 2018.

What’s New in Quicken 2018 For Mac?

For all Quicken for Mac users, the biggest changes in the 2018 version are:

1. Quicken for Mac is now subscription only – you can’t just make a one-off purchase anymore, you have to make an annual or bi-annual commitment to it. Note that 2 year subscriptions are only available from third-party retailers such as Amazon, Staples and Office Depot. Quicken Inc only sells 1 year subscriptions at the moment.

2. Quicken will now be available in 3 different versions that were previously only available on Windows:

Quicken Starter for Mac
Quicken Deluxe for Mac
Quicken Premier for Mac

3. In any subscription, you also get 5GB of Dropbox space to backup your accounts. Third parties such as Amazon are offering up to 15GB of Dropbox space included in 2 year subscriptions. Dropbox backup support already existed in previous versions of Quicken but you now get more space. You can simply configure Quicken 2018 to backup your accounts to Dropbox for extra security.

For Quicken Deluxe for Mac subscribers and above there are additional benefits:

You now get a customized investment portfolio with IRR and ROI. This also includes Investment Lot tracking, Linked eBills and PDF statements.
You now get “What-if?” analysis for loans with ability to vary payment scenarios

For Quicken Premier for Mac subscribers and above you also get:

Quicken Bill Pay for automatic payment of bills with 11,000 online billers now supported according to Quicken Inc
Priority Phone support. It’s not exactly clear what this means because as yet, there’s no official Quicken Policy on it but presumably it’s the same as Quicken Premium Support which previously was only available for Windows.

Quicken For Mac 2018 Pricing

Subscriptions for Quicken 2018 are available on a one year or two-year basis. However, Quicken Inc is only selling one-year subscriptions – two-year subscriptions are only available via third-party vendors such as Amazon. Subscribing for two years at a time works out cheaper than just a one year subscription, plus Amazon is offering 3 months for free and an extra 15GB of Dropbox storage (more on this later).

Subscriptions are tied to your Quicken ID and you can install Quicken on unlimited Macs or PCs with one subscription (more on this later). Note that there is no free trial although Quicken offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied (which is down from 60 days compared with previous versions).

The exact pricing for the different versions of Quicken 2018 on Mac and Windows are as follows:

Quicken Starter (Mac & Windows)
- One-year membership: $34.99
- Two-year membership: $49.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Deluxe (Mac & Windows)
- One-year membership: $49.99
- Two-year membership: $79.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Premier (Mac & Windows)
- One-year membership: $74.99
- Two-year membership: $119.99 (available at retail)
Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property (Windows)
- One-year membership: $99.99
- Two-year membership: $149.99 (available at retail)

You can see full details of how Quicken 2018 versions compare here but In a nutshell, Quicken Starter will be too basic for most needs and most serious Quicken users will need Quicken Premier. The only difference between Quicken Deluxe and Quicken Premier is that Quicken Premier supports Bill Pay. If you can live without that, then the Deluxe version will do. The system requirements for all versions of Quicken for Mac 2018 are OS X 10.11 El Capitan or higher.

Although the news that Quicken 2018 is subscription only will grab all the headlines, the reality is that it was already semi-subscription anyway. The online features such as Bill Pay and transaction downloading already had a 3 year limit on them meaning after three years, you had to renew your payment for those services to keep them going. However, there’s no doubt that this move will significantly increase the cost for those Quicken users that didn’t upgrade every year. If you look at the bigger picture however, a Quicken 2018 subscription works out at little more than a few dollars a week which, if you find that Quicken is helping you save and manage your money, it doesn’t seem too bad at all.

Intuit ID Becomes Quicken ID

One big change that affects all Quicken users is that Intuit ID has been replaced by Quicken ID. If you’re using an earlier version of Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows and use online services like Bill Pay, you may have already been prompted to update with a “Mandatory Quicken Update Required” message.

Don’t worry – this is not trying to force you to upgrade to Quicken 2018. It’s simply upgrading you from an Intuit ID to a Quicken ID which is used from now on to tie your subscription to your Quicken accounts.

You cannot share a Quicken ID with other users. Your subscription is tied to one Quicken ID and password which requires multi-factor authentication to log into via your phone or email. You could of course share your ID, password and phone/email authentication with another user but it’s neither secure nor practical to do so.

Main New Features

The most noticeable changes in the Mac version of Quicken 2018 are as follows:

New Bill Management Center. Bill Pay now supports around 11,000 online billers and the bill management center has been revamped.
What-If? Analysis for Loans. You can see how different scenarios will affect your ability to payback loans. Loan Amortization was already introduced in Quicken 2017 and continues in Quicken 2018 although it’s only for fixed rate loans, not variable or daily interest rate loans.

The other notable changes are to the Investment Center which looks a lot slicker and more detailed. However, although overall Quicken 2018 feels a bit quicker and snappier than 2017, there does seem to be some lag when scrolling through investments, especially when dealing with several years of data. Stock price updates and stock prices from other countr

Reviews Of Quicken 2018 For Mac