Tradune vs Empower
Empower’s free dashboard is built to show your whole financial life — accounts, budget, retirement path — by linking everything, with a paid advisory service alongside. Tradune is built for one narrower job: measuring whether your own stock picking beat SPY, without ever connecting to a bank or broker.
Checked on October 16, 2026 against Empower’s own pages · sources listed under the table.
Tradune is a fit if you pick your own stocks and want your money-weighted return measured against SPY on your own dates, with screening, risk analytics, SEC insider signals and US tax-lot reporting, and no account linking.
Not a fit if you want budgeting, cash flow, debt and retirement planning across every linked account in one free dashboard, or you are open to a managed advisory relationship — Empower covers those.
Empower — the former Personal Capital — gives away a whole-finances dashboard: net worth, budgeting and cash flow, a retirement planner and portfolio analysis, alongside a paid advisory service for larger portfolios.
| Capability | Tradune | Empower |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio tracking & P&L | Yes | Yes |
| Screener | Yes | —No |
| Price & technical alerts | Yes | —No |
| Insider & analyst signals | Yes | —No |
| Risk / VaR analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Tax-loss harvesting | Yes | —No |
| Whole-finances view: banking, budgeting, cash flow & debt | —No | Yes |
| Retirement & long-term financial planning | —No | Yes |
| Price | Free right now · no paid price set | Free tools · paid advisory from $100,000 in assets |
Capabilities & pricing reflect each product’s public plans as of October 2026. Coarse yes/no by design — verify current details on each provider’s site.
Sources for Empower, read October 16, 2026: Empower financial tools · Empower Personal Strategy · Empower tax-loss harvesting
The last 2 rows are things Empower does that Tradune does not — they are in the table because leaving them out would make the comparison flattering and wrong.
Where Empower is strong
- Genuinely free dashboard covering net worth, budgeting and cash flow
- Retirement planner and savings/debt tools that model your whole financial life
- Established US brand that connects all your accounts in one place
Where Tradune goes further
Empower is built to understand your whole balance sheet — and to introduce an advisor. Tradune is built for the single question an active stock picker has: did my own selection beat simply buying SPY? It answers that with a money-weighted XIRR against the same cash flows in the index, then adds screening, VaR/beta/drawdown, SEC insider and 13F signals and tax-loss harvesting — with no adviser attached and no brokerage login required.
Specifically, versus Empower, the gaps it closes are:
- No stock screener or backtesting among its listed free tools
- No SEC Form 4 insider-cluster or 13F tracking among its listed free tools
- Tax-loss harvesting is offered inside the paid advisory service, not the free tools
- The free tools sit next to a paid advisory service (from $100,000 invested with Empower), and they work by linking your accounts
How Empower and Tradune compute the numbers
| Question | Tradune | Empower |
|---|---|---|
| How returns are measured | Money-weighted XIRR on your dated cash flows, plus a time-weighted (TWR) base-100 curve. Under a year it shows a cumulative return and does not annualise. | Portfolio Analysis lets you “see how your portfolio performs”; the calculation method is not described on its public tools page. |
| Trade-level history | Every buy, sell, deposit, withdrawal and stock split is a dated transaction you enter or import; cost basis and returns are recomputed from them. | A Transactions tool shows “every money move you make in one place” from your linked accounts. |
| US cost basis and tax lots | FIFO, LIFO or average cost per portfolio; realized gains split short-term vs long-term, with likely wash sales flagged (same symbol bought within 30 days either side). No specific-lot selection. | Not listed among the free tools. Tax-loss harvesting is part of the paid Personal Strategy advisory service. |
| Getting holdings in | Manual entry, or a positions CSV (ticker, quantity, cost basis; up to 200 rows). No automatic broker sync and no stored credentials. | Linked accounts: “securely connect all your accounts in one place.” |
| Benchmark comparison | A SPY twin: your own cash flows replayed into SPY (dividends reinvested) on the same dates; SPY and QQQ on the TWR curve. | A benchmark comparison is not described on its public tools page. |
Money-weighted vs time-weighted return: the published method →
What does Empower’s free dashboard cover that Tradune does not?
Most of your financial life outside the stock portfolio. Empower’s tools page lists a Retirement Planner, Net Worth, Budgeting & Cash Flow, Portfolio Analysis, a Savings Planner, Debt Paydown, an Emergency Fund tool and a Transactions view, and says the dashboard and tools are completely free. Tradune has none of the budgeting, debt or retirement-planning pieces, and does not track bank accounts or net worth.
If you want a single place to see every account and a retirement path, Empower is built for that. Tradune is the narrower tool you would use next to it for the stock-picking question.
How is Empower’s advisory service related to the free tools?
They sit side by side on the same site. Empower’s Personal Strategy page lists a $100,000 minimum for its advisory services and an annual advisory fee of 0.89% for clients with $100,000 to $249,999, and its tax-loss harvesting page says that service is part of Personal Strategy (both read October 16, 2026). The free dashboard itself carries no fee.
Tradune has no advisory arm, no asset minimum and nothing to sell you beyond the software; it shows impersonal information and never recommends buying or selling a security. Free for everyone right now · no card · nothing to buy.
Frequently asked
Is Tradune a good Empower (Personal Capital) alternative?
For active stock investors, yes on the analytics: screening, portfolio risk, insider and 13F signals, benchmark-relative return and tax-loss harvesting. Empower remains the better choice if you want budgeting, retirement planning and your whole net worth in one free place.
Does Tradune try to sell me financial advice?
No. Tradune is educational analytics — it shows impersonal information and never tells you to buy or sell a security, and there is no advisory arm or asset minimum behind it.
Try Tradune free
Free for everyone right now · no card · nothing to buy. See how your own portfolio looks with 40+ analytics in one place.
This comparison is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners; capability and pricing claims reflect their public plans as of October 2026 and may have changed — verify on their sites. Tradune is not affiliated with Empower.