Tiller vs SheetLink in 2026: Which Is Right for You?

Both Tiller and SheetLink connect your bank accounts to a spreadsheet. That's where the similarity ends.

Tiller is a full-featured budgeting platform built around Google Sheets, with auto-sync, pre-built templates, and a community of power users. SheetLink is a leaner, privacy-first tool that puts you in complete control of when and how your data flows.

Here's a clear-eyed comparison.

The Quick Answer

Choose Tiller if: You want a polished, done-for-you budgeting setup in Google Sheets with auto-sync and you're willing to pay $99/year.

Choose SheetLink if: You want to own your data, want a free plan or a lower price, prefer manual sync for privacy, or need developer features like CLI automation and Postgres output.

Pricing

Tiller is $99/year (up from $79 in August 2026), with no free plan after the trial. SheetLink Pro is $39.99/year, about 40% of Tiller’s price, with up to 2 years of transaction history.

Features

The Auto-Sync Question

Tiller automatically pulls your transactions every morning. In Google Sheets and Excel, SheetLink syncs only when you click Sync Now.

This isn't a limitation. It's a deliberate choice. With auto-sync, a third-party service is accessing your bank account data in the background every day, even when you're not using it. With manual sync, your data only moves when you want it to.

For most people reviewing finances weekly or monthly, manual sync is fine. If you need daily auto-populated data, Tiller is the better fit.

Templates: Tiller Wins Out of the Box

Tiller ships with polished, community-maintained templates: Foundation Budget, Envelope Budget, Debt Snowball, Net Worth Tracker, and more. If you want a working budget without building anything yourself, Tiller has a big head start.

SheetLink writes raw, clean transaction data to your sheet. You build what you want on top of it, or install one of five official recipes (like Budget Tracker or Cash Flow Forecast) from the extension's Recipes tab. This is more powerful for people who know what they're building, but beyond those recipes, it's a blank canvas, not a finished template.

Excel Support: Both Work

Both tools work in Excel. Tiller's Money Feeds add-in runs in Excel with a Microsoft 365 subscription, or in Excel on the web. The SheetLink Excel add-in installs from Microsoft AppSource, works in Excel for Mac, Windows and the web, and comes with Pro and Max on the same subscription as the Chrome extension.

Developer Features: SheetLink Max

If you want to pipe your transactions to a Postgres database or run automated syncs via cron, Tiller has none of this. SheetLink Max ($10.99/mo) adds:

• sheetlink sync --output postgres://...
• sheetlink sync --output sqlite://...
• API keys, so sheetlink sync can run unattended from cron or CI

For developers who want to own their financial data infrastructure, there's no comparison.

Bottom Line

Tiller is the right choice if you want auto-sync and pre-built templates and you're comfortable with the $99/year price.

SheetLink is the right choice if you want a free plan or lower cost, manual sync for privacy, developer features, or full control over your data.

Both are solid tools. The decision comes down to whether you want a done-for-you budget experience or a flexible data pipeline you control.

Questions