Microsoft Money Replacement: The Best Money Plus Sunset Alternatives Compared

TL;DR: For most US Money Plus users on Windows, Quicken Classic is the closest replacement, and it is the only one that reads a Money file directly (Money 2008 and 2009 files, Deluxe and higher). If you want a one-time purchase instead of a subscription, Moneydance ($65) and Moneyspire ($59.99) both take Money's QIF export and import OFX files. Mac-only households should look at Banktivity. Whichever you pick, plan separately for the months Money never saw, because those only exist as bank statements.

Microsoft stopped selling Money in 2009 and released Money Plus Sunset in 2010 as a free edition with no online services. It still opens and edits Money files, and plenty of people run it on Windows 10 and 11 today. What pushes them to move is usually the bank, not Money: one institution after another has dropped the OFX download that Sunset relies on, and typing every transaction by hand gets old. This comparison uses the prices and import rules each vendor publishes on its own site as of September 2026.

Microsoft Money replacement: the options compared

Two columns decide most switches. The Money data column tells you how much of your history comes across, and the bank file column tells you how new transactions will get in once you stop using online banking in Money. Price matters less than it looks: every paid option here costs less per year than an evening of retyping statements.

What is the best replacement for Microsoft Money?

Quicken Classic for Windows is the best fit if you want your whole Money file carried over, because it is the only replacement that imports a Money file itself rather than a QIF export. Quicken's own fine print says Quicken for Windows imports data from Microsoft Money 2008 and 2009 on Deluxe and higher. The trade-offs are the subscription (the $6.99 to $10.99 monthly prices are first-year offers billed annually) and the file rules for new transactions: Quicken takes bank-issued QFX through Web Connect and CSV for banking transactions, not plain OFX. Quicken's help also warns that its CSV import does not match against transactions already in the register.

If a subscription is the reason you stayed on Sunset, the one-time options are the honest answer. Moneydance costs $65 once, runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, and recommends OFX or QFX for bank files, which it deduplicates by transaction ID. Moneyspire is $59.99 once for a license that covers Mac, Windows, Linux and Chromebook, and imports OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV. Both expect you to export Money one account at a time as QIF. Banktivity is the Mac-native choice, from $59.99 a year. PocketSmith is the web option, and it has a dedicated Money importer. GnuCash and HomeBank cost nothing and read OFX well, but GnuCash is full double-entry bookkeeping, which is a real learning curve for a Money household.

Can I transfer my Microsoft Money data to Quicken?

Yes, on Windows: Quicken Classic Deluxe or higher imports Money 2008 and 2009 files, which covers Money Plus. Quicken for Mac cannot read Money data. Users on Quicken's forum report that the Money file has to have been opened in Money Plus Sunset first and that Sunset must be installed on the same PC, so do the conversion before you uninstall Money. Quicken's dedicated conversion article is no longer online, so keep a backup of the .mny file until you have checked balances in Quicken.

How do I export data from Microsoft Money?

In Money choose File, Export, Loose QIF, pick Regular or Investment, then choose the account, and repeat for every account, closed ones included. That is the route the Money MVPs FAQ documents, and Moneydance and GnuCash both ask for Loose QIF. PocketSmith's Money guide says Strict QIF instead, so follow the importer you are using. Moneyspire notes that Money exports one QIF at a time, and GnuCash warns that Money writes every transfer into both accounts' files, so import all accounts with matching names to avoid doubling transfers.

Know what stays behind before you switch. The QIF export is account registers, not the whole file.

How do you fill the gap months Money never saw?

This is the part most migrations stall on. Maybe your bank stopped offering OFX two years ago and you gave up entering transactions, or you want a full tax year in the new program before you start using it. The bank still has those months, but usually only as PDF statements, and none of the programs above imports a PDF.

Convert the PDF statements to OFX and import them like a bank download. Our PDF bank statement to OFX converter for Microsoft Money reads digital and scanned statements and writes OFX files with the account number and a transaction ID on every line. The same file imports into Moneydance, Moneyspire, Banktivity, PocketSmith, GnuCash and HomeBank, and because the IDs stay the same each time a statement is converted, importing a month twice does not double it. If you picked Quicken, export CSV instead and use its Banking Transactions CSV import, which is covered on our bank statement to Quicken page.

Import one statement month per file. The Money MVPs FAQ records a reported limit of about 500 transactions per import in Money, and newer programs are not always more forgiving with large files. Monthly files also make the balance check easy: after each import, the register should end on the statement's closing balance.

If your Money file held the books of a small business and you are moving those to QuickBooks rather than to another personal finance program, Money's QIF export is the file you will be holding. You can convert that QIF export into a QuickBooks file rather than rekeying it, and bring the missing months in from the PDF statements the same way as above.

How much does switching from Microsoft Money cost?

The software runs from $0 (GnuCash, HomeBank) to about $65 once (Moneydance, Moneyspire) or roughly $60 to $132 a year (Banktivity, Quicken Classic on the first-year offer). The history is the other cost. The first 15 pages of statement conversion are free to test here, and Starter is $49 for a month of up to 2,500 pages, or $24.50 a month billed annually. A year of checking statements is usually 36 to 120 pages, so one month covers several accounts and several missing years, and you can cancel before the next one. Full plan details are on the pricing page.

Which replacement should you choose?

Pick by the one thing you cannot give up. If it is your full Money file with categories and payees intact, choose Quicken Classic for Windows and convert before uninstalling Money. If it is paying once, choose Moneydance or Moneyspire and budget an afternoon for the account-by-account QIF export. If you are on a Mac, choose Banktivity or Moneydance. If you want a browser app, choose PocketSmith. For step-by-step imports after you decide, see our guides to importing bank transactions into Moneydance, importing into Banktivity and importing an OFX file into GnuCash.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Money still available?

Not as a product Microsoft sells or supports. Money Plus Sunset, the free 2010 edition in Deluxe and Home and Business versions, still opens and edits Money files without activation, but it has no online banking, no updates and no official download from Microsoft. New transactions only arrive by importing OFX or QIF files.

Does Microsoft Money work on Windows 11?

Many users run Money Plus Sunset on Windows 11, and a Microsoft Q&A responder reported testing version 17.0.120.3817 on Windows 11 without issues. Microsoft does not support it, though, so keep backups of your .mny file and plan a replacement before a future Windows update breaks it.

Can Microsoft Money import PDF bank statements?

No. Money imports OFX and QIF statement files only. Convert the PDF statement to OFX first, then use File, Import, Downloaded Statement. The same converted OFX file also works in Moneydance, Moneyspire, Banktivity, PocketSmith, GnuCash and HomeBank if you switch.

What is the closest program to Microsoft Money?

Quicken Classic for Windows is the closest in layout and features, and it is the only one that imports a Money 2008 or 2009 file directly. Moneydance and Moneyspire are the closest if what you liked about Money was owning the software outright instead of paying a subscription.