I build firenum's Fire Planner, a direct competitor to ProjectionLab. That gives me an unusual vantage point for a review: I know exactly which features are hard to build, which ones are marketing, and which gaps matter in practice. It also means you should watch me for bias. Here's the conclusion up front so you can judge the rest against it: ProjectionLab is the best paid FIRE planning tool available in 2026, and for US-based planners who need tax modeling, it earns its price.
What ProjectionLab Is
ProjectionLab is a web-based financial planning simulator built by Kyle Nolan, who launched it solo in 2021 and grew it to over $1M in annual revenue with zero outside funding. Around 100,000 households use it. You model your income, spending, accounts, and milestones, then simulate your financial life year by year with Monte Carlo runs and historical backtesting.
The bootstrapped, founder-run history matters for one practical reason: the product is shaped by user requests on a public roadmap, and it has improved steadily every year since launch. This is the opposite of abandonware, which is the fate of most FIRE calculators.
Pricing
| Tier | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | Cash-flow projections, Monte Carlo, historical backtesting. No saving: close the tab and your plan is gone. |
| Premium | $129/year | Saved plans, tax estimation, Roth conversion modeling, what-if comparison mode, international presets, downloadable reports. |
| Lifetime | $1,199 one-time | All Premium features permanently. The price has climbed from $450 at launch, so waiting costs money. |
The Basic tier is a genuine trial, and it isn't crippled: the simulation engine is the full one. The catch is persistence. Without Premium, nothing saves between sessions, which makes the tier a demo for anything beyond a one-off check.
Where It Shines
Tax modeling. This is the headline feature and the main reason to pay. ProjectionLab estimates federal and state taxes year by year, models Roth conversion ladders, and shows the tax drag on different withdrawal orders. Getting this right is genuinely hard. I know because firenum deliberately doesn't attempt it. If your retirement plan hinges on Roth conversions in low-income years, this feature alone can be worth several years of the subscription price.
Scenario comparison. Premium lets you clone a plan, change assumptions, and view outcomes side by side: retire at 45 vs 50, sell the house vs keep it. The comparison view is the cleanest implementation of this I've seen anywhere.
Design quality. Mad Fientist called it "the most beautiful financial planning tool I've ever seen," and that holds up. Charts are clear, interactions are fast, and the learning curve is gentler than the feature list suggests.
Community endorsements it never paid for. Mr. Money Mustache recommended it while explicitly stating no affiliation. On the Bogleheads forum, sentiment has shifted toward ProjectionLab precisely because its praise reads as organic. In a niche where most rankings are pay-to-play, that's meaningful.
Where It Falls Short
Multi-currency support is still missing. The request has sat on the roadmap since November 2021 with more votes than any other. You can change the display symbol; the engine still thinks in one currency. International planners with income or assets in more than one currency have to fake it.
The free tier can't save. Fair as a business decision, and worth knowing before you spend an evening building a detailed plan in the Basic tier.
An account is required, and your plan lives on their servers. ProjectionLab has a good reputation here and offers strong privacy controls. Still, a plan you type into someone else's database is a different privacy posture than one that never leaves your browser. Their self-hosted option for Lifetime customers was deprecated in late 2025.
ProjectionLab vs firenum
The honest comparison: firenum matches ProjectionLab on Monte Carlo simulation and historical backtesting (both use full historical data, firenum from 1871), runs entirely in your browser with nothing to sign up for, and handles 9 currencies properly. ProjectionLab beats firenum on tax modeling, Roth conversions, and scenario comparison. There's a full head-to-head in firenum vs ProjectionLab.
Many people sensibly use both: firenum for quick, private, everyday planning, and ProjectionLab when a decision has tax consequences.
Who Should Pay for It
- US-based planners whose retirement math depends on taxes: Roth ladders, ACA subsidy cliffs, state tax arbitrage
- Anyone who wants to compare retirement scenarios side by side with saved plans
- People who value a polished, actively developed tool and are happy to pay for it
Who Should Skip It
- Planners outside the US, especially with multi-currency finances: the tax engine is US-first and the currency gap is real
- Anyone who wants their financial data kept out of the cloud entirely
- People whose plan is straightforward enough that a 4% rule check answers it: start with ProjectionLab's Basic tier or firenum and see if you ever hit the ceiling
Verdict: 4.5/5
ProjectionLab is the paid FIRE planner I'd recommend to a friend with a US tax situation, and the one I benchmark firenum against. The half point comes off for the missing multi-currency support and the no-save free tier. If tax-aware planning is what you need, try it : the Basic tier costs nothing and shows you the full engine before you commit.
Want the private, in-browser version first?