The "Cost of Free" Verdict
Stonk Journal is the undisputed king of free journals. It is fantastic for students or new traders who have a $0 budget and don't mind typing in data manually.
ProfitPulse is for traders who value their time. If you take 10 trades a day, manually entering them in Stonk Journal takes ~30 minutes. In ProfitPulse, it takes 30 seconds.
What Are You Paying For?
Stonk Journal
- 100% Free: No paywalls. Supported by donations.
- Simple UI: Very basic, clean interface that is easy to understand.
- Manual Entry Only: You must type in every trade yourself. No broker sync.
ProfitPulse
- Automated Sync: Connects to NinjaTrader, Tradovate, MT5 via API/CSV.
- Pro Analytics: Heatmaps, Expected Value (EV), and Drawdown analysis.
- Mobile App: Fully functional mobile PWA for reviewing on the go.
The Scalping Problem
If you are a Swing Trader taking 2 trades a week, Stonk Journal is perfect. The manual entry is negligible.
If you are a Scalper (ES/NQ) taking 20 trades a day, Stonk Journal becomes a burden. You will likely stop journaling because the data entry is too tedious. This is where ProfitPulse's automation pays for itself.