Since Mint shut down, the personal finance app landscape has effectively split in two. On one side you have budgeting-first tools built for day-to-day money management. On the other, wealth-tracking platforms optimized for people whose net worth lives mostly in brokerage and retirement accounts.
Monarch Money and Personal Capital sit on opposite ends of that split, and both get recommended as "the Mint replacement." They aren't the same product. Picking the wrong one means paying for features you'll never use — or worse, using a free tool that quietly turns you into the product.
Why This Comparison Matters
Most head-to-head reviews treat these as interchangeable. They aren't. Monarch Money is a subscription budgeting app with investment tracking bolted on. Personal Capital (now branded as Empower Personal Dashboard after the Empower acquisition) is a free investment analytics tool that funnels qualified users into a paid wealth management service.
The business models tell you everything about the product priorities. Monarch charges you $99/year and owes you a good app. Personal Capital gives you the app free and owes its actual customer — the wealth management arm — a steady flow of leads with $100K+ in investable assets.
Feature Comparison Table
| Feature | Monarch Money | Personal Capital |
|---|---|---|
| Core price | $14.99/mo or $99.99/yr | Free |
| Budgeting | Full — categories, rollover, goals | Basic cash flow only |
| Investment tracking | Surface-level | Deep — allocation, fees, retirement |
| Net worth dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Fee analyzer | No | Yes — flagship feature |
| Retirement planner | Goals only | Monte Carlo simulations |
| Partner / couples mode | Yes — best in class | No shared access |
| Manual accounts | Yes | Limited |
| Sales calls | None | Yes, if assets qualify |
| Data monetization | None — pure subscription | Lead generation for advisors |
| Ads | None | None (but expect calls) |
Pricing Comparison
Monarch Money runs $14.99/month or $99.99/year — annual works out to about $8.33/month, roughly a 44% discount. There's a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. No free tier. You pay to use it or you don't use it.
Personal Capital is free forever for the dashboard, investment analysis, fee analyzer, and retirement planner. The paid tier is their Wealth Management service, which requires a $100,000 minimum in investable assets and charges roughly 0.49% to 0.89% annually depending on balance. That's not a subscription — that's an advisor relationship.
The honest framing: Monarch's $99/year is your total cost. Personal Capital's cost is either $0 (if you ignore the sales outreach) or thousands per year in advisory fees if you convert.
Use Case Scenarios
Pick Monarch Money if:
- You want a Mint replacement that actually replaces Mint's budgeting features
- You share finances with a partner and need real collaboration, not shared logins
- You care about not being marketed to and are willing to pay for that
- Your investments are mostly index funds in a 401(k) and you don't need portfolio-level analytics
- You want clean UI and active product development
Pick Personal Capital if:
- You have $100K+ in taxable brokerage or retirement accounts you want to analyze
- You're primarily tracking net worth and asset allocation, not spending
- You want to know what fees your funds are actually charging you (the fee analyzer is genuinely good)
- You're comfortable ignoring the occasional sales call from an Empower advisor
- You already have budgeting handled elsewhere (YNAB, a spreadsheet, or nothing)
Use both if:
- You have significant investable assets AND want serious budgeting
- The $99/year for Monarch is a rounding error against your portfolio
- You want the fee analyzer and retirement Monte Carlo from Personal Capital without giving up Monarch's budgeting
This combo is more common than you'd think. The tools barely overlap.
Verdict
For most households under ~$250K net worth: Monarch Money wins. Budgeting is the higher-frequency use case for people still building wealth, the couples features are legitimately best-in-class, and the subscription model means the product works for you instead of monetizing you.
For investors with meaningful portfolios who don't need budgeting help: Personal Capital wins on features alone. The fee analyzer has saved people more than Monarch's annual subscription costs. Just know the free product exists to source wealth management leads, and set your expectations accordingly.
Overall winner on product quality: Monarch Money. It's the better-built app, updated more actively, and doesn't have a conflict of interest baked into the business model. The Empower acquisition has raised legitimate questions about Personal Capital's product roadmap, and the app has felt increasingly stagnant since.
Overall winner on price: Personal Capital, obviously — free beats $99/year if the free tool covers what you need. It usually doesn't for budgeting.
Both are rated 7.8 on our scale, which reflects that they're good at different things. The right question isn't "which is better" — it's "which problem am I trying to solve."