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Personal Capital is one of the most popular financial apps for Android and Apple devices. This mobile app offers a variety of useful services for cash, personal finance, and wealth management.
Truth be told, this is one of my favorite financial apps due to the number of services it offers and its user-friendly layout. But while Personal Capital is great, there are other similar apps on the market you can use to link to your favorite financial institutions — making money management a breeze along the way.
To make the selection process easier, let’s take a closer look at some leading Personal Capital alternatives to help you pick the best solution for your unique needs.
Best Personal Capital alternatives for financial management
Best for investment management: Betterment
Betterment is a leading personal finance app that offers a variety of useful services.
One of my favorite things about Betterment is that it supports investment tracking. The Betterment app can track investment accounts and lets you set custom investing and savings goals.
Betterment lets you check balances on the fly and make deposits and transfers into different financial accounts from one interface — pretty convenient if you ask me!
Betterment offers a free pricing model with access to a no-fee checking account and Visa debit card, as well as ATM fee reimbursement and FDIC insurance. It comes with a high-yield cash account offering a variable 0.10% APY, along with advice and planning tools.
In addition to the free version, Betterment also offers paid plans that charge annual fees of 0.25% ($0 minimum balance) and 0.40% ($100,000 minimum balance. For more information, check out Betterment’s pricing models.
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Best free mobile app: Mint
As a free mobile app with great functionality, Mint packs a real punch. The platform makes it easy and enjoyable to manage personal finances, giving you more control over your financial situation.
With Mint, you can manage spending, check account balances, and use a free budgeting tool. The app also provides free credit score reporting, which isn’t something you’ll find with Personal Capital.
In addition, Mint contains a useful portfolio and investment tracking service that can help you stay on top of your brokerage and retirement accounts.
One of my favorite features is its hidden fee tracker, which can report hidden fees that could otherwise go unnoticed.
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Best desktop software: Quicken
Quicken is one of the most trusted names in money management with over 30 years of experience serving over 17 million members. This financial planner enables you to perform a variety of tasks from one convenient and highly secure dashboard.
With Quicken, you can manage spending, view bills, track investments, and set personal finance goals all from one area.
The company offers several paid options including Starter, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business.
There are also two mobile apps to choose from including the Mobile Companion app, which works with Quicken’s desktop service, and the independent Simplifi by Quicken app.
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Best for building wealth: Wealthfront
Wealthfront is a nice option if you prefer a hands-off approach to investing and saving money.
The app gives you two options: It can build an investment portfolio for you or let you handle asset allocation if you’re feeling ambitious.
Once you’ve set up a portfolio, the app will automatically manage your account using a robo-advisor. A robo-advisor strategically moves funds around automatically, rebalancing your portfolio periodically to maximize earnings and reduce risk.
In addition to providing portfolio management and financial advice, Wealthfront also offers a cash account you can use to pay bills, withdraw money from ATMs, and quickly invest extra cash.
Wealthfront charges an annual advisory fee of 0.25% for all assets under management (AUM), and the fee is deducted monthly. There aren’t any fees for opening or closing an account, transferring, withdrawing, or trading. That said, there is a monthly advisory fee of $20.55 on average monthly balances of at least $100,000.
There aren’t any fees for the Wealthfront Cash Account. However, there are additional fees for the Wealthfront debit card. Read the fine print to know what you’re getting into.
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Best budgeting tool: You Need a Budget (YNAB)
YNAB cuts out all the extra noise and solely focuses on budgeting. If you want to focus exclusively on budgeting, this app is worth looking into.
YNAB also offers educational resources and a shared budgeting component so you can budget with a friend, housemate, or family member.
This app is very user-friendly and makes it easy to visualize progress with simple charts and graphics. The only catch to YNAB is the price tag: The app costs $11.99 per month, or $84 annually if you pay in one lump sum.
While some users may find it hard to justify paying that much for a budgeting app, YNAB can pay for itself over the year if you use it to save effectively.
If you’re interested in YNAB, my advice is to try the free 34-day trial. That way, you can see if you like it before you commit to spending money on it.
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Best for tracking finances: Tiller Money
Tiller Money makes it easy to view and track all your various accounts from one place.
This app uses spreadsheet-style reporting with automatic daily updates. Simply connect your accounts to Tiller and the app will pull the latest spending, transactions, and balances from your linked financial services.
There are also custom templates available for tracking net worth, paying off debt, investing, and budgeting.
Tiller Money costs $6.58 per month or $79 annually. The company is currently offering a free 30-day trial, so you don’t have to worry about forking over any money to try it.
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Best free spreadsheet service: Google Sheets
Google Sheets is the go-to solution if you’re a Google user and prefer simple spreadsheet-style budgeting.
As a word to the wise, use Google Sheets only if you have the time and dedication to keep up with daily updates. Spreadsheet-style budgeting can be a time-consuming process. Plus, you could make mistakes.
If you use Google Sheets, consider integrating an add-on like BudgetSheet which can link to your bank account and pull live transaction data. This can reduce manual work and improve accuracy — making it that much easier to accomplish your financial goals.
Best paid spreadsheet service: Excel
Excel is another powerful spreadsheet option and a top Google Sheets alternative.
Excel costs $149.99 as a standalone product, or you can pay a monthly subscription through Microsoft Office 365 ($6.99 monthly or $69.99 for the year).
Best for bill payment: Prism
Prism makes it easy to stay on top of monthly bills, bringing everything together into one central location. If you’re looking for a platform that makes it easy for you to stay on top of bills, this could be a good option.
Simply put, Prism tracks bills and sends reminders about upcoming due dates. Plus, it lets you see your income, account balances, and monthly expenses over a user-friendly dashboard.
Best of all, Prism is free to download and use, making it an excellent choice if you’re on a tight budget.
Best for reducing spending: PocketGuard
PocketGuard provides an excellent way to avoid overspending on items you don’t need — like entertainment, travel, and clothes.
This app analyzes your bank accounts and lets you see how much disposable income you have after setting aside funds for necessities.
PocketGuard also has a handy debt payoff service you can use to set up a payment strategy and stick to a set schedule. Like many other apps, this platform links to banks, credit cards, loans, and investments, giving you a bird’s-eye view of your financial situation.
The service offers three pricing options, including $7.99 per month, $79.99 per year, and $99.99 for a lifetime membership. If you like the service, I recommend splurging on the lifetime membership to save money.
Is Personal Capital a good mobile app?
Now that you have a better understanding of the various options available for mobile finance management, let’s take a deeper dive into the Personal Capital app to see how it compares.
Notably, Personal Capital launched in 2009 and the company has raised $265.3 million in total funding since then. Currently, there are about 2 million registered users on the Personal Finance app — which shows they’re doing something right.
Personal Capital financial services
Personal Capital offers a variety of financial services for customers, including a cash management tool, free personal finance tools, and premium wealth management plans.
Personal Capital Cash
Personal Capital customers can access Personal Capital Cash, which supports direct deposit for paychecks and unlimited monthly transfers. The service also links to checking accounts to help you pay monthly bills and lets you withdraw up to $100,000 per day.
Personal Capital Cash doesn’t have any fees and is accessible via mobile app.
Free financial tools
Personal Capital also has free tools to help you track and manage finances. These include a net worth tracker, savings planner, retirement planner, investment checkup, and fee analyzer, among other tools.
Wealth management
If you have at least $100,000 you want to grow and you don’t mind parting with management fees, look into Personal Capital’s wealth management and investment services.
Quite simply, wealth management provides access to dedicated financial advisors who can help you navigate real estate, stock options, and other investments. There is also the Private Client service, specifically for customers with over $1 million in investment assets.
Personal Capital also offers socially responsible investing and 401(k) management, enabling you to reach your retirement goals while supporting organizations that share your values.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Personal Capital free?
Personal Capital doesn’t charge anything to download or sign up. Pricing tends to vary depending on the services you use.
You won’t have to pay any fees to use Personal Cash or the financial tools. The company does charge for its Wealth Management services, however.
Is the Personal Capital app safe?
The Personal Capital app has AES-256 encryption, which keeps your personal financial data secure. The company also uses multiple layers of security to safeguard personal information and maintain privacy.
In short, you shouldn’t worry about using the Personal Capital app. Millions of customers trust the service and the company has an excellent reputation.
Is Personal Capital better than Mint?
It isn’t a matter of one app being better than the other. Personal Capital and Mint are different services, and both have their pros and cons.
For example, both services offer cash flow monitoring. But Mint goes above and beyond and lets you create budgets. Mint also provides recommendations for ways to save money and provides free credit monitoring.
At the same time, Personal Capital offers a great retirement tracker. And unlike Mint, there are no ads on the platform.
At the end of the day, both Personal Capital and Mint are fantastic services that offer a range of free tools to help manage personal finances. In my opinion, you should try both and see which you like better.
Who owns Personal Capital?
Personal Capital is not an independent company. Empower Retirement purchased Personal Capital from Inuit in 2020.
The Bottom Line
There’s no shortage of apps on the market that can help with financial planning. Apps like Personal Capital offer a variety of management tools you can use to reach your financial goals and become truly independent.
As a disclaimer, financial apps can only take you so far. If you want to grab hold of your financial life and start making real progress, you need to focus on building discipline and forming solid financial habits. At the end of the day, a budgeting app or income tracker can’t control spending for you. Only you can.
If you decide to use mobile apps for financial management, that’s a great thing. Just remember that it’ll still require some effort and responsibility on your part.
When you use the right financial tools and maintain discipline, you’ll be on your way to financial freedom before you know it.