The best trading journal in 2026: ten compared
By DT Terminal · Published · Updated · Prices checked 10 September 2026
The right trading journal depends on what you trade and how the trades get in. For the widest automatic sync, TradeZella connects to over 500 brokers and prop firms from $35 a month, and TraderSync claims over 700 from $29.95. TradesViz gives the most away free, though free imports stock trades only, with paid plans under $20. Trademetria publishes which brokers actually sync and starts free. Tradervue is review first with no backtesting, free up to 30 trades a month. Edgewonk is one payment of $197 for 16 months. TraderMake.money is crypto only, and it, TradeJournal.co and DT Terminal are the three here with a working Claude connector. DT Terminal is the AI trading improvement platform, where Edge learns from your trades to show you what to fix, on narrower sync: MetaTrader, cTrader, TradeLocker, Tradovate and crypto, with no Rithmic or stock broker sync. A spreadsheet stays the honest free baseline, and it is the right answer for anyone logging a few trades a week.
Ten journals, side by side.
| Journal | Markets | Auto sync | Replay and backtesting | From price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TradeZella | Stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto | 500+ brokers, auto | Replay on Pro, backtesting on all plans | $35/mo |
| TraderSync | Stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto | 700+ claimed, list not public | Replay simulator, options on Elite | $29.95/mo |
| TradesViz | Stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto | 250+ platforms, 70+ auto | Replay, simulator and backtester on Platinum | Free, paid $19.99/mo |
| Trademetria | Stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto, CFDs | 140+ brokers, list published | What if scenarios only | Free, paid $19.95/mo |
| Tradervue | Stocks, options, futures, forex | 80+ integrations, sync on paid | Free, paid $29.95/mo | |
| Edgewonk | Forex, stocks, futures, crypto, options | MetaTrader auto, others by file | Backtester, no trade replay | $197 per 16 months |
| TraderMake.money | Crypto only | 7 exchanges, read only keys | Free, paid $6/mo | |
| TradeJournal.co | Stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto | 39 auto, 137 in the directory | Free, Pro $35/mo | |
| DT Terminal | Forex, metals, futures, crypto | MetaTrader, cTrader, TradeLocker, Tradovate, crypto | Trade Replay on Pro, backtester on every plan | Free, Plus $9/mo |
| A spreadsheet or Notion | Anything you type in | Free |
USD as listed on each vendor's own site on the date above. Annual billing is usually cheaper than the monthly figure, and promotional prices were listed as promotions.
Grouped by the job rather than ranked. One to five sync widely and review everything; six to eight are built around a narrower job; nine and ten are the free and the do it yourself ends. Each answers the same six questions.
01TradeZella
- A journal, backtester and reporting tool in one, aimed at traders who want everything in a single subscription. Web.
- Its pricing page claims over 500 broker and prop firm integrations. MetaTrader 4 and 5, Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic R Trader, Interactive Brokers, Schwab and thinkorswim are listed as auto sync, Webull as file upload only, and on crypto Bybit auto syncs while Coinbase is file upload.
- Trade Replay on the Pro and Ultra plans, not on Essential, with 1 second precision charts. Manual backtesting is on every plan, capped at 10 strategies on Essential. Automated backtesting from written rules is 10 runs a month on Pro and 100 on Ultra.
- No free plan is listed. Essential is $35 a month or $26 a month billed at $315 a year. Pro is $59 or $44 billed annually, and Ultra is $99 or $74.
- The entry plan is the one most people compare on price, and it has one active account, no trade replay and no automated backtesting.
- Traders who want the widest automatic sync, including futures and stocks, and will pay monthly for it.
02TraderSync
- A journal with a market replay simulator and AI coaching, covering stocks, forex, futures, crypto and options. Web.
- The site says it connects with over 700 brokers and trading platforms. The per broker list sits inside the app rather than on the public site, so which platforms auto sync and which import by file is not something we could verify.
- A market replay simulator supporting stocks, futures, crypto and forex. Options backtesting requires the top Elite plan.
- Pro is $29.95 a month, or $22.46 a month billed at $269.52 a year. Premium is $49.95, or $37.46 annually. Elite is $79.95, or $59.96. Every tier offers a 7 day free trial.
- Pro is capped at five trading accounts, and the broker coverage that is the main selling point cannot be checked before you sign up.
- Options and multi asset traders who want replay and coaching, and are willing to trial it to see if their broker is covered.
03TradesViz
- A journal built around charts and analysis, with a large number of automated visualisations and several AI tools. Web.
- Over 250 supported brokers and platforms including more than 70 auto sync connections. All MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms auto sync, as do cTrader and DAS Trader Pro. US brokers can auto sync through a read only Plaid integration on the paid plans, while Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, Interactive Brokers, Webull and the crypto exchanges are file imports.
- Trade replay, a trading simulator and a backtester including one for options strategies, all attributed to the top Platinum plan.
- A free plan at $0 with 3,000 executions a month and one account. Pro lists at $19.99 a month, or $14.99 billed annually, and Platinum at $29.99, or $22.49 annually, with a promotional discount running on both and a 7 day trial.
- The free plan imports stock trades only, so forex, futures and crypto traders are on a paid plan from the start, and replay and backtesting need the top tier.
- Traders who want the most analysis per dollar and are happy for the deeper testing features to sit on the top plan.
04Trademetria
- A journal for stocks, futures, options, forex, crypto and CFDs, running since 2016 and claiming over 80,000 users. Web.
- Over 140 brokers, and unusually the per broker table is published on its own help page, so you can check yours before paying. MetaTrader 4 and 5, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Schwab and Webull auto sync. NinjaTrader and Rithmic are file upload only, and on crypto Bitget and BitMEX sync while Binance, Coinbase and Bybit are file uploads.
- No chart replay and no bar by bar backtesting. It offers what if scenarios instead: change a rule, compare the result against what you actually did, and save the simulation.
- A free plan importing up to 30 orders a month on one account. Basic is $19.95 a month, or $14.10 a month billed at $169 a year. Pro is $29.95, or $20.80 billed at $249 a year, with unlimited imports.
- No replay or backtesting, and the free plan stops at 30 orders a month with three open positions tracked.
- Traders who want to check that their exact brokers sync before paying, across stocks, futures and forex.
05Tradervue
- One of the older journals, built for reviewing trades you have already taken: import, tag, see entries and exits on a chart, and report on the results. Web.
- Over 80 platform integrations, with broker sync on the paid Silver and Gold plans. The free plan imports up to 30 trades a month; paid plans have no import limit.
- None. There is no replay and no backtesting. Gold adds trade exit analysis and maximum potential profit analysis, which review what happened rather than test what might.
- A free plan with the 30 trade monthly import cap. Silver is $29.95 a month and Gold $49.95 a month. No annual pricing is published.
- No testing of any kind, so ideas have to be tested elsewhere, and there is no discount for paying yearly.
- Stock and options traders who want deep review of live trades and already backtest somewhere else.
06Edgewonk
- A journal aimed at the psychology and statistics of your own trading, sold as a single licence rather than a subscription.
- Auto sync is stated for MetaTrader 4 and 5 brokers and prop firms. NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Schwab, Rithmic, Webull, Coinbase and several crypto venues are supported through import, and anything unlisted comes in through an Excel import.
- A backtester tab, which can also import backtest files from FX Replay and other charting tools. No replay of your own live trades on a chart is advertised.
- One plan at $197 for 16 months, promoted as 16 months for the price of 12. No monthly option and no free plan, with a 14 day money back guarantee.
- You pay for well over a year up front, and outside MetaTrader most platforms arrive by file rather than syncing.
- MetaTrader traders who want deep statistics and psychology tracking, and prefer one payment to a subscription.
07TraderMake.money
- A crypto only journal and profit tracker, branded TMM, built around exchange connections and dashboards you assemble from widgets.
- Crypto exchanges by read only API key or wallet address: Binance, Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Gate.io, MEXC and KuCoin, spot and futures, with the history each exchange returns varying from 30 days to full history. No MetaTrader, no stock brokers and no futures platforms.
- No chart replay and no bar by bar backtesting. Risk and backtest tools appear from the second tier upward.
- A free tier with one month of history, one exchange connection and one board. Novice+ is $6 a month or $72 a year, Trader is $12 or $144, and PRO Trader is $22 or $264.
- Crypto only, and the free tier shows about a month of history on a single connection.
- Crypto traders who want their journal readable by an AI assistant without paying extra for the privilege.
- A working MCP server, free on every plan, connected by OAuth or a personal token, with read only tools.
08TradeJournal.co
- A journal built around an AI mentor and an assistant connection, covering stocks, options, forex, crypto and futures. Web.
- It advertises 39 brokers with instant auto sync, naming TD, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Webull and Coinbase, with a CSV fallback for any broker. Its broker directory lists 137 entries including MetaTrader 4 and 5, Tradovate, Rithmic and NinjaTrader, without saying which of those sync automatically.
- None advertised. There is no chart replay and no backtesting.
- A free plan with 100 trades, one broker connection and five AI questions a day. Pro is $35 a month, listed as 30% off $50, with a 14 day trial, and a lifetime licence is $720, listed down from $1,200.
- No testing of any kind, and the assistant connection that is its main draw is gated to the paid plan.
- Traders who want an AI mentor and a journal their own AI client can query, and who do not need backtesting.
- A working MCP server on the paid plan, connected with a personal token, read only with a few narrow writes.
09DT Terminal
- The AI trading improvement platform: a journal, charts, a bar by bar backtester and lessons in one account, where Edge learns from your trades, journal and practice to show you what to fix. A broker-verified record you can share comes with it. Aimed at forex, metals, futures and crypto traders. Web, Windows, macOS and Linux.
- MetaTrader 4 and 5 by investor login, which can read the account but never trade it, covering 331 named brokers and prop firms plus generic MetaTrader rows, cTrader, TradeLocker and Tradovate accounts, NinjaTrader accounts on a NinjaTrader or Tradovate login, and 10 crypto exchanges by an API key with trading disabled. Free verifies one account that is not MT4 or MT5 for the public passport and imports its past history into the journal once. Plus links up to 3 broker accounts, 1 of them MT4 or MT5, and syncs them into the journal, and Pro links up to 10, up to 3 of them MT4 or MT5. Rithmic-fed futures accounts and stock brokers do not sync, so those arrive as platform CSVs or a generic file import.
- Trade Replay on Pro replays one of your own trades on its chart. The backtester replays history bar by bar on our own charts, free for 2 sessions at a time of up to 50 trades on a single instrument, 3 at a time on Plus, unlimited on Pro.
- Free for one account with unlimited trades, 3 tags per trade, imports of 50 trades per file and one verified account that is not MT4 or MT5. Plus is $9 a month or $89 a year, adding MT4 and MT5 verification, sync into the journal, monthly reports and CSV exports. Pro is $24 a month or $199 a year, adding unlimited backtests and Trade Replay.
- Sync coverage is narrower than the journals above: MetaTrader, cTrader, TradeLocker, Tradovate and crypto exchanges, with no Rithmic and no stock broker sync at all. The backtester has no stocks, its seconds history is deep on the main markets and shorter on the rest so far, and futures cover about the last 2 years.
- Forex, metals, futures and crypto traders who want to learn, practice and review in one account, and can import the rest.
- DT Terminal Connect is our MCP connector: Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps can read and update your journal, backtests and synced accounts, with your consent per scope. It needs a paid plan: Plus reads, and Pro can write as well as read. It connects by signing in rather than a pasted token.
10A spreadsheet or Notion
- A sheet in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers, or a Notion database. Total control over the fields, and the only tool on this list you can shape exactly to your own method.
- None. Every trade is typed in or pasted from a broker export, and nothing arrives on its own. Notion databases can be exported to CSV, which most journals here can then import.
- None. A spreadsheet cannot show you a trade on its chart, which is where much of the lesson is.
- A spreadsheet you already have costs nothing. Notion lists a free plan at $0 per member a month and Plus at $10 per member a month billed yearly.
- A typed record cannot be verified by anyone, and filling it in competes with trading, so it is usually the first thing to lapse in a bad week.
- Traders logging a few trades a week who want complete control, no cost, and no account anywhere.
Three of the ten do. TraderMake.money ships an MCP server free on every plan, connected by OAuth or a personal token with read only tools, and TradeJournal.co ships one on its paid plan using a personal token. Tradervue has a documented public API but no MCP. TradeZella, TraderSync, Edgewonk and TradesViz have neither on their own sites. As for ours: DT Terminal Connect is our MCP connector: Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps can read and update your journal, backtests and synced accounts, with your consent per scope. It reads on Plus and writes on Pro, and you add it from Settings, MCP.
Three things. It takes trades from your broker automatically, so the record stays current in the week you least feel like typing. It shows each trade on its chart, which is where the mistake usually is. And it can prove the numbers came from a broker rather than from you, which matters the moment anyone else has a reason to care. If none of those three matter yet, a spreadsheet is genuinely enough.
TradeZella lists MetaTrader 4 and 5 as auto sync, TradesViz says all MetaTrader platforms auto sync, Trademetria marks both as auto sync in its published broker table, Edgewonk states auto sync for MetaTrader brokers and prop firms, and DT Terminal connects them with a read only investor login. TraderSync claims over 700 platforms but does not publish the list outside the app. TraderMake.money is crypto only and does not connect MetaTrader at all.
Several have free tiers, all with a catch worth knowing. TradesViz is free forever but imports stock trades only on that plan. Tradervue caps free imports at 30 trades a month and Trademetria at 30 orders. TradeJournal.co gives 100 trades and one connection. TraderMake.money shows about a month of history. DT Terminal is free for one account with unlimited trades and verifies one broker account free, importing its history once, but keeps MT4, MT5 and ongoing sync into the journal for Plus and Pro. Edgewonk and TradeZella have no free plan listed at all.
Only if you want the tested trades and the live trades in one place, which is the argument for it: same tags, same fields, one comparison. TradeZella, TraderSync, TradesViz and DT Terminal do both in one account. Tradervue, Trademetria, TradeJournal.co and TraderMake.money do not, and pairing one of those with a dedicated backtester is a perfectly good setup, so long as you accept that the two records live apart.
Look for three things: it connects to the platform your firm actually uses, it can hold the firm's daily loss and drawdown rules, and it can show a record the firm or a future sponsor has reason to believe. For a MetaTrader challenge most of these journals connect. For a futures challenge on Tradovate, or on NinjaTrader with a Tradovate login, DT Terminal connects too. For one fed by Rithmic, TradeZella and TraderSync connect and DT Terminal does not, so that challenge is imported by file with us.