Coastline vs Empower
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) offers a well-regarded free Retirement Planner and Monte Carlo tool — bundled with account aggregation and its wealth-management service, which means linking accounts and, often, sales outreach. Coastline is a standalone planning tool: free, no signup, no account linking, no one calling you, with the full math behind every figure.
Coastline vs Empower, feature by feature
| Coastline | Empower | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Yes | Yes |
| No signup / account-linking required | Yes | No |
| No sales / advisory outreach | Yes | Advisory-driven |
| Monte Carlo retirement projection | Yes | Yes |
| Detailed federal + state tax math | Yes | Simplified |
| Roth conversion / withdrawal-order strategy | Yes | Limited |
| Shows the exact math behind every number | Yes | No |
| Automatic account tracking / net-worth dashboard | No | Yes |
When to use Empower
Empower is genuinely useful if you want automatic account aggregation and a live net-worth dashboard, and you don’t mind linking accounts (and the advisory pitch that can follow). Its retirement projection is a nice free byproduct of that ecosystem.
When to use Coastline
Choose Coastline when you want to plan without handing over account access or contact details: detailed tax modeling, strategy comparisons, and market stress-testing, with a transparent breakdown of every calculation. It’s a tool, not a funnel to a wealth manager.
Both tools are free. This comparison is written by Coastline, so weigh it accordingly — try both and use whichever answers your question. Empower is a well-regarded tool; the differences below are about focus, not quality.
Common questions
Is Empower’s retirement planner free?
Yes, it’s free, but it requires creating an account and linking your financial accounts, and Empower may follow up about its paid wealth-management service. Coastline needs neither an account nor account-linking.
Which has better tax modeling?
Coastline models federal and state tax on withdrawals in detail and exposes the math; Empower’s projection uses more simplified tax assumptions in service of a quick, aggregated picture.
Does Coastline track my accounts automatically?
No — that’s a deliberate trade-off. Coastline stores nothing and links nothing; you enter figures by hand, which is why it needs no login or account access.