Honest comparison · Published 30 Oct 2026

A spreadsheet is free and flexible.
It just stops scaling.

Plenty of good traders journal in Excel, Google Sheets or Notion, and if yours works, keep it. The trouble starts at volume: every trade typed by hand, formulas that break, and no live view of how close a prop account is to its limit. RB Trading syncs MT4, MT5 and cTrader on its own and takes your old sheet as a CSV.

Start free, 50 trades, no card

Happy with your spreadsheet? Keep it. Import the CSV and see what the journal finds in the same trades, free for the first 50, no card.

Prop Tracker live account status: current equity $203,303.73, challenge progress 16.5%
Real screen: Nathan’s FunderPro 200K challenge in the Prop Tracker, published 5 Jul 2026

Pro is $29.99 a month. Refund in full within 30 days of your first payment, one email to journal@rbtrading.site.

A short tour of the journal

How it reads a synced account and points at what is costing you.

The short version

  • A sheet costs nothing and bends to anything you want to track.
  • A journal costs money and gives you sync, analytics and drawdown tracking you would otherwise build and maintain yourself.
  • A few trades a week: a sheet is fine.
  • Many trades, or prop challenges: the hours start to add up.

Disclosure

  • RB Trading wrote this page and builds the Pro Journal, so we are not neutral.
  • The Reddit points below come from archived thread snapshots we read, linked so you can judge them.
  • Spot something wrong?
  • Email journal@rbtrading.site.
Where sheets struggle

What changes at volume

The same threads also had traders advising others to stay on a sheet. Both views are fair, and the right answer depends on how much you trade.

Manual entry wears thin
In 3 of the 4 archived Reddit threads we read (snapshots from r/Daytrading, Jan 2026, r/Trading, May 2026 and r/Trading, Jun 2026), traders said typing trades in by hand gets tedious, or that sheets get messy as volume grows.
Formulas drift
Add a column, change a currency or split a partial close, and the formulas downstream quietly stop matching your broker. Nobody notices until a monthly total looks wrong.
No live drawdown view
A sheet only knows what you typed. A prop account’s daily and max drawdown room changes with every trade, and the sheet is always behind it.
Side by side

RB Trading vs a spreadsheet

A fair comparison, including where the sheet wins.

RB Trading Pro JournalSpreadsheet or Notion
CostFree for 50 trades in total; Pro $29.99 a month Free
Getting trades in Live MT4, MT5 and cTrader sync; file import and a generic CSV mapper for the restTyped or pasted by hand
Layout freedomSet fields, plus your own notes Total. Any column you want
Prop drawdown room Prop Tracker with breach alertsOnly if you build and update it
Analytics Pro: full analytics, reports and RB Score. Free: P&L calendar and risk toolsWhatever formulas you write
AI trade review 3 in total free, 30 a day on Pro No
Your data Cloud backup, full export, export after cancelling Your own file

RB facts from rbtrading.site/pricing, checked 30 Oct 2026.

Bring your sheet

Already have years in a spreadsheet?

You do not have to start again. Export the sheet as a CSV and the generic CSV mapper brings it in once you tag the columns. Import the same file twice and nothing doubles up. From then on, MT4, MT5 and cTrader trades sync on their own through the read-only RBSync add-on.

We do not offer a template download. If you are still deciding what to track, our post on trading log templates covers the columns worth keeping.

Honest limits

Where the sheet wins, and where we fall short

A sheet is free forever. Our free plan stops at 50 trades in total, and full analytics, backtesting and replay are Pro only.

A sheet tracks anything. If your edge depends on a field no journal has, a sheet will always be more flexible.

No live futures sync. RB has no live Rithmic, ProjectX or TopstepX connection; futures come in by file import, much like pasting into a sheet.

When to stay

When to stay with your spreadsheet

Stay if you place a few trades a week, you enjoy building your own tracking, you trade one personal account with no prop rules, or your sheet already answers the questions you ask of it. That is a working journal.

Move if you are typing more than you are reviewing, if you trade prop challenges and need to know the room left today, or if you keep meaning to analyse the sheet and never do.

Keep the sheet if you like

See what a journal finds in the same trades.

Import your CSV or sync MT4, MT5 or cTrader. 50 trades free, no card.

Start free, 50 trades, no card

Happy with your spreadsheet? Keep it. Import the CSV and see what the journal finds in the same trades, free for the first 50, no card.

Prop Tracker live account status: current equity $203,303.73, challenge progress 16.5%
Real screen: Nathan’s FunderPro 200K challenge in the Prop Tracker, published 5 Jul 2026

Pro is $29.99 a month. Refund in full within 30 days of your first payment, one email to journal@rbtrading.site.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is a spreadsheet good enough for a trading journal?

For a handful of trades a week, often yes. A spreadsheet or Notion page is free, flexible and fully yours. It gets harder as volume grows: every trade is typed or pasted by hand, formulas break when columns move, and drawdown limits have to be built and checked yourself.

Can I import my trading spreadsheet into RB Trading?

Yes. Export your sheet as a CSV and the generic CSV mapper brings it in once you tag the columns. Import the same file again and nothing doubles up. MT4, MT5 and cTrader accounts can also sync live through the read-only RBSync add-on.

Is there a free trading journal template?

RB Trading does not offer a template download. Our blog post on trading log templates covers what columns to track. If you would rather not build one, RB's free plan covers your first 50 trades with live MT4, MT5 and cTrader sync, no card.

Should I use Notion or Excel for a trading journal?

Either works for notes and simple tables. Neither connects to your broker, so trades are entered by hand, and neither tracks prop drawdown room live unless you build it. A dedicated journal does both, at the cost of less freedom over the layout.