I have been a Windows Quicken user for probably 20+ years. I have gotten tired of having to upgrade every couple of years to maintain the transaction download capability for my credit card. Also, now I have to upgrade Parallels because they claim it wont work with the upcoming Mavericks. Feel like I am being held hostage just so I can download some CC transactions. So I checked out these native apps (as I don't want my financials out in the cloud).
SeeFinance (free): it was pretty good but when I imported my Quicken QIF file it would not import the category splits. It just put the word "split" into the category box. So it thought split was a category set by Quicken. I contacted their TS about it by email and have heard nothing back. That's not a good sign. So I punted that one.
iBank ($60): Probably the most Quicken-like for various functions (reports, search, download, etc). Imported all data accurately. But you have to double click on a transaction to open it up, then click on a little triangle next to the category field to see split info. To many steps. Also, I think you have to manually tell it to add a new transaction field for each transaction you want to enter. It just had an awkward clunky look and feel to me. So I punted that one.
Moneydance ($30): Probably the least refined of the bunch. But the one I liked the most. Very close to a Quicken type layout and transaction entry. Graphs are not as refined. For instance, you have an asset graph, a liability graph and a net worth graph. Quicken combines all 3 of those into a single bar graph. Downloading my CC transactions took more steps than Quicken (1 button and type in your password). I had to go to the CC website, login, navigate to the download link, download a QIF to my desktop, then import the QIF into Moneydance. If your institution support Direct Download then you may have a simpler process. Mine didn't.
Also, the nice thing about Moneydance is that the trial gives you like 100 transactions entries (download transactions don't count) before you have to register. So that gives you a good chance of testing it out.
Now if your heavy into stocks/bonds/funds and need to keep track of all that, Quicken is probably where you want to be. I haven't seen anything that gives the same capability to manage complex financials like Quicken does.
So I've settled on MoneyDance.
