Alternatives · verified 2026-07-21
Tiller alternatives: 4 budget spreadsheets compared
Tiller is the spreadsheet budget with automated bank feeds: $99/year (30-day free trial, verified July 2026) for daily transaction imports into Google Sheets or Excel plus its Foundation Template. People usually look for alternatives to drop the subscription, or because they'd rather not link bank credentials. Be clear about the trade first: every alternative below is manual-entry — none of them replicate Tiller's automation. Here are four honest options; one is ours.
1. sheetfolk (our templates)
One-time .xlsx templates instead of a subscription: the 2026 Ultimate Budget Bundle ($24) links budget, sinking funds, debt payoff, net worth, savings rate and goals on one dashboard; the Couples Budget ($17) adds an income-proportional split calculator. No bank connection — you type transactions in — and no renewal. Opens in Excel, LibreOffice or Google Sheets, with email support. One year of Tiller costs more than our most expensive template. See what's inside →
2. Aspire Budgeting
The most complete free system on this list: zero-based envelope budgeting in Google Sheets with dashboards, reports and a large community (8,000+ member Reddit community, per their site). Manual entry in the free version; the optional $5/month Turbo adds CSV import and auto-categorization — a halfway house toward Tiller's automation. The strongest pick if you want depth without a price.
3. Regpaq's Google Sheets budget template
A free, four-tab minimalist budget with a 'guilt-free spending' method and net-worth tracking. Its author argues manual entry is a feature — typing expenses in changes behavior — which is the philosophical opposite of Tiller. Good if you're leaving Tiller because automation made you stop looking at your money.
4. Smartsheet's household budget template
A free single-sheet household budget for Google Sheets from Smartsheet's template library, with Necessary/Discretionary/Investment sections and real-time monthly and yearly totals. The simplest option here — a clean manual budget sheet with no ecosystem around it.
When to stay with Tiller
Stay with Tiller if automated bank feeds are the point. Nothing below imports your transactions for you — if manual entry is why your budgets fail, the $99/year is buying the exact thing the free and one-time options don't do.
Questions
Is there a free alternative to Tiller with bank feeds?
Not among spreadsheet templates — automated bank feeds are the paid part. Aspire Budgeting's optional Turbo tier ($5/month, verified July 2026) gets partway there with CSV import and auto-categorization; you download files from your bank and import them, rather than live feeds.
What's the cheapest way to replace Tiller?
If you'll do manual entry: Aspire Budgeting, Regpaq's template and Smartsheet's household budget template are free, and sheetfolk's templates are $9–$29 one-time versus Tiller's $99/year (verified July 2026). All four lose the automation — that's the honest cost of the savings.
Why choose sheetfolk over the free options?
Only if the fit is right: purpose-built workbooks (couples splitting, sinking funds, an all-in-one linked dashboard), .xlsx files that also open in Excel, email support, and free updates to your edition. If a general free template already covers you, use the free one — Aspire and Regpaq are genuinely good.