More Startups That Want You to Handle Your Finances Online: Rudder & Green Sherpa

Filed in archive Tools on September 8, 2008

In the past I've reviewed/mentioned a couple of online personal finance sites that are attempting to turn the "wisdom of crowds"/social networking concept into profitable businesses: Mint and Wesabe. If you've tried these services, or if you like the idea of having your financial life organized online, you might be interested in another two entrants into this now-crowded field...

Rudder (see VentureBeat profile here) seems to offer something a bit unique in that once you get your finance accounts up and running, it keeps track of your bills and gives you daily e-mail updates on what payments are coming up and how much money you can expect to have available at any point in the near future (by subtracting upcoming bills from your current balance). I always prefer reminders that send me to a site versus visiting a site every day, so I can see the appeal in that.

Green Sherpa (see VentureBeat profile here) seems to be something of a "me too" application, with a few unique features. VentureBeat points out that it does a better job of offering manual inputs for cash spending than Mint does, for example. But it's trying to charge $7.95 per month while most of its competitors are free. People who like to manage their money online also like to not spend money to do it, so I'm guessing Green Sherpa will be changing that business model in a short time.

Check 'em out if online financial management tools are appealing to you.