The short answer
Choose WealthR if you want a plan that speaks UK — correct tax treatment for ISAs, LISAs, SIPPs and the State Pension, phased retirement with PAYE and National Insurance, UK inheritance tax, and £ pricing. Free at the core tier, privacy-first, built for what happens after you stop full-time work.
Choose ProjectionLab if your priority is the most freely-configurable modelling canvas — granular milestone modelling, 10,000-run Monte Carlo, a dedicated historical-backtest mode and a mature compare mode. It supports UK account types, but the tax model and headline features are US-first.
If you moved to ProjectionLab from a US-centric tool and found it still didn't quite fit the UK — especially post-retirement — WealthR is built for exactly that gap.
Side by side
| Feature | WealthR | ProjectionLab |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | ✓ UK-first — the whole app is keyed to UK rules | ~ US-first with a UK localisation layer |
| Pricing currency | ✓ Pounds (£) — no FX to think about | ~ US dollars ($) — UK users carry FX |
| Free tier | ✓ Net worth, forecasts, debt, retirement, dividends, tax calculator and budget free forever; Pro for the planning suite | ✓ Free Basic tier (forecasting, Monte Carlo) |
| Paid tier price | Pro £5.99/mo or £39.99/yr | Premium $129/yr · Pro (adviser) $549/yr |
| UK State Pension modelling | ✓ Triple-lock uprating · NI qualifying-years forecast · auto-updates each April | ✕ Not a named feature |
| Phased / semi-retirement with PAYE | ✓ Employment / PAYE salary income stream — income tax + employee NI to State Pension age, tapers via end date | ✕ Working/retired modelled as a transition, not a UK PAYE-with-NI stream |
| UK income tax accuracy | ✓ 2026/27 bands, HICBC, Marriage Allowance, Scottish bands, £100k–£125k taper, salary sacrifice, Student Loan plans | ~ UK tax presets & effective brackets (generic, not UK-rule-complete) |
| UK tax wrappers | ✓ All 6 — S&S ISA, Cash ISA, LISA, JISA, IFISA, Help to Buy · per-wrapper allowances | ~ ISA, workplace pension, SIPP account types (LISA/JISA not named) |
| Post-retirement income modelling | ✓ 12 UK income stream types with correct tax (State Pension, DB, SIPP drawdown, annuity, ISA, GIA dividends/interest, rental, offshore bond, PAYE salary, other) | ~ Withdrawal strategies & cash-flow, modelled on US tax logic |
| Drawdown Planner | ✓ Pro — the Cash flow tab's Drawdown planner: which pot pays each year across pensions, ISAs and savings, the tax including capital gains, how long the money lasts, and up to five named plan variants compared side by side | ~ Withdrawal strategies & cash-flow, modelled on US tax logic |
| Tax-efficient withdrawal ordering | ✓ Withdrawal-ordering panel on the Pension tab showing which pot to draw first; the Drawdown Strategy Lab (Pro) compares ISA-first, pensions-first and, for couples, whose pension first, on lifetime tax and legacy | ~ Withdrawal strategies (Roth conversions / US-oriented) |
| Monte Carlo simulation (Will it last?) | ✓ Headline chance your money lasts is free; Pro shows the 5,000 simulated paths, the median outcome, spending guardrails and retire-later / spend-less / save-more what-ifs, with real UK tax and the State Pension in every path | ✓ 10,000-run Monte Carlo (more paths; US-first tax model) |
| Historical backtesting | ~ Projections use real historical returns (FTSE / S&P / MSCI); no dedicated backtest mode | ✓ Dedicated historical-backtest mode |
| Flexible / granular event modelling | ✓ Forecast bands, Scenarios (Pro), the Forecast stress-test panel, and up to five saved Drawdown-planner plan variants compared side by side on lasts-until, lifetime tax, what is left and year-one income (Pro) | ✓ Highly configurable milestone canvas — more freely tweakable |
| Sequence-of-returns stress test | ✓ Forecast stress test — a −30% crash split across the first two retirement years, then a four-year recovery; free at the default, with crash size, timing, contribution changes, mortgage rates and one-off costs adjustable on Pro | ~ Via Monte Carlo distribution |
| UK Inheritance Tax / estate planning | ✓ Estate & IHT tab — nil-rate band, residence band, charity rate and the April 2027 pension rule drawn as an estate chart (free); Pro adds lifetime gifts on a 7-year taper clock, who-gets-what wishes and an "if you died today" death-benefit view | ~ Estate planning (US-oriented) |
| CGT & dividend allowance (UK) | ✓ CGT calculator + £500 dividend allowance modelled | ~ Capital-gains harvesting (US framing) |
| US-only features you don't need | n/a — UK-only by design | Roth conversions, ACA subsidies — irrelevant in the UK |
| Free standalone UK calculators | ✓ 32 on wealthr.co.uk/tools/ — HICBC, Marriage Allowance, CGT, SDLT, LBTT and the Additional Dwelling Supplement, LTT, pension carry forward and the annual allowance, Coast FIRE, salary sacrifice and more | ✕ None |
| FIRE / Coast FIRE / depletion | ✓ Full FIRE, Coast FIRE, portfolio runway in years | ✓ Strong FIRE modelling |
| Couples / household planning | ✓ Partner pensions tagged · joint property ownership % · partner State Pension | ✓ Flexible modelling supports partners |
| Privacy / bank linking | ✓ Manual entry, privacy-first — no bank linking | ✓ Also privacy-first / manual entry |
| Sign-in security | ✓ Touch ID / Face ID sign-in, two-factor authentication, encrypted EU-region sync, no bank linking | — |
| Investment performance vs a benchmark | ✓ Performance tab — your real time-weighted and money-weighted return with an inflation view (free); Pro adds per-holding returns and the overlay against a global index and a cash baseline | ✕ Projection software — doesn't track your actual holdings, so no return measurement |
| Notes against your numbers | ✓ My Financial Diary — a searchable note against each month, so you know why a figure moved | ✓ Journals actual progress and compares it against your original projections — plan-versus-actual rather than notes |
| In-depth guides you can listen to | ✓ Pro — 7 Playbooks: long-form UK money guides, read in-app, as PDFs or listened to (open the day a trial converts) | — |
| Dashboard layouts | ✓ Default and Minimalist layouts free; Building, Approaching and Retired layouts, drag-and-drop and ten widgets on Pro — the Retired layout carries the Will it last?, drawdown-plan and pension-projection widgets | ✕ Fixed layout |
| Physical-asset tracking & Collector's Vault | ✓ Track watches, art, cars, metals — with an encrypted, zero-knowledge photo vault (Pro), locked on your device | ✕ Projection software — doesn't track or store your actual holdings or assets |
| Mobile | ✓ iOS & Android (PWA) | ✓ Web app (works on mobile browsers) |
| Maturity | ~ Launched 2026 — newer, moving fast | ✓ Established, polished, large following |
| Built in | Edinburgh, UK | United States |
What each does well
Where WealthR is stronger
WealthR's advantage is UK specificity, and it runs deep. The whole app is keyed to UK tax years — State Pension with triple-lock uprating and an NI qualifying-years forecast, all six ISA wrappers with per-wrapper allowances, HICBC with the higher-earner rule, Marriage Allowance, Scottish bands, the 60% personal-allowance taper between £100k and £125,140, salary sacrifice relief, CGT and the £500 dividend allowance. ProjectionLab offers "UK tax presets," but that's a localisation of a US model, not a UK-rule-complete engine.
It's also built for the messy reality of a UK retirement. You can model phased or semi-retirement directly: add an Employment / PAYE salary stream alongside your pensions and drawdown, and WealthR taxes it correctly — income tax and employee National Insurance up to State Pension age, then NI drops off automatically, with the stream tapering out on an end date as you wind down. The post-retirement module covers 12 UK income stream types each with the right tax treatment, plus a withdrawal-ordering panel showing which pot to draw first, a Pro Drawdown planner that shows which pot pays each year and the tax on the way out, and a UK Inheritance Tax view. This is precisely where US-first tools tend to fall over for British users.
And it's cheaper and simpler to buy: free at the core tier, Pro at £39.99/year in pounds, versus ProjectionLab's $129/year Premium plus the friction of dollar pricing and FX.
It also holds its own on projection depth. The Forecast shows optimistic, likely and pessimistic bands rather than a single line; Will it last? gives the headline chance your money lasts to your plan age for free, and on Pro runs 5,000 simulated futures with real UK tax, State Pension and sequence-of-returns risk modelled inside every path — not a US tax model with a UK label — with the median outcome, spending guardrails and retire-later / spend-less / save-more what-ifs; and projections are grounded in real historical returns for the FTSE All-Share, S&P 500 or MSCI World. It's serious modelling, just pointed at the UK.
Where ProjectionLab is stronger
Credit where it's due — ProjectionLab's modelling canvas is exceptional. It's more freely configurable than WealthR's: arbitrary milestone-based life events, highly tweakable assumptions, 10,000-run Monte Carlo (twice WealthR's path count) and a dedicated historical-backtest mode that cycles your plan through real past market sequences. If you love building a detailed, endlessly adjustable model, ProjectionLab is superb at it — and it's a more established product, with a longer track record and a large community behind it.
WealthR — pros
- UK-first — the whole app is built around UK tax rules
- Priced in pounds; free core tier, Pro just £39.99/yr
- UK State Pension with triple-lock uprating & NI years
- Phased / semi-retirement with PAYE + employee NI
- 12 UK income stream types with correct tax treatment
- Withdrawal-ordering panel, plus the Drawdown planner and Strategy Lab on Pro
- Full UK income tax calculator (HICBC, Scottish bands, £100k trap)
- All 6 UK ISA wrappers with per-wrapper allowances
- UK Inheritance Tax / estate view (incl. IHT on pensions)
- Sequence-of-returns stress test for decumulation
- Percentile forecast bands + Will it last? — headline chance free; 5,000 paths, guardrails and what-ifs on Pro, with real UK tax & State Pension
- Projections grounded in real historical returns (FTSE / S&P / MSCI)
- 31 free standalone UK calculators (no sign-up)
- Privacy-first — no bank linking
- One subscription covers the whole household
WealthR — cons
- No dedicated historical-backtest mode (uses real historical returns instead)
- Monte Carlo runs 5,000 paths vs ProjectionLab's 10,000, and the full paths are Pro (the headline chance is free)
- ProjectionLab's modelling canvas is more freely configurable
- Launched 2026 — newer, smaller track record
- Manual entry — about two minutes a month
- Not regulated — planning aid, not advice
ProjectionLab — pros
- Exceptional, highly flexible projection engine
- 10,000-run Monte Carlo simulations in-app
- Historical backtesting
- Granular milestone / event-based modelling
- Mature compare mode for weighing plans
- Privacy-first, manual entry
- Established product with a large following
- Supports UK account types (ISA, workplace pension, SIPP)
ProjectionLab — cons
- US-first — UK is a localisation layer
- Priced in US dollars; UK users carry FX
- No paid tier under $129/yr (vs WealthR £39.99/yr)
- State Pension not a named feature
- No phased-retirement PAYE stream with UK employee NI
- UK tax model is preset-based, not UK-rule-complete
- LISA / JISA not named as wrappers
- Headline features include US-only Roth conversions & ACA subsidies
- No standalone free UK calculators
When to choose which
Choose WealthR if…
- You're a UK user who wants the tax to actually be right
- You're approaching, in, or planning phased retirement
- You still have some PAYE income alongside pensions
- You want State Pension, ISA/LISA/SIPP and IHT modelled properly
- You want percentile forecasts and a UK-accurate Monte Carlo
- You'd rather pay in pounds — and pay less
- You want a free tier and free UK calculators
- You value privacy and no bank linking
Choose ProjectionLab if…
- You want the most freely-configurable modelling canvas
- You love building detailed, endlessly adjustable models
- 10,000-run Monte Carlo and a dedicated backtest mode matter to you
- You're comfortable with a US-first tax model
- Dollar pricing and FX aren't a concern
- You want a mature product with a long track record
FAQ
Is WealthR a UK alternative to ProjectionLab?
Does WealthR handle phased or semi-retirement with continuing PAYE income?
How much does ProjectionLab cost compared to WealthR?
Is ProjectionLab better than WealthR at anything?
Can I move my plan from ProjectionLab to WealthR?
Does WealthR do Monte Carlo and stress testing like ProjectionLab?
The UK-built alternative — try it free.
Free forever at the core tier. Built around UK tax, State Pension and phased retirement, priced in pounds. No bank linking, no credit card. See how your plan looks in a model made for the UK.
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