Why people refuse to link accounts (and why they're not paranoid)
When a portfolio app "connects" to your brokerage, you're usually typing your credentials into a third-party aggregator that logs in as you and scrapes your data. That means trusting three parties instead of one: the app, the aggregator, and every service between them. Aggregator connections also break constantly — sync failures are the single most common complaint against portfolio apps — and when a finance app is free, your holdings data is often part of the business model.
None of this makes bank-linking users foolish; automation is genuinely convenient. But if you've decided your brokerage password stays with your brokerage, you have real options.
The honest trade-off: manual entry
Every no-linking tracker works the same way: you enter each holding once (ticker, share count, average cost), and the app fetches prices and dividend data by symbol. Updating a position after a buy takes about fifteen seconds. For a typical dividend portfolio of 10–40 positions traded a few times a month, that's minutes of upkeep per month — the price of never handing out credentials. If you trade daily across many accounts, auto-sync tools earn their risk; this article isn't for that reader.
The options compared
Prices as of mid-2026 — always check the current page.
| Option | Where your data lives | Price model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet (Sheets/Excel) | Your file (cloud if Google) | Free | Full control, unlimited flexibility, DIY maintenance |
| Incomebrook (this site) | Your browser only — never on a server | Free; $29 once for Pro | Dividend income focus without accounts or subscriptions |
| Snowball Analytics (manual mode) | Their servers | Free tier; ~$8–10/mo paid | Deep analytics, EU broker coverage, charts galore |
| TrackYourDividends (manual mode) | Their servers | Free tier; ~$10–20/mo paid | Simple dedicated dividend dashboards |
| Simply Safe Dividends | Their servers | ~$468/yr | Dividend-safety research first, tracking second |
Note the middle column: several apps offer manual entry, but "no bank linking" and "your data stays private" are different promises. With most trackers, your manually entered portfolio still lives in their database, attached to your account and email. Only the spreadsheet and Incomebrook keep the portfolio itself off other people's servers — Incomebrook stores holdings in your browser's local database and fetches market data by ticker symbol only.
How to choose in 60 seconds
- You love building systems: keep the spreadsheet. Add price functions and enjoy. The maintenance is the hobby.
- You want dividend tracking that just works, privately, without another subscription: that's the gap Incomebrook was built for — unlimited holdings free, income calendar, snowball projections, and a one-time $29 Pro if you outgrow one portfolio.
- You want maximum analytics and don't mind a server-side account plus a monthly fee: Snowball Analytics in manual mode is excellent, especially for European multi-broker portfolios.
- You mainly want research on payout safety: Simply Safe Dividends' safety scores are the industry reference, priced accordingly.
Whichever you pick, demand an exit
The quiet failure mode of every tracker is lock-in: years of data you can't take with you. Before committing, check for a full export. (Ours is one click — the tracker exports everything as JSON, precisely so leaving Incomebrook is easy. Confidence in a product should come from it being good, not from your data being stuck.)