Budgeting and money management apps are excellent tools to help you stay on top of your finances. Many people like Personal Capital, now Empower since it offers free personal finance tools to monitor your spending, net worth, and investments.
However, there are several Personal Capital alternatives that can be a better fit if you want help with a specific task. Whether you need assistance with budgeting, banking, or something else, these platforms are worth considering.
6 Best Personal Capital Alternatives
Empower is one of the best free financial tracking tools if you want to monitor your net worth and total monthly spending.
However, the app lacks powerful budgeting capabilities if you need to set spending limits for specific expenses. As a preview, here’s how the platform compares against its competitors.
These are the top apps like Personal Capital that can help you manage your money.
1. YNAB
You Need a Budget (YNAB) is the most extensive budget app. It walks you through numerous spending categories that lead to budgeting mistakes since they are easy to overlook.
For instance, how much do you set aside monthly for vehicle maintenance or other inevitable yet infrequent expenses?
The app’s primary goal is to help you pay this month’s bills with last month’s income so that you are no longer living paycheck to paycheck.
To accomplish this, you will use a zero-based budgeting method that allocates each dollar you earn to pay for a specific expense and prevent overspending.
After you create a spending plan, you link your financial accounts to track your income and expenses in real-time.
The service will automatically categorize your transactions and find ways to save more money as your spending habits improve.
Customizable reports make it easy to compare your planned vs. actual spending. You can also track your net worth and use loan planner calculators to plan short-term and long-term goals.
Additionally, you can sync multiple devices so your partner can view the same details. YNAB is compatible with computers, phones, and smartwatches.
This is similar to EveryDollar, the free budgeting app from Dave Ramsey. Read our EveryDollar vs. YNAB analysis to learn more.
Read our guide on the best YNAB alternatives to learn more about the platform and how it compares to other money management apps.
How Much Does YNAB Cost?
After a 34-day free trial, YNAB costs $99 annually or $14.95 monthly.
College students can enjoy a free 12-month membership.
2. Tiller
Consider Tiller if you prefer customizable spreadsheet budgets using Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. In addition to the standard budget, you can create several different budgets to find the best way to manage your money.
Unlike most spreadsheets that require manually inputting your transactions, this online budgeting service will sync your data from a linked bank account and credit cards.
The service imports your income and withdrawals into the Foundational Template. You can create different sheets for various budgeting strategies and money metrics from this starting point.
Some of the possibilities include:
- Account balances
- Cash flow forecast
- Debt payoff
- Monthly budget
- Net worth
- Retirement planning
- Side hustle income
- Spending categories
- Yearly budget
Unfortunately, this service doesn’t offer bill payment reminders or investment tracking. It also doesn’t have a mobile app. You’ll need to access it from a computer or tablet web browser.
You can also access your data from the Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel phone app.
How Much Does Tiller Cost?
Tiller is free for 30 days and then costs $79 per year. The monthly price is approximately $6.58, but you must pay for the annual membership upfront.
3. Simplifi by Quicken
Simplifi by Quicken is a separate platform from the longstanding Quicken money management program. It can be more affordable and is accessible by mobile app or web platform.
You can add your financial accounts and loans to view your new transactions in the same place.
The app lets you build a value-based spending plan to assign spending targets for your most important expenses while omitting others.
Simplifi by Quicken is a suitable replacement for Empower since you can import your existing data as a CSV file.
This budgeting tool can also perform these features:
- Automatic reports for income, expenses, net worth, and savings
- Bill payment tracking
- Cash flow projections
- Download and customize transactions
- Savings goals
- Track shopping refunds
Consider this app if you don’t want to use a traditional category-based budget or if you desire more flexibility. Simultaneously, you’ll have several hands-on ways to track your spending and predict your financial future.
How Much Does Simplifi by Quicken Cost?
After a free 30-day trial, you can pay $5.99 monthly or $47.88 annually (which equates to $3.99 monthly).
Read our Simplifi review to learn more.
4. SoFi
SoFi satisfies several financial needs, including banking accounts, budgeting, and investing. In fact, it offers more features than most apps like Empower. You can also enjoy various services for free.
The platform’s budgeting and saving app lets you create a monthly spending target in its Relay platform. It will also analyze your expenses by category and compare your spending trends to identify ways to save money every month.
Sofi’s budgeting capabilities are similar to Empower and are ideal for verifying that you spend less than you earn.
You can also receive free credit score insights and view your linked account balances on your member dashboard.
There are even recommendations for other SoFi products, such as loans and banking products, that are optional to apply for.
In addition to being a budget app, you can select a self-directed or automated investing account with no service fees. With Empower, you must invest at least $100,000 to unlock this feature.
Another reason to consider joining this platform is to use the SoFi Checking and Savings account. This federally-insured banking account offers these perks:
- No account fees
- Earn a high interest rate on deposits
- Receive direct deposits up to two days early
- Over 55,000 fee-free ATMs
Merging your finances into one platform can make it easier to stick to your budget. You also won’t have to worry about downloading transactions from external accounts or receiving an inaccurate financial assessment.
How Much Does SoFi Cost?
SoFi’s banking, budgeting, and credit insight tools are free. However, you will pay interest if you apply for a SoFi loan.
5. Betterment
If having an automated investing account is your main priority, Betterment is the best Empower alternative since you can open an account with $0.
After setting up your investment plan, the minimum initial investment is $10.
The service offers several different investment options for taxable and retirement accounts, including:
- Core Portfolio: Personalized portfolio of stock and bond index ETFs suitable for your age, investing goals, and risk tolerance.
- Income: Conservative, risk-averse investors can pursue an income-focused bond asset allocation.
- Socially responsible: ESG, climate impact, and social impact-friendly allocations.
- Stocks and Bonds: Build a portfolio that seeks to outperform the market over the long term.
Betterment will automatically rebalance your portfolio and can employ tax-loss harvesting to minimize your taxable investment gains.
In addition to managed investment accounts, your all-in-one dashboard monitors the account balances for your bank’s external investment accounts.
The service even lets you create savings goals and craft a retirement savings plan. However, you cannot make a category-based budget or implement envelope budgeting.
When you need expert help, the investing app offers a one-time financial advice package from licensed advisors.
With a minimum $100,000 account balance, you can upgrade to the Premium account. This gives you unlimited calls and emails with certified financial planners.
In addition to the investing and financial planning tools, Betterment also offers FDIC-insured checking and cash management accounts at no extra cost.
Read our Betterment review to learn more.
How Much Does Betterment Cost?
Betterment has three different pricing tiers, including:
- Free: Offers checking and Cash Reserve accounts only. The planning tools are available with this option as well.
- Digital: The entry-level investing plan costs 0.25 percent of the investment portfolio value. There are no account minimums.
- Premium: This plan incurs a 0.40 percent annual management fee on investments and requires a minimum $100,000 balance.
If you invest through Betterment, you will also pay index ETF expense ratios. These are usually 0.20 percent or lower and competitive with similar robo-advisors.
One-time financial advice packages cost $299 for a 45-minute session and $399 for 60 minutes. Read our guide on the best alternatives to Betterment if the service doesn’t work for you.
6. Rocket Money
Rocket Money (formerly TrueBill) offers free and premium financial planning tools.
The Lite edition is free. It is the best option if you want to track spending within your linked bank accounts and only need two budget categories.
You can also track your net worth, receive spending insights, get low-balance alerts, and request automatic bill negotiation and cancellation.
Upgrading to Rocket Money Premium can be worth it if you want full control of your finances.
Paid members receive these benefits:
- Unlimited budgets: Create different spending plans for personal and business purposes. You can create unlimited categories within each budget.
- Customized categories: Make personalized income and expense line items.
- Smart Savings Accounts: Create multiple FDIC-insured savings accounts and save money by scheduling automated transfers from a linked spending account.
- Real-time account syncing: The balances for your linked accounts update each time you log into your account instead of on daily or weekly.
- Credit reports: Review your updated credit report each month. In comparison, free users only see their credit score.
Being able to create unlimited customizable budget categories can make this platform an excellent candidate for the cash envelope system.
You can set monthly spending thresholds and categorize your transactions to know precisely how much you’re spending.
All users also enjoy convenient access to the bill negotiation service. It can try to apply discounts and reduce your rate for recurring subscriptions like cable TV and cell phone plans.
It’s free to start a negotiation, and you only pay for successful bill reductions.
Unfortunately, this platform is mobile-only and doesn’t support web browser access from computers.
Read our Rocket Money review to learn more.
How Much Does Rocket Money Cost?
Rocket Money offers a free trial for the first seven days to test the premium features. After that, you can pay a monthly or annual fee within a “pay what’s fair” price range:
- Monthly: $4.99 to $11.99
- Yearly: $35.99 or $47.99
If you’re confident you will use the service for the next year, paying the lump sum upfront saves you money since you can spend as little as $3 per month.
This annual fee is also cheaper than many budget apps, although it can have fewer features compared to other services.
Rocket Mortgage customers could be eligible for free membership during their repayment period.
If you continue with the free Lite version after the trial period concludes, there are no fees.
One optional fee for all users is bill negotiation and cancellation. The success fee is your choice, ranging from 30 percent to 60 percent of the annual savings.
A one-time fee applies if you request the service to cancel a subscription on your behalf.
Our Methodology
Choosing the best online money management software for your budgeting and investing needs is essential if you want to be more effective in mapping out your short-term and long-term financial priorities.
We took several factors into consideration when grading each platform’s budget tools and additional money management features. These include:
Can you use the app for more than budgeting? The Empower alternatives offer impressive budgeting features. They make evaluating your complete financial picture easy by linking to your financial accounts and producing detailed reports. Plus, they can help you save money.
Can you try the service for free? Most premium platforms offer a risk-free trial period of up to 34 days to determine if their tools can help improve your finances. Apps with a lengthy free trial or a customer satisfaction guarantee rate higher.
Does the app offer bank-level security? Protecting your personal data is vital in a world full of scams. The apps on this list provide bank-level security and two-factor authentication.
Is the app easy to use? Having access to a budget app with lots of features but a confusing interface is frustrating. Apps that provide hands-on customer support and are compatible with multiple devices, including web browsers, rank higher.
While many of these apps can help you effortlessly track your spending and plan for other money goals, you should perform your due diligence to find the right one for your needs.
All of the apps on our list are fantastic tools, you just need to choose one that works for you.
For further information on where to begin, read our guide on how to make a budget spreadsheet to learn where to start.
Bottom Line
Managing your money wisely is vital to long-term financial success. Personal finance apps are a terrific resource to simplify the process. However, not all platforms are equal.
When considering these alternatives to Empower, find one that will give you the most holistic view of your finances. With a little effort, you can streamline your money management so that you can focus on other things.
What’s most important to you in a budgeting app?
Josh uses his personal experience of paying off over $130,000 in personal debt and changing careers to write about saving money, investing, and paying off debt. He has regularly written for notable outlets including Wallet Hacks, Well Kept Wallet, and Debt Roundup.
Josh was previously an operations supervisor for a Fortune 500 company for seven years. He is married with three small children.
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