Worthy vs a net worth spreadsheet
A well-built sheet is genuinely great. Worthy is not trying to replace one — it solves a different problem. Here is where each actually wins.
Drag to compare. Spreadsheet on the left, Worthy on the right.
The honest take
A good spreadsheet is one of the best net worth tools ever made. You own every formula, every column, and every assumption. You can model anything — per-lot cost basis, dividend reinvestment, tax lots, custom rebalancing bands. Nothing an app can build in code will out-flex a well-loved sheet.
Worthy is not competing with that. It is competing with the moment when you are standing in line for coffee and want to know your number, and your sheet is on your laptop at home. Different job.
Where a spreadsheet wins
Genuine strengths — not hedged.
Infinite customizability
Add a column, split an account, model a scenario. An app cannot follow you into every corner of your finances; a sheet can.
Every formula is visible
No black boxes. If you don't like how something is calculated, you can rewrite it. This is unusually rare in finance software.
Per-lot depth
Tax-lot tracking, dividend history, return-of-capital adjustments, expected yield. Worthy stores an average cost basis per holding, not per lot — for full tax reporting a sheet still wins.
You own it forever
A CSV export works on any device in any decade. Vendor lock-in on a spreadsheet is roughly zero.
Where Worthy wins
Also without hedging.
Mobile is not an afterthought
Spreadsheets on a phone are pinch-and-zoom hell. Worthy was designed thumb-first. You can actually update it on the bus.
No Google OAuth over your Drive
Most live-price sheet templates ask for permissions to edit all your spreadsheets, run external services, and sometimes send email. Worthy has no account and no grants — data stays on your device.
No monthly-button ritual
Most sheets require you to press "record snapshot" once per month or the chart breaks. Worthy tracks history automatically every time you update.
Country-specific accounts built in
RRSP, TFSA, RESP, FHSA (Canada). ISA, SIPP, LISA (UK). Super (AU). 401(k), Roth, HSA (US). No template-hunting for the right region.
Setup is minutes, not an afternoon
Add an account, enter a balance, done. No configuring a template, choosing a region, or debugging a #REF! error at 11pm.
Side by side
"Spreadsheet" here means a well-built net worth template (CSPS, Measure of a Plan, Bogleheads community sheets). A blank Google Sheet obviously does none of the above until you build it.
Which one is for you
Pick Worthy if
- ·You want the number on your phone in under a minute.
- ·You don't want to grant Google broad Drive permissions.
- ·You forget to press the monthly button (be honest).
- ·You're Canadian, British, or Australian and want native account types.
$16.99 · one-time
Pick a spreadsheet if
- ·You genuinely enjoy building and tweaking your own system.
- ·You want per-lot cost basis, dividend history, or custom scenarios.
- ·You want budgeting and transactions in the same place as net worth.
- ·You're mostly at a laptop, not a phone.
There's no wrong answer. Some people use both — spreadsheet at tax time, Worthy the other 51 weeks of the year.
One-time purchase
Buy Worthy once. No renewal, no tiers, nothing to cancel.
Spreadsheet vs Worthy FAQ
Should I just use a spreadsheet instead of Worthy?
Honestly, if you enjoy building your own system and want per-lot tax tracking, dividend history, or custom formulas, a good spreadsheet is hard to beat. Worthy stores an average cost basis per holding (auto-blended when you add more shares), but it does not do per-lot or DRIP. It is for people who want the number on their phone in 60 seconds without maintaining a template.
Which net worth spreadsheets are actually good?
CompiledSanity (CSPS), Measure of a Plan, and the various /r/personalfinance and Bogleheads templates are all well-loved and free-to-low-cost. If you want a full FIRE dashboard, CSPS is genuinely one of the better ones. Worthy is not trying to out-spreadsheet a spreadsheet — it is a different product for a different job.
Is a spreadsheet more private than Worthy?
Not really. Google Sheets live on Google's servers, and most live-price templates need broad Google Drive permissions to run (Apps Script, external fetches). Worthy stores everything on your device — no account, no sync, no grants. Excel or LibreOffice on your own machine is comparable to Worthy on privacy; a Google Sheet is not.
Can I import my spreadsheet into Worthy?
There is no direct CSV import today. Setup is manual — you enter each account balance once, which usually takes under two minutes. Most users find it faster than porting their sheet.
Does Worthy pull stock and crypto prices like GOOGLEFINANCE?
Yes. Worthy fetches live prices for stocks, ETFs, and major cryptocurrencies. You enter what you own (e.g. 100 AAPL, 0.5 BTC) and the values update automatically — no API key, no GOOGLEFINANCE quirks, no rate limits to work around.
What does Worthy not do that a spreadsheet does?
Budgeting, transaction categorization, cash-flow analysis, per-lot cost basis, dividend history, and any custom analysis you would write yourself. Worthy tracks net worth over time. If you need those other things, you need a spreadsheet (or a budgeting app) — Worthy will not replace them.
Keep the sheet if you love it
But if you want your net worth on your phone, that's what Worthy is for.