Guide
What to use instead of Microsoft Money
There is no single successor to Money, so the honest answer is a short list of
kinds, not a winner — and whichever you choose, the first step is the same: get your history
out of the .mny file into a format the new program can read.
What happened to Money
Microsoft Money was discontinued in 2009.
Money Plus Sunset, the free Windows-only edition Microsoft released when Money was discontinued,
opens .mny files. Microsoft no longer hosts the download.
What people use instead — by kind
We are not going to rank these or quote prices we have not checked today. Which kind fits depends on whether you want a live set of accounts or a searchable archive, and only you know that.
A desktop personal-finance program
What it does that Money did: the familiar register-and-reports way of working —
accounts, categories, reconciling, reports — on your own computer. Quicken is the closest in shape;
GnuCash, HomeBank and Moneydance are long-established alternatives, and GnuCash and HomeBank are
free and open-source. What it doesn’t: none of them opens a .mny
file; they import QIF, OFX or CSV. GnuCash asks more of you up front because it is properly
double-entry. Cost, in shape: one-time, subscription, or free, depending on the
program.
A spreadsheet
What it does that Money did: holds the record, searchable and sortable, and will outlive every program on this page. Genuinely the right answer if you mostly want the history rather than a live budgeting system. What it doesn’t: reconcile, categorise or report for you — you build what you need. Cost, in shape: whatever you already have — Excel, Numbers or a free equivalent open CSV.
An online budgeting service
What it does that Money did: ongoing budgeting and categorising, usually fed from your bank accounts, on any device. What it doesn’t: act as an archive of your old records — how much history one will take in, and in what format, varies by service, so check before you rely on it for the past. Cost, in shape: a subscription, as a rule.
Your bank’s own tools
What it does that Money did: categorise recent spending and show it back to you. What it doesn’t: hold anything older than the bank keeps, or take in a file of your own. Cost, in shape: included with the account.
The step every route has in common: moving the history
Choosing is not usually the hard bit; getting the history across is. Every destination above
imports QIF, OFX or CSV, and none of them opens a .mny file — it is an encrypted
Jet/MSISAM database. So the move is two steps, and the first is the one people get stuck on:
- Get your Money history out into an open format — QIF, OFX or CSV.
- Import that into whichever program you chose.
The free way first. If you still have a copy of Money Plus Sunset on a Windows PC and it opens your file, use its own export — a report at a time, by hand, and the options were thin even when Money was current, but it costs nothing. That route stops in three places: on a Mac, where Sunset does not run; on a PC without a copy, since Microsoft no longer hosts it; and on a file Sunset won’t open.
Being straight with you: Microsoft Money
Rescue reads a .mny file read-only on your own computer and writes out QIF,
OFX and CSV. It is not a replacement for Money and does not try to be. It recovers Money 2001
through Money Plus 2008 files; Money 2000 is not claimed, and a file it cannot decrypt is
reported and left unopened, not guessed at. The free preview shows the accounts and
transactions it can read — how many, and the date range they cover — before anything is paid.
Where Money Rescue fits
It does step one, on Mac or Windows, without needing Money installed: it decrypts the
.mny itself and writes QIF, OFX and CSV plus a report of what was and was not
recovered. Run the free preview on your own file first — it shows what it found on screen —
and saving that out to files is what the £39 licence unlocks. Then step two:
into your new program.
Download and check your .mny file free Buy Microsoft Money Rescue — £39
Whatever you choose, get the data out first
This is the one piece of advice worth taking even if you buy nothing. The risk to your records is not a deadline — it is an ordinary day when the old PC will not boot, or the backup disc turns out to be the only copy. Exporting to an open format while the file is still healthy removes the problem permanently, and it does not depend on which program you land on.
Short version
- Money ended in 2009; Sunset still opens
.mnyon Windows if you have a copy, and Microsoft no longer hosts it. - Replacements come in four kinds — desktop program, spreadsheet, online service, your bank’s tools — and none opens
.mny. - Every route needs the history out first, as QIF, OFX or CSV. Sunset’s own export is the free way if you have it, it runs, and it opens your file.
- Where it doesn’t, Money Rescue does that step on Mac or Windows — free to look, £39 to save.