Trade Ideas is the better tool for trading the open; Finviz Elite is the better tool for researching it the night before. The annual price gap between Trade Ideas Premium and Finviz Elite is $1,836.50, and whether that money is well spent comes down to one question: are you in the market every morning, or screening for setups a few evenings a week?
Choose Trade Ideas if you day trade actively and want streaming, event-driven alerts plus AI-generated entry and exit signals firing during market hours. That capability lives on the Premium plan at $254 a month, or $2,136 billed annually.
Choose Finviz if you screen for candidates outside market hours, build watchlists, and execute on your own analysis. Elite costs $39.50 a month, or $299.50 a year, comes with a 7-day free trial, and refunds within the first 30 days. Swing traders rarely need more.
All pricing and policy facts on this page were verified in June 2026 against trade-ideas.com’s pricing page, the Trade Ideas billing policy, and the Finviz Elite plan page. Ratings follow the criteria on how we rate.
Side by side
| Trade Ideas | Finviz Elite | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (monthly billing) | Basic $127/mo · Premium $254/mo | $39.50/mo |
| Price (annual billing) | Basic $1,068/yr · Premium $2,136/yr | $299.50/yr ($24.96/mo equivalent) |
| Core strength | Real-time event scanning, 500+ alert and filter data points | Filter-based screening with heat maps and saved presets |
| AI | Holly: 60+ strategies backtested nightly, live entry/exit signals (Premium only) | None in the published Elite feature set |
| Data | Real-time on both paid tiers, premarket and after-hours included; free account is 15-minute delayed | Real-time on Elite (premarket 4:00–9:30 am, after-hours 4:00–8:00 pm ET); free version delayed 15–20 minutes |
| Markets | US stocks | US stocks (NYSE, Nasdaq, Amex); futures quotes delayed 20 minutes even on Elite |
| Platforms | Windows desktop app plus a browser version; Mac users run the browser version or virtualization | Browser |
| Trial | No free trial of paid tiers; periodic paid Test Drive events; free delayed-data account | 7-day free Elite trial (card required, auto-renews) |
| Refunds | All sales final | 30-day refund window on written request |
| Our rating | 4.2 | 4.1 |
Scanning vs screening: two different machines
These tools get lumped together as “scanners,” but they answer different questions. Finviz answers “which stocks match my criteria right now?” Trade Ideas answers “what just happened, everywhere, this second?”
The Finviz screener is filter-based. You stack criteria from drop-down menus across descriptive, fundamental, and technical groups: float, short float, gap, relative volume, price, RSI, moving-average position, candlestick patterns, and dozens more, per the official screener documentation. Results land in a sortable table or a heat map, and you can save filter combinations as presets (50 on the free version, 200 on Elite). It’s fast, it’s clean, and a new user is productive in minutes.
Trade Ideas is a streaming engine. Alert windows monitor the entire market in real time against 500+ data points and fire events as they happen: new highs, gap reversals, VWAP crosses, halt resumptions, unusual volume. You’re not refreshing a list; the list comes to you. For momentum trading, where the stock that matters at 9:42 didn’t exist on any watchlist at 9:30, that architecture is the whole point.
Winner: Trade Ideas for intraday, Finviz for everything slower. If your entries depend on catching a move as it starts, a static screener will always be a step behind the tape. If you pick candidates the night before and trade your plan, the streaming engine is firepower you’re paying for and not using.
AI signals: a one-sided contest
Holly, the Trade Ideas AI, backtests more than 60 strategies every night, drops the ones that aren’t working in current conditions, and publishes the survivors as live entry and exit signals the next morning. She averages 5–25 trades a day, per the official Holly guide. The strategy parameters are proprietary and can’t be customized; you take her signals as delivered or you don’t. Holly requires the Premium plan.
Two honest caveats, both derived from how the product is documented to work. First, Holly’s signals go out to Premium subscribers in real time, which means every subscriber sees the same entry at the same moment. On liquid large caps that’s irrelevant; on a thin low-float name, fills will trail the model’s price, and the spread will eat part of the edge. Second, an AI that exits when its model says exit doesn’t manage your risk for you. Position sizing is still your job.
Finviz’s Elite page sells real-time data, multi-layout charts with automatic pattern recognition, screening, alerts, ETF holdings data, and Excel/API export. AI signal generation is not part of the published feature set. That’s not a flaw; it’s a different product. Finviz hands you data and gets out of the way.
Winner: Trade Ideas, by walkover. If AI signals are why you’re reading this page, the comparison is over. The real question is whether they’re worth $2,136 a year to you, which is the next section.
Price: the $1,836.50 question
Run the numbers on annual billing, which is where both products price most aggressively. Trade Ideas Premium is $2,136 a year. Finviz Elite is $299.50. The gap is $1,836.50 a year, or about $7.29 per trading day across a 252-day year.
What does $7.29 a day buy? Holly’s signals, OddsMaker backtesting, automated trading through Brokerage Plus with a participating broker, Smart Risk Levels, the Channel Bar’s preconfigured scans, and the streaming alert architecture. For a trader at the screen every morning, one avoided chase or one extra clean entry a week covers it. For someone placing two swing trades a month off a Sunday screen, it never pays for itself, and Trade Ideas Basic doesn’t rescue the math: at $1,068 a year it costs 3.5x Finviz Elite and includes the scanner but not Holly or the backtester.
Worth knowing on the cheap end: the free Finviz version runs 15–20 minute delayed quotes, which is fine for after-hours screening and useless for intraday decisions. The free Trade Ideas account is also delayed 15 minutes. Neither free tier is a day trading tool; both are previews.
Winner: Finviz, decisively, on price. Value is a different question than price, and it depends entirely on your trading frequency. The gap is real money: state it, then decide if your process uses what it buys.
Ease of use: minutes vs weeks
Finviz runs in a browser tab. The screener is drop-downs and checkboxes. Most traders build their first useful screen inside ten minutes, and the heat map needs no instructions at all.
Trade Ideas is a multi-window Windows desktop application, and its own onboarding reflects the depth: the official Getting Started series asks new users for 30 minutes of video before building scans, and the 500+ alerts and filters reward configuration time the way a direct-access platform rewards hotkey practice. There’s a browser version that carries all 500+ alerts and filters with no speed difference, per the Test Drive FAQ, which is also the supported route for Mac users (alongside running Windows in Parallels or a cloud machine). Powerful, yes. Plug-and-play, no.
Winner: Finviz. No contest on time-to-productive. The Trade Ideas learning curve is the price of its depth, and it’s a real cost even when the tool is right for you.
Data and market coverage
Both products are US-stock tools. Finviz states it plainly: coverage is NYSE, Nasdaq, and Amex, with no current plans to expand, and futures quotes stay 20 minutes delayed even on Elite, per the official FAQ. Trade Ideas scans US equities with real-time data on both paid tiers, premarket and after-hours sessions included, and covers non-professional exchange fees in the subscription (professionals pay exchange fees on top).
On Elite, Finviz’s real-time window runs 4:00 am to 8:00 pm ET across premarket, regular, and after-hours sessions, and fundamentals refresh hourly. Charting exists on both but headlines neither: Finviz Elite documents multi-layout charts with technical studies and automatic pattern recognition; Trade Ideas documents 10 simultaneous charts on Basic and 20 on Premium with drawing tools and flexible timeframes. Traders who live in their charts usually keep a separate charting platform either way.
Winner: draw, with a lean to Trade Ideas for intraday depth. Both deliver real-time US stock data on their paid tiers. Trade Ideas exposes far more of that data as scannable, alertable events, which is what a day trader actually consumes.
Billing, trials, and refunds: read this before you pay annually
This is where the two products sit at opposite ends of the category, and the difference is verified policy, not opinion.
Finviz Elite gives you a 7-day free trial (card required, and it auto-renews into a paid plan unless you cancel before the trial ends), self-serve cancellation from the subscription page, and a 30-day refund window on written request. After 30 days, payments are non-refundable. That’s about as buyer-friendly as paid trading software gets.
Trade Ideas is the strict end. All sales are final; the official billing policy offers store credit or exchanges, not refunds. Subscriptions auto-renew monthly or annually, and the policy states it is the customer’s responsibility to confirm a cancellation went through. There is no free trial of the paid tiers. Instead, recurring Test Drive events sell 1–2 weeks of full Premium access for a small fee; the signup page currently advertises 10 trading days for $11.11. Test Drives end automatically with no further commitment, and they’re the right way to evaluate the software before committing real money.
The protection play if you go with Trade Ideas: take the Test Drive first, start on monthly billing even though annual is cheaper, set a calendar reminder before any renewal date, and keep written confirmation of any cancellation. On a $2,136 annual plan with a no-refunds policy, a forgotten renewal is an expensive mistake, and within this comparison the policy is verifiably the harsher one: Finviz refunds your first 30 days, Trade Ideas refunds nothing.
Winner: Finviz. Free trial, refund window, self-serve cancellation. Trade Ideas asks for more trust up front; the Test Drive is how you make that ask reasonable.
Verdict: match the tool to your trading day
There’s no universal winner here because the two products aren’t competing for the same hours of your day.
Buy Trade Ideas Premium if you trade most mornings, want signals and streaming alerts during market hours, and will use the backtesting and automation that justify the price. Take the Test Drive first, and read our Trade Ideas review and the full Trade Ideas pricing breakdown before committing, including the Trade Ideas free trial options, one of which can make the software free through a partner brokerage.
Buy Finviz Elite if you’re a swing trader, a part-time trader, or a day trader who builds a premarket watchlist and trades a plan rather than chasing live alerts. At $24.96 a month on annual billing, it’s one of the best value buys in this category. Details in our Finviz review.
Skip both, for now, if you’re new and unfunded. Most day traders lose money, and no scanner subscription changes that before you have a tested process; the numbers are in our day trading statistics. When you’re ready to compare the wider field, start with the best stock scanners ranking or the cheaper options in Trade Ideas alternatives.
FAQ
Is Finviz good enough for day trading?
For premarket watchlist building and end-of-day review, yes; Elite’s real-time data, gap and relative-volume filters, and screener alerts cover that workflow well. For live momentum trading, where you need streaming alerts on moves as they trigger, a filter-based screener is structurally a step behind a real-time scanning engine like Trade Ideas.
Does Finviz have an AI like Holly?
No AI signal generation appears in the published Elite feature set, which centers on real-time data, screening, charts with pattern recognition, alerts, ETF data, and export tools. If AI-generated entry and exit signals are the requirement, Trade Ideas Premium is the relevant product.
How much do Trade Ideas and Finviz cost in 2026?
Trade Ideas Basic runs $127 a month or $1,068 a year, and Premium (the tier with Holly and backtesting) runs $254 a month or $2,136 a year. Finviz Elite runs $39.50 a month or $299.50 a year. Both verified against the official pricing pages in June 2026.
Does either platform offer a free trial?
Finviz Elite includes a 7-day free trial that requires a card and auto-renews unless cancelled in time. Trade Ideas has no free trial of its paid tiers; it offers a free account with 15-minute delayed data, plus recurring paid Test Drive events that currently advertise 10 trading days of Premium access for $11.11.
Can I use Finviz and Trade Ideas together?
Plenty of active traders do: Finviz (even the free version) for evening research and fundamental screening, Trade Ideas for live scanning and signals during market hours. Adding Finviz Elite to a Trade Ideas Premium annual plan raises the total from $2,136 to $2,435.50 a year, a 14% bump for a research layer the scanner doesn’t try to replace.