FinTrack vs. Empower — daily expense tracking vs. wealth and investment management

Last updated May 2026 · Prices may change

What is Empower?

Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is a free financial dashboard designed primarily for investment and wealth tracking. You connect your bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and retirement accounts, and Empower aggregates them into a net worth overview with portfolio analysis tools. Its standout features include investment portfolio fee analysis, retirement planning calculators, and asset allocation tracking. Empower is best-in-class for people who want to monitor their investment portfolio and plan for retirement. It is free to use; Empower makes money by offering paid wealth management advisory services. Bank and investment account connections are required to use the dashboard meaningfully.

What is FinTrack?

FinTrack is a daily expense and budget tracking tool. It's built for understanding where your money goes each month: logging income and expenses manually, tracking recurring bills and their due dates, and seeing your projected month-end balance. It does not track investment accounts or analyze your portfolio. FinTrack is for spending awareness — not wealth management. No bank connection is ever required. Free tier available with no card. Pro is $99.99/year or $11.99/month.

Feature comparison

FeatureFinTrackEmpower
PriceFree tier; Pro $99.99/yrFree
Bank connection requiredNeverYes — required
Primary focusDaily expense trackingInvestment & net worth tracking
Expense / budget trackingYes — core featureBasic, secondary to investments
Investment portfolio trackingNoYes — best-in-class
Retirement planning toolsNoYes
Net worth dashboardNoYes
Projected monthly balanceYes, built inLimited
Recurring bill trackerYesLimited
PrivacyNo bank credentials everBank & investment OAuth required
Revenue modelSubscriptionFree (upsells advisory services)

Choose FinTrack if…

  • 1Your goal is understanding daily spending and managing your monthly budget. FinTrack is purpose-built for expense awareness, not investment dashboards.
  • 2Privacy is a priority. FinTrack never connects to any financial account. Your spending data stays with you.
  • 3You want a projected month-end balance that accounts for upcoming bills. This is FinTrack's core feature — Empower doesn't do this well.
  • 4You don't have significant investments to track yet, or you manage those separately. FinTrack handles the day-to-day spending picture without requiring portfolio data.

Choose Empower if…

  • 1Investment portfolio tracking is your primary financial goal. Empower's fee analysis, allocation tracking, and retirement calculators are genuinely best-in-class — and free.
  • 2You want a net worth dashboard that aggregates all your accounts in one place. Empower pulls in bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts automatically.
  • 3Retirement planning is a priority. Empower's retirement planner lets you model scenarios based on real account data.
  • 4You're already comfortable with bank and investment account connections and want the convenience of automatic aggregation.

The fundamental difference

These are genuinely different tools solving different problems. Empower is a wealth and investment management dashboard. If you have investment accounts, a 401(k), or IRAs you want to monitor and analyze, Empower is an excellent free tool. Its expense tracking is secondary — a feature, not the focus.

FinTrack is a daily spending awareness tool. It doesn't track investments, and it doesn't pretend to. If you want to understand what you spent this month, what bills are coming up, and where your balance will land, FinTrack does that well — without any account connections. Many people use both: Empower for the investment picture, FinTrack for daily spending clarity.

Try FinTrack free — no bank link, no card

Start in two minutes. Log your first transaction and see your dashboard immediately.

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