Alternatives
Empower alternative
Empower's Personal Dashboard is free, so this is not an argument about price. It is about two things: account linking that supports US institutions only, and a free tracker whose job is to introduce you to a managed-portfolio service. NetWorthTrackr is free with no advisory arm, works identically in every country because nothing connects, and covers 31 currencies.
If you are outside the United States
This is the whole decision for most people who search for an Empower alternative. Empower's own support documentation is unambiguous: “we currently only support U.S based financial institutions (currency in USD) for accounts you can link to your dashboard”, and separately, “for security reasons, you will need a valid U.S. phone number to sign up”. International accounts can still be tracked, but only as manual entries. Confirmed 17 August 2026.
So a non-US user ends up typing in most of their balance sheet anyway — while using a product designed around automatic syncing, built for a market they are not in, in a base currency that may not be theirs. The automation you came for does not apply to your accounts.
NetWorthTrackr has no institution list, because it connects to nothing. A bank in Pune, a pension in Rotterdam and a brokerage in Singapore are tracked exactly alike, each in its own currency, and the total converts nightly at European Central Bank reference rates into whichever of the 31 you choose as your base.
What a free tracker is for
Empower does two different things under one brand. The Personal Dashboard — net worth tracking, retirement planner, fee analyzer — is free. Separately, Empower manages money for a fee, published as a sliding rate from 0.89% of the first million down to 0.49% above ten million.
Their paid advisory service — not the free dashboard
What 0.89% a year is in money
Empower advisory
0.89% of assets, every year
Fee in year one
$6,675
NetWorthTrackr
No advisory arm, no assets under management
Fee in year one
$0
Empower's dashboard is free — this is the managed-portfolio service it exists to introduce you to, and only applies if you take it. Rate read from empower.com on 17 August 2026; their published rate falls on larger portfolios. We are not an adviser and cannot tell you whether advice is worth paying for.
That is a legitimate business, and plenty of people are glad to pay for advice. But it explains the shape of the free product: a dashboard that knows your complete financial position is an extremely good way to identify who is worth calling. Many people use the free tier for years and never upgrade — and some find the contact more persistent than they expected.
We have no advisory arm, manage no money, and sell no data, which means there is nobody here with a reason to call you. It also means we make nothing from you at all, which you are entitled to weigh as a risk in the other direction.
What Empower does better
Where Empower wins
- Balances update themselves from linked US accounts
- Retirement planner with scenario modelling
- Fee analyzer across linked investment accounts
- Long-established, very large user base
Free, if your accounts are US-based.
Where we win
- Any country, any institution — nothing connects
- 31 currencies at ECB rates, converted nightly
- No bank credential requested or stored, ever
- No advisory service, so no sales call
The trade is real: you type the balances.
If your money is in US institutions and you want it updated without typing, Empower is a strong free product and this page is not going to talk you out of it. Their retirement planner is better than anything we offer, and the fee analyzer is genuinely useful.
Who should switch and who should not
Switch if you hold accounts outside the US, if you do not have a US phone number, if you hold several currencies, or if you would rather no product had your bank credentials and your phone number at the same time.
Stay if your accounts are all US-based, you value automatic syncing above manual control, and you want the retirement planning tools. Being pitched an advisory service is a fair price for a capable free product if you are comfortable saying no.
You can also run both. Nothing here connects to anything, so keeping a NetWorthTrackr ledger alongside a linked dashboard costs you only the typing — and it is the only one of the two that will still show your full picture when you move country.
NetWorthTrackr versus Empower Personal Dashboard
| NetWorthTrackr | Empower | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Dashboard free; advisory 0.49–0.89% of assets |
| Bank credentials | Never requested | Required to link accounts |
| Country coverage | Any — nothing connects | US institutions only, in USD |
| Sign-up requirement | An email address | A valid US phone number |
| Currencies | 31, ECB reference rates | USD-centric |
| Balances update | You enter them | Automatically, for linked US accounts |
| Retirement planning | Net worth history and projections | Dedicated planner, stronger |
| Sales contact | None — no advisory arm | Advisory service may make contact |
For someone with US accounts who wants automatic syncing and a serious retirement planner, Empower is free and hard to beat — take it. For everyone else the free dashboard is aimed at a market they are not in, and the automation does not reach their accounts. That is the group this page is for, and for them a manual tracker is not a downgrade but the only thing that actually works.
Common questions
Yes. The dashboard, including net worth tracking, the retirement planner and the fee analyzer, is free. Empower also runs a separate paid wealth management service charging roughly 0.89% of assets on the first million, falling to 0.49% above ten million. The free dashboard is how people find that service.
You can open the dashboard anywhere, but Empower’s support documentation states they “currently only support U.S based financial institutions (currency in USD)” for linked accounts, and that “you will need a valid U.S. phone number to sign up”. International accounts can be tracked manually. Confirmed August 2026 — check with Empower, as this can change.
One that does not rely on bank connections at all, since no aggregator covers every country well. NetWorthTrackr is free, asks for no bank credentials, and treats every institution the same because it connects to none — with 31 currencies converted nightly at ECB reference rates.
No. There is no advisory arm, no assets under management and no data sold, so nobody here has a reason to call you. We are also not licensed to give financial advice and do not.
For bank and property values, yes — you enter those yourself. Market-priced holdings still update automatically: stocks, ETFs and crypto are priced from public market data across US, EU, UK, German and Indian exchanges.
Yes, and some people do. Because nothing here connects to anything, running a NetWorthTrackr ledger alongside a linked dashboard costs only the typing — and it keeps working if you move country.