Comparison

Gecko vs Your Own Spreadsheet (2026): Which Trading Journal Fits You?

By the Gecko team · Updated October 2026

Yes, this comparison lives on Gecko’s site, so read it knowing that. We have tried to keep it honest anyway, because the truth is simple: these are different tools built for different traders, and Your Own Spreadsheet is genuinely better for some of you. Here is the real breakdown so you can pick in five minutes.

The short version

An Excel or Google Sheets journal is what most serious-curious traders default to. It is free, fully customizable, and yours forever. A small minority of traders genuinely build great spreadsheets and keep them. The honest majority build a tab, fill in two weeks, and quietly let it die.

Gecko is built for the second group. Connect your broker read-only or upload a statement, and it produces a behavioral diagnosis automatically: twelve axes, each gated by a bootstrap significance test, ranked by realized dollar cost. The grading runs whether you log in or not. Pro is $12 per month with a fully featured free tier.

Side by side

Category	Gecko	Your Own Spreadsheet
Price	Free tier (every feature on your last 100 trades). Pro $12/month, Unlimited $20/month, 20% off billed yearly. New accounts start with a 14-day Pro trial. Cancel any time.	Free. The software is free. Your time to maintain it is not.
Setup	Connect your broker read-only, or upload a statement with no connection at all. First diagnosis in about two minutes.	Hours to set up a real template. Days to wire in formulas, charts, and tag taxonomies.
Maintenance	Upload again whenever you want a refresh. The grading is automatic.	Manual entry per trade, every trade, forever. Or you stop.
Behavioral analysis	12 axes, each significance-tested, ranked by dollar cost.	Whatever you remember to build in. Most spreadsheets stop at win rate and P&L.
Significance testing	Bootstrap test on every flagged pattern. You only see leaks that are real.	Effectively impossible to add yourself without a stats background.
Self-grading journal	30-second weekly entry, auto-graded 0 to 100 from your actual numbers.	Whatever you write in the notes column. No grade comes back.
Privacy	Your broker password never reaches Gecko; sync is read-only and revocable, or use uploads only. Data encrypted, never sold.	Files live on your machine. The privacy floor is yours to set.
Customizable dashboard	Drag-to-reorder widgets and eye-toggle their visibility from an in-page drawer.	Whatever you build yourself in sheets and pivot tables; you own the layout but you also build it.
Journal screenshots	Attach up to four chart or recap images to each weekly entry; click any thumbnail to expand to full size.	Paste an image into a cell; sizing and lightboxes are your problem to solve.
Money-back guarantee	7-day money-back guarantee on your first paid period.	Not applicable — spreadsheets are not a subscription.
Gecko AI · personal coach	Gecko AI: your personal trading and investing agent. Reads your trades, weekly journal, notes, goals, holdings and investment cases, suggests one concrete action for the week and checks in on it. Catches slow drifts (slipping hit rate, growing after-loss tilt) before they compound. About 25 messages a month free, about 500 on Pro, uncapped on Unlimited. Powered by Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5.	Not natively. You can wire an LLM in via add-ons, but there's no purpose-built chat coach grounded in your trade history.
Best for	Traders who want the diagnosis without the maintenance.	Traders who genuinely will sit down every weekend and update the sheet.
Daily Coach loop	AI pre-market briefing keyed off your actual data, end-of-day check-in (mood + rule + journal) joined with daily P&L, weekly plan-adherence score, mood × performance correlation, AI-written Monday recap email. All in the dashboard, free tier included.	Not offered. A trade-journal log plus reports; no daily AI coaching surface, no EOD check-in, no plan-adherence score, no AI recap email.
Broker auto-sync	Read-only OAuth via SnapTrade on Pro and Unlimited. 20+ brokers supported today — Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, tastytrade, TradeStation, Webull, Public, Alpaca, Tradier, Chase, Moomoo, eToro; plus Kraken and Coinbase for crypto; plus Questrade, Wealthsimple, and Trading 212 for CA/EU. Free tier keeps the always-available statement upload path. Password never crosses Gecko; tokens can be revoked from Settings.	Varies. Some competitors offer broker integrations on paid tiers; others require manual CSV uploads or a TradingView hand-off. See their own table rows for specifics.
Trade Replay + coach commentary	Play any trading day back as an interactive minute-bar chart with entry / exit markers, a 30-minute tilt window shaded on the chart, and a chronological tape weaving your trades with the behavioral alerts that fired. Zoom out to a multi-day chart on any swing position held across sessions — daily bars with entry / exit anchors, continuous across futures contract rolls. An AI coach writes a recap plus counterfactual on demand. Covers equities, crypto, and CME futures. Free tier.	Varies. A few competitors ship chart playback of trades on price bars; almost none pair it with a behavioral-alert overlay, a tilt-window band, a swing view for multi-day holds, and an AI-written recap in the same view.
Portfolio Analyzer for current holdings	One view of your entire book across every connected broker — asset + sector allocation, top-holdings + concentration warnings, per-account subtotals, projected annual dividend income. Snapshot-derived Risk & Returns block (MTD / YTD / 1M / 3M / 6M / 1Y, annualized vol, Sharpe, max drawdown, best/worst day). 60-day earnings + dividend + split calendar with days-until badges. Performance vs a benchmark you choose (time-weighted, deposits and withdrawals taken out), a volatility vs return map of every position, a correlation matrix, and news for each holding. An AI-written review grounded in your actual numbers. Behavioral overlays flag positions >=5% of book without a written investment case, plus any position underwater >=25% on cost. On every plan; read-only auto-sync of holdings is Pro and Unlimited, and new accounts get a 14-day Pro trial.	Not offered. Journaling tools grade closed trades, not current holdings; portfolio aggregators show balances without a behavioral overlay, upcoming-catalyst calendar, or AI review. Neither category pairs holdings with the trader's own written thesis on the position.
Investment cases + community	Write a thesis for any stock with a target and a stop; an AI analyst drafts it from a ticker and a side. Gecko alerts you when price reaches a level, runs weekly thesis check-ins and earnings-day notes (Pro), and tracks the case's return from the day you write it. Publish to the Community Board to be tracked in public, follow other investors, and enter the Monthly Case Challenge with cash and plan prizes.	Not offered. Trading journals log trades after the fact; they don't track a written thesis with levels before you buy, or a public, performance-tracked board of cases.
Session guardrails + prop-firm presets	Set a daily loss limit, trailing drawdown and profit target, or load a preset for Topstep, Apex, Take Profit Trader, FTMO or MyFundedFutures. The Session Monitor shows how close you are, and push alerts fire before a bad day becomes a blown account, including a tilt warning right after a stop-out.	Varies. Most journals report rule breaks after the session; few warn you live, and few ship prop-firm rule presets.

Price

Gecko: Free tier (every feature on your last 100 trades). Pro $12/month, Unlimited $20/month, 20% off billed yearly. New accounts start with a 14-day Pro trial. Cancel any time.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Free. The software is free. Your time to maintain it is not.

Setup

Gecko: Connect your broker read-only, or upload a statement with no connection at all. First diagnosis in about two minutes.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Hours to set up a real template. Days to wire in formulas, charts, and tag taxonomies.

Maintenance

Gecko: Upload again whenever you want a refresh. The grading is automatic.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Manual entry per trade, every trade, forever. Or you stop.

Behavioral analysis

Gecko: 12 axes, each significance-tested, ranked by dollar cost.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Whatever you remember to build in. Most spreadsheets stop at win rate and P&L.

Significance testing

Gecko: Bootstrap test on every flagged pattern. You only see leaks that are real.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Effectively impossible to add yourself without a stats background.

Self-grading journal

Gecko: 30-second weekly entry, auto-graded 0 to 100 from your actual numbers.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Whatever you write in the notes column. No grade comes back.

Privacy

Gecko: Your broker password never reaches Gecko; sync is read-only and revocable, or use uploads only. Data encrypted, never sold.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Files live on your machine. The privacy floor is yours to set.

Customizable dashboard

Gecko: Drag-to-reorder widgets and eye-toggle their visibility from an in-page drawer.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Whatever you build yourself in sheets and pivot tables; you own the layout but you also build it.

Journal screenshots

Gecko: Attach up to four chart or recap images to each weekly entry; click any thumbnail to expand to full size.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Paste an image into a cell; sizing and lightboxes are your problem to solve.

Money-back guarantee

Gecko: 7-day money-back guarantee on your first paid period.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Not applicable — spreadsheets are not a subscription.

Gecko AI · personal coach

Gecko: Gecko AI: your personal trading and investing agent. Reads your trades, weekly journal, notes, goals, holdings and investment cases, suggests one concrete action for the week and checks in on it. Catches slow drifts (slipping hit rate, growing after-loss tilt) before they compound. About 25 messages a month free, about 500 on Pro, uncapped on Unlimited. Powered by Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Not natively. You can wire an LLM in via add-ons, but there's no purpose-built chat coach grounded in your trade history.

Best for

Gecko: Traders who want the diagnosis without the maintenance.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Traders who genuinely will sit down every weekend and update the sheet.

Daily Coach loop

Gecko: AI pre-market briefing keyed off your actual data, end-of-day check-in (mood + rule + journal) joined with daily P&L, weekly plan-adherence score, mood × performance correlation, AI-written Monday recap email. All in the dashboard, free tier included.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Not offered. A trade-journal log plus reports; no daily AI coaching surface, no EOD check-in, no plan-adherence score, no AI recap email.

Broker auto-sync

Gecko: Read-only OAuth via SnapTrade on Pro and Unlimited. 20+ brokers supported today — Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, tastytrade, TradeStation, Webull, Public, Alpaca, Tradier, Chase, Moomoo, eToro; plus Kraken and Coinbase for crypto; plus Questrade, Wealthsimple, and Trading 212 for CA/EU. Free tier keeps the always-available statement upload path. Password never crosses Gecko; tokens can be revoked from Settings.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Varies. Some competitors offer broker integrations on paid tiers; others require manual CSV uploads or a TradingView hand-off. See their own table rows for specifics.

Trade Replay + coach commentary

Gecko: Play any trading day back as an interactive minute-bar chart with entry / exit markers, a 30-minute tilt window shaded on the chart, and a chronological tape weaving your trades with the behavioral alerts that fired. Zoom out to a multi-day chart on any swing position held across sessions — daily bars with entry / exit anchors, continuous across futures contract rolls. An AI coach writes a recap plus counterfactual on demand. Covers equities, crypto, and CME futures. Free tier.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Varies. A few competitors ship chart playback of trades on price bars; almost none pair it with a behavioral-alert overlay, a tilt-window band, a swing view for multi-day holds, and an AI-written recap in the same view.

Portfolio Analyzer for current holdings

Gecko: One view of your entire book across every connected broker — asset + sector allocation, top-holdings + concentration warnings, per-account subtotals, projected annual dividend income. Snapshot-derived Risk & Returns block (MTD / YTD / 1M / 3M / 6M / 1Y, annualized vol, Sharpe, max drawdown, best/worst day). 60-day earnings + dividend + split calendar with days-until badges. Performance vs a benchmark you choose (time-weighted, deposits and withdrawals taken out), a volatility vs return map of every position, a correlation matrix, and news for each holding. An AI-written review grounded in your actual numbers. Behavioral overlays flag positions >=5% of book without a written investment case, plus any position underwater >=25% on cost. On every plan; read-only auto-sync of holdings is Pro and Unlimited, and new accounts get a 14-day Pro trial.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Not offered. Journaling tools grade closed trades, not current holdings; portfolio aggregators show balances without a behavioral overlay, upcoming-catalyst calendar, or AI review. Neither category pairs holdings with the trader's own written thesis on the position.

Investment cases + community

Gecko: Write a thesis for any stock with a target and a stop; an AI analyst drafts it from a ticker and a side. Gecko alerts you when price reaches a level, runs weekly thesis check-ins and earnings-day notes (Pro), and tracks the case's return from the day you write it. Publish to the Community Board to be tracked in public, follow other investors, and enter the Monthly Case Challenge with cash and plan prizes.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Not offered. Trading journals log trades after the fact; they don't track a written thesis with levels before you buy, or a public, performance-tracked board of cases.

Session guardrails + prop-firm presets

Gecko: Set a daily loss limit, trailing drawdown and profit target, or load a preset for Topstep, Apex, Take Profit Trader, FTMO or MyFundedFutures. The Session Monitor shows how close you are, and push alerts fire before a bad day becomes a blown account, including a tilt warning right after a stop-out.

Your Own Spreadsheet: Varies. Most journals report rule breaks after the session; few warn you live, and few ship prop-firm rule presets.

Your Own Spreadsheet prices and features come from their pricing page and public listings as of October 2026. Plans change often, so check their site before you decide. Gecko details are current as of the same date.

The honest verdict

Choose Your Own Spreadsheet if...

•You enjoy spreadsheets and have already kept one going for at least six months.
•Your edge depends on a custom analysis no off-the-shelf tool will compute for you.
•You want every byte of your data on your own machine, full stop.

Choose Gecko if...

•You have started two spreadsheets and abandoned both within a month.
•You want behavior detected and priced for you, not formulas you have to write.
•You want a significance test you do not have to build yourself.
•You would rather spend the time trading and reviewing than maintaining a sheet.

One honest note: A great spreadsheet beats a half-used journal app. We have seen traders run very good spreadsheets. The reason we built Gecko anyway is that the spreadsheet you keep meaning to update is doing nothing for you, and the spreadsheet you actually keep is the rare exception. If you are honest about which one is yours, the choice gets easier.

The cheapest way to decide

Gecko’s free tier analyzes your last 100 trades with every feature unlocked, no card and no broker connection. If the diagnosis does not show you something worth fixing, you have lost two minutes.

Get your free diagnosisAn educational tool, not financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

Is a spreadsheet really worse than Gecko?

A spreadsheet you actually maintain is excellent. The problem is the survival rate. Most trading-journal spreadsheets die within a month, at which point they are not better, they are just abandoned.

What can a spreadsheet do that Gecko cannot?

Anything you can express in a formula, and full local-only ownership of the data. If you have built a custom analysis Gecko does not run, a sheet is the right home for it.

What can Gecko do that a spreadsheet cannot?

Detect behavioral patterns automatically, gate them with a bootstrap significance test, rank them by realized dollar cost, and grade your weekly review from your real numbers, all without you writing a formula. Beyond the journal it covers the rest of your account: a portfolio view across brokers, written investment cases with target and stop alerts, session guardrails with prop-firm presets, and a daily coaching loop.

Can I use both?

Yes, and some traders do. Keep the spreadsheet for the custom analysis you actually run, lean on Gecko for the behavioral read. At $12 a month, Gecko is the lighter lift.