The short answer
Monio or Empower?
Pick Empower if your main interest is investments: its free dashboard tracks net worth, allocation, fund fees and retirement plans. Pick Monio if your main interest is spending: what you really spent this month, with card payments, refunds and money friends pay back counted correctly, a budget set up from your own history, and a view of where the month is heading.
- Pick Monio if
- you want an accurate monthly spending number and a working budget, shared with a partner if you like.
- Pick Empower if
- you mostly want to watch investments and net worth and plan for retirement, and you'd rather not pay for the tools.
Side by side, point by point.
Best known for
- Monio
- True spending and a month-end forecast
- Empower
- Net worth, investments and retirement planning
Price
- Monio
- $7.99 a month or $80 a year, after a 7-day free trial
- Empower
- Free dashboard; paid advisory is a separate service
Where it runs
- Monio
- Any web browser: desktop, laptop or phone
- Empower
- Web, iPhone and Android
Card payments and transfers
- Monio
- YesBoth sides are paired and left out of spending
- Empower
- YesCard payments treated as transfers and kept out of cash flow
Splitting costs with friends
- Monio
- YesPaybacks lower the purchase they were for; Splitwise connects; only your share counts
- Empower
- PartlySplit up to 5 ways or tag as Reimbursable; no Splitwise
Refunds
- Monio
- YesMatched to the purchase and taken off it, in its category and month
- Empower
- NoNo refund handling described in its help pages
Card credits
- Monio
- YesTracks each card's credits, used and left, and takes each off its purchase
- Empower
- NoNo card-credit tracking
Month-end forecast
- Monio
- YesMonth-to-date and month-end views, opened by category
- Empower
- NoCash flow for this month and last; no month-end forecast
Planning a trip or big expense
- Monio
- Coming soon: price a trip or big event against your spending first
- Empower
- Retirement and Savings Planners for long-range goals
Partner access
- Monio
- YesHousehold seat for $5 a month
- Empower
- NoNo shared dashboard described in its help pages
Empower’s column was checked against its own help pages in October 2026: Tools and pricing, Card payments and cash flow, Cash flow graph, Splitting transactions, Budgeting widget, Advisory, Terms of use. Apps change, so check their website for current details.
Empower Personal Dashboard vs. Monio: different main jobs
Empower's Personal Dashboard, formerly Personal Capital, links your accounts to show net worth, cash flow, spending and retirement tools. Its strongest parts are about investing: a Retirement Planner, an Investment Checkup, a Savings Planner and a Retirement Fee Analyzer that shows the share of your earnings lost to fund fees.
Monio is built the other way around. Its main job is counting spending correctly and helping you budget. It shows your investment accounts and net worth too, but it doesn't analyze your portfolio or give investment advice. If your question is "am I on track to retire?", Empower has more to offer. If it's "what did I actually spend on food this month?", Monio is the closer fit.
How Empower and Monio count spending
Both apps keep card payments out of your spending. Empower's help pages say card payments are treated as transfers and kept out of Cash Flow, and the default cash flow view also leaves out transfers, 401k contributions, savings and securities trades. Each category has a type (Income, Expense or Transfer) that decides whether it affects budget totals. Monio pairs both sides of a card payment or a transfer between your own accounts and leaves them out.
Refunds are where they differ. Empower's help pages don't describe any refund-specific handling. Monio matches a refund to the purchase it was for and takes it off that purchase, in its category and its month. Return a $120 jacket a month after you bought it, and in Monio the jacket's month drops by $120 instead of the refund landing somewhere else.
Splitting bills and paybacks
Empower lets you split a transaction up to 5 ways across categories, and a Reimbursable tag removes a transaction from budget math. Its help pages don't mention Splitwise.
Say you paid a $200 dinner and your share was $50. In Empower, getting to your $50 means splitting or tagging the transaction yourself. Monio lowers the dinner as each friend pays you back, so it counts as $50 of spending and the paybacks aren't income. If you use Splitwise, Monio connects to it and links each bill to the card charge, so only your share counts.
Budgeting in Empower and Monio
Empower's budget is a widget that compares the last 30 days of spending with a monthly budget you set. You can create up to 30 custom categories, and rules can sort transactions automatically.
Monio gives you a budget per category, set up from up to three months of your own spending and never below fixed costs like rent. Spending in a category without a budget still counts toward your total. Monio shows month-to-date and month-end views, opened by category. Empower's cash flow view looks at this month and last month; its help pages don't describe a month-end forecast.
Empower price: free, and what pays for it
The dashboard and its tools are free, as listed on Empower's site in October 2026. Empower also sells paid advisory, a separate service for people investing $100,000 or more with them. Its terms say you may be offered a free consultation with a registered investment adviser, and the dashboard has a menu to schedule a call.
Monio Pro is $7.99 a month or $80 a year after a 7-day free trial. It is paid for by its subscription and never sells personal data.
Partners, platforms and bank connections
Empower's help pages don't describe a shared dashboard for a partner. In Monio, a household seat is $5 a month: each person keeps their own login and chooses which accounts to share, and money moved between you isn't counted as spending and income.
Empower runs on the web with iPhone and Android apps. Linking supports US institutions in US dollars, through Yodlee, and the first link pulls about 1 to 3 months of transactions depending on the bank. Monio runs in any web browser, on a desktop, laptop or phone, connects through Plaid, and asks for up to 24 months of history, depending on the bank.
Moving from Empower to Monio
On the web, Empower's help pages say to open Transactions from the Overview and click the CSV button next to the transaction search box. The file covers the date range and account tab you have selected, so pick all accounts and the longest range first. The iPhone app can export too, from the Transactions menu.
Upload the file to Monio's importer and choose Empower. Monio brings over your categories, how each store was sorted, and your past transactions; ones your bank can't supply come over as history on their own account. You connect your banks again through Plaid, review everything before it's applied, and can undo the import for 30 days. One import holds up to 8,000 transactions.
Last checked October 2026. Apps change, so check their websites for current details.
Why Monio
What Monio does well.
Spending you can trust
Card payments and transfers are left out, and refunds come off the purchase they were for, in its month.
A budget per category
A budget per category, set up from your own spending and never below fixed costs like rent.
Your share, not the whole bill
Paybacks lower the purchase they were for, and Splitwise bills count only your share.
Switching
Moving from Empower to Monio.
Bank connections can't move between apps, but your categories, how you sort each store and your past transactions can. Export a file from Empower, then upload it in Monio under Switch to Monio.
Open Empower in your browser and go to Transactions.
Choose All accounts and the longest date range.
Click the download (CSV) button above the list.
Look in Downloads for the .csv Empower saved. In Monio, choose Switch to Monio and upload it. You check everything before it's applied, and you can undo the import for 30 days.
Questions
Common questions.
What is a good Empower Personal Dashboard alternative for budgeting?
If you used Empower mostly to watch spending, look for an app with category budgets that keeps card payments and transfers out and takes refunds off the purchase. Monio does that and also counts only your share of bills split with friends.
Is the Empower app free?
Yes. Empower's site listed the Personal Dashboard and its tools as free in October 2026. Its paid advisory service is separate and aimed at people investing $100,000 or more.
Can I move my data from Empower to Monio?
Yes. Export your transactions as a CSV from Empower's Transactions page, then upload it to Monio's importer. Monio brings over your categories and past transactions, and you reconnect your banks through Plaid.
Is Empower a good budget app?
Empower is strongest on investments. Its budget widget compares your last 30 days of spending with a monthly budget you set. If you want a budget per category, Monio sets one up from your own spending.
Does Monio track investments?
Monio shows investment account balances in your net worth and counts investment contributions as savings. It doesn't analyze your portfolio or give investment advice.
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