Best Retirement Planning Software in 2026: 9 Tools Compared

Boldin, formerly NewRetirement, builds a full household plan from your income, spending, accounts, debts, and property. The free Basic tier covers a personal plan and what-if scenarios, while PlannerPlus at $168 per year adds Monte Carlo analysis, tax projections, a Roth conversion explorer, and deeper budgeting. You can model retiring earlier, moving states, selling a home, or changing spending, and see how each choice shifts the long term picture.

The strength here is depth, and depth brings a learning curve. Entering accurate data takes time, and the tool is only as good as the assumptions you set for returns, inflation, and lifespan. Boldin suits planners who enjoy detail and want to test many paths. It suits less well if you want a firm to invest the money for you, since you still place the trades yourself.

ProjectionLab is built for people planning financial independence and early retirement. You enter income, spending, savings rate, asset allocation, Social Security timing, and tax details, then run forecasts, Monte Carlo simulations, and historical backtests. Premium costs $129 per year and adds cash flow projections, tax optimization, withdrawal strategies, Roth conversions, estate planning, and plan comparison. A Pro plan at $549 per year is aimed at advisers.

The manual approach is both the appeal and the limit. You do not have to link bank accounts, which some users prefer for privacy, but you must keep the numbers current yourself. For a one-time check, the free tier is generous. For a living plan you revisit, Premium is the realistic choice.

Empower, formerly Personal Capital, links your checking, savings, brokerage, retirement, and loan accounts into one dashboard at no charge. Its retirement planner lets you model different retirement ages, savings amounts, and spending levels against your real balances, and its investment checkup flags fees and allocation gaps. Paid wealth management, with human advisers, starts at 0.89 percent of assets under management for the first $1 million.

The free tools are genuinely useful, but they double as a path to paid advice. Users with more than $100,000 in linked assets often report outreach from advisers. If you can ignore the pitch, Empower is one of the best free starting points. If sales calls bother you, a manual tool such as ProjectionLab may feel calmer.

Fidelity customers can build a retirement plan in the Planning and Guidance Center at no extra charge. The tool asks about age, retirement date, income, expenses, and accounts, then shows how income and investments may cover planned spending. You can test what-if changes, such as retiring later or spending less, and review asset allocation alongside the plan.

The limit is scope. The planner works best when your accounts sit at Fidelity, and outside accounts need manual entry or linking where supported. It also points toward Fidelity products, which is normal for a brokerage tool but worth noticing. For existing Fidelity customers, it is a strong free option. For others, a standalone planner may fit better.

Betterment manages a diversified portfolio toward a retirement goal you set, rebalancing as markets move and harvesting tax losses where eligible. Digital investing costs $5 per month for smaller balances or 0.25 percent per year for larger ones, with fund fees on top. Premium advice at 0.40 percent adds access to human advisers. The retirement view shows whether your contributions and target date are on track.

Betterment suits savers who want investing handled for them and do not want to model Roth conversions or estate details by hand. It suits less well if you want to compare dozens of scenarios, since the planning view is simpler by design. Use it for execution, and pair it with a detailed planner if you need scenario depth.

Vanguard Digital Advisor builds and manages a portfolio toward your retirement goal, with automatic rebalancing and guidance on contributions and timing. Published fee comparisons put its advisory cost near 0.15 to 0.20 percent per year for many accounts, with fund fees on top, but exact terms depend on the offer and balance. Vanguard also offers free calculators for savers who only want a quick estimate.

The trade is control for simplicity. You answer questions about goals and risk, and Vanguard handles the portfolio. That helps savers who stall on investment choices, but it will not replace a detailed tax or withdrawal plan. Check the current fee and minimum on Vanguard's own pages before you enroll, since managed offers change.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios manages a diversified ETF portfolio with no advisory fee, no commissions, and a $5,000 minimum for the basic tier. A premium tier adds human adviser access for a monthly fee. The portfolios hold a cash allocation that Schwab describes as part of the strategy, and that cash can drag on returns in strong markets while cushioning falls.

For cost-focused savers, the zero advisory fee is a real advantage, though fund fees and the cash effect still matter. Schwab also offers free retirement calculators for quick checks. Pick this if you want managed investing at low cost and you are comfortable with the cash position. Pick a DIY planner if withdrawal sequencing and tax modeling matter more to you.

T. Rowe Price offers a free retirement income calculator that runs 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations and returns a confidence score, which estimates the chance your money lasts through retirement. It places your result in, above, or below a confidence zone, which makes the output easy to read at a glance. You enter savings, income, and spending, then adjust assumptions to see how the score moves.

The tool is narrow by design. It does not track your accounts day to day, model real estate, or build a tax plan. Its value is as a second opinion on a plan built elsewhere. Run it once a year, change one assumption at a time, and treat a low score as a prompt to save more, spend less, or retire later, not as a verdict.

OnTrajectory turns a retirement plan into a visual timeline, showing how income, spending, and account balances may evolve year by year. You can shift your retirement age, savings rate, or spending and watch the curve change, which helps couples and visual learners talk through trade-offs. A free tier covers basic projections, with paid plans adding more detail.

The simplicity is the point, and also the limit. OnTrajectory does not match Boldin on tax modeling or ProjectionLab on backtesting depth. It fits savers who want a clear picture without a long setup, and it works well as a first planner before moving to a deeper tool. Confirm current paid pricing on its site before you upgrade.