iBank 5 for Mac vs Quicken for Windows

When I switched from Windows a couple of years ago, the main Windows app I couldn't leave behind was Quicken. No Mac app measured up, especially for investment management. So back then I installed Parallels and Windows on my new iMac. That worked. Parallels' convergence view is very nice, but I just can't stand Windows updating weekly and disrupting my Apple karma. So when iBank 5 came out a month ago I decided to give it a serious trial alongside Quicken.

Bottom line: So far I have found no reason to keep using Quicken. Year-end comparison will be the clincher.

Importing Quicken downloads from my Canadian bank was very easy. Hardly had to clean up anything. I kept pages of notes as I checked for functions I use to manage our personal accounts and investments, and everything works. iBank can't handle addresses for printing cheques like Quicken (unless I missed something), but I only print maybe 3 cheques a year now anyway -- everything is going online. I have to manually download/upload transaction updates for each account, but that's very easy to do. Just need to be careful to import to the correct account. Reconciliation is much easier for me than in Quicken. I like iBank's reports better than Quicken's because I find them easier to modify on the fly. And it is so easy to drag and drop a report into Excel for Mac. Had to enter Yahoo ticker symbols for some Canadian securities, but that only took a few minutes.

iBank has a much different user interface than Quicken. It seemed unsophisticated and DOS-like at first, but turns out that was just because it was new to me. Now it feels much cleaner, simpler and easier than Quicken.

Four stars: can't sync iBank on my iMac and MacBook yet and the iOS apps aren't getting good reviews, but iBank says they are cooking up something. Not a deal-breaker for me.

I bought iBank 5 direct before it became available on the App Store. Would have preferred the simplicity of the App Store I think.

I have absolutely no commercial ties to iBank, just wanted to let switchers know about this option and see what others think.

I have iBank... have had it since version 3 and am on iBank 4. Their customer service stinks, so be aware of that much. There are a few shortcomings in their software that people have been griping about for years, and they keep "taking votes" for new features or enhancements as people ask for them, yet never do it. They recently closed their forum and changed over to a "Knowledge Base" system that is horrible to navigate.

I'm not familiar with their App Store version, but I have a tendency to shun anything off of there if possible because Apple's rules frequently lead to compromised functionality to accommodate them.

I'm not familiar with the inability to sync between Macs (only have one, so I have never needed to) but you can sync with the iOS versions. There are shortcomings with syncing with multiple iOS devices that have been a sore point for as long as they have had an iOS version, so when they say they are working on something to sync between Macs, don't hold your breath.