CountAbout

What it is

CountAbout is a personal finance and budgeting application made by a small, independent company that is not owned by a bank, funded by ads, or selling your financial data. Founded in 2013, it runs as a full web application accessible on desktop, tablet, and phone, with dedicated iOS and Android apps available for download. The core philosophy is helping you manage money across multiple accounts and see your complete financial picture in one place, with special emphasis on long-term budgeting that carries forward year to year rather than resetting monthly.

The app supports both zero-based budgeting (where every dollar gets assigned to a specific category) and traditional category-based budgeting, so you choose the approach that fits your workflow. CountAbout's longest-standing differentiator is its ability to import decades of transaction history from Quicken and Simplifi, preserving your complete financial story instead of starting fresh when you switch apps. The company highlights that some customers maintain transaction data going back decades within the platform.

How it handles money coming in

CountAbout offers three paths to get your transactions into the system. On the Premium plan (the only tier with automatic bank syncing), you can connect US and international accounts through three independent data aggregators: MX, Plaid, and Yodlee. The site says this combination provides "the widest bank coverage available." Transactions download automatically and the app applies categorization rules you create, so repeated transactions get sorted into your categories without manual entry after the first time.

The Basic plan (the free or discounted tier) is manual-entry only, meaning you type or import your transactions but do not get automatic bank feeds. This is a genuine and significant limitation for households that want real-time visibility into spending, though it does mean no ongoing bank connection or API access to maintain. You can import decades of history directly from Quicken or Simplifi as a one-time bulk upload, which is unique among budgeting apps. You can also import OFX or QFX files from other sources.

When automatic sync is active (Premium only), the app creates rules to categorize transactions automatically, reducing manual work over time. The site describes this as "three layers of smart automation mean less manual work over time, so you can focus on your goals, not data entry." If you switch back to manual entry or downgrade to Basic, transactions no longer sync, though existing categorizations remain in place.

How the budgeting actually works

In zero-based mode, you assign every dollar of income to a category or goal before you spend it, a mental model that forces intentionality about where money goes. CountAbout shows your progress accumulating year-round rather than resetting to zero each month, so savings goals and debt payoff carry forward across the calendar.

You can create as many categories as you need and split single transactions across multiple categories for precise tracking. The Projected Register Balance tool shows what your account balance will be on any future date based on scheduled transactions you enter, letting you see ahead and catch cash-flow problems before they happen. This feature is noted as unique to CountAbout among its competitors. Savings Projections let you model how changes in spending or savings would impact your financial goals, whether building an emergency fund, saving for a home, or retiring earlier.

For couples and shared households, you can grant your partner, bookkeeper, or advisor access to the account with two permission levels: Full (can view and edit everything) or Read Only (can view but not change anything). Both access levels are included in every plan with no per-user fees, a differentiation the site highlights against other apps that charge per additional user or restrict shared access to premium tiers only.

The app also supports loan amortization schedules for mortgages and loans, automatically splitting each payment into principal, interest, and escrow components. If you are self-employed or a freelancer, Schedule C and E tracking helps organize business and rental activity the way the IRS categorizes it. You can attach receipts and documents to transactions for taxes, warranties, reimbursements, and business records.

What it costs and what the free tier includes

CountAbout publishes clear pricing. A 45-day free trial includes all features (bank sync, attachments, invoicing, everything) with no credit card required. After the trial ends, you choose between two plans. The Basic tier costs $19.99 per year and includes manual transaction entry, unlimited accounts, unlimited custom categories, split transactions, budgeting tools, projected register balance, savings projections, and Schedule C and E tracking. The Premium tier costs $54.99 per year (or $4.58 per month when billed annually) and adds automatic transaction sync, US and international bank connections, auto categorization rules, and investment account tracking. Both plans allow you to add invoicing for just $10 per year or receipts and attachments for just $15 per year.

Active military members receive the full Basic plan for free with no expiration date, with the option to upgrade to Premium anytime.

The pricing page does not clearly specify whether the free tier after the trial period exists (whether Basic is free ongoing or trial-only), which is itself useful information: readers should check the current pricing page before subscribing to confirm whether Basic remains free after the 45-day trial or whether a paid plan is required.

Who it suits and who it does not

CountAbout is built specifically for couples and families budgeting together, military households seeking free or low-cost budgeting with military benefits, small business owners and freelancers who need Schedule C tracking, churches and civic organizations tracking community finances, and people moving away from Quicken who want to preserve decades of transaction history. If you have years of financial data in Quicken or Simplifi, CountAbout is the only budgeting app the site mentions that imports your complete history, making the transition far less painful than starting over.

The app does not suit anyone who needs real-time automatic bank syncing without paying (the Basic tier is manual-entry only). If you are in a country outside the US, the Premium plan does say it connects "US and international accounts," though the extent of international bank coverage through the three aggregators is not detailed on these pages. Manual categorization of every transaction, required on Basic, quickly becomes burdensome for households with hundreds of monthly transactions, so the free tier is best for people who spend lightly, reconcile infrequently, or prefer the intentionality of entering each transaction by hand.

CountAbout does not offer investment balances tracking on the Basic tier (Premium only), so if you need comprehensive net worth tracking across all assets, you may need to supplement it. The app also does not sell anonymized spending data, push credit products, or use ads, which is an advantage if you are wary of monetization tactics, but means the company survives only on subscription revenue.