The Best Net Worth Trackers in 2026 (And How to Choose One)

There are dozens of ways to track your net worth

Some people use a spreadsheet. Some use a fintech app that connects to every bank account they have. Some write the number on a sticky note once a year and call it good.

None of those approaches are inherently wrong. The right net worth tracker depends on what you actually value: privacy, automation, simplicity, depth of analysis, design quality, or some combination of all five.

This article is a comparison guide, but I should be upfront about something: I built one of the tools on this list. Steady Wealth is my product. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, and I'm not going to trash the competition to make it look better. Every tool on this list has legitimate strengths, and for some people, a different tool will be the better fit.

What I can offer is an honest perspective from someone who spent years thinking about how net worth tracking should work before building something.

What to look for in a net worth tracker

Before comparing specific tools, it helps to know what actually matters. These are the criteria that separate a useful tracker from one you'll abandon in three months.

Privacy model. Does the app require you to link your bank accounts? If so, what data does it collect, who has access to it, and what happens if that company gets breached or acquired? This is the single most important question most people skip. Here's a full breakdown of what bank linking actually means.

Asset coverage. Can the tracker handle the full picture of your finances? A lot of tools are excellent for bank accounts and investment portfolios but have no way to account for real estate equity, business ownership, crypto, collectibles, or other alternative assets. If your biggest asset is a house, that matters.

Design and user experience. You're going to look at this tool every month for years. If the interface is cluttered, dated, or ugly, you'll dread opening it. The best net worth trackers present your financial data in a way that's clear, visually satisfying, and easy to parse at a glance. Good design isn't vanity -- it's the difference between a tool you use consistently and one you abandon.

Ease of updates. The best tracker is the one you actually use. If updating takes 30 minutes and requires logging into six different websites, you're going to stop doing it. Look for tools that make monthly updates fast and painless.

Visualization. Numbers in a table tell you where you are. Charts, trends, and milestones tell you where you're going. The psychological boost of watching a line trend upward is what keeps people tracking month after month.

Cost. Some trackers are free. Some charge $150 a year. Free isn't always better (the product is often you), and expensive isn't always worth it. Understand what you're paying for and what the company does with your data when the product is free.

Data portability. Can you export your data? If a tool shuts down or you want to switch, you should be able to take your history with you. This is especially important for tools that require bank linking -- if you leave, your historical data might not come with you.

The major net worth trackers compared

Empower (formerly Personal Capital)

Empower is probably the most well-known free net worth tracker. The app connects to your bank, brokerage, and credit card accounts via Plaid, pulls in your balances automatically, and gives you a consolidated view of your finances.

What it does well. Empower's investment analysis tools are genuinely excellent. The retirement planner, fee analyzer, and asset allocation breakdowns are best-in-class for a free product. If your net worth is primarily composed of investment accounts and you want automated tracking with zero effort, Empower delivers.

Where it falls short. Real estate tracking is basic: you can add a property, but there's no nuanced handling of equity, rental income, or property value changes over time. Business equity is effectively unsupported. And because the product is free, Empower makes money by routing high-net-worth users toward their wealth management advisory service, so you'll get calls from financial advisors. That's the trade-off.

Design and UI. Empower is functional but busy. The dashboards pack in a lot of information, which is great for power users but can feel cluttered, especially when cross-sell prompts for advisory services compete for your attention. The mobile app is cleaner than the web experience, but neither would win any design awards. It gets the job done, but opening it doesn't feel particularly good.

The privacy question. Empower requires full bank linking through Plaid. Your account balances, transactions, and financial data flow through both Plaid's and Empower's servers. For some people, this is a non-issue. For others, giving a financial advisory firm read access to every account is a meaningful concern.

Best for: People with investment-heavy portfolios who want automated tracking and don't mind sharing financial data with an advisory company.

Mint (now Credit Karma)

Mint was the original free net worth tracker for a generation of personal finance enthusiasts. It shut down in late 2023, and Intuit migrated users to Credit Karma in early 2024.

Credit Karma is a different product with different priorities, focused on credit scores, loan recommendations, and tax filing rather than net worth tracking. You can see your linked account balances, but the consolidated net worth view that made Mint useful is largely gone.

If you're a former Mint user looking for a replacement, this article should help. But Credit Karma itself is no longer a serious contender as a net worth tracker.

YNAB (You Need a Budget)

YNAB is a budgeting tool first and a net worth tracker second. It does include a net worth report that charts your assets and liabilities over time, but that feature exists in service of YNAB's primary mission: helping you assign every dollar a job.

What it does well. If you want an all-in-one budgeting and net worth tool, YNAB is hard to beat. The budgeting methodology is genuinely effective, and the net worth report gives you trend data as a natural byproduct of using the budgeting system.

Where it falls short. At $14.99 per month ($99 per year), YNAB is expensive if you only want net worth tracking. It also requires bank linking for automatic import, though you can use it with manual entry. Real estate and business equity tracking are not really part of the YNAB model; it's designed around cash flow accounts, not balance sheet assets. There's no investment analysis, no sector breakdown, no projections or growth modeling.

Design and UI. YNAB's budgeting interface is clean and functional, and there's a reason it has a loyal following. But the net worth view itself is underwhelming: a simple line chart buried in the reports section, not a first-class feature. If you're coming to YNAB specifically for net worth tracking, the experience feels like an afterthought compared to the budgeting side of the product.

Best for: People who want a budgeting system that also produces a net worth report. If budgeting isn't your primary goal, YNAB is probably more tool than you need.

Kubera

Kubera is a premium net worth tracker built for people with complex financial lives. It supports bank linking through Plaid but also allows manual entry, which makes it one of the more flexible options on the market.

What it does well. Kubera handles the kind of complexity that trips up other trackers: cryptocurrency wallets, international bank accounts, domain names, vehicles, jewelry, alternative investments. It also includes beneficiary and legacy planning features that let you designate who should have access to your financial information if something happens to you.

Where it falls short. Kubera's Essentials plan is $249 per year, with their Black tier at $2,499/year for multi-portfolio management. At $249/year, you're paying 2.5x what most competing trackers charge, and prices are going up. There's no free tier, no trial beyond 14 days (for $1), and no lower-cost option for someone who's just getting started with tracking. Kubera also relies heavily on API connections to banks, brokerages, and crypto exchanges, and when those connections break (which happens more often than you'd expect), you're left manually fixing sync errors in a tool you're paying a premium for. No educational content, no financial statement generator, no learn library.

Design and UI. Kubera's interface is clean and functional, but it's starting to show its age. The layout is spreadsheet-style: white background, plain table rows, blue underlined links for editing values. The projection tool ("Fast Forward") presents rules as text sentences you click to edit, rather than interactive charts or sliders. It's not ugly, but it feels utilitarian rather than modern. If you care about opening a tool that actually looks good and presents your financial data in a visually engaging way, Kubera's design may underwhelm.

Best for: High-net-worth individuals with complex, international portfolios who want a dedicated tracker and don't mind the premium price.

Spreadsheets (Google Sheets / Excel)

The DIY option. A spreadsheet is where most people start, and for good reason: it's free, it's private, and you have complete control.

What it does well. Zero cost, zero privacy concerns (your data never leaves your computer or Google account), and infinite customizability. You can track literally anything with no signup, no account, and no learning curve beyond basic spreadsheet skills.

Where it falls short. Spreadsheets are fragile: formulas break when you add rows, historical data gets corrupted by a misplaced edit, and charts require real effort to build and maintain. The biggest problem is that spreadsheets are easy to abandon, since there's no reminder, no structure, and no momentum. Most people who track net worth in a spreadsheet stop within six months.

Design and UI. Let's be honest: spreadsheets are usually ugly. You design it yourself, which means the visual quality is entirely on you. Some people build beautiful, well-formatted spreadsheets with conditional formatting and polished charts, but most don't. The default experience is a wall of numbers in a grid, functional but not something that inspires you to check in every month. Making a spreadsheet look good takes real time and effort that most people would rather spend elsewhere.

Best for: People with simple finances (a few accounts, no unusual asset types) who enjoy the hands-on nature of maintaining their own system. Also a great starting point before committing to a dedicated tool.

Steady Wealth

Full transparency: this is my product. I built it, and I'll explain why — but you can decide if it fits.

Steady Wealth is a manual-entry net worth tracker that does not connect to your bank accounts. That's not a limitation — it's a deliberate design decision. Your financial data never touches a third-party aggregation service.

What it does well. It handles the full balance sheet: bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, real estate, business equity, crypto, vehicles, personal property, and every type of liability. You get charts, trend analysis, milestone tracking, debt ratio analysis, growth projections, and a personal financial statement generator -- the kind of document banks ask for when you apply for a loan.

For faster updates, Pro users can upload screenshots of their account pages and let AI extract the balances -- no linking required. There's also a standalone investment analysis tool that gives you sector breakdowns and portfolio insights from screenshot uploads.

Beyond the tracker itself, Steady Wealth includes a full Learn library -- a growing collection of in-depth articles on topics like tax strategy, Roth conversion ladders, 1031 exchanges, asset protection, estate planning, and business valuation. Pro members get access to the full library. Most other trackers on this list don't include anything like this — they give you numbers, but not context for making better decisions with those numbers.

Where it falls short. There's no automatic sync, so if you want your balances to update themselves, this is not the tool for you. It's web-based and responsive on mobile, but there's no native iOS or Android app. The free tier is limited to 5 accounts (enough to get started), while Pro ($99/year) unlocks unlimited accounts and the full feature set.

Design and UI. Steady Wealth uses a dark theme with glass-effect cards, gradient accents, and chart-based visualizations. The interface is minimal and uncluttered, showing you what matters without competing for your attention. I spent a lot of time on this because I think a tool you open monthly should look good enough that you don't mind opening it.

Best for: Privacy-conscious people who want structure, features, and financial education without handing their bank credentials to a third party. Also a strong fit for people with complex finances that include real estate, business equity, or alternative assets, and anyone who wants a personal financial statement they can hand to a lender.

Side-by-side comparison

The privacy question

This deserves its own section because it's the most underrated factor in choosing a net worth tracker.

When you connect a bank account to a financial app, you're typically going through a service called Plaid. Here's what happens: you enter your bank username and password, Plaid logs into your bank, scrapes your data, and sends it to the app. Plaid also keeps a copy.

In 2022, Plaid paid $58 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging they collected more data than users consented to, stored it longer than disclosed, and used it for undisclosed purposes.

This isn't fear-mongering. Plaid is a legitimate company that provides a real service, and millions of people use it without incident. But "read-only access" doesn't mean "private." It means a third-party company can see every account balance, every transaction, your account numbers, and your spending patterns. That data sits on servers you don't control.

Whether that trade-off is worth the convenience of automated balance updates is a personal decision. Some people are comfortable with it. Some aren't. The important thing is making that choice deliberately, not by default because the app's signup flow didn't give you an alternative.

There's a detailed breakdown of how Plaid works and what bank linking actually means if you want the full picture.

Which tracker is right for you?

There's no single best net worth tracker, only the best one for your situation. Here's a quick decision framework:

You want full automation and don't mind bank linking. Go with Empower. The investment analysis is excellent, it's free, and if you can tolerate the occasional advisory sales pitch, it's a strong product for investment-focused portfolios.

You want budgeting and net worth tracking in one place. YNAB is the answer. It's not cheap, but if you're going to budget anyway, the net worth report comes along for the ride. Just understand that net worth tracking is a secondary feature, not the primary one, in YNAB. If you're not sure whether budgeting or net worth tracking is what you actually need, there's a comparison.

You have a complex, international portfolio and budget isn't a concern. Kubera handles complexity that most trackers can't. If you have crypto wallets, international accounts, and alternative assets, and $249/year feels reasonable relative to what you're tracking, Kubera is a solid choice. Just be prepared for a utilitarian interface and occasional API sync headaches.

You want total control and zero cost. Use a spreadsheet. Seriously. If you have straightforward finances and enjoy building your own systems, a spreadsheet gives you complete privacy and infinite flexibility. Just be honest with yourself about whether you'll actually maintain it long-term.

You want privacy, structure, and features without linking your accounts. That's what I built Steady Wealth for: manual entry by design, with AI-powered screenshot import to speed up updates. If your net worth includes things like real estate, business equity, or assets that automated tools can't see, it's built to handle the full picture. The built-in Learn library gives you the financial education to actually make better decisions with the numbers you're tracking -- from tax strategy to estate planning to business valuation.

The most important thing isn't which tool you pick, but that you start tracking. People who consistently monitor their net worth build more wealth over time, regardless of the tool they use. The best tracker is the one you'll actually open every month.

Frequently asked questions about net worth trackers

What is the best free net worth tracker?

It depends on your priorities. Empower is the best free option if you want automated bank linking and investment analysis, Steady Wealth is the best free option if you want privacy-first tracking without connecting your bank accounts (free tier includes 5 accounts), and Google Sheets is the best free option if you want total control and customization. There's no single "best," just the best fit for how you want to manage your financial data.

Can I track net worth without linking my bank accounts?

Yes. Steady Wealth is built entirely around manual entry and never asks for bank credentials. Kubera also supports manual entry alongside optional bank linking, and spreadsheets are another option. The trade-off is that you need to update your balances yourself, but the advantage is that your financial data stays under your control.

How often should I update my net worth tracker?

Monthly is the sweet spot for most people. It's frequent enough to catch trends and stay motivated, but not so frequent that normal market fluctuations cause anxiety. Some people prefer weekly updates; others do quarterly. The important thing is consistency. Here's how to do a full update in about five minutes.

Is it safe to link bank accounts to financial apps?

Most bank-linking services use a provider called Plaid, which uses bank-level encryption and is used by millions of people. However, "safe" and "private" are different things: when you link accounts, your financial data is stored on the app's servers and Plaid's servers, both of which are potential targets for data breaches. Whether the convenience of automation outweighs the privacy trade-off is a personal decision. We break down exactly what Plaid does and what risks are involved.

What's the easiest way to track net worth?

If "easy" means zero effort after setup, bank-linked tools like Empower or YNAB will automatically pull your balances. If "easy" means fast to update without sharing your data, Steady Wealth's screenshot import feature lets you snap a picture of your account balances and have AI extract the numbers with no typing and no linking. If "easy" means no app at all, calculating your net worth by hand takes about 15 minutes the first time.

Do I need a net worth tracker if I have a financial advisor?

A financial advisor typically sees only the accounts they manage and might not know about your checking accounts, your real estate equity, your spouse's 401k, your side business, or your liabilities. A net worth tracker gives you the complete picture that no single advisor has. Many financial advisors actually recommend that clients track their own net worth, and the personal financial statement it produces is the same document banks and lenders request during loan applications.

How much does Steady Wealth cost?

Steady Wealth has a free tier that includes up to 5 accounts, enough to get started and see if the tool fits your workflow. Pro is $99/year (annual-only, no monthly option) and unlocks unlimited accounts, screenshot import, investment analysis, historical editing, and the full feature set.