Best free trading journal (2026): what you actually get without paying
Most "free" trading journals are a trial, a 30-trade cap, or a plan that doesn't take futures. Here's what each free option really gives you, where it stops, and which one fits how you trade.
The short version
If you want everything free with no trade cap, Actal is free in full during its beta, futures and forex included. If you trade stocks only, TradesViz's free plan is generous. Tradervue and Trademetria are free up to 30 trades or orders a month, which a day trader passes in a week. And a spreadsheet is free forever if you don't mind typing.
- You take fewer than 30 trades a month
- You trade stocks only, in one account
- You mostly want a record, not a review
- You're happy typing trades in by hand
- You day trade and would hit a 30-trade cap in a week
- You trade futures or forex
- You want to know which mistakes cost you, not just your P&L
- You want rules checked on every trade without typing anything
What "free" usually means
- A free trial: everything for 7 or 14 days, then you pay. Fine for testing, not a free journal.
- A capped free plan: free forever, but only so many trades a month, often 30. One busy week and you're over.
- A limited free plan: free forever, but stocks only, or one account, or no reports.
- Actually free: a spreadsheet, an open source tool you run yourself, or a product in beta.
The free trading journals, compared
| Free plan | The limit | Futures on free? | Paid from | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actal | Everything, during beta | No broker sync or backtesting yet | Yes | Founder's price, not announced yet |
| TradesViz | Basic | Stocks only, one account | No | €13.49 a month yearly |
| Tradervue | Free | 30 trades a month | Yes | $29.95 a month |
| Trademetria | Free | 30 orders a month, one account | Yes | $19.95 a month |
| TradeTally | Free, open source | Newer product | Yes | Free to self-host |
| Spreadsheet | Free forever | You type everything | Yes | Free |
From each company's own pricing or help pages in September 2026. TradeZella, TraderSync and Edgewonk have no free plan: TradeZella starts at $35 a month (full pricing), TraderSync has a 7-day trial and then starts at $29.95 a month, and Edgewonk is $197 a year. Prices change, so check before you sign up.
Each one in a sentence or two
- Actal (mine): free with every feature during the beta. Imports from NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Rithmic, TradingView, MetaTrader, thinkorswim, Interactive Brokers and more, checks every trade against your rules and puts a dollar cost on every mistake. No broker sync or backtesting yet.
- TradesViz: the most generous free plan if you only trade stocks. Futures and other markets need a paid plan.
- Tradervue: a long-standing journal with good reports. The free plan stops at 30 trades a month, which suits swing traders more than day traders.
- Trademetria: similar idea, 30 orders a month and one account on the free plan.
- TradeTally: open source, so free if you host it yourself. Newer, and you look after it.
- A spreadsheet: free forever and fully yours. Our free trading journal template does the grading and mistake costs with formulas. The cost is typing every trade.
How to pick in 20 minutes
- Count your trades last month. Over 30? Rule out the capped plans now.
- Check your market. Futures or forex rules out stocks-only free plans.
- Export last month's trades from your platform and load the same file into your top two.
- Check the trade count and P&L match your platform. If they don't, drop that one.
- Ask each one: what's my most expensive habit? Keep the one that gives you a straight answer.
Who wrote this
I'm Joakim. I trade index futures full time and coach traders one-on-one at Jusell Trading Academy. Most of my students start out on a free tool or a spreadsheet, so these are the questions I get every week. Actal is mine and it's first in the table, so I've written down what it's missing too.
Questions people ask
Drop in one export. In a minute Actal grades the trades it can, prices the mistakes you tagged, and tells you the first thing to fix. Free during beta, no card.
Full-time index futures trader. Coaches traders one-on-one at Jusell Trading Academy, five students at a time, since 2020. No platform was built for developing traders, so he had his own coaching software built; old students loved it and kept coming back, and Actal is that software turned into a proper journal for what matters.