A free TraderSync alternative — no signup, no trial clock
TraderSync is a capable, decade-old product, and this page says where it beats us. But its cheapest path to journaling one trade is $29.95 a month after a seven-day trial, and it has no free tier at all. Ours is free the whole way down: the journal opens in your browser, keeps your data on your machine, and asks for nothing.
Side by side
| Feature | StockTools journal | TraderSync |
|---|---|---|
| Price to log your first trade | Free, forever | $29.95/mo after a 7-day trialTheir published floor, Aug 2026 |
| Account required | No — starts in your browser | Yes |
| Free tier | The whole tool | None (a /pricing-free/ page is disallowed in their robots.txt) |
| P&L calendar | Yes, free — plus year grid and shareable image | Yes, paid |
| Broker import | CSV, parsed in your browser — nothing to desync | Automated sync, hundreds of brokersTheir genuine advantage |
| Market replay simulator | No — needs licensed tick data | Yes, tick-levelTheir genuine advantage |
| Native mobile app | No — responsive web | Yes (App Store rating 2.7/5 from 83 ratings, Aug 2026) |
| AI coaching | No chatbot — deterministic reports instead | Cypher AI, metered 5–60 messages/day by tier |
| Plan adherence grading | Yes, free — fractions, ungradable rules stay ungraded | Yes, paid |
| Emotion → realized R | Yes, free (tilt ledger + confidence calibration) | Not offered |
| Event context (earnings / offerings) | Yes, free — from SEC filings we already parse | Not offered |
| Export your data | CSV + JSON, free, unwatermarked | Included in paid plans |
When TraderSync is the better choice
Plainly: if you want automated broker sync rather than dropping in a CSV, if you want a tick-level replay simulator to rehearse setups, or if a native mobile appmatters more to you than price, they sell those and we do not. Replay in particular needs licensed tick data, which our zero-cost-data rule rules out — so we would rather say “we don’t do that” than ship a worse version of it.
What our journal has that theirs doesn’t
- Event context. Your trades joined against SEC filings we already parse: which landed on an earnings day, which fell inside an offering window. Only ticker and date leave your browser to compute it.
- The tilt ledger. Realized R split by the emotion you logged, plus confidence calibration — does your 5/5 conviction actually beat your 2/5? Broker statements carry no psychology, so no import-based journal can answer this.
- What-if reports that can disappoint you. Filters that would have hurt your P&L show their negative delta. A counterfactual tool that only flatters is a sales pitch.
- Suppression by default. Buckets under the sample-size floor print “not enough trades” instead of a confident-looking percentage.
- Free exports. CSV and JSON, unwatermarked. Charging people to retrieve their own trades is a line we won’t cross.
Free TraderSync alternative — FAQ
Is StockTools’ trading journal really free?
Yes. The journal runs in your browser using local storage, so you can log a trade seconds after landing, with no account and no trial clock. Signing in is optional and only adds durable sync across devices — it does not unlock features.
What does TraderSync cost?
As of August 2026 their published plans are $29.95, $49.95 and $79.95 per month (about 25% less paid annually), each with a 7-day trial. There is no free tier; their robots.txt disallows a /pricing-free/ path, which indicates a free plan page existed and was retired.
What does TraderSync do that StockTools does not?
Three real things: automated broker sync across hundreds of brokers (we import CSV files instead), a tick-data market replay simulator, and a native mobile app. Replay needs licensed tick data, which our zero-cost-data rule rules out, so we do not pretend to offer it.
Can I move my journal out of StockTools?
Any time, free. Export CSV or JSON in one click. We do not charge to get your own data out, and exports are never watermarked.
What can StockTools do that a normal journal cannot?
Join your trades with public filing data we already compute: which of your trades landed on an earnings day or inside an offering window, plus a tilt ledger comparing realized R by your logged emotion and confidence. No broker statement carries psychology data, and no journal we found carries filing context.
We are not affiliated with TraderSync, and TraderSync is their trademark. Everything above about their product comes from their own public pages and a public app-store listing on the date noted; nothing here is a user review we wrote. Educational information, not investment advice.
Keep going: the free journal · what to log and how to review it · risk playbook