Empower App Review 2026: Is It the Best Free Finance Tracker?

Empower is a free personal finance app that tracks your budget, net worth, cash flow and investment portfolio in one dashboard — making it the top free option for users who have both bank accounts and investment accounts they want to monitor together. Unlike Mint alternatives that focus on spending, Empower gives you a complete financial picture at no cost.

When Mint shut down in March 2024, millions of users went hunting for a replacement. Empower picked up some of that audience because it does something many budgeting apps don’t: it pulls your 401(k), IRA, and brokerage accounts into the same view as your checking and credit cards. That makes it especially useful once you have more than one type of account to track.

It’s important to note a distinction within Empower. It offers a free personal finance app — the one this review focuses on — with a budgeting and net worth dashboard available to anyone. Empower also offers a paid Wealth Management advisory service for users with at least $100,000 in investable assets. The free app does not require you to use the paid service.

We’ll answer all of these questions and more below.

What Is the Empower App? (Merged With Personal Capital)

Empower acquired Personal Capital, a personal finance platform, in 2020. The free personal finance tools — budgeting, net worth tracking, investment analysis — remained intact through the rebrand.

Personal Capital launched in 2009 and built its reputation on giving everyday investors the kind of portfolio dashboards that used to be reserved for financial advisors. After the 2020 acquisition, the company merged with Empower Retirement (one of the largest 401(k) recordkeepers in the U.S.) and adopted the Empower brand in 2023.

If you used Personal Capital before, the experience is largely the same. The login URL changed, the colors shifted and a few features were renamed. However, the core tools are still free and still functional. Many longtime users only noticed the change because of an email and a new logo.

Empower Free Features — What You Get at No Cost

Empower’s free personal finance tools include a spending and budgeting dashboard, net worth tracker, investment portfolio analyzer, retirement planning calculator, and cash flow monitor — all accessible without a subscription or credit card. Offers change; verify terms at empower.com.

Net worth dashboard

Empower lets you link checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, 401(k)s, IRAs, brokerage accounts, and more — then rolls them all up into a real-time net worth figure. The dashboard updates daily and shows the trend over time, which is useful for tracking long-term progress without obsessing over weekly fluctuations.

Budgeting and cash flow

Transactions are categorized automatically, and you can set monthly category budgets and view income vs. expenses by month. The budgeting layer is less granular than YNAB or Monarch — it’s better at showing you what already happened than at controlling what’s about to happen — but for most users it’s enough.

Investment portfolio analyzer

This is where Empower stands out. The portfolio analyzer shows your asset allocation across all linked accounts, compares your performance against benchmarks, and identifies overlap when multiple funds hold the same stocks. Major budgeting apps rarely offer this kind of analysis at no cost. If you’re interested in investment apps, these are our favorites. 

Retirement planner

The retirement planner runs projections using your actual account data. You can adjust variables like retirement age, annual savings and expected spending to see how the probability of success shifts. It’s not a substitute for a financial advisor, but it’s a useful tool.

Empower Wealth Management (What It Is — And Why Most TPH Readers Don’t Need It)

Empower Wealth Management is a fee-based financial advisory service for users with $100,000 or more in investable assets — it charges roughly 0.49%–0.89% of assets annually and is a completely separate product from the free Empower personal finance app reviewed here. Offers change; verify terms.

If you don’t have $100,000 in investments yet, you can ignore this product entirely. The free app does not require it, will not lock features behind it and works fine on its own. Empower may invite eligible users to schedule a consultation, but it’s optional.

Empower App Pros and Cons

Empower’s biggest strengths are its price (free for the core features) and its investment tracking Its biggest weaknesses are a less granular budgeting workflow and an upsell path that some users find pushy.

Who Is Empower Best For?

Empower is best for adults 30 and up who have at least one investment account (401(k), IRA or brokerage) alongside bank accounts, and who want to see their complete financial picture — budget, net worth and portfolio — in one free app.

Having a free and easy-to-use app can help when retirement planning gets overwhelming or ends up on the back burner. According to The Penny Hoarder’s 2026 Financial Anxiety Barometer, 20% of Americans say they’ve reduced or stopped contributing to their retirement this year because of their financial situation. Here’s how to decide if Empower is the best app to help you with your goals.

Use Empower if

• You have investment accounts you want to track alongside everyday spending
• You want a free Mint alternative with stronger investment features
• You want to analyze your 401(k) fees or check your asset allocation
• You want a single dashboard for net worth and cash flow

Skip Empower if

• You’re a budgeting beginner with no investment accounts yet
• You want zero-based budgeting (use YNAB)
• You want subscription tracking (use Rocket Money)
• You want joint or partner access (use Monarch Money)

If you fall into one of the last three categories, see our Monarch Money review or Rocket Money review for closer fits. Beginners may want to start with our guide to budgeting for beginners.

Empower vs. Competitors

Empower is best compared to Monarch Money for users who want investment tracking alongside budgeting — Monarch costs $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year for the Core plan, but Empower’s core features are free. Empower replaced Mint as many users’ go-to free financial aggregator after Mint shut down in March 2024.

Pricing may change — verify directly with each app. Offers change; verify terms.

If your priority is investment visibility, Empower is the standout. If your priority is shared budgeting with a partner or zero-based discipline, Monarch or YNAB are stronger picks. For a head-to-head against the rest of the field, see our best budgeting apps guide.

Is Empower Safe and Legit?

Empower is generally considered safe — it uses read-only connections to financial institutions via Plaid and other aggregators and two-factor authentication. The company is registered with FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission for its wealth management services.

Read-only means Empower can see your transactions and balances but can’t initiate transfers or withdrawals. As with any aggregator, your security still depends in part on the strength of your passwords at the linked institutions. Use unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication wherever possible.

Final Verdict

Empower is the best free choice for anyone who already has both bank and investment accounts and wants to see them in one place. The investment portfolio analyzer  and retirement planner are tools that competitors only offer in paid tiers — and they’re free here.

The trade-off is a budgeting layer that’s lighter than what you’d get from a dedicated app like YNAB or Monarch. If aggressive zero-based budgeting is your priority, Empower probably isn’t the only app you’ll use. But as a financial dashboard, it’s hard to beat the value.

Realistic expectations: most users settle in after a few weeks of letting the app categorize transactions and reconcile linked accounts. Results may vary.

Empower App Review Frequently Asked Questions