Ignyq vs Empower

Empower's dashboard is free. Ignyq costs money. That difference is the whole story, and it does not run the way you would expect.

The short answer

Free software has a business model. Know what it is.

The Empower Personal Dashboard genuinely costs nothing to use, and it is a polished piece of work. It is free because it is the front door to Empower's wealth management business, which charges 0.89% a year on the first $1 million under management, with a $100,000 account minimum. The dashboard works by aggregating your linked accounts — your brokerage, your bank, your retirement plan — onto Empower's servers, where the picture it builds of your finances is also a qualified sales lead.

That is a legitimate business. It is not a hidden one — it is simply the deal. The question is whether you want it.

Ignyq's business model is that you pay for the software. There are no accounts to link, nothing aggregated anywhere, and nobody to call you, because there is no advisory service on the other end of it.

Credit where it is due

Three real advantages.

It costs nothing, and for a lot of people that is the correct answer.
Automatic aggregation across every account you link — net worth updates itself with no data entry at all.
A genuine human advisory service behind it, if managed money is what you actually want. Some people are better served by an adviser than by software, and that is worth saying plainly.

If you want your whole financial life on one auto-updating screen and you do not mind that it lives on someone else's servers, Empower's dashboard is hard to beat at the price.

The real differences

What you get by paying for software.

1. Nothing to link, nothing to aggregate

Ignyq never asks for a brokerage or bank credential. Your holdings are imported from CSV or entered by hand, and they live in an encrypted file on your own computer. Ignyq has no server holding a copy of your net worth, because Ignyq has no server holding anything of yours at all.

2. Nobody calls you

You bought a piece of software. The transaction is finished. There is no advisory funnel, no assigned representative, no follow-up sequence, because there is nothing for us to sell you afterward.

3. Analysis depth, not just a dashboard

Empower shows you where you stand. Ignyq gives you tools to interrogate it — DCF valuation, modern portfolio theory, correlation, Monte Carlo, Kelly sizing, tax-loss harvesting, options analysis — plus planning tools for retirement, Roth conversion, FIRE, Social Security timing and withdrawal sequencing. This is a workbench, not a scoreboard.

How much of it you get scales with tier: eight analysis modules and the core tracking tools in the 30-day trial, portfolio analysis from Personal ($99/yr), the retirement suite and full 38+ planning tools plus the AI Financial Planner at Wealth, and the advanced quant modules and stock-market AI at Elite.

4. The fee math, if you ever said yes

This is the comparison that actually matters. Empower's advisory service is 0.89% a year on the first $1 million. On a $500,000 portfolio that is roughly $4,450 every year — about eight times the price of an Ignyq Wealth lifetime license, annually, forever.

To be fair: those are different products. One is a management service and the other is software, and an adviser who stops you from panic-selling in a crash may well earn their fee. But if what you wanted was tools rather than management, the tools cost $549 once.

Using the free dashboard costs you nothing in dollars. Whether it costs you anything else depends on how you feel about a financial services company holding a live, aggregated picture of everything you own.

Side by side

	Ignyq	Empower
What it is	Desktop software you buy	Free dashboard + advisory service
Price of the tool	30-day trial; $99–$399/yr; $199–$799 lifetime	$0
How the company earns	You buy the software	0.89% AUM advisory (first $1M)
Account minimum for advice	Not applicable	$100,000
Requires linking accounts	No	Yes — that is how it works
Where your data lives	Encrypted file on your machine	Empower's servers
Sales follow-up	None	Advisory outreach is the model
Investment analysis modules	8 in trial · 45+ at Elite	Dashboard-level
Retirement & planning tools	11 in trial · 14 at Personal · 38+ at Wealth, offline	Retirement Planner, Fee Analyzer
AI research	6 providers, your own key — planner AI at Wealth, stock AI at Elite	None
Works offline	Yes, planning suite fully	No
Automatic net-worth updating	No — you import	Yes, fully automatic
Platforms	macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Windows 11, Linux	Web + mobile

An honest split

Pick Empower if…

You want automatic net-worth tracking with zero data entry and no cost.
You are open to a managed advisory relationship, or already want one.
Linking your accounts to a financial services company does not bother you.

Pick Ignyq if…

You want your financial data to stay on your own computer, full stop.
You want to do the analysis yourself, with real tools, not read a summary.
You would rather pay once for software than be the product in someone else's funnel.
You want retirement and planning modeling that runs with the network off.

Common questions

Is Empower's dashboard actually free?

Yes, genuinely — no trial, no card. It is funded by the advisory business it introduces you to.

Can I use both?

Yes. Some people keep Empower for automatic net-worth tracking and use Ignyq for analysis and planning. If you do, understand that Empower's copy of your financial picture exists either way.

Does Ignyq update my portfolio automatically?

No. You import holdings from CSV or enter them. That is the direct cost of having nothing linked — we are not going to pretend it is a feature with no downside.

What does Ignyq do with my data?

Nothing. Your holdings never leave your machine — there is no telemetry on your portfolio and no server-side copy of it.

What if I want an actual adviser?

Then hire one — genuinely. Ignyq is software for people who want to do this themselves, and it is not a substitute for advice if advice is what you need.

Try it free. Buy it once.

Thirty days free — no account, no credit card. Track three watchlists, run eight analysis modules, and use the core tracking tools. Then pick the plan that fits, from $99 a year or $199 once.

See pricing Watch the 2-minute demo

Monthly, annual and one-time lifetime options at checkout. 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Two computers per license. macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Windows 11, Linux.

Ignyq is personal finance software for self-directed investors. It is not a financial adviser, does not provide investment advice, and does not execute trades. All analysis tools are for informational and educational purposes only.

Competitor pricing and features described on this page were verified on September 1, 2026 from each company's own published materials and are subject to change. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners; this page is an independent comparison and is not endorsed by or affiliated with any company named. If you spot something out of date, tell us at support@ignyq.co and we will correct it.