Comparison

RetireWhen vs RetirementPlannerSimulator

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

RetireWhen

This app helps you plan your retirement by allowing you to adjust various financial factors and instantly visualize their impact on your future savings and depletion age through dynamic charts and interactive sliders.

Highlights
  • Dynamic real-time charts
  • Support for 3 user profiles
  • Adjust income, savings, and spending
  • Visualize depletion age and savings breakdown
  • Interactive sliders for real-time adjustments
  • Year-by-year results view
  • Advanced variable adjustments
Features
Read full description

RetireWhen: Plan Your Future, Instantly Take control of your retirement journey with RetireWhen – the intuitive, all-in-one retirement calculator that lets you see your future take shape as you adjust your plans. Features: • Dynamic charts that update instantly as you adjust values • Support for 3 profiles: Partner 1, Partner 2, and the two Combined • Set your income, savings, retirement age, spending, and more • Visualize depletion age and savings breakdown with clear graphs • Interactive sliders to tweak retirement age and spending in real-time • View detailed, year-by-year results in the Results tab • Adjust advanced variables like growth and inflation rates • iPad and iPhone optimized – works great in both portrait and landscape • All features included – no subscriptions or in-app purchases • Save results to Files or share via text, email, etc. • Your personal info stays on your phone. None of it is shared or sold to third parties Plan smarter. Know When you can Retire. Download RetireWhen today and take the guesswork out of your future.

About

RetirementPlannerSimulator

This app offers comprehensive, privacy-first retirement planning calculations directly on your device. It analyzes taxes, Social Security, Roth conversions, and withdrawal strategies with detailed projections and risk analysis. Learn financial jargon with an integrated glossary and tutorial.

Highlights
  • Tax-aware year-by-year projections
  • Social Security claiming optimization
  • Roth conversion engine
  • Tax-smart withdrawal strategies
  • Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) calculations
  • Monte Carlo risk analysis
  • Integrated financial glossary and tutorial
Features
Read full description

RetirementPlanner is a privacy-first retirement planning app that runs entirely on your device. No account. No server. No tracking. Every calculation — from Social Security optimization to estate tax exposure — happens on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. COMPREHENSIVE TAX-AWARE PROJECTIONS Year-by-year projections that account for federal income tax across all brackets, capital gains tax, Medicare IRMAA surcharges, Net Investment Income Tax, ACA marketplace premium credits, and all 50 states + D.C. state income tax. One plan covers the complete picture. SOCIAL SECURITY OPTIMIZER Evaluate claiming ages 62–70 for yourself and your spouse. See breakeven analysis, COLA projections, and the long-term dollar impact of every timing decision. ROTH CONVERSION ENGINE Three conversion modes: standard bracket fill, IRMAA-aware (stays under Medicare premium thresholds), and minimize conversions (fills the bracket until Traditional is low enough to keep future RMDs in check). Conversion tax can be paid from the converted funds or from a taxable account. TAX-SMART WITHDRAWAL STRATEGY Six-tier withdrawal engine across eight named strategies — Spending Needs, Fixed Amount, Fixed Percentage, Maximum Spending, Guardrails, Tax-Aware, Sequence of Returns, and Lifetime Income. Dynamic spending guardrails set a ceiling and floor on year-over-year adjustments. REQUIRED MINIMUM DISTRIBUTIONS Annual RMD calculations using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table with SECURE Act 2.0 updates, automatically factored into the withdrawal plan. SEPP / 72(t) CALCULATOR Early access to retirement accounts without the 10% penalty. All three IRS-approved methods: fixed amortization, fixed annuitization, and required minimum distribution. ACA SUBSIDY CALCULATOR Estimates ACA marketplace premium tax credits based on projected Modified Adjusted Gross Income. Roth conversions and other income shifts show their subsidy impact before you commit. MONTE CARLO RISK ANALYSIS Historical simulation using 98 years of S&P 500 annual returns (1928–2025) and a parametric mode. Parallel execution for fast results. Reports portfolio success rate, median ending balance, and sequence-of-returns risk. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND PERMUTATION SEARCH Tornado-chart sensitivity across return, inflation, withdrawal amount, and Social Security timing. Grid search across hundreds of plan combinations filtered by your target success rate. BUILT TO TEACH, NOT JUST CALCULATE A 100+ term plain-language glossary and a guided tutorial on every screen explain the jargon — MAGI, IRMAA, RMDs, capital gains, Roth conversions — right where the numbers appear. The report tables show their work (see exactly how each year's taxable capital gain, MAGI, and tax bill are built), and a Reference Data browser lets you inspect the actual IRS brackets, IRMAA thresholds, and state rates behind your projection. Great for learning the mechanics, prepping for a meeting with an advisor, or younger savers modeling how today's choices compound and what they cost in taxes decades later. ICLOUD SYNC — PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your plans sync privately through your own Apple iCloud account. Easy Chair Apps Lab never has access to your data. iCloud sync is optional — the app works fully offline. PRO UNLOCK — ONE-TIME PURCHASE The planning and analysis features above are free. Pro (one-time purchase) adds CSV export from any report page, full PDF report generation, JSON import and export for Personal Data and Plan Strategy, permutation drill-down, and save-as-strategy.

Screenshots

RetireWhen4 screens
RetirementPlannerSimulator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: RetireWhen at none against RetirementPlannerSimulator's 1. RetireWhen also leads on ratings volume (8 vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). RetirementPlannerSimulator's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, rating, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. RetirementPlannerSimulator sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. RetireWhen asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for RetireWhen against 5.0 for RetirementPlannerSimulator. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RetireWhen has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
RetireWhen versus RetirementPlannerSimulator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRetireWhenRetirementPlannerSimulator
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (8 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB5 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperOrestes MelgarejoEasy Chair Apps Lab, LLC

In-app purchases

None

RetireWhen

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

RetirementPlannerSimulator

One-time1
  • Unlock All Functionality$29.99

Questions

Is RetireWhen free?
RetireWhen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is RetirementPlannerSimulator free?
RetirementPlannerSimulator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RetireWhen or RetirementPlannerSimulator?
RetireWhen and RetirementPlannerSimulator are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 8 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do RetireWhen or RetirementPlannerSimulator have ads?
RetireWhen shows ads; RetirementPlannerSimulator does not.

Other comparisons