Many people plan their money in a spreadsheet, and for good reason: it is free, private and does exactly what you tell it to. FinPlann is a financial planner that does some of that work for you. This page compares the two honestly, including when a spreadsheet is the better choice. FinPlann's features and prices are as of 4 October 2026.
The short answer
- Choose a spreadsheet if you enjoy building models, your finances sit mostly in one country, and you are happy to keep tax rules, exchange rates and formulas up to date yourself.
- Choose FinPlann if you want the rules, currency conversion and goal maths built in, especially if your money spans India and another country, and you would rather spend time on decisions than on formulas.
- Or use both: FinPlann's calculators are free, so you can check your spreadsheet's numbers against them without paying anything.
Side-by-side comparison
| Spreadsheet | FinPlann | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (with Google Sheets or Excel you already have) | Calculators and health score free; the full planner is Pro at $12 a month or $99 a year |
| Flexibility | Unlimited: any layout, any formula | Fixed structure for cash flow, investments, liabilities, goals, SIPs and insurance |
| Multiple currencies | You enter and update exchange rates yourself | Rows can be in INR, USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, AED, CAD or AUD, converted at current rates |
| Goal maths | You build inflation, growth and required-SIP formulas | Inflation-adjusted goal cost, funded share and required monthly SIP calculated for each goal |
| Rules (tax, residency, insurance sizing) | You research and maintain them | Built into calculators such as RNOR status, NRI property sale tax and PFIC; insurance gaps calculated from your income and dependents |
| A view of your overall position | Whatever you design | A 0–100 financial health score across savings, emergency fund, SIP coverage, goals and insurance, plus a year-by-year "Will your money last?" projection |
| Next steps | Your own judgement | AI Action Plans (15 a month on Pro) and the FinChat assistant (200 messages a month on Pro) that work from your numbers |
| Reports | Build your own | PDF report and score card on Pro |
| Data entry | Manual | Also manual: FinPlann does not connect to your bank |
| Privacy | Stays wherever you keep the file | Stored on FinPlann's servers; sensitive amounts encrypted at rest; no data selling, no ads |
Where a spreadsheet wins
- Total control. You can model anything, from a rental property's cash flow to an unusual pension, exactly the way you want.
- Cost. It is free, and there is no subscription to cancel.
- Privacy. Your file never leaves your computer or your own cloud account.
- Learning. Building the model yourself teaches you how compounding, inflation and tax actually work.
Where a spreadsheet gets hard
- Rules change. India's Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026, and limits, rates and fund rules change with each Budget. A spreadsheet only knows what you last typed into it.
- Two countries. Keeping USD, AED or GBP assets next to INR ones means updating exchange rates and deciding which currency each goal is measured in.
- Linked numbers. Changing your income should change your surplus, your goal funding, your insurance need and your retirement projection. In a spreadsheet you build those links; in a planner they already exist.
- Silent errors. One wrong cell reference can throw off every number downstream, and nothing warns you.
Where FinPlann may not suit you
- You want to model something its structure doesn't cover, such as a business's cash flow.
- You want bank feeds or automatic imports; FinPlann has none.
- You do not want your financial data stored online.
- You want a person to advise you. FinPlann is software, not a SEBI-registered adviser; see FinPlann vs a financial advisor.
Try before you decide
All calculators and the financial health score are free without signing up, and the demo planner shows the full workspace with sample data. If you already have a spreadsheet, run its key numbers through the SIP calculator, retirement calculator or, if you live abroad, the Return to India planner and see whether they agree.
FinPlann publishes this comparison about its own product. Features and prices are as stated on finplann.com on 4 October 2026.