MoneyWell was one of the indie apps that rose to fill the void left by Intuit’s malnourished and barely-supported Quicken. It uses the concept of budget buckets (similar to an envelope system) to manage personal finances. I like how it works and it has helped me rein in my household budget.
A recent paid update from MoneyWell 1.7 to 2.0 was featured on the App Store at the beginning of February. I considered investing in one of the other financial apps on the market, but wanted to continue using the app I’ve used for nearly two years now. So nearly a month ago I pitched my $23.99 in their hat and upgraded. No Thirst issued a hot fix update on the initial release date (from 2.0 to 2.0.1 on Feb. 8) to address critical flaws. Hoctor followed the update with an open letter to customers on Feb. 17 apologizing for screwing everything up.
There are bugs in MoneyWell 2 that we are fixing and a patch is forthcoming. We released a 2.0.1 patch quickly on the day MoneyWell 2 was released because we don’t want our customers to have to battle bugs in our software. The 2.0.2 patch will not be delayed a minute longer than necessary, but we also want to take the time to fix as many of the bugs you have reported as possible. After that patch, we will be working on a 2.1 release that addresses some features that we weren’t able to flesh out in our 2.0 release.
A half-baked release followed by an open letter to customers is not enough. As of today (February 25, 2012, you may have heard it’s my birthday) customers have yet to enjoy the 2.0.2 patch and my confidence is waning that a fix is coming at all.
Like a lot of folks these days, my budget is pretty tight and the financial software I depend on helps me navigate choppy waters. Right now I feel like I’m sailing without a rudder and see the sharks circling. Do I weigh anchor and wait for the sharks to attack or find another vessel to find safer passage?