Takeaways
- Empower is a personal finance services company that offers retirement services.
- Empower has over 19 million individual retail investors on its platform.
- Empower's Personal Dashboard app has budgeting and investing features.
- As of 2024, Empower had over $80 billion in assets under management (AUM).
- Empower helps personal investors, handles workplace retirement plans, and supports financial advisors.
Overall App Rating
Best for: The Empower Personal Dashboard app is perfect for anyone interested in a free investment tracking and budgeting app that packs a serious punch.
Why we like it: Empower's Personal Dashboard app has bold net worth tracking features that are immediately displayed when you open the app. You can seamlessly sync your bank and online investment accounts to the app to get an up-to-date pulse on your net worth. The app's budgeting feature helps users quickly grasp their income and expenses, and it's free.
The Empower Personal Dashboard app makes our Best of Budgeting Apps awards list for its highly intuitive design and holistic net worth tracking capabilities. With Empower, you can see all your finances in one hub. Our team thinks the desktop portal offers the best user interface, but the app is fantastic for on-the-go access. The great news is that the Empower app is free, providing a simplistic budgeting tool with a high-impact net worth tracker for cost-conscious consumers. Plus, you can upgrade to paid investment advisory services.
Take the Next Step:
Empower’s Website
Empower App
Smart Money Rating: 4.9/5
Best For: Tracking Personal Finances
Offers: Free Personal Dashboard
Managing your finances effectively starts with creating a solid budget, which is where the Empower app shines. As one of our favorite leading personal finance apps, it offers a comprehensive view of your financial life in one convenient location. With budgeting tools and comprehensive investment tracking, Empower streamlines your financial management, making you feel hyper-organized.
The Empower Personal Dashboard app is a very popular personal finance app, so we chose to review it. Users willing to rate the app really love it, giving it a 4.7 on the App Store and 3.8 on Google Play, with over a million downloads.[1][2] To review the Empower app, our team downloaded the Empower Personal Dashboard app and also tested the web-based version to see how it works and how you could benefit from Empower. Here's what we found.
What Is Empower?
Empower is a retirement services and wealth management provider and the second-largest retirement services company in the U.S. by participants. It offers a suite of financial products to help retail investors and those planning for retirement. The Empower Personal Finance Dashboard app stems from the company’s 2020 acquisition of Personal Capital.[3]
Empower has apps to assist users in managing their day-to-day budgeting and long-term investments, and is known for its user-friendly interface. These apps are handy tools for tracking spending, monitoring net worth, planning for retirement, and analyzing investment performance, making you feel comfortable with your financial management.
Unlike many basic budgeting apps, Empower focuses on your finances at a high level, making it ideal to build wealth, control your spending, and start investing. When the popular budgeting app Mint closed down in 2024, many users migrated to Empower because of its similar features and interface. Currently, Empower has 19 million individual investors.[4]
>> Need help budgeting? Try these 16 Budgeting Tips Anyone Can Follow
How Empower Works
The Empower Personal Dashboard app connects to your financial accounts, such as checking, savings, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts, automatically importing your transactions and balances. It provides insights into your spending habits, cash flow, and portfolio performance.
There are some standout features of the application, which include:
- Budgeting Tools: This tool lets you categorize expenses, set spending limits, and track cash flow.
- Investment Tracking: You can view all your investment accounts in one place, including 401(k)s, IRAs, and online brokerage accounts.
- Net Worth Calculator: This tool helps you monitor your total assets and liabilities to understand your financial health. (Plug-and-play with our Net Worth Calculator).
- Retirement Planner: You can use projections based on your current savings and spending to estimate if you are on track for retirement. (Read more about our Retirement 101 Guide).
- Fee Analyzer: If you want to identify hidden fees in your investment accounts to help optimize returns, you can use the fee analyzer. (Read more about 14 Wacky Ways to Cut Expenses).
Empower is available on desktop and mobile platforms, allowing remote access to your financial data wherever you are. Our team thinks the desktop version is easier to manage.
How Much Does Empower Cost?
We found the Empower pricing tiers quite reasonable. Empower offers two tiers of service:
- Free Financial Dashboard: Includes budgeting, net worth tracking, investment analysis, and retirement planning tools.
- Empower Advisory Services: A paid investment management service for those with portfolios over $100,000. Fees range from 0.49% to 0.89% of assets under management.[5]
Most users take advantage of the free tools, which are among the most comprehensive in the market, especially among no-cost competitors.
Pros of Empower
Empower stands above the competition for many reasons, especially for those who want to manage their net worth and budget with one app. Its comprehensive net worth view, which tracks account balances and investments in one place, keeps you informed in real time.
This app is particularly useful if you are past the basic budgeting phase. Here are some of its significant advantages:
- Net Worth Tracking: Allows you to see the whole picture, all in one place, with its net worth tracking tool. This lets you monitor your progress toward long-term goals.
- Retirement Planning: This tool provides detailed projections and personalized recommendations. You can also use it to see how you can retire early.
- Investment Analysis: Offers insights into your asset allocation, investment performance, and provides a fee analysis.
Cons of Empower
Despite its strengths, Empower may not be the perfect fit for everyone. Here are some notable drawbacks:
- Over-indexed on Investing: While it has budgeting tools, Empower is more geared toward wealth-building and investment management. (Read more about portfolio management).
- No Day-to-Day Budgeting: Lacks the detailed, hands-on budgeting approach of other budgeting apps we have reviewed, like YNAB or Quicken.
- Mobile App Issues: Like other users, our team prefers the web option due to occasional mobile app issues.
- Limited Manual Options: Empower relies on importing transactions from your financial institution. You must do this account by account if you need to import transactions.
- No Free Credit Report: Tilted more toward investment management, Empower doesn’t have a free credit monitoring service, like Quicken.
If you are looking for a highly detailed budgeting app focused solely on expense tracking, Empower might feel too broad. Consider exploring more detailed budgeting apps, which you might have to pay for.
Other Budgeting Apps
If you need more intense budgeting apps and are less concerned with investment management, here are five other budgeting apps to consider:
- YNAB (You Need A Budget) - A zero-based budgeting app that helps you assign every dollar to a job. (Read our YNAB App Review).
- Quicken - A traditional desktop-based finance tool with comprehensive budgeting, bill pay, and investment features. (Read our Quicken App Review).
- PocketGuard - Simplifies budgeting by showing how much you have left to spend after accounting for bills and goals. (Read our PocketGuard App Review).
- EveryDollar - A user-friendly, zero-based budgeting app that Ramsey Solutions developed. (Read our EveryDollar App Review).
- Honeydue - Designed for couples to manage shared expenses and track finances together. (Read our Honeydue App Review).
Smart Summary
The Empower Personal Dashboard app is an intuitive financial app that blends investment tracking with budgeting tools and retirement planning. Ideal for users who want a full picture of their financial health, Empower offers many features for free, including expense tracking, net worth monitoring, and personalized insights. While it leans more toward investment management than detailed budgeting, its comprehensive approach makes it a top choice for those focused on building wealth and achieving long-term financial goals.
Smart Money requires our expert writers to rely on trusted primary sources—academic research, government reports, expert interviews, original reporting, and peer-reviewed data—to deliver precise and up-to-date content. All of our content is thoroughly fact-checked. We also incorporate relevant research from reputable publishers when it aligns with our editorial focus. For a closer look at our rigorous journalistic standards, explore our editorial guidelines.
(1) App Store. Empower. Last Accessed May 8, 2025.
(2) Google Play. Empower. Last Accessed May 8, 2025.
(3) Empower. Empower Retirement to Acquire Personal Capital. Last Accessed May 8, 2025.
(4) Empower. Empower reports base earnings of $255M in first quarter, up 13% year over year. Last Accessed May 8, 2025.
(5) Empower. About Us. Last Accessed May 8, 2025.
