Stock screener with backtesting: every backtesting stock screener priced by the years of history it actually buys
Screening finds the stocks. Backtesting tells you whether the screen ever worked. Almost every vendor sells you both and then quietly rations the second one by tier, so the plan you can afford decides how much history your test gets to see. Below is what each tier actually buys, read off the vendors' own pricing pages on September 5, 2026.
- 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.
In short
A stock screener with backtesting lets you define a set of rules, see which stocks match them today, and then replay those same rules across past years to see what the screen would have returned. The important thing to understand before you buy is that the screening is rarely the rationed part. The history is. Portfolio123 sells four retail tiers that differ mainly in backtest length: Screener at $25 a month billed annually buys 5 years, Backtest at $84 buys 10, Portfolio at $125 buys 15, and Ultimate at $200 buys 20. Stock Rover rations the same way, with 5, 10, 20 and 20 years of historical fundamentals across its four plans. Both vendors put 5 years on their entry paid tier, and that number matters more than it looks: Bailey, Borwein, Lopez de Prado and Zhu showed in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society in May 2014 that with only 5 years of daily data, testing more than 45 independent configurations near-guarantees an in-sample Sharpe ratio of 1.0 with an expected out-of-sample Sharpe of zero. Portfolio123 gives that same $25 tier a database of more than 4,300 factors and 430 functions, so the cheapest plan pairs the largest search space with the smallest sample, which is the exact recipe for a backtest that looks good and means nothing. Elsewhere the feature is thinner than the marketing suggests. Finviz used to publish a backtests section and finviz.com/backtests now returns HTTP 410 Gone, checked again on September 5, 2026. Koyfin has no backtesting engine on any tier. Trade Ideas keeps its OddsMaker backtester on the Premium tier only and documents it as covering typically six weeks of history. AgentTrading works the other side of this problem: it starts from a thesis rather than a filter list and backtests the rule on 20+ years of split- and dividend-adjusted daily data with a 0.1% cost per trade assumed by default. It starts at $19 a month, it executes no trades, and it gives no personalized investment advice.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
SIDE BY SIDE - PRICING CHECKED SEPTEMBER 5, 2026
The screeners that include backtesting, and what each one really gives you
One card per tool, with the tier most buyers land on, the honest limitation, and the detail that changes the decision. Three of these are widely recommended as screeners with backtesting and one of them no longer has the feature at all.
| Tool | Best for | Price (September 5, 2026) | The honest limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio123 | Serious rule-based screening and simulation, if you buy enough history | Free; Screener $25, Backtest $84, Portfolio $125, Ultimate $200 per month billed annually | Backtest length is the product. The $25 tier caps you at 5 years, which is short enough to overfit against its own 4,300-factor database. |
| Stock Rover | Fundamental screening and portfolio analytics for long-term investors | Four tiers; prices did not render on the public compare page when we checked | This is historical screening rather than a rule-based strategy backtester with entries, exits and trade-by-trade results. |
| Finviz Elite | Fast screening and visualization, with no backtesting at all | $39.50 a month, or $299.50 a year, which is $24.96 a month | The backtests section is gone. finviz.com/backtests returns HTTP 410 Gone, re-checked September 5, 2026. |
| MarketInOut | Formula-based screening across global exchanges | Not published on the public site | We could not find a reachable public pricing page, so the cost is unknown until you register. |
| Quant Investing | Value and factor screening with unlimited backtests at one flat rate | EUR 36.31 per month for the Pro Screener; free demo screener | Priced in euros and the backtest history length is not published, so you cannot size the sample before subscribing. |
| Trade Ideas | Real-time scanning, with backtesting as a secondary feature | TI Standard $127 a month or $89 annually; TI Premium $254 or $178 annually | OddsMaker is documented as covering typically six weeks of history and is on the Premium tier only. |
| Koyfin | Research, charting and model portfolios, not strategy testing | Plus $39, Premium $79, Advisor Core $209, Advisor Pro $299 per month billed annually | No backtesting engine on any tier. This is the clearest no in the group. |
| AgentTrading | Testing a rule you already believe in, rather than mining a factor database for one | Starter $19, Analyst $49, Pro $129 per month. | Two honest problems. You cannot buy it right now, and it is not a screener: it will not hand you a filtered list of matching tickers. |
Prices are the vendors' public list prices, checked September 5, 2026, and vendors change them. Verify current pricing and capabilities with each vendor before you buy.
Portfolio123
Serious rule-based screening and simulation, if you buy enough history
The most complete screener and backtester in this group, and the most explicit about rationing history: its own pricing page says the feature set and backtest duration grow with the plan. Two things reviews consistently miss. First, the monthly rates are considerably higher than the headline figures, which are annual: paying month to month costs $35, $116, $174 and $278 instead of $25, $84, $125 and $200, a premium of 38% to 40% and between $120 and $936 a year. Those numbers are hidden behind a billing toggle and do not appear in the page source until you click it. Second, the retail price list is scoped: the vendor describes the non-professional plans as being for individual investors managing personal accounts under $5 million, with a separate professional track for firms, educators and research providers. Coverage is US, Canadian and European exchanges, and a second region costs 40% extra. Read at source September 5, 2026.
Stock Rover
Fundamental screening and portfolio analytics for long-term investors
Strong on fundamentals and genuinely useful for screening US equities, and it rations history on exactly the same axis as Portfolio123. Its compare-plans table gives historical fundamentals of 5, 10, 20 and 20 years across the four tiers, price history of 10, 20, 20 and 20 years, and dividend history of 20, 20, 30 and 30 years, so the entry tier lands on the same 5-year floor. Other tier limits are worth reading before you commit: data exports are capped at 10, 90, 500 and 2,500 a month, and fair value, stock scores and investor warnings are limited to 20 tickers a month plus the Dow 30 on the entry plan. Research reports and hotline phone support are $50 add-ons. The distinction that matters for this page is that screening the past is not the same as testing a trading rule through it. Compare-plans table read at source September 5, 2026.
Finviz Elite
Fast screening and visualization, with no backtesting at all
Still one of the fastest screeners available and a fair buy on that basis, with the API included in Elite rather than sold separately. It is listed here because it is repeatedly recommended in roundups as a screener with backtesting, and that is no longer true. A 410 status is a deliberate signal from the server that a resource has been permanently removed, which is a stronger statement than the 404 you get from a page that merely does not exist. If you are evaluating Finviz because you read that it backtests, evaluate it on screening instead. One more thing worth knowing before you start a trial: the 7-day trial auto-renews. Pricing read August 20, 2026, 410 status re-checked September 5, 2026.
MarketInOut
Formula-based screening across global exchanges
It ranks first for this exact search and its homepage title is literally "Stock Screener with Backtesting and Formula Filters", so it deserves a fair hearing. The capability claims are specific: 40+ global exchanges, technical, fundamental and custom formula filters, the same formulas reusable inside a Strategy Backtester, and backtesting against 25+ years of historical data. What we could not do is verify what it costs. Several plausible pricing URLs returned 404 and the homepage exposes no pricing link, so a buyer has to sign up to find the number. We are reporting that as an observation rather than a criticism, and we are not going to quote a price we could not read. Checked September 5, 2026.
Quant Investing
Value and factor screening with unlimited backtests at one flat rate
The pricing model is the interesting part and it runs directly against the grain of this page. Where Portfolio123 sells history in five-year steps and charges 40% extra for a second region, Quant Investing advertises "whole world, one price, no region add-on" with unlimited backtests on the paid tier. That is a genuinely different philosophy and it will suit anyone whose strategy spans several markets. Two caveats for a US buyer. The rate is quoted in euros, so your actual cost moves with the exchange rate and your card may add a foreign transaction fee. And the free demo screener runs on data described as one year old with limited backtests, so it will not tell you much about the paid product. Read at source September 5, 2026.
Trade Ideas
Real-time scanning, with backtesting as a secondary feature
A real-time scanner first and a backtester a distant second, which is fine as long as you buy it knowing that. The OddsMaker backtester is documented by Trade Ideas itself as using typically six weeks worth of history, roughly 30 trading days, with a maximum of 100 positions a day, one-minute OHLC bars and no premarket data. Six weeks is a fundamentally different instrument from the 5 to 20 years the screeners above sell, and it can only answer questions about very recent market conditions. Note also that the widely quoted $89 a month is misleading twice over: it is the annual rate, and it is the tier that does not include Holly, the AI the product is best known for. Pricing read August 19, 2026.
Koyfin
Research, charting and model portfolios, not strategy testing
Included because it is a common shortlist entry for anyone comparing research platforms, and because the answer is unambiguous. Koyfin has no strategy backtesting at any price point, so if testing an entry and exit rule is on your requirements list, this ladder does not have a rung for it. What it does have is a genuinely good research terminal, two adviser-oriented tiers with model portfolios and client proposals, and month-to-month rates of $49, $110, $239 and $349 that sit behind a toggle rather than on the page by default. It also publishes a pricing page written for language models and offers Ask ChatGPT and Ask Claude buttons, which tells you something about where it expects buyers to be looking. Read at source August 20, 2026.
AgentTrading
Testing a rule you already believe in, rather than mining a factor database for one
With that stated plainly, here is the structural argument for the approach. The overfitting risk described above comes from searching a very large space against a very small sample. A thesis-first bench inverts that: you arrive with one rule you already have a reason to believe, and it gets tested once against 20+ years of split- and dividend-adjusted daily history with a 0.1% cost per trade assumed by default, with the date range and every parameter logged so you can show what was tested. The verdict is honest by design and returns UNDERPERFORMED when the rule loses to buy-and-hold. That does not make it better than a screener; it makes it a different tool, and the two genuinely complement each other. It executes no trades, connects to no brokerage, and gives no personalized investment advice.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
WHAT A TIER BUYS, IN YEARS
Backtest history by tier, and the cost per year of history
Every figure below was read off the vendor's own pricing page on September 5, 2026. The cost-per-year column divides the annual price by the years of backtest history that tier unlocks, which is the unit you are really buying. Nobody publishes that column, and it does not behave the way volume pricing usually does.
| Vendor and tier | Backtest history | Price billed annually | Cost per year of history | What the tier does not tell you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio123 Free | 30 days of screener and backtesting access | $0 | n/a | Enough to see the interface work, not enough to test anything. The free tier is a demonstration, not a research tool. |
| Portfolio123 Screener | 5 years | $300 a year ($25/mo) | $60 | The cheapest tier ships the full factor database, more than 4,300 factors and 430 functions, against the shortest sample. Maximum search space, minimum evidence. |
| Portfolio123 Backtest | 10 years | $1,000 a year ($84/mo) | $100 | Going from 5 years to 10 costs $700 a year, which works out to $140 for each additional year of history. That is more than double the $60 the first five cost. |
| Portfolio123 Portfolio | 15 years | $1,500 a year ($125/mo) | $100 | The only step in the ladder where the marginal year gets cheaper rather than dearer, at $100 per added year. |
| Portfolio123 Ultimate | 20 years | $2,400 a year ($200/mo) | $120 | The last five years are the most expensive in the range at $180 each. Buying more history costs more per year of history, not less. |
| Stock Rover, four tiers | Historical fundamentals 5, 10, 20 and 20 years; price history 10, 20, 20 and 20 years | Tier prices not rendered on the public compare page | not computable | Rations on the same axis as Portfolio123 and lands on the same 5-year floor for the entry tier. This is historical screening rather than a rule-based strategy backtester. |
| Quant Investing Pro Screener | Unlimited backtests, history length not published | EUR 36.31 a month | not computable | Priced in euros, so a US buyer carries the exchange rate. Advertises "whole world, one price, no region add-on", which is a direct swipe at region-based upsells. |
| MarketInOut | 25+ years claimed on the homepage | No price published on the public site | not computable | Brands itself "Stock Screener with Backtesting" and then publishes no pricing page we could reach. You have to register before you learn the cost. |
| Finviz Elite | None | $24.96/mo billed annually ($299.50) | n/a | finviz.com/backtests returns HTTP 410 Gone, re-checked September 5, 2026. A 410 is the server stating the resource is permanently removed, not merely missing. |
| Koyfin, all four tiers | None at any tier | $39 to $299 a month billed annually | n/a | A capable research terminal with no strategy backtesting engine at all. If the job is testing an entry and exit rule, no amount of money on this ladder buys it. |
| Trade Ideas OddsMaker | Documented as typically six weeks | $178/mo billed annually (Premium) | n/a | Roughly 30 trading days, capped at 100 positions a day, on one-minute bars with no premarket, and it is on the Premium tier only. |
| AgentTrading | 20+ years of adjusted daily history | $19 to $129 a month. | n/a | The honest limitation first: it is a thesis-first research bench rather than a filter-based screener, so it is not a drop-in replacement for a scanner. |
Two independent vendors, priced and structured differently, both put 5 years of history on their entry paid tier. That convergence is the thing to notice, because 5 years of daily data is roughly 1,260 observations, and the 2014 Bailey, Borwein, Lopez de Prado and Zhu result puts the point where in-sample results stop meaning anything at about 45 tried configurations on exactly that sample length. A screener with a 4,300-factor database will pass 45 configurations in an afternoon. So the practical buying rule is uncomfortable but simple: on these platforms the entry tier is priced for browsing, and the tier that supports a conclusion you would act on starts one or two steps up. Work out how many years your strategy needs before you choose a plan, not after.
Sources: portfolio123.com pricing and retail plan pages, stockrover.com/compare-plans, quant-investing.com/pricing, marketinout.com, finviz.com/backtests (HTTP status checked directly), all read September 5, 2026. Koyfin and Trade Ideas figures read at source August 20 and August 19, 2026. Prices change and vendors reprice without notice; verify before you buy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
WHAT YOU GET - SCREENER WITH BACKTESTING
Screener with backtesting, run on the bench
The years each tier buys, side by side
Not a feature checklist. The actual backtest history behind every paid tier at Portfolio123 and Stock Rover, read off their own pricing pages on September 5, 2026, with the cost per year of history worked out for each one.
The monthly rates the toggle hides
Portfolio123 advertises $25, $84, $125 and $200. Pay month to month and it is $35, $116, $174 and $278, a 38% to 40% premium worth $120 to $936 a year. Those figures are not in the page source until you click the billing switch.
Where the feature is not there at all
Finviz retired its backtests section and the URL returns HTTP 410 Gone. Koyfin has no engine at any tier. Trade Ideas caps its backtester at roughly six weeks. Three tools that show up in "screener with backtesting" roundups anyway.
A sample-size rule you can apply before you pay
Five years of daily data is about 1,260 observations, and published research puts the point where searching stops producing meaningful results at roughly 45 configurations on that sample. Size the history to the strategy first, then pick the tier.
HOW IT WORKS - 4 STEPS
From a sentence to a stamped verdict
Write down how much history your strategy needs
A rule that trades a few times a year needs decades to produce a usable number of trades. A rule that trades weekly needs far less calendar time for the same sample. Do this arithmetic before you look at a price list, because it is the only thing that tells you which tier is honest for you.
Count the configurations you plan to try
If you are going to sweep parameters across a large factor database, you are searching, not testing, and short history will reward you with a result that does not survive. Fewer deliberate tests on more history beat many tests on five years, every time.
Check whether the tool tests rules or only screens the past
Historical screening tells you which stocks would have matched a filter on a past date. A strategy backtest tells you what a rule with entries, exits and costs would have returned. Several products in this category do the first and are described in reviews as doing the second.
Read the licence and the billing term, not just the price
The advertised rate is usually annual, and the retail price list may not be available to you at all if you are inside a registered firm. Then treat every historical result as a description of the past, never a forecast, and keep the decision with a licensed professional.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
On the same bench
A screen is one way into a test and a thesis is another. If you already know the rule you want to check, stock backtesting and the wider backtesting software comparison cover the engines directly, and historical stock data covers the input every one of them depends on. On specific vendors here, see Finviz alternatives, Stock Rover alternatives, Koyfin pricing and Trade Ideas pricing. The eligibility question that decides which of these tiers a registered firm may buy at all is on non-professional subscriber status, and the broader category view is on stock analysis tools.
QUESTIONS - ASKED AND ANSWERED
Screener with backtesting: the common questions
Which stock screener has backtesting?
Portfolio123 is the most complete of the mainstream options, selling 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of backtest history across four retail tiers from $25 to $200 a month billed annually. MarketInOut and Quant Investing both pair screening with a backtester as well. Finviz no longer does: finviz.com/backtests returns HTTP 410 Gone as of September 5, 2026, and Koyfin has never had a backtesting engine on any tier.
Can you backtest a stock screener?
Yes, and there are two different things people mean by it. Rolling screen backtests re-run a screen at a fixed interval, such as every week or every four weeks, and measure what holding the matches would have returned. A full strategy backtest adds explicit entry and exit rules, position sizing and trading costs. Portfolio123 offers both; Stock Rover offers historical screening rather than rule-based strategy simulation.
How much does a stock screener with backtesting cost?
Between roughly $25 and $200 a month if you pay annually, and the spread is almost entirely about how many years of history you get. Portfolio123 charges $300 a year for 5 years of backtest history and $2,400 for 20. Paying monthly instead adds 38% to 40% at that vendor. Quant Investing charges a flat EUR 36.31 a month with unlimited backtests, and MarketInOut publishes no price at all.
Is 5 years of backtest history enough?
Usually not, and this is the most consequential question on the page. Five years of daily data is about 1,260 observations. Bailey, Borwein, Lopez de Prado and Zhu showed in the Notices of the AMS in May 2014 that on exactly that sample length, trying more than 45 independent configurations near-guarantees an in-sample Sharpe of 1.0 with an expected out-of-sample Sharpe of zero. If you intend to try many variants, buy more history or try fewer variants.
Does Finviz have backtesting?
No. Finviz once published a backtests section and the URL finviz.com/backtests now returns HTTP 410 Gone, which we re-checked on September 5, 2026. A 410 is the server explicitly stating the resource has been permanently removed rather than temporarily misplaced. Finviz Elite at $39.50 a month, or $24.96 a month billed annually, remains a strong screener; it is simply not a backtester.
What is the difference between screening and backtesting?
Screening filters the current universe down to the stocks that match your conditions right now. Backtesting replays a rule through past data and reports what it would have returned, including entries, exits, costs and drawdowns. A screener answers what matches today. A backtester answers whether matching ever paid. Tools that do only the first are frequently described as doing both.
Can a financial advisor use these retail plans?
Often not at the advertised price. Portfolio123 scopes its non-professional plans to individual investors managing personal accounts under $5 million and runs a separate professional track for firms, educators and research providers. That pattern repeats across the category, and the exchange definition it rests on, plus the vendor tiers a registered firm cannot buy at all, is set out on our non-professional subscriber page.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.
Your next idea deserves a verdict, not a hunch.
Bring a thesis or a ticker. AgentTrading restates the rule, shows the evidence, runs 20+ years of history, and stamps an honest verdict. You decide.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. For educational and informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Consult a licensed advisor.