What Money Pro gets right
Credit where it's due: Money Pro, by iBear, has been around since 2010 on iOS and Mac, and it earned its following honestly. Its bill planning is genuinely good — bills sit on a big calendar, recurring ones repeat on whatever schedule you give them, and a system of reminders nags you before due dates so nothing slips. Its budgeting is envelope-style done well, with per-category limits, visual overspending indicators, and rollover that carries an unspent balance into the next period.
Part of its original appeal was also the business model: for years you bought Money Pro once and owned it. The current version has moved to subscription plans — a change many long-time users have been vocal about — but the core of the app remains what it always was: a careful, manual-first budgeting and bill tool. If that describes everything you need, it still does the job.
Where people outgrow it
The pattern we hear from people switching is consistent: Money Pro answered the question “where does my paycheck go?” and then a new question showed up that it wasn't built for — “what am I actually worth?” Money Pro tracks accounts and balances, but it isn't a net worth platform. There's no live pricing for a stock portfolio, no place for gold with its purity, no way to hold a property, a vehicle and a crypto wallet next to your checking account and watch one total move. Once you own more than cash, you end up maintaining that picture somewhere else — usually a spreadsheet. If you're curious what a complete picture involves, our guide on how to calculate your net worth walks through it.
The second gap is access. Money Pro ships native apps for iOS, Mac, Android and Windows, but there is no web version — you can't open your finances from a browser on a machine that isn't yours. And device sync runs through its subscription plans; it works for many people, though some users report sync hiccups between devices, which stings most in precisely the app you trust with every transaction. Finally, for users who signed up in the pay-once era, the subscription shift changed the deal they thought they had made.
How Guaca compares
On the day-to-day, Guaca covers the ground Money Pro users expect: transactions, budgets, spending reports, income versus expenses, and reconciliation against your bank statements. You won't give up the discipline — you'll keep it with less typing, because Guaca adds AI capture: photograph a receipt and it becomes a transaction, import a PDF bank statement and the transactions are extracted for you, and category rules file the recurring stuff on their own. Guaca doesn't do bank-credential aggregation — no Plaid-style bank logins — and we're upfront about that; your statements and receipts get your data in without handing over passwords.
The bigger difference is the layer above the budget. Guaca tracks investments with live prices — stocks, funds, crypto — plus precious metals with their purity, real estate, vehicles, domains and debts, and rolls all of it into one net worth. Everything is multi-currency from the ground up: every asset lives in its own currency, with full ISO currency support, and totals convert into whichever display currency you think in. And when you start asking longer-range questions, the retirement planner runs Monte Carlo simulations from your real numbers — you can get a feel for the mechanics with our free compound interest calculator and net worth calculator.
On platforms, Guaca goes where Money Pro doesn't: native apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, plus a full web app in any browser. Sync is offline-first — every device keeps a full local copy, works with no connection, and syncs when you're back online.
Switch in minutes: the built-in Money Pro importer
This is the part that usually keeps people on an app they've outgrown: years of history they can't face retyping. Guaca removes that wall with a built-in Money Pro importer. It reads a Money Pro backup file directly and brings across your accounts, your transaction history and your categories — the guided flow inside the app, on iPhone and Android, shows you screenshots of each step in Money Pro itself, so exporting the backup is never a scavenger hunt.
Export a backup in Money Pro
Create a backup file from inside Money Pro. Guaca's import flow shows you screenshots of exactly where this lives, so you're never hunting through menus.
Open Guaca and start the import
On iPhone or Android, the guided Money Pro importer walks you through it step by step. Pick the backup file you just exported.
Guaca reads the backup
Your accounts, your full transaction history and your categories come across from the backup file. Nothing is retyped by hand.
Review and keep going
Check that balances look right, set up your budgets, and pick up where you left off — now with net worth, investments and every currency in the same place.
To be precise about scope: the import brings your accounts, transaction history and categories from the backup. Budgets are rebuilt in Guaca — quickly, since your categories and real spending history are already there to set limits against.
Who should stay on Money Pro
Honestly: some people should. If your entire financial life fits in envelope budgeting and a bill calendar, you work on one platform, you have no investments or property to track, and you fundamentally dislike subscriptions — switching to another subscription-based app doesn't solve your actual complaint. Money Pro remains a capable tool for that shape of life, and there's no prize for using more app than you need.
But if you've started keeping a side spreadsheet for your portfolio, converting currencies by hand, or wishing you could check your money from a browser — those are the signs you've outgrown a budgeting app and need a full personal finance platform. That's the gap Guaca was built to fill, and the importer means trying it costs you an afternoon coffee break, not your history.
Switching from Money Pro: FAQ
Can I import my Money Pro data into Guaca?
Yes. Guaca has a built-in Money Pro importer: export a backup file from Money Pro, open Guaca on your iPhone or Android phone, and a guided step-by-step flow — with screenshots showing exactly where to tap in Money Pro — walks you through the import. Your accounts, your transaction history and your categories come across. You don't retype anything.
Does Guaca connect to my bank?
Guaca doesn't do bank-credential aggregation — there is no Plaid-style login with your bank password. Instead, it gets data in with AI capture: photograph a receipt and it becomes a transaction, import a PDF bank statement and the transactions are extracted for you, and category rules file recurring items automatically. You keep your bank credentials to yourself, and you can still reconcile against your statements inside the app.
Does Guaca work on Android and on the web?
Yes. Guaca has native apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, plus a full web app you can open in any browser. Everything syncs across devices, and the apps are offline-first — you can add transactions with no connection and they sync when you're back online.
What does Guaca cost?
Guaca is free to start — you can create an account, import your Money Pro backup, track transactions and budgets, and see your net worth without paying. A Pro subscription adds live price feeds for investments and the AI features like receipt scanning and statement import.
Will my Money Pro budgets carry over?
Not automatically. The importer brings your accounts, transaction history and categories from the backup; budgets are rebuilt in Guaca. Because your categories and past spending arrive intact, setting budgets back up is quick — you can see what you actually spent per category and set limits from real numbers rather than guesses.
