Honest comparison
WealthWatch vs Empower: free US tracker vs multi-jurisdiction
Empower (the rebrand of Personal Capital after the 2020 acquisition) is the most-used free portfolio tracker in the US. Strong on US accounts, weak on Canadian / UK / Australian wrappers. Here's how WealthWatch compares.
| Feature | WealthWatch | Empower (Personal Capital) |
|---|---|---|
| US account support | Via Plaid | Native (Yodlee) |
| Multi-country tax support | Yes (CA/US/UK/AU) | US only |
| Contribution-room tracking | TFSA/RRSP/IRA/ISA/Super | IRA/401k only |
| Wealth-management upsell | No | Yes — advisor calls |
| Options tools | ||
| Cross-border filer support | ||
| Base price | Free · $5/mo Pro | Free (sells advisory) |
Where Empower (Personal Capital) wins
- •Empower has excellent US account coverage via Yodlee — more reliable than Plaid for some US brokers.
- •The retirement planner is mature, with millions of data points behind the projections.
- •Free version is feature-complete for basic US tracking; WealthWatch keeps some advanced features as Pro.
- •iOS / Android apps are very polished after a decade of refinement.
Where WealthWatch wins
- WealthWatch is multi-jurisdiction: TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, ISA, SIPP, Super, plus US wrappers, all natively supported. Empower treats non-US wrappers as "other" or ignores them.
- Tax features per country: ACB / superficial-loss (CA), wash-sale (US), CGT exempt amount (UK), 50% CGT discount (AU), franking credits (AU). Empower has US-only tax tooling.
- Empower's business model is selling wealth-management services ($30B+ AUM). WealthWatch has zero advisory upsell — we just ship software.
- Options tools, FIRE calculator with country-specific government benefits (CPP / Social Security / UK State Pension / AU Age Pension), AI Trade Ideas — none of which Empower offers.
- Privacy: we don't share your data with financial-services partners. Empower's model does.