Mitten vs. the spreadsheet.
One person told us the most annoying part of budgeting was ‘copying transactions to an Excel sheet’ by hand, every month. Mitten skips the copy-paste entirely: upload the statement, and Penny sorts it in minutes.
How Mitten compares to what people actually do.
We asked people how they track spending today. Here's how Mitten stacks up against the real answers.
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| What you are comparing | Mitten | Bank sync budgeting apps | Manual tracking (spreadsheet, mental math, or none at all) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank login required | No. Upload a statement instead. | Yes | Not applicable |
| Priced per household or per person | Per household | Usually per person | Free, but it's on you to build and maintain it |
| Debt payoff plan included | Yes, no extra tier | Sometimes an add-on or limited | Manual |
| Pricing tiers | One plan, everything included | Usually multiple tiers | Not applicable |
| Categorization asks before filing | Yes (Penny confirms) | Automatic, no confirmation | Manual |
| Household sharing | Built in, one shared household | Requires each person to link their own account | Only if someone remembers to share the file |
| Data kept if you cancel | Nothing deleted, free monthly summary stays, your data whenever you ask | Varies by provider | Not applicable, it's already yours |
| Primary input method | Upload a statement (PDF/CSV) | Bank sync | Manual entry, or none |
Mitten vs. mental math (and optimism).
‘Pure optimism’ was one honest answer we got to ‘how do you track spending today.’ Mental math and good intentions don't scale to a whole household. Mitten replaces the guessing with a number you can actually see.
Mitten vs. not tracking at all.
More than one person told us they'd simply stopped tracking once spending got complicated: too many subscriptions, too much going out at once. That's exactly the moment Mitten's built for: no setup, just upload.
Mitten vs. playing detective with your own bank app.
In our survey, most people said their bank statement makes them play detective at least sometimes. One person nearly reported fraud on a charge that turned out to be a cafe registered under a sports club's name. Mitten decodes the name before you have to.
See where your own money went.
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