Empower (Personal Capital) vs TrackMyStack: Free Net Worth Dashboard or Private Tracker?

The Free Dashboard With a Sales Team Attached

Empower’s net worth dashboard is free. Genuinely free. No paywall, no trial countdown, no “upgrade to see your real number.” You can link every account you own and watch your net worth update in real time without paying a cent.

The price you actually pay shows up in your call log.

Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is, fundamentally, a $1.7 trillion wealth management firm that gives away an excellent personal finance dashboard as a lead magnet. The dashboard is the demo. The product is the advisor on the other end of the phone, ready to manage anything north of $100,000 for 0.89% a year. If that math works for you, the free tools are a fair trade. If it doesn’t, you’re going to be politely declining “quick portfolio reviews” for the foreseeable future.

TrackMyStack takes the opposite stance. There’s no advisor on the other end because there is no other end. You don’t link accounts, you don’t enter a phone number, and nobody ever calls you about your portfolio allocation. The app just tracks your net worth and goes back to sleep.

Both are useful tools. They’re funded in completely different ways, and that funding model decides almost everything else about them. Let’s get into it.

Empower (Personal Capital)

Personal Capital launched in 2009 as a hybrid of a free net worth dashboard and a paid wealth management service. Empower Retirement (the 401(k) record-keeping giant) acquired it in 2020 and rebranded the consumer product to “Empower Personal Dashboard” in 2023. The dashboard itself is essentially unchanged — same widgets, same charts, same fee analyzer that politely tells you your 401(k) is being eaten alive by expense ratios.

It is, to be fair, one of the best-built free finance dashboards on the market. It’s also a sales funnel. Both things are true at once.

Empower Features

Net worth dashboard: Aggregates bank, brokerage, mortgage, credit cards, and loan accounts into a single net worth chart with history
Investment Checkup: Analyzes your asset allocation against a recommended target — and, by sheer coincidence, suggests Empower’s advisory service can fix it
Retirement Planner: Monte Carlo simulations against your goal retirement age, factoring in Social Security
Fee Analyzer: Surfaces the expense ratios you’ve been paying without noticing. This one is genuinely useful even if you never talk to an advisor.
Cash Flow & Budgeting: Automatic transaction categorization across linked accounts
Savings Planner: Tracks emergency fund, debt paydown, and retirement contributions against targets
Wealth Management (paid): Fiduciary advisor service for accounts of $100K and up, charging ~0.89% AUM and falling on a sliding scale at higher tiers
Mobile apps: iOS and Android, both maintained and well-rated
Account aggregation: Connects to thousands of US financial institutions via standard aggregator infrastructure

Empower Pricing

This is where it gets philosophical.

Personal Dashboard — Free. All the tracking, planning, and analysis tools listed above.
Wealth Management — 0.89% AUM on accounts $100K–$1M, sliding down to 0.49% at $10M+. Minimum investment: $100,000.

There is no middle tier. You’re either using the free dashboard (and getting periodic calls from an advisor) or you’ve handed over six figures to be managed. There’s no “$10/month for ad-free, no calls” option, because the calls are the business model.

Empower: Pros and Cons

Pros:

Free dashboard is one of the most polished in the category
Fee Analyzer reveals 401(k) expense ratios most people have never looked at
Retirement Planner with Monte Carlo simulations is unusually deep for a free tool
Strong mobile apps on both iOS and Android
Fiduciary advisors (if you do want managed wealth and meet the minimum)
Account aggregation covers most major US institutions

Cons:

US-only. If you live or invest outside the US, the product effectively doesn’t exist for you.
No multi-currency support — every chart is in USD
Phone number is heavily encouraged at signup, and what follows is well-documented in every “Empower review” on the internet
Account linking shares your bank credentials with a third-party aggregator
No native crypto exchange or wallet integrations
Data export options are limited and not transparently documented
The free product exists to sell the paid product. That’s not a flaw — it’s just worth knowing.

Who is Empower for?

Empower is built for US-based investors with at least a six-figure portfolio who are open to the idea of a paid advisor — or who are confident enough to use the free tools and politely decline the call. The Fee Analyzer alone is worth the signup if you have an old 401(k) you’ve never audited.

If your investing life happens entirely inside US-domiciled accounts, in USD, with traditional asset classes, and you don’t mind giving an aggregator your bank credentials, Empower’s free dashboard is hard to beat on features.

TrackMyStack

TrackMyStack is a net worth and portfolio tracker that works without linking any financial accounts. You add your assets — stocks, ETFs, crypto, real estate, cash, pensions, loans — and the app automatically tracks their market value. Everything stays on your device unless you choose to sync it.

There is no signup. You open the app and start tracking. There’s also no email field, no phone number, and no advisor on the other end of anything, because there is no other end. The business model is a $30/year optional Premium tier, paid by people who want intraday prices. That’s the entire revenue structure.

TrackMyStack Features

Unlimited portfolios and assets: Group by goal, tax bucket, household member, or pure speculation — no limits, no upsell
Automatic price tracking: End-of-day prices on Free, real-time intraday on Premium
Multi-currency: Each portfolio can use a different base currency, including BTC and ETH if you’d like to denominate your wealth in something more volatile than your retirement plan
Historical dividend tracking: Full history of dividends received per holding
Portfolio performance: Allocation breakdowns, performance comparisons across time frames, and Portfolio Vitals for quick health checks
Home-screen widgets: Native iOS and Android widgets for total net worth, daily change, and top movers
Face ID / PIN protection: Lock the app behind biometrics
Import / Export: Full data portability. Your data, your file.
Syncing without an account: Encrypted cloud backup via recovery email, QR code, or sync code — no email required to use the app, only if you want to move between devices
Web, iOS, and Android: Native apps on all platforms
Retirement age estimator: Built-in FIRE planning tool (Premium)

TrackMyStack Pricing

Free — Unlimited portfolios and assets, end-of-day prices, dividends, allocation, widgets, biometric protection, import/export, syncing
Premium — $4/month or $30/year. Adds real-time intraday prices, upcoming dividends, retirement age estimator, and priority support. One-week free trial.

The free tier is fully usable as a permanent product. There is no “but actually you need Premium for the real charts” trapdoor.

TrackMyStack: Pros and Cons

Pros:

No signup, no email, no phone number — start tracking in under a minute
No account linking, so no bank credentials shared with anyone
Works in any country and any currency, including portfolios denominated in BTC or ETH
Native iOS, Android, and web apps with home-screen widgets
Free tier is genuinely useful, not a stripped demo
Premium at $30/year, no advisor calls included

Cons:

No automatic account aggregation — you add holdings yourself; prices update automatically after that
No advisor service, fiduciary or otherwise. If you want one, you’ll need to find one separately.
No support for complex ownership structures like trusts or LLCs

Who is TrackMyStack for?

TrackMyStack is for people who want a private, complete view of their net worth without handing their bank credentials to a third party — and without becoming a sales lead in the process. It works equally well for a UK investor with ISAs and pensions, a US household tracking a few brokerage accounts, or someone holding crypto and real estate across three currencies.

If your reaction to “we’ll just need your email and phone to get started” is to close the tab, this app was built for you.

Empower vs TrackMyStack: Head-to-Head

	Empower	TrackMyStack
Primary approach	Free aggregation dashboard, paid advisory upsell	Manual entry with automatic price tracking
Price	Free dashboard; 0.89% AUM advisory ($100K min)	Free (Premium: $30/year)
Free tier	Yes, all dashboard tools	Yes, fully featured
Trial	N/A (free tier is permanent)	1-week Premium trial
Account linking	Yes, required for the dashboard to work	No — privacy by design
Asset coverage	US bank, brokerage, mortgage, loans, credit	Stocks, ETFs, crypto, real estate, cash, loans, bonds, pensions
Multi-currency	No — USD only	Yes (including BTC/ETH denominated portfolios)
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web, iOS, Android
Home-screen widgets	No	Yes (iOS and Android)
Complex structures	Limited	Unlimited flat portfolios with tags and ownership %
Advisor sharing	Built-in (it’s the business model)	No
Offline access	No	Yes
Privacy model	Aggregator-based; phone number encouraged	No accounts linked, no signup
Geographic availability	US residents only	Global
Sign-up required	Yes (email + heavily encouraged phone)	No

Is TrackMyStack a Good Empower Alternative?

Yes — for a specific kind of user.

TrackMyStack is the best choice for anyone who wants a complete view of their net worth without linking bank accounts, without giving out a phone number, and without being limited to US-domiciled assets in USD. It’s also the only realistic option in this comparison if you live outside the US.

Empower is the better choice if you specifically want automatic transaction aggregation across US accounts, you want the Fee Analyzer to audit a 401(k), and you don’t mind ignoring a few advisor calls.

The Bottom Line

Empower is a free, well-built dashboard funded by selling wealth management to the people who use it. The free tools are real. The phone calls are also real. If you have $100,000+ to invest and are open to a 0.89% fiduciary advisor, that funding model is a feature, not a bug.

TrackMyStack is a private, manual-first net worth tracker funded by a $30/year optional subscription. There’s no advisor, no aggregator, no phone number, and no upsell, because there’s nothing else to sell. You add your assets, the app tracks the prices, and you get on with your day.

Here’s the one-question test: when you signed up for the last finance app, did you give them your phone number, and have you regretted it ever since? If yes, you already know which one of these is for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Empower Personal Dashboard really free?

Yes. The dashboard, retirement planner, fee analyzer, and budgeting tools are free with no time limit. Empower funds it via the paid wealth management service it cross-sells to dashboard users.

Does TrackMyStack work outside the US?

Yes. TrackMyStack is global and supports any currency, including portfolios denominated in BTC or ETH. Empower’s personal dashboard is US-residents only.

Does TrackMyStack link to my bank like Empower does?

No. TrackMyStack is intentionally manual-entry — you add your assets and the app tracks prices automatically. No bank credentials, no aggregator, no signup.

Most users report receiving calls from Empower advisors after linking accounts, particularly if their portfolio is near or above the $100,000 advisory minimum. The phone number is optional but heavily encouraged at signup.

What’s the cheapest way to track net worth without linking bank accounts?

TrackMyStack’s free tier covers unlimited portfolios, assets, and end-of-day prices with no signup required. Premium ($30/year) adds real-time prices and a retirement age estimator.