NetTrack Blog

Tag: personal finance apps

  • Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Empower's Personal Dashboard (the app formerly known as Personal Capital) is still one of the best free net worth trackers available. So why are so many people looking for a replacement?

    Three reasons come up again and again: the advisory sales calls that start once your linked balances cross a threshold, account sync issues that leave connections broken for days, and a dashboard that has barely evolved since the Personal Capital days. Empower is a wealth-management firm first — the free dashboard exists to find advisory clients, and it shows.

    If any of that sounds familiar, here are the best Empower alternatives in 2026, and who each one is right for.

    The best Empower alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Investment return Sales calls
    NetTrack Net worth + true investment performance Free tier; paid for unlimited accounts Flow-adjusted Never
    Monarch Money All-in-one budgeting + net worth ~$100/year Good Never
    Kubera Complex, multi-asset portfolios ~$199/year Basic Never
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year Good Never
    Empower (keep it) Free tracking, don't mind outreach Free Good Yes

    1. NetTrack — best overall replacement

    NetTrack is the closest match for what most people actually use Empower for: connecting every account, watching net worth over time, and understanding how their investments are really doing.

    It goes further than Empower on the investment side. NetTrack computes a flow-adjusted return for every account, so deposits and withdrawals don't get counted as gains or losses — a common flaw in dashboards that just chart your balance. You also get net worth attribution (a breakdown of exactly what changed your net worth each month), dividend tracking, real estate tracking, goals with projections, and synced web and mobile apps.

    And because NetTrack makes money from subscriptions — not from managing your assets — there is no advisory upsell and nobody will ever call you.

    • Best for: anyone who used Empower primarily for net worth and investment tracking
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    2. Monarch Money — best all-in-one

    If you want budgeting, goals, and net worth in a single polished app, Monarch is the strongest all-rounder, with great support for couples. The trade-off is price — there's no free tier — and its investment analytics are lighter than Empower's.

    • Best for: households that want budgeting and net worth together
    • Pricing: ~$100/year
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    3. Kubera — best for complex portfolios

    Crypto, foreign bank accounts, private equity, collectibles, real estate across countries — Kubera tracks nearly anything with a value. It's the pick for high-net-worth users with assets a mainstream aggregator can't handle, at a premium price.

    • Best for: complex, multi-currency, alternative-asset portfolios
    • Pricing: ~$199/year
    • Platforms: web-first

    4. Copilot Money — best design

    Copilot is the best-looking personal finance app on Apple platforms, with excellent transaction categorization. Net worth and investment tracking are solid but secondary to its spending focus, and there's no Android or full web experience yet.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users who care about design and spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year
    • Platforms: iOS, macOS

    When you should just stay with Empower

    Empower still makes sense if you want a completely free tool, you like its retirement planner and fee analyzer, and you genuinely don't mind declining the occasional advisory call. It's a good product — the frustrations are with the business model around it, not the dashboard itself.

    How to switch

    1. Export or screenshot your history. Empower doesn't offer a clean full export, so capture your current net worth and balances before you leave.
    2. Connect accounts in the new app. Aggregation coverage differs — connect your two or three most important institutions first and confirm they sync.
    3. Add manual assets. Recreate your home value, vehicles, and any private holdings.
    4. Run both for a month. Once the new app's numbers match reality, close out the old one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Empower Personal Dashboard still free in 2026?
    Yes. The dashboard is free; Empower monetizes it by offering wealth-management services to users with larger balances, which is where the sales outreach comes from.

    What's the best free Empower alternative?
    NetTrack's free tier covers basic net worth tracking with a limited number of connections. If you need many connected accounts for free, Empower itself is still hard to beat — the alternatives charge because subscriptions are their only revenue.

    Which Empower alternative has the best investment tracking?
    NetTrack, for one specific reason: flow-adjusted returns. Most apps show a balance chart that mixes your contributions with market performance. NetTrack separates them, so you can see how your portfolio actually performed.

    Will I get sales calls from these alternatives?
    No. NetTrack, Monarch, Kubera, and Copilot are all subscription businesses. None of them manage assets or sell advisory services.

    Ready to leave the sales calls behind? Try NetTrack free — connect your accounts and see your true net worth and investment returns in minutes.

  • Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Monarch Money became the default Mint replacement for a reason: it does budgeting, goals, and net worth in one polished app. But after its price increase, plenty of users are asking whether ~$100 a year is worth it — especially if they only use a fraction of the feature set.

    That's the key to choosing an alternative: figure out which part of Monarch you actually use. Most people fall into one of three camps — net worth and investments, hands-on budgeting, or bill management. Here's the best option for each in 2026.

    The best Monarch alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Free tier
    NetTrack Net worth + investment performance Paid for unlimited accounts Yes
    Empower Free net worth tracking Free Yes
    YNAB Zero-based budgeting ~$109/year No
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year No
    Rocket Money Bills + subscription management ~$6–12/month Limited

    1. NetTrack — best for net worth and investments

    If you open Monarch mostly to look at your net worth graph and your accounts, NetTrack does that job better — because it's the entire focus of the app.

    NetTrack connects your bank, brokerage, retirement, and credit accounts, tracks net worth with full history, and explains why it changed with month-over-month attribution. On investments it's a clear step up from Monarch: flow-adjusted returns separate market performance from your own deposits, so a month where you contributed $2,000 doesn't masquerade as a 4% gain. Dividend tracking, portfolio analytics, real estate values, goals with projections, and envelope-style budgeting round it out, on web, iOS, and Android.

    • Best for: the big-picture camp — net worth, investments, long-term progress
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts

    2. Empower Personal Dashboard — best free option

    Empower (formerly Personal Capital) remains the strongest free net worth and investment dashboard, including a good retirement planner and fee analyzer. The catch is well-known: it's run by a wealth manager, so larger balances attract advisory sales calls, and budgeting is weak.

    • Best for: free net worth tracking, if you can tolerate the outreach
    • Pricing: free

    3. YNAB — best for serious budgeters

    If Monarch's budgets never actually changed your spending, YNAB's zero-based "give every dollar a job" method probably will. It's a philosophy with software attached — more work, more results. Net worth tracking is an afterthought.

    • Best for: people who want to actively control spending
    • Pricing: ~$109/year

    4. Copilot Money — best design on Apple platforms

    Copilot has the best-designed interface in personal finance, with standout automatic categorization. It covers spending, budgets, and investments well — but it's Apple-only, so mixed-platform households should look elsewhere.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users focused on spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year

    5. Rocket Money — best for bills and subscriptions

    Rocket Money's strength is finding and cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills. As a full finance dashboard it's shallow, but as a money-saving utility it pays for itself quickly.

    • Best for: cutting recurring costs
    • Pricing: free tier; premium ~$6–12/month (choose your price)

    How to choose

    • You mostly watch net worth and investments → NetTrack
    • You want free above all → Empower
    • You need to fix your spending → YNAB
    • You're all-in on Apple and love good design → Copilot
    • Your problem is subscriptions and bills → Rocket Money
    • You genuinely use all of Monarch → stay. It's still the best all-in-one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is there a cheaper app that does everything Monarch does?
    Not really — all-in-one apps with reliable bank syncing cost money to run, so true Monarch clones price similarly. The savings come from picking a focused app that does the part you use.

    What's the best Monarch alternative for couples?
    NetTrack supports households, so partners can track combined net worth together without sharing logins. Monarch is also genuinely strong here — it's one of its best features.

    Can I switch without losing my history?
    Your transaction history generally doesn't transfer between apps, but your balances and holdings sync fresh from your institutions. Most aggregators also backfill some transaction history on first connect.

    Tracking net worth is the part that matters most. Start free with NetTrack and see your whole financial picture in one place.