Empower Alternative — Prism vs Empower
Updated 2026-05-10. A practical comparison for people deciding between Empower (formerly Personal Capital) and Prism.
Short version: Empower is the right choice if your entire portfolio sits at US institutions and you want automatic bank-syncing. Prism is the right choice if you hold assets across countries or currencies, prefer not to share bank credentials, or want a free tool with no advisor upsells.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Prism | Empower |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no premium tier | Free dashboard; paid advisory 0.49–0.89% |
| Bank connection | Not required (manual entry) | Required (Yodlee/Plaid) |
| Geography | Global (8 currencies) | United States only |
| Currencies | USD, CNY, AUD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, HKD | USD only |
| Real estate / vehicles | First-class with mortgage tracking | Manual valuation only |
| FIRE calculator | Built-in (FI Number, Coast FI, what-if) | Retirement Planner (different framing) |
| Advisor calls / sales | None | Periodic prompts |
| UI languages | 9 | English |
When Empower wins
- Your assets are 100% at US banks and brokerages (Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.).
- You want transactions to import automatically.
- You want fee analysis and tax-aware planning baked into the tool.
- You're comfortable sharing bank credentials and don't mind advisor outreach.
When Prism wins
- You hold assets across multiple currencies — for example US stocks plus AUD super, HKD cash, or CNY equities.
- You want to avoid storing bank credentials with any third party.
- You want a clean FIRE calculator with Coast FI and what-if scenarios on the same page as your portfolio.
- You want a UI in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, or Portuguese.
- You want a tracker that costs nothing and never tries to sell you advisory services.
Frequently asked questions
Is Empower (Personal Capital) free?
Empower's net worth dashboard and Retirement Planner are free to use. Empower also offers paid wealth management at roughly 0.49–0.89% annual fees on assets under management, which is the company's primary revenue source. Free users see periodic prompts to schedule advisor calls.
Does Empower work outside the United States?
No. Empower's account aggregation is built on US bank and brokerage data networks (primarily Yodlee). It does not support Australian, Canadian, UK, European, Hong Kong, mainland China, or Japanese institutions. International users typically cannot link accounts at all.
Why would someone choose Prism instead of Empower?
Three reasons: (1) Prism supports eight currencies natively and works for non-US portfolios; (2) Prism never asks for bank credentials, so there is no Plaid or Yodlee credential-storage risk; (3) Prism is fully free with no advisor sales prompts and no paid tier.
Why would someone choose Empower instead of Prism?
If your entire portfolio is held at US institutions and you want automatic transaction sync, Empower's bank-linking is faster than Prism's manual entry. Empower also has tax-aware features and a more developed retirement planner — Prism is intentionally simpler.
Try Prism free
No bank linking. Eight currencies. Set up in under 90 seconds.
Get started free →Curious how Prism calculates net worth and FI? Read the methodology.