A spreadsheet vs Tiller: do you need $99/year bank sync?
Updated August 2026
Use a plain spreadsheet if you are willing to type your transactions and want to spend $0; pay for Tiller if manual entry is the specific thing that has made you quit budgeting before. Tiller costs $99/year (30-day free trial, per Tiller’s pricing page) and its one real advantage is automation: it imports your bank and card transactions into a Google Sheet or Excel file and auto-categorizes them with AutoCat. A free or one-time-purchase template does everything else a budget needs, you just enter the numbers yourself.
Side by side
| Plain spreadsheet | Tiller | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $0 (free) or $9, $29 once | $99 / year |
| Bank sync | No, manual entry | Yes, automatic import |
| Categorization | You tag each row | AutoCat rules auto-tag |
| Data ownership | Your file, forever | Your sheet stays; sync stops if you cancel |
| Ongoing cost | None | Recurring every year |
| Effort per week | 10, 20 min typing | A few min reviewing |
When Tiller earns its price
Tiller is worth it when the friction of manual entry is what breaks your consistency, the CFPB is blunt that “making, and sticking, with a budget takes effort,” and removing the highest-friction step is a legitimate way to keep going. If you have many accounts and cards, automation compounds.
When a spreadsheet wins
A free or one-time template wins when you want zero recurring cost, full control over the layout, and don’t connect a bank at all (some people won’t link accounts to a third party). You still get every method, 50/30/20, zero-based, plan-vs-actual, because those are just formulas.