Vertex42 vs Tiller vs sheetfolk: which budget spreadsheet is best?

● Updated August 2026 | sources cited inline

Short answer: Choose Vertex42 if you want a proven free template and will enter transactions manually. Choose Tiller ($99/yr, 30-day trial) if you want your bank data to sync automatically into a spreadsheet. Choose a paid one-time template like sheetfolk ($9, $29 once) if you want a polished, method-specific sheet without any subscription and are happy to enter data yourself. The dividing question is automatic sync (Tiller) versus free-or-cheap manual (Vertex42, sheetfolk).

Spreadsheet templates compared, verified from vendor pages, Aug 2026
	Vertex42	Tiller	sheetfolk
Price	Free	$99/yr	$9, $29 one-time
Bank sync	Manual entry	Automatic	Manual entry
Recurring cost	None	$99 every year	None after purchase
Formats	Excel, Sheets, LibreOffice	Sheets, Excel	Excel, Sheets, LibreOffice
Trial	n/a (free)	30 days	Free updates to your edition
Best for	Free, no-frills tracking	Hands-off automation	Polished, method-specific, no subscription

Free Vertex42 or paid Tiller, is automatic sync worth $99 a year?

Do the arithmetic on your own time. Manual entry for a typical household is roughly ten minutes a week. Tiller's $99/yr removes that. If your time is worth more than about $2 per weekly session to you, or you know you will quit without automation, Tiller pays for itself; if not, Vertex42 is free and does the same math. Vertex42's own pages report over a million combined downloads across its money templates, so the free option is battle-tested.

Bottom line sheetfolk competes with Vertex42, not Tiller, both are manual-entry, no-sync spreadsheets. If you want a polished, method-specific design (sinking funds, couples budgets) rather than a generic free grid, sheetfolk is the best pick, and at a one-time $9 to $29 it is still far cheaper than a year of Tiller. Vertex42 wins if the price has to be exactly zero. If you want automatic bank sync, neither sheetfolk nor Vertex42 does that, Tiller does. See our sheetfolk vs Tiller page.

Recommendation

Start free: download Vertex42, use it a month.
Hate manual entry: upgrade to Tiller for automatic sync.
Want a nicer, method-specific sheet without a subscription: a paid one-time template.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tiller worth it over a free Vertex42 spreadsheet?

Tiller ($99/yr) is worth it only for automatic bank sync. If you will do about ten minutes of manual transaction entry a week, Vertex42 is free and does the same budgeting math. Tiller's 30-day trial lets you test whether the automation changes your habits.

What is the difference between sheetfolk and Vertex42?

Both are manual-entry spreadsheets with no bank sync. Vertex42 is free with over a million combined downloads; sheetfolk sells polished, method-specific templates (sinking funds, couples budgets) as one-time purchases from $9 to $29. Neither syncs your bank automatically.

Do these spreadsheets work in Google Sheets and Excel?

Vertex42 and sheetfolk work in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. Tiller works in Google Sheets and Excel and adds automatic transaction import on top.

Which is cheapest over three years?

Vertex42 (free) is cheapest, then a one-time paid template at roughly $9-$29 total. Tiller costs $99 per year, so about $297 over three years, the price of its automatic sync.

Primary sources & references

Vertex42, Money Management Template (download counts), https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/money-management-template.html
Tiller, official pricing page, https://tiller.com/pricing/