We first launched Banktivity (called “iBank” at the time) 20 years ago. In the world of tech, software and start-ups, that was a long time ago! For several years our first versions didn’t have any “connected services”. That is, any update you wanted to make to your finances had to be done manually with keystrokes and mouse clicks. Then slowly, we added capabilities that improved the app’s experience by automating tasks like downloading transactions and stock prices. Over the years, we expanded upon this and introduced Direct Access, encrypted cloud sync, historical stock price downloads, real estate valuation, cryptocurrency prices and currency exchange rates. All of these services cost us money and this was one of the main drivers of our switch to subscription a few years ago.
Most of our customers have moved to our most recent subscription-based version of Banktivity. However, we still have a number of customers using significantly older versions of our software. Even Banktivity 7, the last of the non-subscription based versions, was released approximately 5 years ago, and we dropped support for it almost 3 years ago.
Today we are announcing that we will be turning off connected services for our older, non-subscription, versions of Banktivity.
Specifically, the following services will be retired for Banktivity 5, 6 and 7: Cloud Sync, Stock Prices and Currency Exchange Rates. These will stop working for older versions on October 1, 2023.
I want to personally thank all of our customers that are maintaining active subscriptions. It allows us to continue to keep Banktivity working on the latest operating systems, implement user requested features, fix bugs and continue to invest in making Banktivity the best personal finance app.
If you are using an older version, I encourage you to give Banktivity 9 a try. You’ll get a 30-day free trial with no credit card required to start the trial.
- Continuing Investments in Direct Access - February 26, 2024
- Banktivity 9: The Little Changes - September 8, 2023
- Retiring services for older versions of Banktivity - August 11, 2023
As one of those users I just wanted to say thank you for keeping it running this long. I bought ibank 4 at the end of 2010, didn’t pay again until upgrading to v7 in 2018, and that’s all I’ve had to spend for nearly 13 years of use.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to switch to a subscription app when v8 was released, but 3 years has certainly given me a lot of time to think about it!
I have been a user since version 5, then 6 and seven .
Have no problem whatsoever to pay a subscription for version 9 but I have one question on which I never got an answer which is : can we get stock quotes live for european stock markets as we get for US markets ?
This is the only reason why I did not upgrade before from 7 to 8 .
If not, version 9 has no added value for me above version 7 where I get end of day quotes.
Microsoft money in its day already had the live stock quotes for europe , and I do not mind paying for it !
Thanks for the comment. I bet it was actually easier to get (near) live stock prices back in the MS Money days than it is now. The licensing landscape has changed significantly and the various security exchanges don’t want people grabbing the data without paying and sometimes it is very expensive!
I use v 7 . I can’t afford the new subscription service
Will I be able to update my stocks manually?
Yes.
Thank you Ian for your reply ,but I still have no answer on my question ;
If I upgrade to version 9 and take the gold subscription , will I get Europe live stock quotes as with the US markets or will it be end of day quotes as it is now with version 7 ?
Thanks for clarifying this to me !
I do like your software very much so I would like to keep using it !
Christiaan
Hi, thanks for the question. Unfortunately we do not have live stock quotes for the various European exchanges. We can get end of day prices for some of them though. It will be similar to v7.
Ian, can you please add end of day prices for the nordic exchanges and I will renew my subscription for gold for another year!
Ian, I just installed Version 9 and thanks for some great improvements. One of which I requested (scheduled transactions on a day of the week rather than date, thanks)
I have another request, one that was taken away from previous versions. The charge option has been removed from the transaction type, (deposit, transfer, withdraw….) So when you have a credit card transaction it is a withdraw… NOT… those are charges in my book. Please restore that option. Mine still works because of having that options from previous versions. Any new install it is gone. Thanks and keep up the good work. I have been a user from the first version of iBank…. Bruce
If I get the Gold Subscription and do not renew, will I be able to manually enter stock and currency exchange rates? Will I be able to manually create backups?
Just following up on this, I am using Banktivity 7 every day – I manually enter all transactions and stock prices/exchange rates which is possible. This news affects me mainly in that there is no longer an automatic backup made (through cloud sync).
I’d like to pay for a year to try the new version. What’s holding me back is uncertainty about whether I will still be able to use it like I use Banktivity 7 now (manually entering transactions and manually updating stock prices/exchange rates periodically).
Hi, if you subscribe to the gold tier for a year, but don’t renew it, you’ll continue to be able to use it by manually updating the data. You have to pay for the one year, you can’t just use the free trial and then cancel before paying anything and get the apps functionality. The following year, if you wanted just the cloud sync functionality, you could downgrade to bronze and retain manual entry capabilities of the stock prices and exchange rates. I hope this helps and we hope you’ll try it out and continue to support us!
Hi Ian, thanks for clarifying! This is what I was hoping – thanks for making your model flexible like this for those of us who aren’t fans of being locked into subscriptions. That being said, I think it is completely reasonable to require a subscription for the sync/data services for which you have ongoing costs. I think I will pay for gold for a year and see how I go from there.
I don’t create a new budget every year. I just modify my existing budget as needed as time goes on. I’m an accountant and I love the envelope budgeting.
Can I quote you? 😉 This is good, ” I’m an accountant and I love the envelope budgeting.”
I’ve said before that I would love to upgrade — after you fix the missing Budgeting feature that would let us duplicate and edit an existing budget instead of having to start fresh and create a new budget every year. How many users do you have using Banktivity? Multiply that by 2-3 hours/user and that’s how much savings you give us with a feature that could be written and tested in like half a day.
Our budgets were designed to be continually edited and they will track changes for you. For example, let’s say you set a budget for Groceries for $500 a month in February of 2022. Then in June of 2023, you change that to be Groceries for $600 a month. If you then go “back in time” using the arrows at the top of the budget we will show you that from Feb 2022 to June 2023, the budget for Groceries was $500 and then from June 2023 to present it is $600. We even do the same for scheduled transactions. If this behavior doesn’t work for you, please let me know why. Thanks.
I love the software and have been a user since iBank days. The one feature I’d like to see and which has kept me from transitioning to the subscription model is syncing receipts attached to a transaction. I am blessed to have a 2nd seasonal home where I use Banktivity on a 2nd computer. Not having access to receipts for transactions posted on one computer and not the other is frustrating, I’d be willing to pay extra for receipt storage if it was available. Is this feature anywhere on your radar.
Hello,
I’m a version 7 user. Will the app still work after those features are gone? If so, for how long? I only use manual entry. The only additional feature I like is cloud sync so I can see it on my computer as well as my phone. If I went to 9, is bronze all I would need to continue cloud sync?
Manually entry should work as long as the app runs on your computer. You can see all of our tiers here.
What’s bothers me about upgrading is having to subscribe to the top tier just to print checks on my printer otherwise I would have upgraded when version 8 came out.
You can subscribe to the top tier just once to unlock the check printing and then downgrade the following year and you’ll retain the check printing feature.
My Mac is old and I can’t install version 8 and above. If I upgrade my iOS app to version 9, will the sync work with my desktop version7?
If it doesn’t, and I can’t do manual sync as the old 5/6 days, I’ll have to find another finances tracking app.
Sync will stop working in v7, so this won’t work as a long term solution.
Thank you for the reply.
This is an interesting feature, and I’ve been trying it out. It’s not what I expected, but my initial impression is very favorable. I think you should add this to your description of the budgeting tool. (I’ve asked for this ability several times in the past few years, and Support has always replied that it’s listed as a feature on the punch list but was not yet possible.)
And while we’re talking about budgets … there used to be a bug that I reported several years ago that if there was an Actual amount for a category that didn’t have a budget for that month, then the Actual amount wasn’t included in the report totals. (Only months with budgeted amounts would be included.) My workaround was always to assign $0.01 for every month that didn’t really have a budget. I’ll try to make a test later this week, but maybe you can answer right off if this was ever corrected.
This is very disappointing. I have no desire to move to your SaaS model and now that there will be no way to sync my iPhone with my Banktivity 7 desktop software I am forced to find alternative software. Tried your new v9 and can’t even get the Citi bank to link up.
Ian, I too was a long time user of Banktivity 5, then 6 and then 7. I stayed on 7 for really long as the new features on the subscription didn’t really matter to me and the support for stocks was minimal on the Bombay Stock Exchange – and non-existent for mutual/index funds,
However, I recently upgraded to Banktivity 8 which got auto upgraded to Banktivity 9 as I started encountering bugs in v7. I’ve been happy to use the new versions and love the constant development and am happy you guys have a revenue model that works, ensuring this software stays for a long time.
However, I really would like better support for updated stock symbols for the BSE. If my symbols don’t update automatically, there really is no reason for me to continue paying for the subscription even though I want to. I reached out to your support team to request for symbols for newly added stocks to the BSE and they indicated it would be put on the requested features list and may require active development time?? Not sure why adding another stock symbol, which would work like any other symbol from your provider, would require additional dev time but I let that be and continue to update manually for now, as it’s only 3-4 stocks.
Your list of stock symbols in the help section was last updated in 2020, so I am hoping for a 2023 update to it very soon! 🙂
And symbols for mutual/index funds would just be the cherry on top!
Hi, thanks for the feedback. Can you give me some examples of some of the symbols you’d like to get quotes for?
I have been using Banktivity for many years and love it. The user interface is one off the best I have seen in any Financial software. I enter all my transactions manually and have appreciated the automatic download of stock prices and exchange rates for my multi-currency setup. I don’t see a value-add to upgrade to either version 8 or 9 and start paying for the highest tier plan only to retain the currency exchange download, not even with the automatic download being cut off for V7. I guess I will just continue to use version 7 and manually enter stock prices and currency exchange rates. I wish there were a slimmed-down version for a smaller fee available for limited-feature users like me.
Ok, please note you can always subscribe for a year, then not renew and you’ll retain the ability to add/edit/delete your data.
I use Banktivity 7 and have it set up to automatically update my checking account at Fidelity Investments. Is that affected by this retirement? If I were to upgrade to Banktivity 9 and not renew, would my automatic Fidelity updates disappear? I have been considering an upgrade but am unsure about what would happen with that checking account.
Banktivity 5 user at present, and former iBank customer. If I remove Banktivity from my iPad (not a necessity) I may still use the “ledger” functions indefinitely and allow for my file to continue to be saved in Documents for which I can perform manual backups, correct? I use it in lieu of a checkbook ledger/envelope receipt holder for credit receipts. I do my own Numbers budgets and as a retiree no longer need to track investments.
I’m using on a 2012 MBPr as the primary, with the iPad being just a secondary convenience.
Well that stinks. I’ve been an iBank/Banktivity customer since the program (iBank) was first written many years ago, and paid for the original ver and each and every upgrade requested until the subscription format was introduced. I’m fine with ver 7 and use it primarily as an account register and to sync between devices via iCloud (a necessity). Not sure why iCloud sync needs to go, but I’m retired now and can’t pay $50/year for the privilege of continuing to use Banktivity. The fact that I contributed to the development of iBank/Banktivity over all of these years only to be left out in the cold is disappointing.
I appreciate the feedback, we hope you’ll reconsider! The bronze plan comes out to be about $4.17 a month.
Agree. I have been a customer since the start but will not pay a monthly subscription. Sorry to hear you’ve moved to this model. I will be looking elsewhere.
It is technically an annual subscription if that helps 😉 If you are wondering why we moved to this model, please have a read here.
Sadly to read as user in europe. I also used it only for entering manual amounts to my accounts using iPhone or iMac. The real service which i use is the sync only. Account access to banks in europe is not really possible. (different bank account api s).
So now i decide to use the iPhone Version for offline mode to go ahead enter manually data. I like your interface very much till b7, after that i not upgraded because of the european price … bronze in US 49.99 $. in Germany 55.99 €. Thats for me too much because more and more and more Apps using subscriptions. You can spend hundreds of Dollar for software.
For e.g. to use an encrypted sync of a file into iCloud i would pay e.g. 2 $ per month sure. But in that way, i keep my data locally till end of October to both systems, Then i make a break. Keep the dato for search and continue entering manually my data in my new app MoneyStats which is use already for 1 year in parallel expected every time this situation here.
But nevertheless i want to say a big thank you for the last years to store my data and enables me searching for transaction for statistical views.
ugh, this is so annoying – Banktivity 7 does everything I need … I used the cloud sync but none of the live updates, which are all US centric and I’m in the UK … I can’t upgrade to Banktivity 9 as my Mac is still running on Mojave (could upgrade but then lose access to all my Office apps!) …. so now I’m left with only being able to update/add transactions on my Mac again and not via the app on the phone as well … and even if I could upgrade I really don’t need / want to pay $50 dollars a year! … So having been a user of Banktivity for years and years I guess I’m on the search again … 🙁
We appreciate your feedback. Keeping up with technology is hard and we want to make sure we provide the best experience we can for people that are will to subscribe with us. Please note, Banktivity can now automatically connect to many UK banks! We hope you’ll consider upgrading.
Thanks for the reply, unfortunately we just don’t all need the bells and whistles and the price tag that comes with it – although fab I just don’t need that level of functionality! Was there a technical reason for turning of cloud sync other than just meeting a business strategy of moving all users onto a subscription service?
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately we don’t all need the bells and whistles or the price tag that comes with it. The cloud sync was just so useful!! Was there a tech reason for turning it off or just a business strategy to encourage people to move to the subscription service?
I’m really disappointed,
All I need is local sync on my LAN. You forced me to use Cloud sync and I conceded. And now you force me into a subscription model I don’t need.
I will upgrade to version 9 but the minute I find a viable alternative, you will lose me.
I hope you find v9 worth the subscription price!
I tried v9. It was alright, but after the subscription ended, nothing would sync between my apps. I primarily use this for manual logging of my transactions, so 7 ended up working better for me after the subscription ended. Now that you’ve turned off the cloud sync, it basically screwed me over. I’ve not see any sort of reward for loyalty. Every upgrade we were forced to shell out for another purchase and it feels like we are being edged into another corner.
I can understand that cloud sync services would cost you where you wouldn’t be making any income from it. Gotcha. But also you leave me no way to do anything myself. The app is great for a manual logging of transactions, and all I need from you is a way to be able to transfer this data between devices. How can I export everything I currently have in 7 from my iPhone and port it to my Mac? (Without subscribing)
I’m going to look into developing my own app to just be able to keep track of my finances. It seems to be easier than having to deal with this every time
You’ll need an active subscription to sync across devices.
I don’t need all the bank connectivity as I’m in the Cayman Islands and I don’t need stock prices. But I do need multi currencies so it looks like I will need Gold. I’ve been an ibank user for many years and still on v7 considering moving to v9. I have my personal accounts and my small business accounts in two separate files. Can I use one V9 subscription with two files as I currently have with v7?
Yes, absolutely!
I am retired (Canada) and have used Ibank – Banktivity 7 for many years I do not have stocks, do not need different currencies, do not have different devices. I just want to download transactions from my banks and summarize income/expenses in different categories. Will that be possible without an upgrade ?
If v7 is working for your case, please feel free to keep using. If you are hitting snags, please consider upgrading: https://www.banktivity.com/upgrading.php
Greatly appreciate your years offering Mac users a great financial software option. Originally iBank users, we kept moving forward to Banktivity 7.
I would gladly upgrade to Banktivity 9 except our family is running multiple Macs and Apple devices, none of which (other than iPhone) will upgrade to the minimum Banktivity 9 OS requirements.
Until we can afford to upgrade our hardware, and especially now that you’re eliminating Cloud Sync, is there any way we can sync our devices with LAN, WiFi, or other connectivity? We have always manually downloaded financial data so that is not a concern for us.
Thank you for being a long time customer! There isn’t a way to share v7 data via LAN or local Wifi.
Thanks for the comments. Currently the only way to sync is use our Cloud Sync.