Best trading journal in 2026: compared for MT4 and MT5 traders

You have opened five comparisons, and each one ranks a different tool first. No surprise: most are written by a journal vendor or paid through affiliate links. You still don’t know which one will accept your MetaTrader history without retyping three months of trades.

This comparison looks for the best trading journal for a retail trader, with prices checked on October 28, 2026 on the official pages, the real limits of free plans, and a method to test a tool in 30 minutes with your own history. Tradeven is one of the tools compared: it is our product, and its limits are written as plainly as the others’.

What is the best trading journal?

The best trading journal is the one that imports your history without errors and that you actually open every week. There is no universal winner: a futures trader at a prop firm, a US stock trader and a forex trader on MT5 don’t have the same needs.

A trading journal is a tool that records each of your trades (symbol, direction, dates, prices, size, result) and turns them into statistics so you can see what makes you win or lose. If you are new to the topic, our trading journal guide explains what to record and how to run your monthly review.

Software changes prices and plans often. Everything below was checked on each vendor’s website on October 28, 2026: always check the pricing page before you pay.

Which criteria actually matter?

Six criteria decide, in this order: import method, P&L net of fees, useful analytics, language, number of accounts, then price. Price comes last because a cheap tool you drop after two weeks costs more than a tool you use.

1. Import method. Either you export a file from your platform, or the tool syncs with your account using the investor password (read-only). A sync avoids gaps; a file avoids sharing access.
2. P&L net of fees. Commissions and swaps must show up, otherwise your journal flatters your results. In the study published in 2014 by the AMF, France’s financial markets authority, on nearly 15,000 Forex and CFD clients, fees amounted to 14.2% of losses, excluding spread.
3. Useful analytics. Results in R, by hour, by symbol, by setup, losing streaks. A pretty dashboard without these views teaches you nothing.
4. Language. If reading the interface takes effort, you will read your reports less.
5. Number of accounts. A live account plus a prop firm challenge is already two accounts.
6. Price over twelve months, including VAT.

2026 comparison: six options side by side

For an MT4 or MT5 trader, Edgewonk, TradeZella and TradesViz offer a sync, Tradervue and Tradeven a file import, and Excel manual entry. Among the options checked, only Tradeven and Excel can be used in French or Spanish.

A few details that change the decision:

• Tradervue reserves commission and fee support for the Gold plan, at $49.95 per month. On Silver, check how your P&L is calculated.
• TradeZella limits the Essential plan to a single account and no replay. The Pro plan, at $59 per month or $531 per year, opens up to 50 accounts and replay.
• TradesViz documents an MT5 sync using the investor password, and says it does not offer it for MT4 yet.
• Tradeven imports files and never connects to your account. On MT4 and MT5, it takes the Profit column as is, without breaking out commission and swap.

How much does a trading journal cost per year?

Over twelve months, the entry plan that accepts forex costs from $0 with a spreadsheet to $359.40 for Tradervue Silver paid monthly. Edgewonk’s dollar prices exclude VAT, which is added at checkout.

The math is simple: monthly price times 12, or the yearly price shown. Tradeven prices are the ones shown in Europe. This table says nothing about quality: a $400 tool that makes you drop a losing setup can pay for itself, and a free tool you never fill in is worth nothing.

Is there a good free trading journal?

Yes, but software free plans are limited, and for forex the most complete free option is still a spreadsheet. Read the exact limit before importing anything.

• Tradervue free: 30 imported trades per calendar month, according to its help center. The counter uses the import date, not the trade dates: importing six months of history at once hits the cap quickly.
• TradesViz Basic: up to 3,000 executions per month and one account, but “stock only” according to its pricing page. Not usable for a forex or CFD account.
• Excel or Google Sheets: no limit, but you build everything. Add columns for the result net of commission and swap, the risk at the stop and the result in R, otherwise your statistics will be wrong.
• “Journal” EAs on the MQL5 market: some are free and run inside MetaTrader. Check the publisher and the reviews before installing a program on your trading platform.

A spreadsheet filled in every day beats paid software you open once a month.

Which journal should you pick for your profile?

Choose based on your platform and how you trade, not on a ranking. This decision table covers the most common cases.

If you take challenges, also look at what the journal tells you about your worst day: it is what ends most prop firm challenges.

How to test a trading journal in 30 minutes with your history

Import the same month of history into the tool, then compare its net P&L with your broker statement. If the two don’t match, every statistic that follows will be wrong, whatever the tool.

1. Export one full month from your platform. Our guides cover exporting your MT4 history and your MT5 history.
2. Write down three reference numbers from the broker statement: number of closed trades, net P&L, total commissions and swaps.
3. Import the file or connect the sync, choosing the right time zone: MetaTrader times are your broker’s server times.
4. Compare the number of trades. A gap points to merged positions, deposits counted as trades, or skipped rows.
5. Compare the net P&L. A gap equal to your commissions and swaps means the tool ignores them: your win rate and profit factor will look too good.
6. Open three views: results by hour, by symbol, and your worst losing streak. If one is missing or takes ten clicks, you won’t look at it.
7. Decide. Keep the tool only if the numbers match and you learned something concrete about that month.

Illustrative example: your MT5 statement shows 42 trades and +€310 net, including −€86 of commissions and swaps. A tool that shows +€396 ignored the fees. A tool that shows 39 trades lost three rows: find them before going further.

Where Tradeven fits in this comparison

Tradeven is a web trading journal available in French, English and Spanish, which imports MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView and NinjaTrader files without asking for access to your account. Its analysis, included from the Pro plan, flags losing streaks during which your position size grows, days when you take far more trades than usual, your best and worst hours, your most and least profitable setups, and irregular risk when the initial risk is filled in.

What it does not do, as of today: no automatic broker sync, no replay, no backtesting, no native mobile app. And on MT4 and MT5, the import takes the Profit column without separating commission and swap: run step 5 above with your own statement.