Disclosure: VaultFlow is ours. Empower is not, and we have no deal with its makers. Both get the same four fields below, including their drawbacks.
Short answer
For retirement planning on top of a free net worth dashboard, Empower is hard to beat — it links your accounts to do it. For a free net worth, budget and bills app that never asks for a login, pick VaultFlow.
The Empower app includes the free Empower Dashboard — the tool many people still know as Personal Capital. It links your accounts to show them in one place, plans for retirement, compares scenarios, simulates recessions and checks your allocation. Its maker, Empower, also offers advisory services for a fee.
VaultFlow is a free net worth app without the links: accounts, credit cards, investments with live prices, your home and loans, entered or imported from statement files, and kept on your device.
Pick VaultFlow if
- You don’t want to link your accounts
- You want bills and a monthly budget next to your net worth
- You don’t want a financial company’s app
Pick Empower if
- You want retirement planning and what-if scenarios
- You want accounts updated automatically
- You may want professional advice
Side by side
| VaultFlow (ours) | Empower | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — no subscription | Free dashboard; advisory services for a fee |
| Account needed | None | An Empower account |
| Getting data in | Import your bank’s statement file (CSV, OFX or QFX — duplicates skipped), describe your money in plain words, or add it yourself | Link your accounts |
| Net worth | Accounts, any number of credit cards, investments with live prices, your home, loans and goals | All accounts in one place, allocation checks |
| Planning | Goals with progress and how much to save a month; no retirement projections | Retirement planning, scenarios and recession simulation |
| Budgets | A budget and a colour on each category; refunds lower spending instead of counting as income | Set and track budgets |
The two apps in detail
VaultFlow
Ours
- Best for
- People who want their whole net worth in one place without giving an app their bank login
- Highlights
- Assets, debts, property and investments in one net worth, with live prices for holdings
- Import the CSV, OFX or QFX statement your bank already gives you — duplicates skipped
- Or let ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini do the typing with ready-made prompts
- No bank login and no account; your data stays on your device and exports any time as a spreadsheet
- Pricing
- Free
- Watch out
- There is no automatic bank sync — to update, you import the statement file your bank lets you download (CSV, OFX or QFX) or add numbers yourself. It doesn’t sync between devices yet, needs iOS 26.2 or later, and runs on iPhone and iPad only.
Empower
- Best for
- People who want retirement planning on top of a linked net worth view
- Highlights
- The free Empower Dashboard: all your accounts in one place
- Retirement planning, scenarios and recession simulation
- Allocation checks and budgets
- Pricing
- Free dashboard; advisory services for a fee
- Watch out
- It is a retirement-first app from a financial company that also sells advice, and it works by linking your accounts.
The real difference: planning with links, or tracking without them
Empower’s free dashboard is really a planning tool: link everything and it projects your retirement. If that’s the question you’re asking, it answers it well.
VaultFlow answers today’s questions — what you have, what you owe, what’s due, where the money went — without linking anything, and without anyone to sell you advice.
Other options
Want more than two options? Free Empower Alternatives (No Bank Login) compares 6 apps.
Every app of this kind we have compared is in the best net worth tracker apps for iPhone.
Common questions
Is the Empower Personal Dashboard free?
Yes — the Empower Dashboard is free. Advisory services from Empower are charged as a fee.
What happened to Personal Capital?
Personal Capital’s dashboard is now the Empower Dashboard, inside the Empower app.
What is a net worth app that doesn’t link accounts?
VaultFlow. You add accounts, property and debts yourself or import statement files, and it stays on your device.
Does VaultFlow do retirement planning?
No. It tracks goals and how much to save each month, not retirement projections.
App Store listings checked on 29 September 2026. Prices change — each entry describes how an app is paid for rather than a number that goes stale.
Published · No affiliate links
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