Spreadsheet vs App for Tracking Bullion: Which Is Better?

Plenty of stackers start with a spreadsheet, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is free, flexible, and entirely under your control. But as a stack grows, the manual effort of keeping it accurate — especially the live valuation — starts to outweigh the benefits. Here is a fair comparison.

Where spreadsheets win

• Free and already on your computer.
• Completely customisable — any column or formula you like.
• Fully offline and private if you keep the file local.

Where spreadsheets struggle

• No live spot prices — you update values by hand, or build fragile web queries.
• Unit and purity errors are easy to make and hard to spot.
• Multi-currency valuation means maintaining exchange rates yourself.
• No charts of your stack’s value over time without extra work.

Where a dedicated app wins

A purpose-built app automates exactly the parts that make a spreadsheet tedious: it pulls live spot prices, converts to your currency, applies purity correctly, and charts your value over time — all without manual upkeep. The key is choosing one that does this without compromising the privacy a local spreadsheet gave you.

Keeping the spreadsheet’s best trait

The best reason people keep a spreadsheet is control: the file is theirs and stays on their machine. A well-designed app can preserve that. BullionTally stores your holdings on your device, needs no account, and exports to CSV — so you keep the privacy and ownership of a spreadsheet while gaining live valuation across gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper. You can even start from your existing spreadsheet and keep exporting back to one for backup.