Fire Horizon

Looking for a Boldin alternative?

Boldin — formerly NewRetirement — is one of the most capable retirement planners available to consumers, and for some of what people want from it there is no better answer. Here is an honest Fire Horizon vs Boldin comparison, including the rows Boldin wins. The short version: Boldin is the better retirement planner, Fire Horizon is the better FIRE tracker.

Pricing verified July 2026

Side by side

FeatureFire HorizonBoldinEdge
Starting priceFree tier, paid from $6.99/moFree tier; PlannerPlus $144/yr after a 14-day trialComparable
Free tierReal — Monte Carlo, dividends, what-ifs and net worth all freeReal — plan building, what-ifs, limited AIComparable
FIRE variantsCoast, Barista, Lean and Fat are first-class plan types with their own targets and markersNot first-class — built around traditional retirementFire Horizon
Tax & Roth conversion modellingNoneRoth conversion explorer plus state and federal tax projectionsBoldin
Social Security optimizationNot modelled as a claiming decisionClaiming-age comparison, including spousal strategiesBoldin
EducationA published methodology page — no courses8+ live classes, 24+ recorded, weekly live Q&ABoldin
Holdings-level trackingBrokerage sync (Plaid and SnapTrade) or CSV, with every holding priced dailyAccount syncing for balances and net worthFire Horizon
Withdrawal strategiesFixed dollar, percent-of-balance, or guardrails with a floor and optional ceilingWithdrawal strategy modelling includedComparable
Monte CarloYes, on every tierYes, on the paid tierFire Horizon
Talk to a professionalNot offeredFlat-fee CFP® plan review availableBoldin

Which one fits you

Choose Fire Horizon if…

  • You are planning to retire well before 60 and want Coast, Barista, Lean or Fat FIRE modelled properly.
  • You want the plan checked against real holdings automatically, not re-entered by hand.
  • You want Monte Carlo, dividend income and what-if scenarios without paying first.
  • You want to start cheaper — free, then a few dollars a month.

Choose Boldin if…

  • Roth conversions or Social Security timing are the decisions you actually need help with.
  • You want state and federal tax projections inside the plan.
  • You want structured teaching — live classes and weekly Q&A — alongside the software.
  • You would like the option of a flat-fee CFP® review of your plan.

The real difference: a planner vs a tracker

Boldin is a planning tool first. You describe your situation in detail and it models the consequences — taxes, conversions, claiming ages — with more depth than anything else at consumer pricing. Fire Horizon starts from the other end: it holds your actual portfolio, prices it daily, and answers whether the plan still works given what your accounts did this week. Both are legitimate; they answer different questions.

Where FIRE planning genuinely differs

A 45-year retirement is not a 25-year retirement with different numbers. Sequence-of-returns risk matters more, Social Security arrives decades late, and the FIRE variants are real strategies rather than labels — Coast means deliberately stopping contributions at a chosen age and letting compounding finish the job, which needs two markers on the chart, not one. That is the part built into Fire Horizon and approximated everywhere else.

Where we would send you to Boldin

If you are within a decade of a traditional retirement and weighing Roth conversions against future tax brackets, Boldin is the better tool and we do not model that at all. Their free tier is enough to see whether that depth is what you need.

Common questions

Is Fire Horizon a Boldin alternative?
For FIRE planning, yes — and it is cheaper to start. But they are not the same shape of tool. Boldin is a retirement planner with deep tax modelling; Fire Horizon is a portfolio tracker with FIRE-native planning on top. If your questions are about Roth conversions and Social Security timing, Boldin answers them and we do not.
Which is better for early retirement?
Fire Horizon, for the specific reason that Coast, Barista, Lean and Fat FIRE are built-in plan types here rather than something you approximate by editing a spending number — each gets its own target, its own line on the chart, and its own date.
Which is better for tax planning?
Boldin, clearly. It models Roth conversions and projects state and federal taxes. Fire Horizon does not model taxes at all, which matters most in the years around a conversion decision.
Does Fire Horizon connect to my brokerage like Boldin?
Yes — through Plaid or SnapTrade, or by importing a broker CSV. Holdings are then priced daily against end-of-day market data, so the plan re-checks itself without you updating anything.
Can I use both?
Plenty of people do, and it is a reasonable answer. Both have real free tiers, so you can run the same numbers through each and see whether the dates agree before paying for either.

See all six FIRE calculators compared →

Fire Horizon vs ProjectionLab →

See it on your own accounts.

Both have real free tiers, so the honest way to decide is to run your own numbers through each. Ours takes a few minutes to set up — free, no card required.

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Not financial advice — projections are estimates based on your assumptions

Disclosure: we build Fire Horizon, so we are not a neutral party — read this the way you would any comparison written by one of the entrants. Every competitor figure is quoted from their own public pricing and feature pages, and we have tried to be specific about what they do better.