Who wrote this: the team that makes SIMPL, so read it knowing we sell one of the two apps. Every fact about Empower links to where we read it, on 2026-10-19. Where Empower is the better choice, we say so.

Empower vs SIMPL

Bottom line: Empower's Personal Dashboard (formerly Personal Capital) is free; the company earns from its paid wealth management. SIMPL is $199 once and has no investment tracking. Keep Empower for investments; SIMPL only makes sense if what you need is a budget.

Our read

Stay on Empower

If you use Empower for investments, retirement planning and net worth, stay: it's free, and SIMPL has no investment tracking at all. SIMPL is for the budgeting Empower isn't built for.

Can it pay for itself?

SIMPL is $199 once, about $17 a month over its first year. Its Drain Guard reads your expenses (from a linked bank, an imported statement, or ones you type in), finds the charges that repeat, and adds them up by the month. Keep or Cut then walks you through them one at a time. Cancel $17 a month of charges you'd forgotten about and SIMPL has paid for itself inside the first year.

It depends on what you find and what you cancel, so we don't promise a number.

What Empower is

People who mainly want to review their investments and retirement goals and track net worth for free. It is not built for detailed budgeting. makingsenseofcents.com

Price: The Personal Dashboard is free. The paid product is wealth management: 0.89% a year on the first $1 million, with a $100,000 minimum (NerdWallet). empower.com

Where it runs: Web, iPhone and Android. Its value comes from linked accounts.

Empower Personal Dashboard was formerly Personal Capital. fool.com

How it makes money: The free dashboard sits alongside Empower's paid wealth management. The tools page promotes Personal Strategy and Private Client advisory services, and Personal Strategy starts at more than $250,000 invested. The Motley Fool describes the dashboard's tie to Empower's advisory services and discloses referral fees of $70-$250 for each user who links at least $100,000 in investable assets. empower.com

Where Empower is strong

The dashboard and all its tools are free: net worth, budgeting and cash flow, retirement planner, portfolio analysis, savings planner, debt paydown and emergency fund. empower.com
It is well suited to reviewing investments and retirement goals, and it can reveal investment fees you might otherwise miss. makingsenseofcents.com
The Motley Fool praises the app as easy to use (4.8 stars on iOS, 4.2 on Android) and notes multi-factor authentication and AES-256 encryption. fool.com

What reviewers say it lacks

Budgeting 'isn't as detailed as other apps' and may feel too basic next to tools like YNAB. makingsenseofcents.com
'Financial advisors from Empower may reach out if you link more than $100K in assets.' The reviewer got two or three calls over the years and says you can decline. makingsenseofcents.com
Customer service is not available 24/7, there have been complaints about technical help, and the wealth-management fees are 'on the high side'. fool.com

What SIMPL is

SIMPL is a budgeting and money app you buy once for $199. It is the same money engine as the Vault inside Nexa, sold on its own.

What it does

A zero-based budget: give every dollar a job on payday, with envelopes for the irregular costs.
Savings goals, each with its own progress, and a debt payoff plan.
A subscription tracker (Drain Guard) that finds charges repeating every month and lets you Keep or Cut each one.
Receipt capture with the phone camera; receipts become expenses.
Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow, for anyone who also earns freelance or side income.
Works offline, with a Spanish interface.

What it doesn't

No investment tracking. If watching a brokerage or retirement portfolio is the job, SIMPL is the wrong tool.
Without Cloud Sync it lives on one device. Cloud Sync is optional at $4.99 a month (the first three months are included).
No hosted support desk: it is software you own and run yourself.

Who should stay on Empower

Stay if you mainly want a free view of net worth, investments and retirement, and you don't mind that the free dashboard feeds Empower's paid advisory business. Expect an advisor to reach out once you link over $100K. makingsenseofcents.com

Who SIMPL suits better

You want a working monthly budget (envelopes, goals, debt payoff), which Empower is not built for. Many people would use both.

Moving from Empower to SIMPL

Getting your data out of Empower: On the web app, go to Overview > Transactions and click the CSV button beside 'Search transactions'. The export includes only the selected date range and account-type tab; for example, 90 days on the Investment tab gives 90 days of investment transactions. The iOS app can also export transactions and a PDF of the Net Worth page, but Android cannot yet. support-personalwealth.empower.com

What SIMPL can bring in:

Bank and card transactions: CSV, OFX, QFX. In SIMPL: Bank → Import CSV.
Any other spreadsheet of spending: CSV with a date, a description and an amount. In SIMPL: Bank → Import from YNAB / Mint / CSV.

Questions people ask before switching

Can I bring my Empower data into SIMPL?

On the web app, go to Overview > Transactions and click the CSV button beside 'Search transactions'. The export includes only the selected date range and account-type tab; for example, 90 days on the Investment tab gives 90 days of investment transactions. The iOS app can also export transactions and a PDF of the Net Worth page, but Android cannot yet. SIMPL imports bank downloads (CSV, OFX or QFX) and any spreadsheet of spending with a date, a description and an amount.

Does SIMPL track investments like Empower?

No. SIMPL has no investment tracking: it covers budgets, goals, debt payoff, subscriptions, receipts and money reports. If you track a portfolio, keep a tool that does.

Do I need a subscription for SIMPL?

No. SIMPL is $199 once. Cloud Sync, which keeps it on more than one device, is optional at $4.99 a month, and the first three months come with the purchase. Without it SIMPL runs on one device and works offline.

Does SIMPL need my bank login?

No. You can bring in the files your bank lets you download (CSV, OFX or QFX). SIMPL can also connect to your bank directly if you choose to.

Is Empower cheaper than SIMPL?

The Personal Dashboard is free. The paid product is wealth management: 0.89% a year on the first $1 million, with a $100,000 minimum (NerdWallet). SIMPL is $199 once.

$199 once. No subscription.

Get SIMPL: $199

Sources

Checked 2026-10-19. Prices change; the vendor's page is the final word.