Is Quicken the same as QuickBooks? No, and they are not even the same company
Quicken and QuickBooks both started at Intuit, which is why the names confuse people. They are now separate companies making different products for different users. Which one you actually need.
Verdict
No. Quicken is personal finance software and QuickBooks is business accounting. They both began at Intuit, but Quicken was sold and is now a separate company. Different owners, different products, similar names.
The short answer#
No. Different products, different jobs, and since the sale, different companies.
| Quicken | QuickBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | You and your household | Your business |
| Owned by | Quicken Inc. | Intuit |
| Bookkeeping | Single-entry | Double-entry |
| Users | One | Up to 25 |
| From | About $5/mo | About $38/mo |
| Tracks | Spending, budgets, investments, rental property, debt payoff | Invoices, expenses, inventory, payroll, tax |
Why everybody gets this wrong#
Because for years they really were siblings. Intuit created Quicken in 1983, then built QuickBooks on top of the same idea for businesses.
Then Intuit sold Quicken. It now operates as Quicken Inc. under Aquiline Capital Partners, with its own roadmap and its own team.
Same origin, separate now
Why the names still confuse
Intuit kept QuickBooks and sold Quicken. Most articles written before the sale never got corrected.
So the confusion is not carelessness. It is a genuinely misleading naming situation left over from a company split that most published comparisons never updated.
The mistake that actually costs money#
Buying Quicken for a business because it is cheaper.
It looks like a bargain: $5 against $38. Then year end arrives and your accountant asks for a balance sheet.
Quicken uses single-entry bookkeeping. It records that money moved. It does not record the two sides of every transaction, which is what produces a balance sheet, a proper profit and loss, and books an accountant can sign off.
Where Quicken is genuinely better#
For its own job, it beats QuickBooks outright:
- Investment tracking across brokerage accounts, which QuickBooks does not do
- Rental property as a first-class feature for a landlord with a few units
- Debt payoff planning with real projections
- Household budgeting built for a person, not a company
If you are one person tracking your own money, Quicken is the right tool and QuickBooks would be an expensive, over-complicated mistake in the other direction.
Choosing in one line#
Ask who the money belongs to.
Your own money, your household, your investments → Quicken.
A business that invoices customers and files business tax → QuickBooks, or an alternative. Our Wave vs QuickBooks comparison covers the free option, and what is QBO explains the QuickBooks naming, which trips people up for exactly the same reason.
The short version
What works
- Once you know which job each one does, the choice takes about a minute rather than an afternoon of comparison tables
- Quicken is far cheaper, from roughly $5 a month, because personal finance needs much less than business accounting
- Neither is a compromise version of the other. Each is built properly for its own user
What does not
- The shared history and similar names cause genuine, expensive mistakes, usually buying Quicken for a business
- Quicken uses single-entry bookkeeping, which no accountant will accept for a company
- Older articles still describe both as Intuit products, which has not been true for years
Frequently asked questions
- Is Quicken and QuickBooks the same thing?
- No. Quicken is for personal and household finances, QuickBooks is for business accounting. They share a naming history because both were created by Intuit, but Intuit sold Quicken and the two are now made by separate companies.
- Does Intuit still own Quicken?
- No. Intuit sold Quicken, which now operates as Quicken Inc. under Aquiline Capital Partners. Intuit still owns QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Mailchimp. Any article describing both as Intuit products is out of date.
- Can I use Quicken for my small business?
- Not properly. Quicken uses single-entry bookkeeping and is built around one person tracking spending, budgets, and investments. Business accounting needs double-entry, which is what your accountant works from and what QuickBooks provides. Using Quicken for a company creates work at year end rather than saving it.
- Which is cheaper, Quicken or QuickBooks?
- Quicken, by a wide margin, starting around $5 a month against roughly $38 for QuickBooks Simple Start. That gap reflects what each does rather than value for money. They are not competing for the same buyer.
Written by
Tashawar Awais
Researcher and editor
Tashawar handles verification and editing. Every figure in a review is checked a second time before it goes out, and anything that cannot be traced to a vendor page or a documented source is either qualified or cut. Where pricing is genuinely unclear, as it is with Canva team plans or Close CRM tiers, the article says so and tells the reader to confirm directly instead of quoting a number with false confidence.
- Second check on every published figure
- Removes claims the sources do not support
- Flags pricing that changes without notice