Planning for retirement may not be the most exciting task, but it's one your future self will thank you for tackling early. And you don't necessarily need a financial planner to get started. Today, there are apps that can help with nearly every part of the process, from saving and investing, to estimating how much you'll need, to making your money last once in retirement.

To help you find the right tools, we rounded up our top picks based on cost, features and ease of use. See our methodology below for more information.

Best retirement planning tools

  • Best overall- :Fidelity
  • Best for getting started- :SoFi
  • Best for set-it-and-forget-it investing- :Betterment
  • Best for a complete retirement roadmap- :Boldin
  • Best free money tracker- :Empower
  • Best for combining retirement planning and banking- :Charles Schwab

  • Best for uncovering money to put toward retirement- :Rocket Money

  • Minimum deposit and balance- Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. No minimum to open a Fidelity Go® account, but minimum $10 balance for robo-advisor to start investing.

  • Fees- Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. Zero commission fees for stock, ETF, options trades and some mutual funds; zero transaction fees for over 3,400 mutual funds; $0.65 per options contract. Fidelity Go® has no advisory fees for balances under $25,000 (0.35% per year for balances of $25,000 and over, which includes access to unlimited 30-minute coaching calls with a Fidelity advisor and tax-loss harvesting on taxable accounts).

  • Bonus

  • Investment vehicles- Robo-advisor:Fidelity Go®- IRA:Traditional, Roth and Rollover IRAs- Brokerage and trading:Fidelity Investments Trading- Other:Fidelity Investments 529 College Savings; Fidelity HSA- ®

  • Investment options- Stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, CDs, options and fractional shares

  • Educational resources- Extensive tools and industry-leading, in-depth research from 20-plus independent providers

Terms apply.

Who's this for? If you want one financial platform that covers a lot of ground, from tracking retirement accounts to estimating Social Security benefits, Fidelity is hard to beat. Its free Planning & Guidance Center can help you assess your retirement readiness, while Fidelity also offers calculators for Social Security benefits, Roth conversions, required minimum distributions and retirement income. That makes it especially useful in the years leading up to and during retirement.

Standout benefits: Because Fidelity is a full-service brokerage, you can view and manage your Fidelity brokerage and retirement accounts in one place, and you can link accounts held elsewhere to get a broader view of your finances. Its retirement toolkit includes calculators for estimating monthly retirement income, comparing the tax impact of different withdrawal strategies and evaluating Roth conversions. It's a free way to sanity-check your retirement progress, rather than a substitute for personalized, year-by-year financial or tax advice. But for most savers, it's hard to beat the breadth of tools available at no cost.

  • Minimum deposit and balance- Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. No account minimum for active or automated investing, or to participate in IPOs. $5 minimum to own a fractional share of a company.

  • Fees- Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. Active investing has zero commission fees for trading stocks and ETFs (exchange and fund management fees may apply). Automated investing has zero management fees

  • Bonus- Get up to 1,000 in stock when you open & fund a new Active Invest account.

  • Investment vehicles

  • Investment options- Stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, alternative funds, fractional share and IPO participation

  • Educational resources- SoFi offers a detailed help center with hundreds of searchable articles, market insights and access to certified financial planners at no additional cost to all members.

Terms apply.

Who's this for? If retirement investing feels intimidating, SoFi Invest strips out a lot of the friction. There are no annual maintenance fees for self-directed accounts, and SoFi offers complimentary access to a financial planner for a 30-minute session.

Standout benefits: SoFi offers traditional, Roth and SEP IRAs with $0 commissions on stocks and ETFs, plus a 1% match on eligible IRA contributions up to annual IRA limits. SEP IRA contributions aren't eligible for the match, and terms including a five-year holding requirement apply. You can choose a self-directed account or let SoFi's robo-advisor manage your portfolio for a 0.25% annual advisory fee. Both options are available through SoFi's investing platform, alongside its banking and other financial products.

  • Minimum deposit and balance- Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. For example, Betterment doesn't require clients to maintain a minimum investment account balance, but there is an ACH deposit minimum of $10. Premium Investing requires a $100,000 minimum balance.

  • Fees- Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected, account balances, etc. Base price is $5/month for investing accounts; automatically switches to 0.25% annually once you reach $24,000 in total balance or set up $200/month in recurring deposits. Premium plan is 0.65% annually.

  • Investment vehicles

  • Investment options- Stocks, bonds, ETFs and cash

  • Educational resources- Betterment's resources hub offers expert-written guides on investing basics, retirement planning, and personal finance, designed to help investors at every level make more informed decisions.

Terms apply. Does not apply to crypto asset portfolios.

Who's this for? If you'd rather set up automatic contributions and let algorithms handle the rest, Betterment's robo-advisor builds and rebalances a diversified portfolio for you based on your goals and risk tolerance.

Standout benefits: There's no account minimum, and Betterment's standard investing plan costs 0.25% annually or $5 per month for smaller balances without qualifying recurring deposits. Automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting are included at no extra cost. Betterment also offers traditional, Roth and SEP IRAs, plus complimentary support from its Licensed Concierge team for customers considering moving $20,000 or more to a Betterment IRA.

  • Cost- The Basic plan is free. PlannerPlus costs $12 a month, billed annually at $144, with a 14-day free trial. A flat-fee, on-demand advisor session is also available as an add-on for those who want a human review of their plan.

  • Standout features- Users can project retirement income, run "what if" scenarios on retirement age and spending, and get a Chance of Success score based on Monte Carlo analysis. PlannerPlus adds real-time account linking, state and federal tax projections, Roth conversion modeling, Medicare planning and access to 250-plus customizable inputs.

  • Categorizes your expenses- Yes, users can track and categorize spending, and set income and expenses on a monthly, yearly or one-time basis.

  • Links to accounts- Account linking is a PlannerPlus feature. Boldin connects to bank, investment and loan accounts through Plaid.

  • Availability- Boldin is web-based and works on mobile browsers but there's no dedicated iOS or Android app.

  • Security- Boldin uses bank-level security and relies on Plaid to link outside accounts, so credentials aren't stored on Boldin's servers.

Who's this for? If you want to dig deeper than a simple "are you on track?" score, Boldin offers a browser-based retirement planning platform with tools to model your finances and stress-test decisions such as when to retire, when to claim Social Security and whether a Roth conversion could benefit your plan.

Standout benefits: Boldin's free version covers the basics, while PlannerPlus adds more advanced planning features, including Monte Carlo analysis, financial account connections and detailed federal and state tax projections. It's designed for DIY planners who want to see how different assumptions and decisions could affect their long-term plan, rather than simply getting a yes-or-no retirement readiness score.

  • Cost- App is free, but users have option to add investment management services for a fee

  • Standout features- A budgeting app and investment tool that tracks both your spending and your wealth

  • Categorizes your expenses- Yes, but users can modify

  • Links to accounts- Yes, bank and credit cards, as well as IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages and loans

  • Availability- Offered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)

  • Security features- Data encryption, fraud protection and strong user authentication

Terms apply.

Who's this for? If you want to see all your accounts — from a 401(k) and IRA, to checking accounts and a mortgage — in a single dashboard without paying anything, Empower is one of the most comprehensive free tools available.

Standout benefits: Once your accounts are linked, Empower's Retirement Planner lets you model different retirement scenarios, including when you might retire and how Social Security could factor into your income. It also includes a Fee Analyzer that helps identify investment fees and an Investment Checkup that assesses your portfolio's risk and allocation. The dashboard and these financial planning tools are free; paid advisory services are available separately if you want professional investment management.

  • Automatically linked to a Schwab brokerage account, making it easy to move money between banking and investing without juggling multiple apps or institutions.
  • Unlimited ATM fee reimbursements worldwide, so you can use any ATM anywhere without being penalized.

  • No monthly fees, no minimum balance requirements and no foreign transaction fees.

  • No proprietary ATM network, so you’ll rely entirely on reimbursements rather than having fee-free ATMs to fall back on.

Who's this for? If you like the idea of your everyday banking and retirement accounts living under one roof, Schwab Bank's Investor Checking account is linked to a Schwab One brokerage account, letting you manage your cash and investments through the same Schwab platform.

Standout benefits: There's no monthly fee or account minimum, no foreign transaction fees and Schwab reimburses ATM fees worldwide with no cap, which is a rare perk among brokerages. On the retirement side, you get access to Schwab's planning tools and IRA options without needing a separate banking relationship. You can also move cash between your checking and brokerage accounts in seconds, although transfer availability can vary outside regular business hours.

  • Cost- The basic plan is free. Rocket Money Premium is $7 to $14 a month with a 7-day free trial. Bill negotiation services cost 35% to 60% of the first-year savings, if the negotiation is successful.

  • Standout features- Easily cancel unwanted subscriptions, track your spending and credit score, automate savings and get help lowering bills. Rocket Money Premium includes additional services like net-worth tracking, credit reports and a subscription cancellation concierge service

  • Security- Rocket Money accesses transaction data via an encrypted token, uses Plaid API so user credentials are never stored, provides bank-level 256-bit encryption and hosts servers on Amazon Web Services

  • Availability- Offered online and on both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)

Terms apply.

Who's this for? If your retirement contributions keep getting crowded out by subscriptions and bills you forgot you're paying for, Rocket Money analyzes your recurring charges and either helps you cancel them yourself or, for eligible subscriptions, handles the cancellation for you.

Standout benefits: The free version tracks spending, subscriptions and bills across linked accounts, while Premium adds subscription cancellation, Financial Goals and other budgeting tools. Premium uses a sliding-scale monthly price that can vary by platform. Rocket Money's Bill Negotiation service can also try to lower eligible bills, charging 35% to 60% of your first year's savings only if it successfully negotiates a reduction. Its Financial Goals feature can automatically move small amounts into an FDIC-insured account based on your cash flow. It won't manage your retirement portfolio, but by surfacing money you may be able to redirect toward an IRA or 401(k), it can be a useful first step toward saving more.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice to help them make informed financial decisions. Every investing list is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of investment products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best retirement planning tools.

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CNBC Select analyzed more than a dozen retirement apps and platforms based on cost, features, user reviews and other factors.

We looked for tools that were intuitive and accessible across devices, with strong security, retirement-specific planning features like Social Security and Roth conversion modeling, as well as account syncing where applicable. We favored apps that let users model different retirement scenarios without requiring a paid financial advisor.

We also considered CNBC Select audience data when available, such as general demographics and engagement with our content and tools.

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Editorial Note:Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.