You landed here because you’re looking at Tiller Money — or you’re already using it and wondering if there’s a better option. Either way, this page gives you a straight comparison so you can decide for yourself.
What Tiller Money Is (and What It Isn’t)
Tiller Money is a subscription service that connects to your bank accounts and automatically pushes your transactions into a Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet each day. It does not do your budgeting for you — it automates the data entry so you can build your own tracking system in a spreadsheet.
That’s a genuinely useful idea. The problem is everything wrapped around it.
What Tiller Costs Over Time
Tiller Money costs $79 per year. There is no permanent free tier and no monthly billing option — you pay annually or you don’t use it.
Here’s what that looks like over time compared to the Excel Checkbook Register:
| Timeframe | Tiller Money | Excel Checkbook Register |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $79 | $26.95 |
| Year 2 | $158 | $26.95 |
| Year 3 | $237 | $26.95 |
| Year 5 | $395 | $26.95 |
The Excel Checkbook Register is a one-time purchase. You pay once and it’s yours — no renewals, no price increases, no risk of losing access because you missed a payment.
The Bank Login Requirement
Tiller Money’s core feature is also its biggest ask: to use it, you must connect your bank accounts. Tiller routes that connection through a third-party data aggregator (Yodlee), which means you are granting an external service read access to your financial accounts.
Tiller is transparent about their security practices and doesn’t store your login credentials directly. But the connection still exists — and it introduces real-world friction. Users regularly report having to re-enter bank credentials and re-authenticate accounts when connections drop, which happens more often at some institutions than others.
If you’re the type of person who is uncomfortable giving any third-party access to your bank accounts, Tiller Money is simply not the right tool. The entire product depends on that connection.
The Excel Checkbook Register requires no bank login. Ever. You enter your transactions manually, just like you would in a paper register or Quicken’s classic check register view. Your financial data never leaves your computer.
Where Tiller Falls Short for Excel Users
Tiller supports both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, but Google Sheets is clearly the primary platform. New features — including the AI auto-categorization launched in 2024 — arrive in Google Sheets first. Some templates don’t work correctly in Excel, and the Excel experience is generally a step behind.
If you’re an Excel user specifically, you’re a second-class citizen in Tiller’s product roadmap.
What the Excel Checkbook Register Does Instead
Rather than automating transaction import, the Excel Checkbook Register is a purpose-built Excel template designed to replace what most people actually used Quicken for: tracking account balances, recording transactions, and reconciling with their bank statement.
Here’s what’s included in the 2026 version:
- Track up to 10 bank accounts (checking, savings, and credit cards) in one workbook
- Running balance with a visual summary at the top of each register
- Easy to use reconciliation method to match your bank statement
- One-click recurring transaction posting
- Credit card paydown tracker with visual progress graph
- Full spending dashboard with charts by month, year, category, and sub-category
- No expiration — any version you download works indefinitely
- Email support included
There’s also a Small Business Edition for those who need to track rental properties or multiple business accounts.
Who Should Use Tiller Money
Tiller is a reasonable fit if you:
- Are comfortable connecting your bank accounts to a third-party service
- Primarily work in Google Sheets (not Excel)
- Want transactions pulled in automatically and don’t mind paying annually for that convenience
- Have the time and spreadsheet skill to build out your own financial system on top of Tiller’s data feeds
Who Should Use the Excel Checkbook Register Instead
The Excel Checkbook Register is the better fit if you:
- Don’t want to give any third-party service access to your bank accounts
- Prefer working in Microsoft Excel (not Google Sheets)
- Want a ready-to-use template — not a data feed that requires you to build your own system
- Are a former Quicken user who misses the classic check register experience
- Want to pay once and be done with subscriptions
If you’ve used Quicken before, the Excel Checkbook Register will feel immediately familiar. The register layout, reconciliation workflow, and category tracking are all there — without Quicken’s subscription model, proprietary file format, or bloated features you never used.
Already have years of data in another program? The site includes a guide for importing your transaction history so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Tiller Money | Excel Checkbook Register | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $79/year (subscription) | $26.95 one-time |
| Bank login required | Yes — required to use the product | No — never |
| Platform | Google Sheets (primary), Excel (limited) | Microsoft Excel only |
| Mobile app | No dedicated app | No (Excel desktop only) |
| Your data lives | In Google/Microsoft cloud via Tiller | On your own computer |
| Reconciliation | Basic (via spreadsheet) | Two built-in methods |
| Spending dashboard | DIY (you build it) | Included |
| Email support | Yes | Yes, included (by author) |
| Expires? | Yes — cancel and you lose access | No — works forever |
The Bottom Line
Tiller Money is a clever product for a specific kind of user: someone who wants automated transaction import, lives in Google Sheets, and is willing to pay $79/year indefinitely for the convenience.
If that’s not you — if you’re an Excel user, if you’re uncomfortable linking your bank accounts to a third-party service, or if you’re tired of subscriptions in general — the Excel Checkbook Register gives you a polished, ready-to-use personal finance tool for a single low payment.
You pay once. It never expires. Your data stays on your computer.
Download the Excel Checkbook Register — $26.95
One payment. No subscription. Yours forever.
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