Empower vs Wealthsimple: Which Is Better in 2026?

Figures and features are point-in-time and change; treat the table as a starting map, not a live quote.

Free account aggregation and portfolio analysis tools, alongside a percentage-fee wealth management service for larger balances.

How it works: You link accounts from across providers and Empower shows net worth, allocation, and a fee analyser that surfaces expense ratios you may not have noticed. That tier is free. Separately, Empower runs a managed wealth service with human advisors at a percentage of assets, with minimums, and the free tools are the funnel into it.

In practice, Empower’s AI aggregates accounts and analyses them. It falls under hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors), which makes it best suited to free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. On connecting an account it is “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)”, and on execution it is “Only in accounts it manages”. It is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current).

One honest limitation: The free tools are a lead source for a high-fee managed service, and the sales contact is persistent.

Canada's largest independent automated investing service, combining managed portfolios with commission-free self-directed trading and banking features.

How it works: A questionnaire sets a managed portfolio of low-cost ETFs, rebalanced automatically, with the management fee tiered down as balances rise. Alongside it, Wealthsimple offers self-directed trading, cash accounts and tax filing, which makes it closer to a full financial app than a pure robo-advisor.

In practice, Wealthsimple’s AI automates a diversified portfolio. It falls under hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors), which makes it best suited to canadian investors wanting automation and self-directed trading in one place. On connecting an account it is “No (holds your money at Wealthsimple)”, and on execution it is “Automated, plus self-directed trading”. It is priced as tiered percentage by balance (verify current).

One honest limitation: It is a Canadian service, so it is not an option for US investors.

The core difference is category. Empower focuses on free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision (aggregates accounts and analyses them), and Wealthsimple on canadian investors wanting automation and self-directed trading in one place (automates a diversified portfolio). On broker connection they differ too: Empower is “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)” versus Wealthsimple at “No (holds your money at Wealthsimple)”. That shapes everything downstream: how personal the answers are, where trades settle, and how much control you keep over individual positions.

Every tool gives something up for what it does well. Here is the honest give-and-take on each, so you can weigh the specific strengths against the limitations that come with them rather than judging on the headline category alone.

For AI investing tools, the distinction that matters most is whether the tool works from your actual, connected positions or reasons from something else: a separate account it manages for you, or the tickers and numbers you feed it. It decides how personal the answers can be, and where your money physically lives.

• Empower: manages a separate account it holds. Empower does not read the brokerage you already use. It opens and holds a new account, then invests the money you move into it, so its view is limited to what sits inside Empower.
• Wealthsimple: manages a separate account it holds. Wealthsimple does not read the brokerage you already use. It opens and holds a new account, then invests the money you move into it, so its view is limited to what sits inside Wealthsimple.

On this specific question the two land on the same side, so the deciding factors between them are elsewhere: category, cost, and who each is built for. This holdings-aware angle is the one Walnut is built around: it connects the brokerage you already use and reasons from your live positions, read-only by default, with any trades left for you to approve.

There is no universal winner here; the right pick depends on the job you are hiring the tool for. Match the category to your intent rather than chasing a single “best.”

• Choose Empower if you want free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. Its AI aggregates accounts and analyses them, it is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current), and it fits hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors). It is built for someone who wants a free, honest view of accounts spread across providers and is comfortable declining the follow-up call. Keep in mind that the free tools are a lead source for a high-fee managed service, and the sales contact is persistent.
• Choose Wealthsimple if you want canadian investors wanting automation and self-directed trading in one place. Its AI automates a diversified portfolio, it is priced as tiered percentage by balance (verify current), and it fits hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors). It is built for a Canadian investor who wants one app for a managed portfolio, self-directed trades and cash. Keep in mind that it is a canadian service, so it is not an option for us investors.

Because both sit in the same category, the choice comes down to the finer details above rather than a fundamental difference in approach.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Empower is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current), while Wealthsimple is priced as tiered percentage by balance (verify current). A percentage-of-assets fee scales with your balance, a flat subscription does not, and a “free” tier usually earns elsewhere (on cash, order flow, or premium upgrades), so the cheapest headline is not always the cheapest outcome for your situation.

Pricing and tiers change often. Confirm the current numbers on each provider’s own site before you decide; the framing above is point-in-time.

If neither quite fits, Walnut sits in a third category: chat-driven management of your own brokerage. It connects the brokerage you already use through SnapTrade, lets you analyze and manage it by talking through Claude or ChatGPT, build thematic portfolios around a thesis, and place trades you approve. Read-only by default. See Walnut vs Empower and Walnut vs Wealthsimple. Walnut is not an investment adviser.