EasyFin vs Empower
Budgeting and multi-currency, without the advisory sales calls
EasyFin is an Empower Personal Dashboard alternative for people who want real budgeting, multi-currency support or access outside the United States. Empower's dashboard is free and strong at net worth and portfolio analysis, but it is US-only, reports in US dollars alone, and is funded by selling wealth management, so linking large balances tends to prompt advisor calls. EasyFin charges for the product instead and sells nothing else.
Key takeaways
- Empower's dashboard is genuinely free with no account cap or feature paywall — it is funded by selling wealth management, not by subscriptions.
- It is US-only and reports in US dollars with no conversion and no base-currency setting.
- It reports cash flow rather than offering category budgets, so it is a net worth and portfolio tool rather than a budgeting app.
- Its Retirement Planner, fee analyzer and allocation analysis are deeper than EasyFin's investment tooling and deeper than most paid apps.
What is the Empower Personal Dashboard?
Empower's Personal Dashboard — formerly Personal Capital — is a free financial aggregation tool for US investors. It links banks and brokerages, tracks net worth over time, analyses portfolio allocation, surfaces fund fees you are paying, and runs a Monte Carlo retirement projection that is better than what most paid apps offer. It is free with no account limit, no time limit and no feature paywall, because it is a customer-acquisition channel for Empower's wealth management business, which charges 0.89% of assets a year with a $100,000 minimum. Users who link large balances commonly report unsolicited calls from advisors. It is US-only, dollar-only, and does category budgeting not at all.
Is Empower a budgeting app?
Not really, and it does not claim to be. Empower reports cash flow — what came in, what went out, by category — but does not offer category budgets you set and track against, budget rollover, or a spending plan. It is a rear-view mirror rather than a steering wheel, and it is an excellent one for investment analysis. The second constraint is geographic: Empower serves the United States only and reports in US dollars with no conversion and no way to set a different base currency. The third is structural rather than functional — the product is free because your account balances are the lead. That is a fair trade for many people and a reason to look elsewhere for others, but it should be a decision rather than a surprise.
What both apps do
- Automatic bank and brokerage aggregation
- Net worth tracking over time
- Investment holdings and portfolio performance
- Automatic transaction categorization
- A genuinely free tier
Where they differ
| Feature | EasyFin | Empower |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | Subscription | Free — funded by advisory |
| Available outside the US | Yes | No |
| Multi-currency | Yes | No — USD only |
| Category budgets | Yes | Cash-flow reporting only |
| Manual transaction entry | Yes | Not documented |
| Voice transaction entry | Yes | No |
| Retirement planner | No | Yes — Monte Carlo |
| Asset allocation analysis | No | Yes |
Business model
Empower is free and monetizes by selling advisory services at 0.89% of assets a year with a $100,000 minimum. EasyFin charges $10 a month or $90 a year and sells nothing else — no advertising, no referral fees, no data sales. On a $500,000 portfolio the advisory fee would be $4,450 a year, which is the arithmetic that makes a free dashboard viable. Most Empower users never convert, and pay nothing.
Category budgets
EasyFin does category budgets with rollover — you set a figure, spending counts against it, and underspend carries to next month. Empower reports what you spent by category after the fact. If you want to plan spending rather than review it, this is the difference between the two products and it is not a matter of degree.
Multi-currency
Empower reports in US dollars only, with no per-account currency and no conversion. EasyFin holds each account in its own currency and converts into your preferred one at each transaction's own historical rate. For anyone holding money outside the US dollar, Empower has no mechanism at all.
Available outside the US
Empower is US-only. EasyFin covers the United States and Canada through Plaid and Ukraine through Monobank. As with Copilot, this ends the comparison for many readers before any feature question is reached.
Manual transaction entry
Empower does not document manual entry — the product is built around aggregated accounts. EasyFin supports manual entry and voice entry, which is what makes cash and split payments trackable. If a meaningful share of your spending is cash, an aggregation-only tool will systematically understate it.
Retirement planner
Empower's Monte Carlo retirement planner is the strongest single feature in this comparison and EasyFin has nothing like it. If retirement modelling is what you want from a finance app, Empower does it free and does it well.
Asset allocation analysis
Empower analyses portfolio allocation and identifies the fund fees you are paying, which frequently pays for itself in redirected expense ratios. EasyFin tracks holdings and values them at each transaction's own exchange rate, but does not analyse allocation or fees.
How each app handles more than one currency
Empower aggregates US accounts and reports in US dollars, with no per-account currency and no conversion layer of any kind — a foreign holding is either unlinkable or reported at whatever dollar figure the institution supplies. EasyFin attaches a currency to each account and each transaction, stores the exchange rate for the transaction's own date, and converts into your preferred currency using that stored rate. Investment holdings are valued the same way, so a portfolio held across currencies has a history that stays put.
Price
| Monthly | $10 vs $0 |
|---|---|
| Annual | $90 vs $0 |
| Free plan | Both yes — Empower's is the full product |
| Trial | EasyFin 14 days · Empower not applicable |
Empower pricing verified against the vendor's own pricing page on . Prices in USD.
Comparing $90 a year against $0 misses the point in both directions. Empower's dashboard is free with no limits and its investment tooling is deeper than EasyFin's; it costs nothing in dollars, and costs advisory outreach against your linked balances. EasyFin charges for the product and sells nothing else, and its free plan — 3 accounts, 300 transactions a month — is smaller than Empower's. The two are not really substitutes: Empower analyses a US-dollar portfolio, EasyFin budgets day-to-day spending across currencies. Plenty of people reasonably run both.
Where Empower is the better choice
Empower's dashboard is free with no account limit and its investment tooling — the Retirement Planner, fee analyzer and allocation analysis — is deeper than EasyFin's and deeper than most paid apps. If you are a US investor who wants portfolio analytics rather than budgeting, and you don't mind the advisory outreach, it is hard to beat at zero cost.
Using EasyFin alongside or instead of Empower
- Decide whether this is a replacement or an addition. If you want Empower's retirement planner and fee analysis, keep the dashboard — it is free and EasyFin does not replace it.
- Export your transaction history from Empower if you are replacing it. The dashboard provides a CSV download of transactions.
- Install EasyFin and set your preferred currency — the setting Empower has no equivalent for.
- Create accounts with the correct currency each, then import the CSV. Empower's export is dollar-denominated, so any non-USD account needs its currency set first.
- Connect banks through Plaid for US and Canadian institutions and Monobank for Ukrainian ones.
- Set category budgets with rollover — the capability Empower reports around but does not provide.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Empower's dashboard really free?
- Yes. The dashboard is free with no time limit, account cap or feature paywall. Empower monetizes by offering wealth management at 0.89% of assets a year with a $100,000 minimum, and users who link large balances commonly report unsolicited advisor calls.
- Does Empower work outside the United States?
- No. Empower is US-only and reports in US dollars with no conversion or base-currency selection. EasyFin covers the US, Canada and Ukraine, and holds accounts in multiple currencies.
- Does Empower have budgeting features?
- Not category budgets. Empower reports cash flow — what came in and went out, by category — but has no budgets you set and track against, no rollover and no spending plan. It reviews spending rather than planning it.
- Why is the Empower dashboard free?
- Because it is a customer-acquisition channel for Empower's wealth management business, which charges 0.89% of assets a year with a $100,000 minimum. Most users never convert and pay nothing; those who link large balances commonly report unsolicited advisor calls.
- Is Empower better than EasyFin for investments?
- Yes. Empower's Retirement Planner, fee analyzer and allocation analysis are deeper than EasyFin's and deeper than most paid apps, at zero cost. EasyFin tracks holdings and values them at each transaction's own exchange rate, but does not analyse allocation or fees.
- Can I use Empower and EasyFin together?
- Yes, and many people reasonably do. They are not really substitutes: Empower analyses a US-dollar portfolio, EasyFin budgets day-to-day spending across currencies. Empower costs nothing to keep alongside.
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