The short version
WealthTrace is stronger on portfolio-level Monte Carlo; MaxiFi is stronger on lifetime spending and Social Security decisions. Both have steep interfaces and both assume US tax law.
Why people compare them
Both are paid desktop-era retirement planners aimed at people who want detail rather than a friendly app.
Price and fit, side by side
| Feature | MaxiFi Planner | WealthTrace |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | MaxiFi Planner$109 per year | WealthTraceNot published |
| Free tier | MaxiFi PlannerNo | WealthTraceNo |
| Billed in pounds | MaxiFi PlannerNo | WealthTraceYes |
| Best for | MaxiFi PlannerUS households who want a rigorous lifetime spending answer rather than a pot-size target | WealthTraceUS individuals who want adviser-grade retirement modelling without hiring an adviser |
Where MaxiFi Planner wins
- A genuinely different method: it solves for the living standard you can sustain for life rather than asking you to guess a target
- Serious tax modelling, covering federal, state and FICA taxes plus Medicare Part B IRMAA
- Optimises Social Security claiming and retirement account withdrawal order, which are the two decisions that move the numbers most
Where WealthTrace wins
- The individual product runs the same planning engine advisers pay for, which is unusual at this end of the market
- Monte Carlo analysis gives you a probability of plan success rather than a single deterministic line
- Tracks investment holdings, performance and transactions alongside the projection, so the plan and the portfolio sit together
Where both fall short
- Neither handles ISA allowances or the tax wrapper decisions around them.
- Neither applies UK tax rules to what it shows you.
- Both are built US-first, so UK users pay in dollars and work around US assumptions.
If neither is quite right
If what you actually want is the retirement answer rather than a better dashboard, that is the gap Delphina was built for: UK pensions, ISAs and tax, projected to the age you want to stop. It does not do the job MaxiFi Planner does for us households who want a rigorous lifetime spending answer rather than a pot-size target, so if that is the real problem, MaxiFi Planner is still the better buy. Free plan is £0, no card.
MaxiFi Planner vs WealthTrace: common questions
You can, and some people do, because they solve different halves of the problem. It does mean paying for both, so add the two annual figures together before deciding.
Judge it on billing currency, Open Banking coverage and whether ISAs and pensions are handled. WealthTrace has the edge here, because MaxiFi Planner bills in a foreign currency.
MaxiFi Planner suits us households who want a rigorous lifetime spending answer rather than a pot-size target. WealthTrace suits us individuals who want adviser-grade retirement modelling without hiring an adviser. The one that matches how you already think about money will take less setting up.
Delphina covers the gap both leave, which is UK pensions, ISAs and tax projected forward to retirement. The trade-off is that it does not do the job MaxiFi Planner does for us households who want a rigorous lifetime spending answer rather than a pot-size target, so if that is the real need, pick one of these two.