Free, and everyone knows it
Google Sheets is free and Excel comes with Microsoft 365. Nobody needs training, and there's nothing to migrate.
Compare · Trifold vs Spreadsheets
Trifold vs Spreadsheets
Plenty of microschools and small non-profits keep their books in Excel or Google Sheets: a ledger tab, with a Stripe CSV pasted in each month. It works, and at low volume it's often the right call. Trifold does the same job from the Stripe events themselves: balanced books, a signed receipt for every payment and sealed months, exported to the same CSV whenever you want a sheet.
Where Spreadsheets is strongest
Honest first. If these matter most to you, Spreadsheets is likely the better fit.
Total control
Lay it out however you like. For a 20-student school with one trusted person on the books, it's often enough.
Your file, in open formats
CSV and XLSX open anywhere, and you hold the file. Version history and sheet protection are there if you use them.
Where Trifold differs
Shipped means it works today in the engine. Next means it's on the roadmap and not built yet.
Books that always balance
Every Stripe payment posts as a debit and a credit, so the books balance by construction, and replaying the events gives the same balances and journals.
A receipt for every payment, a seal on every month
Each payment gets a signed receipt anyone can check with no account, and a sealed month shows any later change.
It still opens in a spreadsheet
Export to CSV (or Parquet and hledger) any time, so the sheet you know is one download away.
Side by side
The companies and products, fact by fact. Trifold's prices are planned; the hosted service is early access.
- Cost
- TrifoldFree, then Starter $29, Pro $79, Witnessed $149 a month, planned. Non-profit and co-op: $15 / $39 / $79 SpreadsheetsFree (Google Sheets), or part of a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace subscription
- Seats
- TrifoldNo per-seat fees; CPA and bookkeeper seats free (planned) SpreadsheetsShared by link; no per-seat fee on Sheets
- The books
- TrifoldBalanced double-entry books built from Stripe events; corrections are new events, never edits SpreadsheetsWhatever the sheet's formulas do; nothing makes it balance
- Stripe
- TrifoldNative: books built from Stripe events, Stripe's webhook signature checked SpreadsheetsA CSV export pasted in, or a third-party connector
- Checks
- TrifoldSigned receipts and sealed months; anyone, in a free browser verifier or the cli, with no account SpreadsheetsVersion history and sheet protection; no signed receipts or enforced period locks
- AI
- TrifoldRifo, Next (not shipped): drafts and explains, you approve, the engine does the math SpreadsheetsGemini in Sheets and Copilot in Excel can edit cells, without accounting controls
- Export
- TrifoldParquet, hledger and CSV, on every plan SpreadsheetsCSV and XLSX
- Where it lives
- TrifoldThe engine is self-hostable SpreadsheetsYou hold the file
Which one fits
Choose Spreadsheets if…
You take a handful of payments a month and one trusted person keeps the books.
Choose Trifold if…
Payments outgrow what one person can reconcile by hand, or a board, auditor or parent will ask how you know the numbers are right.
Basis
General knowledge of Excel and Google Sheets, not a vendor page.
Written 2026-11-06. Corrections: hello@gettrifold.com. All comparisons.
Every dollar, three ways. Every month, sealed.
Books ✓Receipt ✓Stripe ✓
Design partners: founder onboarding, free during the pilot.