Rotki is an open-source portfolio tracking and crypto accounting application designed to run locally, keep data encrypted, and avoid the “hand over everything to a cloud dashboard” model. Its core audience is people who care about privacy and control, including long-term holders with many venues, DeFi users who want readable transaction history, and anyone who needs accounting outputs without storing their full financial life on a third-party server.

Rotki is a strong fit when the portfolio is complex enough that spreadsheets become fragile, but the user still wants a self-sovereign setup. It is also a good fit for users who want transparency into how the tool works. The project’s public codebase and feature descriptions make it easier to understand what is happening under the hood compared with closed products.

Rotki is a weaker fit for people who want a purely mobile-first experience, an always-on hosted dashboard, or a one-click “connect everything and forget it” workflow. Local-first tools typically require a bit more ownership: installing the app, maintaining it, and understanding that performance can depend on the user’s machine and their data volume.

How Rotki Works

Rotki’s defining characteristic is where computation and storage happen. Rather than building a centralized SaaS ledger, rotki stores data locally and aims to keep users in control of their financial history. Rotki is an open-source, self-hosted portfolio management tool that puts privacy first and keeps data encrypted and stored locally.

That design changes the threat model. A cloud tracker can be convenient, but it also creates a single point where sensitive financial data sits. A local-first tool reduces the amount of user data that exists on someone else’s infrastructure.

Core Features That Matter In 2026

Portfolio Overview Across Chains, Wallets, And Exchanges

Rotki is built to aggregate balances across multiple locations, including on-chain wallets and centralized exchanges, into a single view. The value comes from normalization. A portfolio that lives across venues produces fragmented truth, and rotki is structured to unify those fragments into one ledger.

Transaction Decoding And Readable History

On-chain history is often not human-readable. Modern DeFi actions are multi-step, involve multiple contracts, and can be hard to interpret from raw logs.

Rotki puts a lot of effort into decoding and presenting events in a readable way, turning the raw chain and exchange history into something that can be reconciled. “Transaction decoding” is a core capability alongside portfolio analytics and reporting.

Accounting Outputs And P&L Reporting

A portfolio tracker becomes a finance tool when it can produce coherent P&L. Rotki’s accounting value is not only the final number. It is the traceability: how each event is categorized, how cost basis is handled, and how internal transfers are treated.

For anyone who must justify results to a CPA, a tax authority, or internal stakeholders, the most important capability is a transaction-level trail. The output has to make sense when challenged.

Analytics And Historical Views

Rotki includes analytics and graphs designed to show net worth changes and asset distribution over time. That matters because the most common portfolio question is not “what is it worth now,” but “why did it change,” and “how has allocation drifted.”

Privacy And Control Advantages

Rotki’s privacy posture is one of its biggest differentiators. The project itself is against the modern pattern of closed-source SaaS trackers that require users to upload sensitive financial data, instead keeping data local and encrypted. This matters in two practical ways:

First, it reduces the blast radius of third-party incidents. If a hosted provider is compromised, user data can leak at scale.

Second, it reduces unwanted data exposure. Many portfolio products monetize via analytics, affiliate routing, or upsells. Rotki’s positioning is user-supported and oriented around independence.

Pricing And Tiers In 2026

Rotki uses a tiered subscription model for premium capabilities, with a free tier that keeps core local functionality available.

A pricing change announced in October 2025 described a new structure that keeps the Free tier unchanged and sets the Basic tier at €25/month (VAT included), replacing the previous “Premium” tier. It also introduced Advanced for heavier needs and a Custom tier for business and high-complexity users.

A simple tier summary:

Tier
Who It Fits
What Changes As You Upgrade

Free
Light tracking and testing
Core local functionality remains available

Basic
Regular users with meaningful history
Higher limits and more premium features

Advanced
Power users and large histories
Higher limits across devices and capacity

Custom
Businesses and complex needs
Tailored limits and dedicated support

Because plan details can evolve, the stable concept is the limits model: higher tiers increase capacity for trades, events, and data, and unlock additional premium features.

Setup And Data Quality Checklist

Rotki’s accuracy depends on data completeness. A checklist that reduces surprises:

Start with one wallet and one exchange. Confirm that deposits and withdrawals are classified correctly and that internal transfers do not show up as taxable disposals.
Validate stablecoin-heavy periods. Stablecoin activity should not produce large gains unless something unusual happened.
Pick one complex DeFi action and check readability. A vault deposit, LP action, or bridge flow should appear as a coherent series of events rather than unrelated noise.
Review cost basis gaps early. Any “unknown basis” entry is a future problem that compounds.
Export a sample report and test the downstream workflow. If the output will be used in a spreadsheet, tax tool, or shared with an accountant, make sure columns and categories are usable.

Strengths And Weak Spots

Rotki’s strengths are rooted in its architecture. Local-first storage, open-source transparency, and a privacy-first position are not cosmetic. They change what the product is.

Rotki is also strong for users who want traceability. When accounting outputs are required, the ability to inspect and reconcile the ledger matters more than flashy charts.

The weak spots are typical for local-first tools. Setup and maintenance can take more effort than a hosted dashboard. Performance can be impacted by very large datasets, and users who want an always-available cloud view across devices may find SaaS trackers more convenient.

Pricing is another trade-off. The Basic tier price point is meaningful, and it will not fit every budget. The product tends to make sense when privacy and control are non-negotiable and when the time saved on reconciliation offsets subscription cost.

Alternatives Worth Considering

A hosted tracker can be more convenient if the user accepts the cloud data model. Tax-first products can be better if the primary goal is filing and the user does not care about local-first storage.

For DeFi users who want pure position analytics rather than accounting outputs, a dedicated DeFi portfolio dashboard can sometimes be more comfortable day-to-day.

Conclusion

Rotki is a strong 2026 choice for users who want portfolio tracking and crypto accounting without turning their financial history into a cloud dataset. The open-source, local-first design is the differentiator, and it makes the tool especially compelling for privacy-focused users with complex histories. The Basic tier pricing and the ownership required for a local setup are the main trade-offs, but for users who value control and traceability, rotki fits a niche that many mainstream dashboards do not.

The post Rotki Review 2026: Privacy-First Local Portfolio Tracking And Crypto Accounting appeared first on Crypto Adventure.

---

Filed under: Bitcoin - @ February 22, 2026 1:01 pm