🟢 Trust Rating: High
Rotki is open source under AGPLv3, runs as a desktop app on your own computer, and stores your portfolio in an encrypted local database that never gets uploaded unless you pay for optional sync. Your exchange API keys stay on your machine. This is the opposite of handing your entire financial history to a cloud tax startup. The tradeoffs are real: more setup, fewer polished integrations, and you are your own support desk.
What is Rotki?
Rotki is an open-source portfolio tracker and crypto tax tool that runs locally instead of in someone else's cloud. Developer Lefteris Karapetsas started it in 2017 as a command-line tool to handle his own crypto tax reporting as a user in Germany. It is now built by Rotki Solutions GmbH and shipped as a desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux (Docker too). The whole pitch: your keys, your addresses, and your transaction history stay on your hardware. Every cloud tax SaaS asks you to trust it with a full map of your money. Rotki asks you to trust your own laptop.
Development is active. The latest release at the time of writing was v1.43.2 on June 18, 2026, part of more than 130 releases and over 20,000 commits on the public repository.[1]
Critical Privacy Concerns
⚠️ Important Considerations
- Your machine is the vault now. Local-first means the encryption password protecting your database is the only thing between an attacker and your entire financial map. If your computer is compromised or you lose that password with no backup, that is on you, not a support team.
- Exchanges still see the read. Rotki connects to centralized exchanges with read-only API keys, and those keys never leave your machine. But the exchange itself still logs that an API client pulled your history. Rotki cannot make Coinbase or Binance forget you exist.
- Cloud sync is a paid opt-in. Syncing your encrypted database across devices is a premium feature. It is encrypted, but if you want multi-device access you are back to putting a blob on a server. The free, single-machine setup is the most private way to run it.
- No tax advice, no liability. Rotki's own docs are blunt that the app is there to import, display, store, and generate reports, and that it does not provide tax or legal advice. The numbers are yours to verify.
Local-First Data, Actually Local
The core reason to pick rotki over Koinly or CoinTracker is architectural, not cosmetic. Your data sits in an encrypted database on your own disk. Rotki processes exchange pulls and blockchain lookups locally. Nothing about your holdings is required to pass through a rotki server for the app to work. Compare that to the cloud model, where your addresses, cost basis, and full trade history live permanently on a vendor's infrastructure, subpoenable and breachable. If you care about how crypto tax data becomes surveillance data, the storage location is the whole ballgame.
Integrations and Read-Only Keys
Rotki lists nearly 30 centralized exchanges, including Kraken, Binance, Coinbase, Gemini, Poloniex, Bitstamp, KuCoin, OKX, and Bybit. It only needs read-only permissions, and the keys stay on your device. On the chain side it tracks 17 networks including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, BNB Smart Chain, Gnosis, Polkadot, and others, and it decodes activity across 130+ DeFi protocols so a raw contract interaction shows up as a readable event. When an integration is missing, CSV import is the fallback. That fallback is also the honest catch: DIY CSV work is more common here than in a mature SaaS that has a slick connector for everything.[2]
Tax Reports and Their Real Limits
Rotki generates profit-and-loss and cost-basis reports and supports four accounting methods: FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, and ACB (average cost basis). It has some jurisdiction awareness, for example a tax-free holding-period setting for countries like Germany with a one-year rule. That is useful, but set expectations correctly. This is a reporting engine, not a country-by-country tax product. It will not hand you a finished, jurisdiction-specific filing form the way some hosted services do for the US or UK. You get the calculations and the export, then you or your accountant do the last mile.[3]
Technical Specifications
Core Facts
- License: AGPLv3, fully open source (commercial licensing offered separately)
- Platform: Desktop app for Windows, macOS, Linux, plus Docker
- Data storage: Encrypted database, stored locally by default
- Exchange access: Read-only API keys that stay on your machine; CSV import fallback
- Chains: 17 networks (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, and more) plus 130+ decoded DeFi protocols
- Accounting methods: FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, ACB
- Maker: Rotki Solutions GmbH (Germany), founder Lefteris Karapetsas
Pricing Structure
The free tier does real work: local tracking, portfolio view, and report generation, with caps such as up to 1,000 recent events in the history view, up to 10 personal notes, and limited dashboard timeframes. Premium raises those limits and adds full analytics, ETH staking tracking, encrypted cloud sync, and extra transaction enrichment. The public pricing page renders its numbers in JavaScript; the figures below are what 2026 reviews reported for the entry paid tier.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | Local tracking and reports, capped history (up to 1,000 recent events), limited analytics |
| Basic | ~€25/month (VAT included) | Higher limits, full analytics, ETH staking tracking, encrypted cloud sync; replaced the old "Premium" tier |
| Advanced / Custom | Not published | Higher limits again for power users and businesses |
That ~€25/month Basic price is not cheap for a tool you host yourself, and reviews flag it as a genuine drawback. The upside is that the free tier already covers the core private use case for a lot of people.[4]
Rotki vs. Alternatives
Rotki vs. Koinly
- Rotki: Local, encrypted, open source, more DIY. Your data never has to leave your machine.
- Koinly: Cloud SaaS with broad integrations and polished jurisdiction-specific reports, at the cost of storing your full history on their servers. See our Koinly review.
Rotki vs. CoinTracker
- Rotki: You own the database and the code. No account required to start.
- CoinTracker: Hosted, easy onboarding, deep exchange connectors, cloud storage of everything. See our CoinTracker review.
Rotki vs. TokenTax
- Rotki: A tool, not a service. No humans doing your return, but no vendor holding your data either.
- TokenTax: A hosted service that leans on human tax help, priced accordingly. See our TokenTax review.
Working out which model fits you? Start with our crypto tax software comparison. If your exchange choice is part of the picture, our Kraken and Coinbase reviews cover what those platforms hand off to third parties.
When to Use Rotki
Good Fit
✅ You refuse to upload your full crypto history to a cloud vendor. This is the whole reason rotki exists, and it delivers.
✅ You are comfortable installing and maintaining a desktop app and doing occasional CSV cleanup when an integration is missing.
✅ You want open-source code you can inspect rather than a black-box SaaS.
Not Recommended For
❌ You want a one-click "connect everything and forget it" experience. The hosted competitors do that better.
❌ You need a finished, jurisdiction-specific filing package. Rotki gives you calculations and exports, not a country-by-country turnkey return.
❌ You want a phone-first, always-on dashboard with a support team. You are your own support here.
The Bottom Line
Consider Rotki if:- Keeping your addresses, keys, and history off a vendor's servers is a hard requirement
- You value open-source code and a genuine free tier
- A bit of setup and DIY is an acceptable price for control
- You want frictionless onboarding and every integration prebuilt
- You need hand-holding, a mobile app, or a jurisdiction-specific finished return
- The ~€25/month Basic tier is your only path to the features you need and that price does not fit your budget
⚠️ Final Assessment
Rotki earns its high trust rating by fixing the one thing wrong with every cloud crypto tax tool: it does not hold your data. Open source, local, encrypted, actively developed. The honest costs are setup effort, thinner integrations than the big SaaS names, a Basic tier that is not cheap, and the fact that you are the support team. For a privacy-minded user who is willing to do a little work, that is a fair trade. For someone who wants a hosted button that does everything, it is not.
Want the wider set of tools? Browse our full privacy resources directory.