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The battle of the best online budget planner rages on. Ever since Mint hit the scene with dead simple to use budgeting and transaction retrieval, numerous free online budget planners have hit the web with more to offer. Let’s take a look at how some of the best online budget planners stack up against each other.

Mint

Mint was one of the first and is often regarded as one of the best online budget planners. It features a clean, graphic-intensive user interface and now even lets you compare your spending habits against other users of Mint.com. The granular spending charts are nice, too and let you view your “Trends” and spending habits. The “Ways to Save” section may be useful to some as it shows you where you can get better rates on your high yield savings and credit card accounts.

Another great feature that makes Mint one of the best online budget planners: the iPhone app! The Mint iPhone app lets you see your transaction summary on the go and even sends push notifications to alert you of overspending.

Quicken online

Quicken was once a paid subscription service offered by Intuit. Now, as competition mounts, Quicken has moved to a free model and now let’s you use their powerful online budgeting planners free of charge. Quicken Online is almost identical to Mint.com and is also very clean and graphically pleasing. You can get helpful reminders about bill due dates (which helps cut back on nasty late fees) and the homepage also shows a basic cashflow summary of all your incoming and outgoing transactions. Quicken also has a great mobile version and a blog that keeps you up to date on the best online budget planner tools and news.

Wesabe

Wesabe is slightly more clunky compared to Quicken and Mint, but it’s still a great tool. Wesabe adds the functionality that lets you compare your spending to other users. This community aspect is perhaps Wesabe’s best feature. Wesabe lets you talk with other users and share your goals. You can even speak directly to Wesabe’s CEO if you’re having any troubles or concerns.

One thing that makes Wesabe the best online budget planner for some: Canadian support. Mint.com has yet to allow Canadian users to use their software in spite of very high demand for free online budgeting. Canada users on Wesabe, however, can upload many of their accounts manually or automatically.

When it come to choosing the best online budget planner, there’s a certain degree of varying taste and style. Mint.com offers all-in-one convenience with super slick trending. Quicken is a familiar name for many who have used Intuit’s other personal finance software. And Wesabe is the best online budget planner for Canadian users. Since all are absolutely free, your best bet may be to sign up for all of them and give them all a shot. Then you can decide for yourself which is the best online budget planner.