Scanr vs. TC2000: which stock scanner is right for you?

Technical traders know TC2000, the charting and scanning platform from Worden Brothers. It traces back to TeleChart in the late '80s, it has been voted Best Stock Analysis Software by Stocks & Commodities for over two decades, and its EasyScan engine has a devoted following. Scanr.ai attacks the same problem, finding the right names fast, from a newer and more composable direction.

We build Scanr, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to be fair. TC2000 is a mature product with a fast scanner, a famously deep formula language, an integrated brokerage, and a price that's hard to argue with. Plenty of traders should be using it. If something here is wrong, email us and we'll fix it.

TL;DR

• Scanr.ai builds scans out of composable, deeply configurable filters. Stack study modifiers (slope, correlation, crossovers, divergences) on any indicator, mix in fundamentals, generate scans from plain-English prompts, reach all of it from a public API or MCP server, and let a background system re-scan your saved scans so you can see which ones pay. Suits traders who want to express a precise idea as a filter, then find out whether the idea works.
• TC2000 is a fast, mature, all-in-one desktop platform. EasyScan screens thousands of symbols in seconds across 192 fundamental and 240+ technical criteria, the Personal Criteria Formula (PCF) language lets power users write custom conditions, the charting is quick and battle-tested, and an integrated brokerage trades US stocks and options straight off the chart. Suits active stock and options traders who want speed, PCF-level control, and execution in one Windows-first app.

Want the deepest modifier logic, AI-assisted scan building, an API and MCP server, a free tier, and feedback on which of your scans pay? Try Scanr. Want a proven, fast scanner with a powerful formula language, a built-in broker, and a low monthly price? TC2000 is hard to beat at what it was built for.

Feature comparison

How the scanners compare

1. The PCF formula language

TC2000's biggest advantage comes first, because it's real. Personal Criteria Formulas (PCF) give power users a proper formula language for technical logic the point-and-click builder can't reach. Pair that with the EasyScan Condition Wizard, which lets newcomers assemble conditions from dropdowns without writing code, and TC2000 covers both ends of the spectrum. A cottage industry of traders sells and swaps PCFs, which tells you how much weight the language carries.

Scanr reaches the same flexibility by a different road. Rather than formula text, every preset is a typed filter payload: a structured object you edit, fork, and recombine in the UI. It reads more easily than PCF and recombines more cleanly, and (as below) you can also generate it from plain English or drive it from an API. If you've spent years building PCF fluency and a personal formula library, that investment stays with TC2000.

2. Scan flexibility and modifier depth

Here Scanr gets the better of it. Both products screen on fundamentals and technicals: TC2000 advertises 192 fundamental and 240+ technical criteria, and EasyScan is fast. The gap opens the moment you want to filter on how an indicator is behaving rather than what it reads.

In Scanr, mix a technical condition ("price closing above the 50-day EMA for 3 sessions") with a fundamental one ("free cash flow yield > 5% and net debt/EBITDA < 2") in the same scan, against a ~7,000-symbol universe, narrowed without a page reload. Then add modifier depth: put a slope on RSI to catch momentum that's picking up, correlate a stock's SMA against its sector, or layer crossovers and divergences onto any study. "14-day RSI sloping up while price diverges from the 50-day SMA" saves as one reusable filter, and the same composition carries across chart patterns, supply/demand zones, relative strength, insider (Form 4) activity, short interest, and order-book microstructure.

A fluent PCF user can encode sophisticated conditions too. The everyday TC2000 experience is still value-and-threshold filtering, with the heavy lifting pushed into formula text. Scanr makes behavioral modifiers a point-and-click part of every scan.

3. Fundamentals and technicals in one scan

Credit to TC2000: a single EasyScan can combine fundamental and technical criteria. Screen for quarterly EPS growth alongside a moving-average crossover, then plot EPS right on the chart. More scanners lack that than have it, and it has been a quiet strength of the platform for years.

Scanr composes the two the same way, with financials and technicals in one filter payload, so "earnings and sales growth accelerating" stacks against "breaking out of a multi-week base on rising relative strength" inside one scan. The difference is less about whether you can mix them and more about how far each side goes, and how the result composes with modifiers, AI generation, and the API.

4. Knowing which scans work

Most scanners end at the list of matches. The absence of historical validation is one of TC2000's most commonly noted gaps: nothing built in tests whether a scan has produced consistent results over time, and reviewers routinely suggest pairing it with a second tool.

Scanr's scan-performance system re-runs your saved scans in the background and tracks what the symbols they surface do next, so each scan accumulates a win rate, edge analytics, and a per-ticker breakdown. That turns a hunch into a number. The scan you'd have named your best idea may be trailing a throwaway you forgot you saved, and you find that out without re-running anything.

5. AI scan generation

Describe a setup to Scanr in plain English and you get back a scan you can run. "Small-caps breaking out of a multi-week base on rising relative strength with insider buying in the last quarter" comes back as an editable filter payload, ready to fork and refine. It's on the free tier too, with daily limits.

TC2000 has no equivalent. It's a deterministic platform: you build scans with EasyScan and PCF, not by talking to it. No plain-language builder, no AI generation layer that we're aware of. That's no knock on a 20-plus-year-old product doing what it does well, but it is where the two tools diverge sharply.

6. Charts and the integrated broker

TC2000's charting has been a strength for a long time: fast re-draws, hot-key-driven workflows, EPS and fundamental overlays, and reviewers clocking sub-200ms S&P 500 scans with near-instant multi-chart sync. On top of that TC2000 bundles something we don't: an integrated brokerage. Scan, chart, then place a stock or multi-leg options trade off the chart, all in one app. For options traders running credit spreads, iron condors, or covered calls, that scan-to-execution loop sells itself.

We took a narrower position. A scanner's job is to surface the right names, so that's where our engineering goes. Scanr's charts cover multi-timeframe analysis, indicator stacking, and fundamental events (earnings beats, guidance changes, insider activity) annotated on the time axis: enough to make a decision without drowning in it. We're not a broker and don't try to be. If your day happens inside a richly-configured chart with execution attached, TC2000 will feel more powerful. If you find setups fast and confirm them on a clean chart, ours is sized for that.

7. Platform, mobile and the Mac question

This one cuts both ways. TC2000 is Windows-first, with a fast native Windows client, a web version carrying the same functionality at slightly lower speed, and a native Android app; an iPhone app is described as in progress. Mac is the documented friction. No native Mac app exists, so Mac users run TC2000 through the browser, a virtual machine, or remote access. Workable, and reviewers flag it as a performance and convenience compromise.

Scanr is browser-native and runs the same on Mac, Windows, and Linux, with no VM and no streaming workaround. Our iOS app is live on the App Store, with Android on the way. Today TC2000's native Android app leads on that platform while Scanr leads on desktop Mac, so choose by where you work.

8. Maturity, community and track record

TC2000 is the far more established product. Worden Brothers has been at this since 1988, Stocks & Commodities readers have named TC2000 Best Stock Analysis Software for well over two decades, and the community around it runs deep: active forums, shared PCF libraries, conferences, and traders who've used it for 20-plus years. Nobody fakes that kind of history.

Scanr is younger. Our preset library and community are growing, and they don't carry Worden's user base; we won't pretend otherwise. Our effort goes into filter depth, AI assistance, tools for validating your own edge, and a programmable surface (API and MCP) that a desktop-era platform was never designed to expose.

9. Pricing

TC2000 is affordable. Tiers run Basic $24.99/mo, Premium $49.99/mo, and Premium+ $99.99/mo, with discounts for annual or biennial billing and real-time US stock data on every plan. Worth knowing: EasyScan's Condition Wizard and PCF land on the Premium tier, and some feeds (real-time US indexes, real-time US options, consolidated tape) are add-ons of roughly $2.50 to $15/mo each. It's paid-only, with a free trial.

Scanr's paid plans start at $39.99/mo, and the free tier is a real one, with real-time scans, a decent allowance of saved presets, and daily AI-generated scans. TC2000 undercuts our starting paid price. Only Scanr lets you do serious scanning without paying at all.

Both of us move prices. Check Scanr pricing for today's numbers and compare directly.

10. API and automation

Here Scanr does something TC2000 doesn't: a public API and an MCP server. Any scan you can build in the UI also runs from your own code, or from inside an AI client like Claude or Cursor. A daily cron job that pings you when a setup fires across the Russell 2000 is a few lines against the Scanr API.

TC2000 is a closed platform. You work inside its apps rather than on top of its data, and we're not aware of a public API or MCP integration. For traders who build their own dashboards or LLM-driven research, that difference tends to settle the decision. Rate limits, tiers, and the full list of MCP tools are on the Scanr API pricing page.

11. Who each one is for

Pick TC2000 if:

• You want a fast, proven scanner with a powerful custom formula language (PCF) and a deep library of community-shared formulas.
• You trade US stocks or options actively and want charting, scanning, and execution in one app via the integrated brokerage.
• You're on Windows (or happy in a browser/VM) and want a low monthly price with real-time US data included.
• 20-plus years of maturity, a large community, and battle-tested charts matter to you.

Pick Scanr if:

• You want the deepest, most flexible filter logic: slope, correlation, crossovers and divergences stacked on any indicator.
• You want to combine technicals, fundamentals, chart patterns, supply/demand zones, relative strength, insider and short-interest data in a single scan.
• You want to generate scans from plain-English prompts.
• You want a system that tells you which of your saved scans pay.
• You want an API or MCP integration so your scans show up in your own tools, scripts, or AI clients.
• You want a free tier, native Mac access, and paid plans from $39.99/mo.

Final word

These two came out of different eras. TC2000 is a mature all-in-one desktop platform: fast scans, a beloved formula language, a broker built in. Scanr is programmable and flexibility-first: compose any idea, validate it, generate it from plain English, automate it.

Tell us what your workflow looks like and we'll tell you whether Scanr fits it. If it doesn't, we'll point you somewhere else. You can run your first scan without a credit card.