Most "best trading journal" lists are written by a company that makes a trading journal. This one is too. We make SetupBook, and we put it first. So this list shows its working: every fact about another product comes from that product's own pricing or feature page, checked on 30 October 2026, with a link so you can check it yourself. TraderSync's page refused our check that day, so its figures are from 28 October. Plans change often. Confirm the price on the vendor's page before you pay.
The ranking is for forex, crypto, futures and prop-firm traders. If you trade US stocks and options, the order would be different, and we say where.
The short answer
- SetupBook: best overall for forex, crypto and prop traders, and the most features in one plan for the money.
- TradeZella: the most complete paid journal, if the price does not matter to you.
- TradesViz: the most statistics, and the best free plan for stock traders.
- TraderSync: the best phone app and one of the longest broker lists.
- TraderWaves: the best free plan with MetaTrader and cTrader sync.
- Edgewonk: the deepest review of discipline and psychology.
- Tradervue: the long-standing choice for US stocks.
- StonkJournal: free and unlimited, if you type your trades by hand.
How we ranked them
We asked six questions about each journal. The weight shows how much each answer counted.
- What does one plan include? (30%) Broker sync, file import, trade replay, backtesting, an AI review, prop-firm rules and mistake costs. Paying for two or three tools to get all of this is a bad deal.
- Does it fit forex, crypto and prop accounts? (20%) MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, crypto exchanges, the files prop firms give you, and rules that warn you before a trade breaks a limit.
- What does that plan cost? (20%) The monthly price of the plan that has the features above.
- What is free? (15%) What you can do without paying, and for how long.
- Language and access. (10%) How many languages, and whether it works on a phone.
- Openness. (5%) Whether you can export your data and see how a number is calculated.
A stock and options trader would weigh these differently, which is why Tradervue and TradesViz would rise in their version of this list.
The evidence: what each journal includes
The first table shows which plan you need for each feature. "Pro" or "Platinum" means you need that paid plan, "all plans" means every paid plan has it, "free" means the free plan has it too.
The second table shows the price, the free plan, the phone and the languages.
What the tables show:
- SetupBook Pro is the only plan with every column of the first table filled in full. TradeZella Pro comes closest, but its mistake costs are partial. TradesViz has everything only on Platinum, with partial prop-firm rules.
- SetupBook Pro costs less per month than every other paid plan in the second table. The exact price is on the pricing page, and many countries pay less in their own currency.
- SetupBook is the only one in nine languages: English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Arabic. The others are in English, Edgewonk in German too.
That is why it is first. The price of being first is that it is also the youngest product here, so read its limits below as carefully as the others'.
1. SetupBook: best overall for forex, crypto and prop traders
SetupBook takes your trades from MetaTrader 4 and 5 (a read-only Expert Advisor), cTrader, Oanda, Bybit, Binance, OKX, Bitget, BingX, MEXC, KuCoin and Hyperliquid, or from files: MetaTrader reports, Binance, TradingView, TopstepX, Tradovate, NinjaTrader 8, Rithmic, Quantower, FTMO MetriX and any CSV. You can also log a trade by hand in about thirty seconds.
From the recorded fills it works out P&L, the R-multiple, win rate, profit factor, expectancy and drawdown. Then it does the things most journals leave to you:
- It puts a price on every mistake. Tag a trade "moved the stop" or "FOMO" and you see what that habit cost you this month, in money. See what your trading mistakes cost.
- It warns you before a prop rule breaks. Daily loss (with your open stops counted), drawdown, profit target and exam days. The trade form tells you before you save a trade that would break a limit. More in the prop firm journal guide.
- It replays your real trades. Bar by bar on their own candles, with "what if I had exited here" exits.
- It lets you practise. Backtest on past candles with market, limit, stop and OCO orders, with your prop rules on.
- It reviews your week. Google Gemini writes a weekly review, looks at any single trade and answers questions about your own numbers. It gives no signals.
- It reads you as well as the chart. Short check-ins (sleep, energy, mood, calm at entry) set against your results.
Its limits: most of the list above is Pro. Sync, import, mistake costs, prop rules, replay, backtesting and the weekly AI review all need Pro; the free plan keeps manual entry, the core numbers, exit analysis and a monthly AI review, for 30 trades a month, two accounts and the last 90 days. The 14-day Pro trial asks for a card. There is no native phone app; it is a web app that installs to the home screen. TradeZella and TraderSync connect to hundreds of brokers; SetupBook connects to the platforms above, and for anything else you import a file. It has no options model. And it is young: it launched in October 2026.
Best for: forex, crypto, futures and prop traders who want sync, replay, backtesting, AI and prop rules in one subscription, in their own language.
2. TradeZella: the most complete paid journal
TradeZella syncs with more than 500 brokers and prop firms on every plan. Manual backtesting is on every plan too. Trade replay is on Pro and Ultra, and AI comes as credits: 500, 1,500 or 3,000 a month, depending on the plan. Plans cost $35, $59 or $99 a month, or $26, $44 or $74 a month paid yearly (pricing).
Its limits: there is no free plan. The cheapest plan has one active account and no replay. English only.
Best for: traders who want everything, from almost any broker, and are happy to pay for it.
3. TradesViz: the most statistics
TradesViz has hundreds of statistics and the most generous free plan for stock traders: one account, stocks only, 3,000 executions a month. Pro costs $19.99 a month and adds the AI tools; Platinum costs $29.99 a month and adds trade replay, the simulator, backtesting and mistake analysis. Both cost less if paid yearly (pricing). There are iOS and Android apps.
Its limits: forex, futures and crypto need a paid plan, and replay and backtesting need the top plan. Each screen holds a lot of numbers, which some traders love and others find too much.
Best for: stock traders who want a free plan, and data-heavy traders on any market.
4. TraderSync: the best phone app
TraderSync connects to more than 700 brokers and has real iOS and Android apps. Trade replay goes from one-minute to 250-millisecond steps, depending on the plan. Its AI, Cypher, answers 5, 15 or 60 messages a day by plan. Plans cost $29.95, $49.95 or $79.95 a month, with a 7-day trial and no refunds (pricing).
Its limits: no free plan and no refunds. Backtesting covers options only, on the top plan. English only.
Best for: active stock, options and futures traders who journal from their phone.
5. TraderWaves: free sync for MetaTrader and cTrader
TraderWaves gives you live sync from MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, TradeLocker, Match-Trader and DXtrade on its free plan, for up to three accounts. Pro adds backtesting, an AI coach and CSV export for $29.99 a month, or $19.99 a month paid yearly (pricing). There are iOS and Android apps.
Its limits: no trade replay, no mistake costs and no exit analysis. It is built for forex and prop accounts, so stocks and crypto are weaker.
Best for: MetaTrader and cTrader prop traders who want sync without paying.
6. Edgewonk: the deepest discipline review
Edgewonk is built around psychology. Its Tiltmeter tracks discipline over time, its Trade Management Optimizer tests other exits on your past trades, and a weekly Edge Finder scan looks for patterns. It imports trades automatically. It costs $197 a year (often $169 on sale) or $35 a month, with a 14-day money-back guarantee (pricing).
Its limits: no trade replay, no backtesting, no price charts and no phone app. English and German.
Best for: traders who believe their problem is discipline and are happy to pay once a year.
7. Tradervue: the long-standing choice for US stocks
Tradervue is one of the oldest journals and still one of the deepest for US stocks and options. The free plan takes up to 30 trades a month. Silver ($29.95 a month) adds broker sync and more reports; Gold ($49.95 a month) adds exit analysis (pricing). Mentor sharing is a strong point.
Its limits: no replay, no backtesting, no AI, no prop-firm rules and no phone app.
Best for: US stock and options traders who want deep reports.
8. StonkJournal: free and unlimited for manual entry
StonkJournal's free plan has no trade or account limit, as long as you type your trades. Risk rules for drawdown, daily loss and position size are free too. Pro costs $10 a month and adds Smart Import from broker files, an AI coach and an AI chat (StonkJournal). It works as an installable web app, also offline.
Its limits: no broker sync yet (it is on their roadmap), and importing a file needs Pro.
Best for: traders who enter trades by hand and want a free journal with no cap.
If you only want a free journal
Free plans differ more than paid ones, so they have their own comparison. In short: StonkJournal for unlimited manual entry, TraderWaves for free MetaTrader and cTrader sync, TradesViz for stocks with sync, and SetupBook if you want the analysis and two weeks of every Pro feature before you decide.
How to choose in two minutes
- Forex, crypto or prop, and one subscription for sync, replay, backtesting and AI: SetupBook.
- Every broker under the sun, and price is not a problem: TradeZella or TraderSync.
- You journal mostly on your phone: TraderSync, TradesViz or TraderWaves.
- US stocks and options: Tradervue, TradesViz or TraderSync.
Then test the last two on your list the same way: log five real trades in each, check the P&L against your broker statement, and try the export. A journal that gets your P&L wrong is worse than no journal.
Frequently asked questions
Which trading journal is best for prop firm traders?
SetupBook, because its prop rules warn you before a trade breaks the daily loss or the drawdown, and it imports the files from TopstepX, Tradovate, NinjaTrader 8, Rithmic, Quantower and FTMO MetriX. If you need MetaTrader or cTrader sync and cannot pay, TraderWaves does that on its free plan.
Is there a free trading journal with MetaTrader 5 sync?
Yes. TraderWaves syncs MetaTrader 4 and 5 and cTrader on its free plan. SetupBook syncs MetaTrader 4 and 5 through a read-only Expert Advisor on Pro, and every new journal starts with 14 days of Pro.
Which journal has trade replay and backtesting for the lowest price?
SetupBook. Both are in Pro, which costs less per month than any other paid plan in this list. TradeZella has both from its Pro plan at $59 a month, and TradesViz on Platinum at $29.99 a month.
Are TradeZella, TraderSync and Edgewonk free?
No. TradeZella has no free plan, TraderSync has a 7-day trial, and Edgewonk has a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Why is SetupBook first when you make it?
Because of the two tables above: it is the only plan that has every feature in the first table in full, it costs less than every other paid plan, and it is the only one in nine languages. Every cell links back to a source you can check, and we listed its limits too. If you find a fact that is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
How often is this list updated?
Whenever a vendor changes a plan we know about. The date at the top shows the last check. Write to us through the contact page if something has changed.
The best journal is the one you keep
Any journal on this list is better than none, and the best one is the one you still fill in three months from now. If you trade forex, crypto, futures or prop accounts, start with the one that does the most of the work for you. Start 14 days free, and compare SetupBook with any of the others feature by feature on the comparison page.