Compared honestly
Finviz alternative for testing the idea, not just finding it
Finviz is the best screener on the internet at finding candidates. It was never built to tell you whether the idea behind the screen actually held up. That is the part AgentTrading does.
- 1 THESIS
- 2 EVIDENCE
- 3 BACKTEST
- 4 RISK
- 5 VERDICT
02 EVIDENCE · FUNDAMENTALS
04 RISK · IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Sample scenarios, not a live backtest of what you typed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Educational analysis only, not financial advice.
Credit where due - what Finviz does well
- ✓ The fastest free stock screener on the internet, fundamentals and technicals together
- ✓ The clearest market heatmap anywhere, readable at a glance
- ✓ Elite adds real-time data, premarket quotes, and Excel and API export at $39.50/mo, or $24.96/mo billed annually
The honest comparison
Finviz earns its traffic. The free screener is genuinely the fastest way to narrow the US market on fundamentals and technicals at once, the heatmap is the clearest one-glance read of the market anywhere, and the whole thing loads instantly and costs nothing to use. Finviz Elite adds real-time data, premarket and after-hours quotes, and Excel and API export, at $39.50 per month or $299.50 per year, which Finviz shows as $24.96 per month billed annually (re-verified August 20, 2026). Elite is also widely reported to include a screener backtester, though we could not confirm that from Finviz's own site on that date. If your job is finding candidates fast, Finviz is excellent and you should keep it: this comparison is not an argument to cancel it. The boundary is what happens after the screen returns 40 tickers. Finviz answers "which stocks match these filters"; it does not answer "is the idea behind my filters any good". The Elite backtester, where reviews describe it, works from screener conditions on daily data with one entry and one exit, so it can tell you what a simple condition would have returned, but it will not restate your thesis, explain the fundamentals underneath it, read the drawdown in words, or tell you plainly that your idea trailed buy-and-hold. AgentTrading starts where the screen ends. You type the thesis the way you would say it, such as "hold NVDA above the 50-day moving average", and the bench extracts the testable rule and shows it to you before running, backtests it on 20+ years of split- and dividend-adjusted daily data with a 0.1% cost per trade assumed by default, summarizes the fundamentals with at least one risk flagged, and stamps an honest verdict: HELD UP, MIXED, or UNDERPERFORMED, including when your idea loses to simply holding. Every assumption is printed on the result. Pricing is $19 to $129 per month. Most people are best served using both: screen in Finviz, test on the bench. AgentTrading executes no trades, connects to no brokerage, and sells no signals. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and this is educational analysis only, never advice: you decide what the record means.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
SIDE BY SIDE
AgentTrading vs Finviz
| What matters | AgentTrading | Finviz |
|---|---|---|
| Plain-English thesis to backtest in one pass | Yes | Screener conditions, one entry and one exit |
| Fast free screening of the whole US market | Not a screener, by design | Yes |
| Market heatmap at a glance | No | Yes |
| Fundamentals summarized in plain English | Yes | Raw data tables |
| Plain-English risk panel and drawdown read | Yes | Drawdown as a number |
| Honest verdicts including UNDERPERFORMED | Yes | Stats, you interpret |
| Every assumption printed on the result | Yes | Settings live in the screener |
| Real-time and premarket quotes | Not real-time, analysis only | Yes |
| Price | From $19/mo | Free tier, Elite $39.50/mo or $299.50/yr |
Comparison reflects general product positioning and public pricing, offered in good faith. Verify current capabilities with each vendor.
On the same bench
Screening finds the candidate; the bench tests it. Finviz retired its own backtests section, so if you want both jobs in one product the alternatives are priced on stock screener with backtesting. The one-pass workflow lives on backtesting software, the fundamentals read on AI stock analysis, and a whole basket goes through portfolio backtesting. If you are weighing several vendors at once, stock analysis tools lays out what each category actually does, the best AI trading software roundup prices all of them with July 2026 list prices, and plans starting at $19 a month cover the price gap. Every Finviz billing term, what the free account already covers, and the trial that renews on its own are broken down in Finviz pricing, and the feature the reviews disagree about is examined in does Finviz have backtesting. On the screener question itself, do stock screeners work is the honest answer: yes at narrowing, never at deciding.
QUESTIONS - ASKED AND ANSWERED
Finviz alternatives: the common questions
What is the best Finviz alternative?
It depends which job you are replacing. For another fast screener, TradingView and Koyfin are the closest swaps, and stockanalysis.com is a strong free option. For the different job of testing whether the idea behind your screen has ever worked, a backtesting bench is the better tool: AgentTrading (from $19 per month) takes a plain-English thesis, tests it on 20+ years of adjusted data, and gives an honest verdict rather than another list of tickers.
Is Finviz free, and is Elite worth it?
Finviz has a genuinely useful free tier: the screener and heatmap cost nothing and are best in class. Elite lists at $39.50 per month or $299.50 per year, which Finviz displays as $24.96 per month billed annually (re-verified August 20, 2026), and adds real-time data, premarket and after-hours quotes, and Excel and API export. Note that the 7-day trial renews into a paid subscription automatically. It is worth it if you need real-time screening and export; it is not, if what you really want is to test your own rule with the reasoning shown. Full tier-by-tier detail is on our Finviz pricing page.
Can you backtest on Finviz?
Finviz Elite includes a backtester that runs from screener conditions on daily data with one entry and one exit, so it can tell you what a simple filter would have returned. What it does not do is restate your thesis, explain the fundamentals underneath it, read the drawdown in words, or tell you plainly that your idea trailed buy-and-hold. For that, you test the rule on a bench built to show its work.
Finviz vs AgentTrading: what is the difference?
Finviz answers "which stocks match these filters" and does it fast and free. AgentTrading answers "is the idea behind my filters any good," which is a different question. You screen in Finviz to narrow the market, then bring the interesting candidates to the bench, where the thesis becomes an explicit rule, runs on 20+ years of adjusted data, and gets an honest verdict with every assumption printed.
Is there a free stock screener as good as Finviz?
For pure screening, Finviz's own free tier is the benchmark, and TradingView and stockanalysis.com come close. What no free screener gives you is a test: none will take your specific rule, run it across two decades of adjusted prices with realistic costs, and tell you honestly that it underperformed. That is the paid step, and it starts at $19 per month here.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
Other comparisons
All alternativesTest the next idea before you pay for another month
Type a thesis or a ticker. AgentTrading restates the rule, runs 20+ years of adjusted history, explains the risks, and stamps an honest verdict. Plans from $19 per month.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.