In March 2024, Intuit shut down Mint and migrated 3.6 million users to Credit Karma, most of them unhappily. It was a masterclass in why third-party sync is a risk, not a feature. Here is what to look for in a modern iOS budget app's sync story, and how Plan!'s approach handles the failure modes Mint could not.

Why sync matters

If you have an iPhone, an iPad, and a Mac, your money data needs to be in all three places. You check the Watch at the store, open the iPad on the couch, and pull up the Mac for taxes. Without sync, you pick one device and the others lie. Sync is not a bonus; it is the minimum viable budget.

Three sync architectures

  • Proprietary cloud (Mint, YNAB). Your data sits on the company's servers. They hold the keys. A breach leaks everything. A shutdown orphans everything.
  • End-to-end encrypted third-party (some password managers). Client-side keys, zero-knowledge server. Strong, but you depend on the company's availability.
  • Apple CloudKit with end-to-end encryption (Plan!, Apple Notes, iA Writer). Data lives in your iCloud account. Only your Apple ID can decrypt it. The developer has literally no access. If the app disappears, your data stays in your iCloud.

For personal finance, CloudKit is the gold standard. It is what the best indie iOS apps use, and it is what Plan! uses.

The Mint shutdown lesson

Three takeaways from Intuit's 2024 decision to euthanize Mint:

  1. Your data was never yours if the company could unilaterally delete access. Mint users got a narrow CSV export window; anything not exported was gone.
  2. Bank-credential aggregation (via Yodlee/Plaid) is a liability, not a feature. One breach, millions of logins exposed.
  3. "Free forever" apps can always pivot to paid or shut down. Paid apps with a lifetime tier have aligned incentives.

The safest finance app is one that stores your data on your device, syncs via Apple, and can be exported to JSON or CSV any time.

Plan!'s approach

Plan! keeps everything local-first. Each device has its own SQLite database. iCloud CloudKit syncs deltas between your devices using Apple's end-to-end encryption. No Plan! server in the middle. No developer decryption. No bank credentials stored anywhere. You can export your entire database to JSON from Settings at any time.

  1. Open Plan! on iPhone → Settings → iCloud Sync → toggle on.
  2. Install Plan! on iPad or Mac (via Catalyst) and sign into the same Apple ID.
  3. The iPad version pulls the full history within 30 seconds.
  4. Changes on any device replicate within 2-5 seconds when online.
  5. Offline edits queue and sync automatically on reconnect.
If the company behind your budget app disappears tomorrow, your data should not disappear with it. That is the whole bar.

Conflict resolution and gotchas

Sync across three devices will generate conflicts: you log $12 on the Watch while your partner on the shared iPad edits the same goal. Plan! uses last-write-wins at the record level with a conflict journal you can review in Settings. Other apps either silently overwrite (bad) or pop a modal for every conflict (worse). Plan! logs it, shows you, and lets you undo.

Your exit strategy

Before committing to any budget app in 2026, answer two questions: can I export my data today, and can I import it somewhere else? Plan! exports to JSON and CSV with one tap, from the Settings screen. Your budget history is yours, forever, regardless of whether Plan! is around in 2040.

Checklist

  1. Verify your current app syncs via Apple CloudKit (not a proprietary server).
  2. Verify you can export your full data as CSV or JSON.
  3. Enable iCloud sync in Plan! on every device you own.
  4. Run a test: log on Watch, check iPhone 10 seconds later.
  5. Export your data quarterly as a just-in-case backup.

Your money history is the most personal dataset you own. Plan! keeps it on your devices, synced by Apple, owned by you.