![]() ![]() Paying what is essentially a $20 a year subscription is acceptable, even if not really necessary. There is nothing about basic bookkeeping and investment tracking that changes so dramatically that a new version is required every three years, nevermind every year. They support an organization that is likely larger than it needs to be. The bottom line is that subscription models for software like Quicken do not serve the customer. Of course, I was going to lose the ability to download transactions soon anyway, since I was right there at the three-year mark. I had been running the 2015 version and didn’t have the install file any longer. I was kind of suckered into buying Quicken 2018 when I bought a new computer. At least they were brave enough to allow comments in the first place, but it’s clear this is a highly unpopular move. The above mentioned “letter” from Eric Dunn has generated so much negative commentary (I’d guess that the negatives outweigh the pros by 10-to-1) that the thread has been locked by Quicken, Inc. Do we even need personal accounting/financial management programs any more? UPDATE There are also other proprietary programs including MoneyDance and MoneyWiz as well as SAS solutions such as. Will you upgrade to the subscription model when your current sunset version runs out? If not, how do you plan to deal with not using Quicken any more? What are the favored alternatives out there? There are several open-source programs including GnuCash, Tryton, KMyMoney and LedgerSMB that all support online banking. So some questions for all you Quicken users. You can read his tortured “letter” here: From Eric Dunn, CEO of Quicken: Letter to the Quicken Community about the Membership Plan What will you do? ![]() ![]() Just today, Quicken’s new CEO, Eric Dunn, issued a corporate ‘splainer trying to couch this hot mess as a consumer benefit. And finally, it’s clear the company is not selling anything “new or improved”. Given the number of discount schemes I’ve seen from Intuit to sell Quicken over the years, I can’t believe the demand curve is anything but elastic. The market for desktop and app-based financial programs isn’t strong. In Quicken’s, I don’t see any of those conditions. The new replacement product may be really “new and improved”. The demand curve may be relatively inelastic. Generally, when companies RAISE prices, they do so from a position of strength. A quick trip onto the Quicken support forums shows that the 2017 version is riddled with issues ranging from lockups to data file corruption to continued lack of connectivity to financial institutions. Against this, Quicken as a product, has become more and more buggy. To make matters worse, the 2018 version comes with really no new features other than some minor improvements to reporting and a more consolidated bill paying window. Cost tripledīottom line, Quicken has more than TRIPLED the cost of its software overnight. A to Quicken Home & Business now costs $99/year where I used to be able to buy the 3-year sunset version for $89 at Costco. The problem is, both plans are basically priced the same as buying ONE three-year sunset version each year. Instead of buying a version every three years, now you are forced to buy a one or two year “membership plan”. After looking further, the new ownership has indeed changed the way Quicken is being sold from now on. Uh, “membership plan” sounds like subscription to me. (And yes, that’s exactly how they worded it: a complete sentence with period followed by a fragment.) With the convenience of our new membership plan”. ![]() On opening it up, the headline says “The new 2018 release of Quicken is here. About 3 days ago, I received a CD-ROM in the mail gleefully announcing my invitation to upgrade to Quicken 2018 (we are currently using Quicken 2016 Home & Business). About a year ago, Intuit, the owners of Quicken, decided to sell off its consumer products (Quicken) to private equity firm, HIG Capital which put the product’s future in limbo. After 3 years, the product would no longer function for downloading (or importing) transactions and it wouldn’t receive any bug or security fixes. Maybe a little more than a decade ago, Quicken moved to a planned “sunset” product lifecycle model where each new version now had a lifespan of 3 years. The most significant and important update to Quicken came when it started supporting direct transaction downloads from financial institutions making it a lot simpler to balance, categorize and see snapshots of financial health. Most of the time I’ve upgraded either when significant new features were added or when it was required due to a new OS. I have long been a user of Quicken products ever since the very first DOS-based versions came out. ![]()
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