Income Lab vs RightCapital: Which Fits Your Firm in 2027

Pick the tool that answers your client's spending question

Income Lab is the narrower product and the better fit when your main client question is how much a household can spend and when that number should change. RightCapital is the broader platform and the better starting point if you also need insurance analysis, budgeting and a wider client-facing portal. Both sell to financial advisors, both offer free trials, and both quote enterprise pricing on request. Adoption is high across the category: 83% of advisors use dedicated planning software according to InvestmentNews (2026), which cites the 2026 T3/Inside Information survey. That means the real question is which platform fits your firm, not whether to use one.

TL;DR: Choose Income Lab for dollar-based retirement income planning with strong tax and Social Security tools. Choose RightCapital for a wider planning suite that includes insurance and budgeting. In the 2026 sources we opened, neither product was renamed, merged or discontinued.

A retirement income planning platform models how much a household can withdraw each year and adjusts that figure as markets and the client's circumstances change. The two products here do this in different ways, so the comparison turns more on the form of the answer than on a checklist of features.

Key Takeaways

• Income Lab answers "how much can I spend?" with a dollar range and spending triggers. RightCapital's output is described in Income Lab's comparison article as a probability of success, a characterization we could not check against RightCapital's own documentation.

• The core tradeoff is depth versus breadth: Income Lab goes deeper on retirement income, tax and Social Security, while RightCapital covers more of the household, including insurance, education and budgeting.

• The two price lists are not like-for-like. RightCapital publishes a per-advisor monthly rate. Income Lab's public pages do not say whether a plan is licensed per advisor or per firm.

• Check AI features against the tier you will buy. Income Lab's Core listing mentions an AI assistant for quick plan questions, but its detailed comparison table marks plain-English plan questions as Pro only.

• Both vendors cite survey placements. We could not open the underlying reports in full, so this guide does not rank them.

How we evaluated these two platforms

This guide is built from public vendor pages and independent sources. We weighted seven criteria by how much each one affects a small firm's choice. The weights are our judgment, not vendor data, and they decide which product fits which buyer rather than producing a single winning score.

We weighted spending output and tax depth highest because the first decision a client sees is whether the answer is understandable and actionable. Licensing carries 20% because the two vendors price on different units. We left ratings and market share out of the weights. Both vendors cite survey placements, the full reports were not available to us, and a figure we could not open would be a guess.

Each vendor claim in this guide is labeled as vendor-authored where it comes from the vendor. Independent sources here are trade press (InvestmentNews) and a 2021 Kitces article. That article's author discloses a senior advisory role with Income Lab, so we treat it as a method explainer rather than a neutral review. The XYPN announcement is a partner release, not an independent test.

What each platform includes

The table below compares what each public plan lists. The columns are Income Lab's Core and Pro, and RightCapital's Basic and Premium. Rows marked "Not listed" mean the vendor's public pricing page does not itemize that feature for that tier, not that the feature is absent from the product.

Two gaps deserve a direct question before you sign. First, Income Lab's Core listing includes an AI assistant, while the detailed table marks plain-English plan questions as Pro only. Ask which AI features your tier includes and get the answer in writing. Second, RightCapital's Basic tier includes insurance planning. If your practice reviews insurance as part of planning, that alone may decide the question, because Income Lab's comparison article says the product does not analyze life, disability or long-term-care insurance.

What the two price lists actually cover

Income Lab's Core plan costs $199 per month or $1,990 billed annually, and its Pro plan costs $299 per month or $2,990 billed annually, according to Income Lab (2026). Its free trial gives full Pro access, requires a card, and converts to a paid Pro subscription unless cancelled. Billing can switch between monthly and annual at any time. A support-staff seat costs $80 per seat per month, or $800 billed annually, as an add-on to either plan. Enterprise pricing is quote-based and adds SSO/SAML and volume licensing. The page does not say whether a plan is licensed per advisor or per firm.

RightCapital's Basic plan costs $149.95 per advisor per month, Premium costs $209.95 and Platinum costs $254.95, with a 14-day trial, an annual commitment in year one, and assistant access at $40 per assistant per month, according to RightCapital (2026). Enterprise is listed as "Contact Sales" and adds API access and unified licensing and billing.

On the Cetera channel, Income Lab's pricing page lists different figures. Cetera-channel advisor license: $1,300 per seat per year rising to $1,430 in year three, according to Income Lab (2026). The same page says Cetera and Income Lab are not affiliated and are under separate ownership, so a Cetera-network buyer should price the channel offer separately from the public list.

Pricing checked November 13, 2026.

The table restates the list prices above. Enterprise pricing is quote-based for both vendors, and "Not published" means the vendor's pricing page does not give that figure.

Two points change the math. Income Lab does not say whether its plan price covers one advisor or the whole firm, so a three-advisor practice could pay a fraction of the total or the full figure depending on the answer. Ask for the license unit in writing. RightCapital's per-advisor model is explicit, but the first-year commitment and the assistant fee make the first bill larger than the monthly rate alone suggests. Third-party listings and comparison articles show lower RightCapital starting prices than the vendor's current page, so use the vendor page and get a written quote.

A three-advisor firm, worked through

Take a three-advisor firm with one assistant that is weighing RightCapital's Premium plan for its first year. At $209.95 per advisor per month, three licenses cost $629.85 a month, or $7,558.20 over twelve months, according to RightCapital (2026). Adding one assistant at $40 per month adds $480 over the year, which brings the twelve-month total to $8,038.20. The Income Lab side of this comparison cannot be finished from public pages alone, because its Pro price is not tied to a stated license unit, so the firm should request a quote that says whether $2,990 per year covers one advisor or the whole practice. The data side needs the same care: if the firm runs HubSpot as its CRM, HubSpot's webhook documentation lists ASSOCIATION_ADDED as the action for a newly linked association, which is the kind of event a proposed workflow could listen for when a plan is attached to a client record.

Guardrails versus probability of success

A guardrail is a spending rule that names a dollar trigger for a cut or a raise. A probability of success is the share of simulated market paths in which a plan's withdrawals last, usually produced by a Monte Carlo simulation, which runs many random market sequences. Income Lab's comparison article describes its own method as dollar-based guardrails and RightCapital's as probability-based output. We could not confirm RightCapital's method against its own documentation, so treat that description as Income Lab's characterization.

For the underlying logic, a 2021 Kitces article argues that a single success percentage tells an advisor very little about what to do next. Example guardrails: 95% target, 80% lower trigger, 99% upper trigger according to Kitces (2021). The article's example is illustrative, and its author discloses a senior advisory role with Income Lab.

The values above are the article's example, not a benchmark for either product. Use them to test vendors: ask each one to show a single client's trigger levels in dollars, the rule that moves spending, and the size of each adjustment. A success percentage alone does not answer the client's question.

Income Lab in practice: fit, limits and rollout

Income Lab fits advisors who build retirement income cases as the core of their practice and want dollar triggers alongside Social Security and tax modeling in one plan. Core includes guardrails-based retirement income planning, Social Security optimization, a Roth conversion optimizer, stress testing, state tax engines and Life Hub, the interactive one-page client plan. Pro adds the AI scribe, the Penny AI paraplanner, the 1040 upload with tax analysis, estate and Medicare planning, Yodlee account aggregation, team permissions and white-labeled deliverables.

Its strongest external signal is distribution, not an independent rating. XYPN members using Income Lab: more than 300 according to XYPN (2026). The release is a partner announcement, it lists Income Lab's own survey placements as claims, and it discloses no member price or discount.

The limits are the ones Income Lab itself concedes. Its comparison article says RightCapital is broader for insurance analysis, education planning, client portal depth, custodial integrations and CRM support. If your practice needs those, plan to pair Income Lab with another tool. Client account linking through Yodlee and the AI Interviewer questionnaire sit on Pro only, so a Core-only budget may not cover the client-facing workflow you expect. The article also says advisors typically run both platforms during a transition, which is a reasonable planning assumption if you are moving off an existing tool.

RightCapital in practice: fit, limits and rollout

RightCapital fits firms that want one platform for planning, insurance, budgeting and client collaboration under a per-advisor license. Basic includes retirement, tax and insurance planning, Snapshot and Blueprint outputs, investment, estate, advanced business and college planning, a secure document vault, a client-facing mobile app and live support. Premium adds account aggregation, budgeting tools and smart transaction tagging, along with the Tax Analyzer, RightIntel, the Iris AI planning agent, RightRisk and RightExpress. Platinum adds team collaboration, custom asset classes and RightFlows workflows.

The AI agent is the feature to test first. Iris AI agent: 3 proposed strategies, no added cost on Premium and Platinum according to InvestmentNews (2026). In the workflow, the advisor sets a probability-of-success target and the tool proposes 3 strategies, based on which plan components the client will change. The same article says Iris draws only on RightCapital's own calculation engine and that the industry-first claim is likely to be debated. It also does not describe a required advisor review step, so set that review in your own process.

The limits are mostly about tier placement and commitment. Basic does not include the AI agent, and Premium is the first tier with Tax Analyzer and Iris. Assistant access is extra on Premium and Platinum. Every plan requires an annual commitment in year one, so a short pilot is more expensive than the monthly rate suggests. The API is an Enterprise item, so a firm that wants its own integrations needs a quote early. On the positive side, the Basic tier lists live support, which matters for a small team without an internal administrator.

Building it yourself in Zapier or n8n

Many small firms consider a no-code build first. Zapier's help article on run statuses covers the behavior that matters for a plan-data workflow. A run that errors and is picked up by Autoreplay shows as Scheduled and is retried automatically. A Handled error follows a custom error path and the Zap stays on. An On hold run keeps its trigger data so you can replay it after a fix, according to Zapier help article. The article does not state how long run history is kept, so check that before you rely on it for audit evidence.

These features are real, but the buyer still has to design the parts that fail quietly. You own idempotency, so a retried run does not create a duplicate client task. You own escalation, meaning who receives each error. You own access controls over the credentials that connect the planning tool to your CRM, and you own maintenance when either vendor changes its export format. Make and n8n offer comparable building blocks, so verify their current retry and logging options before you design around them. A DIY build is a good choice when one trigger feeds one output and someone on staff will own it. It is a poor choice when every change to the planning platform needs a rebuild.

Where month-end plan checks and trial deadlines get stuck

Two pain points show up in most evaluations: reviewing plan outputs when a client's numbers move, and deciding before a trial ends. Both can be configured as proposed workflows. US Tech Automations would set up a design like these as a proposed build, not as a live deployment for either vendor.

The first proposed workflow starts when a plan export lands in a client folder, whether that is a PDF summary or a CSV pulled on a schedule. The action reads the spending figure and the guardrail or probability value, compares them with the prior export, and writes any change past a threshold your team sets into a review sheet. The output is a draft exception list for the advisor, not a client-facing number. Prerequisites are a repeatable export from the planning tool, which you must confirm with each vendor, and API access if your tier includes it. RightCapital lists API access on Enterprise, and Income Lab's pricing page does not list API access. Review points are the advisor's sign-off on every flagged value and compliance approval of the template before any client sees output.

The second proposed workflow handles the trial. When the trial start is logged, it opens a task for the operations lead to compare outputs for three sample clients and to decide, before the trial ends, whether to cancel, convert or switch. Income Lab's trial converts to a paid Pro subscription unless cancelled, so the decision date is a real control point. The output is a dated task list in your CRM with an owner for each step. Prerequisites are a CRM task API or a connector your team already trusts. US Tech Automations would set the reminders and the checklist, but your operations lead still closes the decision.

Who should choose which

Who this is for: Choose Income Lab if you run retirement income cases as the core of your practice and want dollar-based spending triggers with tax and Social Security depth. Choose RightCapital if you need insurance, budgeting and a broader client portal under a per-advisor license.

Red flags: you have not confirmed whether Income Lab's license is per advisor or per firm; your practice needs insurance analysis that Income Lab says it does not offer; or nobody on your team can name who owns the export that feeds either platform.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: Skip a proposed workflow if your reporting is one annual review, because a manual checklist or the planning platform's own report will do the job. Skip it if the vendor will not confirm export or API access in writing, since the workflow would have nothing reliable to read. Skip it if you want a finished product with no internal owner, because the review points have to sit with someone on your team.

Glossary

• Guardrails: Spending rules that set dollar triggers for a cut or a raise.

• Monte Carlo simulation: A model that runs many random market sequences to estimate how often a plan holds up.

• Probability of success: The share of simulated market paths in which a plan's withdrawals last.

• Life Hub: Income Lab's interactive one-page client plan, included on Core and Pro.

• Support-staff seat: Income Lab's add-on license for non-advisor staff.

• Assistant access: RightCapital's add-on for an assistant, priced per assistant.

• Quote-based: A price the vendor does not publish and provides only after a sales conversation.

• Autoreplay: Zapier's automatic retry for runs that failed because of a temporary problem.

Questions buyers ask first

Which platform handles tax planning better?

Income Lab lists more tax-specific tools on its public pages, including a Roth conversion optimizer and state tax engines on Core, and a 1040 upload with tax analysis on Pro. RightCapital's Premium tier adds a Tax Analyzer, so the right answer depends on how much tax modeling your clients need in one plan.

Is one of them cheaper for a small firm?

Neither answer is complete from public pages alone. RightCapital publishes per-advisor monthly rates, while Income Lab does not state its license unit, so ask Income Lab for a written quote that says whether the price is per advisor or per firm.

Has either product been renamed, merged or discontinued?

Not in the 2026 sources we opened. Income Lab's Cetera page states that Cetera and Income Lab are not affiliated and are under separate ownership, and we found no 2026 source describing a merger for either product.

Can I run both platforms during a trial?

Yes, and that is a reasonable way to compare outputs on the same client cases. Income Lab's trial gives full Pro access, but a parallel run needs a written data plan for each client file so the two outputs can be checked against each other.

Do these tools replace a CRM or custodian feeds?

No. Both connect to other systems, and the integration list is the part to verify before you sign. Income Lab's comparison article says it imports from Schwab and Fidelity through BridgeFT, while RightCapital's pricing page lists 40+ integrations.

Can Zapier automate the plan-review step?

Yes, for simple exports and alerts, as long as the planning tool offers a stable export. The risk is ownership: someone must maintain the retries, error paths and access controls after the build is finished.

Before you sign

Start with the question your clients ask most: how much can I spend, and what would change that? If the answer is a dollar trigger with strong tax and Social Security work, Income Lab is the narrower choice. If the answer needs insurance, budgeting and a wider client portal, RightCapital is the broader one. Get written answers on the license unit, the AI features on your tier and the export path, then decide. If you want to see how US Tech Automations configures a review workflow around either platform, see how US Tech Automations configures this.