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

TrendSpider is one of the most recognizable names in automated technical analysis. It made its reputation doing the tedious chart work for you: drawing trendlines algorithmically, plotting Fibonacci levels, flagging candlestick patterns, stitching multiple timeframes onto one canvas. Since then it has grown into an end-to-end automation suite with point-and-click backtesting, no-code trading bots, and broker execution over webhooks. Scanr.ai comes at the market from a narrower angle: a scanner first, built around composable filter logic.

We build Scanr, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to be fair. TrendSpider is a deep, polished, well-engineered platform, and there are categories, automated charting and strategy backtesting above all, where it beats us outright. 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 technicals and fundamentals in one filter, 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.
• TrendSpider is an automation-first charting and strategy platform. Its center of gravity is automated technical analysis (algorithmic trendlines, Fibonacci, pattern detection, Raindrop charts, multi-timeframe overlays) plus a mature point-and-click strategy backtester feeding no-code trading bots and broker execution. Suits traders who live inside a chart and want to design, test, and automate a strategy end to end.

Want the deepest filter logic, AI-assisted scan building, an API and MCP server, a useful free tier, and feedback on which of your scans pay? Try Scanr. If your process revolves around a rich automated chart and a backtested, automatable strategy, TrendSpider is hard to beat at what it was built for.

Feature comparison

How the scanners compare

1. Automated technical analysis

TrendSpider's biggest advantage comes first, because it's real. TrendSpider popularized automated technical analysis: trendlines drawn by algorithm instead of by hand, auto-Fibonacci levels, candlestick and chart-pattern detection, and multi-timeframe overlays that drop a higher-timeframe study onto a lower-timeframe chart without juggling windows. Its proprietary Raindrop charts, which fold a VWAP-based volume profile into each period, are a distinctive way to read participation.

Scanr detects chart patterns and supply/demand zones and exposes them as scan conditions. But "load a chart, let the machine draw the structure" is TrendSpider's home turf, and it does that better than we do. If automated chart annotation is central to how you read a name, this category goes to TrendSpider outright.

2. Scan flexibility and filter depth

Here Scanr gets the better of it. Both products screen on technicals and fundamentals, and TrendSpider's Market Scanner exposes 70+ built-in scans and 160-plus fundamental fields, which is a lot. The gap opens the moment you want something outside the built-in vocabulary.

In Scanr, every preset is a typed filter payload you can edit, fork, and combine. 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.

The wider gap is modifier depth. Most scanners, TrendSpider included, let you filter on an indicator's value or a simple crossover. Scanr filters on how the indicator is behaving: 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.

TrendSpider's scanner is powerful and its visual scripting editor is capable. It was designed to drive watchlists, alerts, and backtests rather than to let you stack arbitrary behavioral modifiers on arbitrary studies. That compositional depth is why Scanr exists.

3. Backtesting versus scan-performance tracking

This comparison gets muddled most often, so let's draw it carefully. The two features sound alike and do different jobs.

TrendSpider has a mature strategy backtester, and it's a strength. Define entry and exit rules through point-and-click menus, run them against decades of historical data, and read trade-by-trade results plus summary metrics: Sharpe, Sortino, win rate, reward-to-risk, max drawdown. Those strategies feed no-code trading bots that fire alerts or route live orders to a broker over webhooks. For designing, validating, and then automating a strategy, TrendSpider is well ahead of us. Our own backtesting and replay tooling is partial today, and we'll say so.

Scanr's scan-performance tracking answers a different question. A backtester asks what would have happened had you traded a hypothetical rule over the past N years. Scanr asks how the tickers surfaced by the scans you actually saved are performing, forward, right now. It re-runs those scans in the background and tracks what each one surfaces, building win-rate and edge analytics per scan with per-ticker breakdowns, without you re-running anything.

So they don't compete. TrendSpider tells you how a strategy would have done historically; Scanr tells you how your live scanning workflow is doing. To backtest and automate a strategy, TrendSpider is the better tool. To find out which of your saved scans is carrying the rest, that's us.

4. AI scan generation

Both platforms have leaned into AI, and TrendSpider's is real. Its scanner takes a scan description by text or voice and builds it for you, its Sidekick assistant summarizes charts and backtests, and its AI Strategy Lab trains models to generate signals. That's a serious investment.

Scanr points its AI at the scan itself. Describe a setup in plain English and get back a runnable, editable filter payload: "small-caps breaking out of a multi-week base on rising relative strength with insider buying in the last quarter" becomes a Scanr scan you can run, fork, and refine, on the free tier too, with daily limits. The distinction is what the AI produces. Ours hands you a transparent, typed filter you control and can stack modifiers onto, rather than a black box. Both are strong. Choose by whether you want the AI embedded in a charting and automation suite or aimed at composable scans.

5. Charts

TrendSpider's charting is a core strength and the reason many people buy it. Beyond the automated trendlines and Fibonacci, you get Raindrop charts, a large indicator library, multi-timeframe overlays, Smart Checklists that grade a setup green or red on load, Dynamic Price Alerts that attach to lines and indicators, and real-time options data via OPRA woven through the charts. For a chart-centric workflow across many asset classes, it runs deep and polished.

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. If your day happens inside a richly-configured chart, TrendSpider will feel more powerful. If you find setups fast and glance at a chart to confirm them, ours is sized for that.

6. Alt-data Scanr scans that TrendSpider doesn't

Scanr scans signals that most charting platforms, TrendSpider included, don't expose as first-class filter conditions. Insider (Form 4) activity and short interest are scannable fields you combine with anything else. So is Level 2 order-book microstructure, scanned via feature windows, so "unusual bid-side depth building under a breakout" becomes part of a filter instead of something you eyeball.

TrendSpider carries real-time and historical price, fundamentals, options, and some alternative data, and you can bring your own data in by upload or API. Insider, short-interest and order-book signals as native, composable scan conditions are where Scanr goes further. If alt-data edges matter to your process, weigh that gap.

7. Multi-asset coverage

TrendSpider is broader by asset class. It covers US equities, ETFs, options (with OPRA/CBOE data), futures (CME, ICE), forex, crypto, OTC and pink sheets, and global indices. Trade across futures, FX, and crypto from one platform and that breadth wins, because we don't match it today.

Scanr concentrates on its ~7,000-symbol US equities universe, plus the fundamental, insider, short-interest, and order-book data layered on top. The focus is deliberate: it's what lets us go deep on modifiers and alt-data signals. Where multi-asset coverage is a hard requirement, TrendSpider is the broader tool.

8. Maturity, ecosystem and mobile

TrendSpider is the more established product, by a wide margin. It's a popular, well-reviewed platform with a large retail-trader community, hundreds of pre-built Smart Watch Lists, a developer program, broker/exchange connectivity to 30-plus venues, mature iOS and Android apps, and a Chrome extension.

Scanr is younger. Our preset library and community are growing, and they don't carry TrendSpider's tenure; we won't pretend otherwise. Our iOS app is live on the App Store, with Android on the way, while TrendSpider's mobile apps are further along. Our effort goes into filter depth, alt-data breadth, and giving you the tools to validate your own edge.

9. Pricing

The gap here is meaningful. TrendSpider is paid-only, with plans that (as of mid-2026) run roughly $82, $137, $183, and $321/month for Standard, Premium, Enhanced, and Advanced, and annual billing discounts the entry tier to around $52/month. A 14-day paid trial exists; a permanent free plan doesn't. You get some free public tools, and 25 monthly Sidekick AI messages on paid plans.

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. For traders who want serious scanning before paying anything, or who don't need a full charting-and-automation suite, that difference decides it.

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

10. API and automation

Both platforms automate, in opposite directions. TrendSpider automates execution: webhooks, no-code bots, and connections to 30-plus brokers and exchanges let a backtested strategy place live trades, and you can push your own data in by upload or API. What it lacks is a public REST API to run your scans programmatically, or an MCP server.

Scanr automates research. A public API and an MCP server mean 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. For traders who build their own dashboards or LLM-driven research, that tends to settle the decision. Rate limits, tiers, and the full list of MCP tools are on the Scanr API pricing page.

To automate orders, TrendSpider's bots-and-webhooks model fits better. To automate scanning and research and pull the results into your own tooling, that's ours.

11. Who each one is for

Pick TrendSpider if:

• Automated technical analysis (algorithmic trendlines, Fibonacci, pattern detection, Raindrop charts, multi-timeframe overlays) is central to how you read a chart.
• You want a mature, point-and-click strategy backtester feeding no-code trading bots and live broker execution.
• You trade across asset classes (equities, options, futures, FX, crypto) and want them in one platform.
• Mature, established iOS and Android apps 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, short-interest, and order-book data in a single scan.
• You want to generate scans from plain-English prompts and keep a transparent, editable filter you control.
• You want a system that tells you which of your saved scans pay, forward, in real time.
• You want a public API or MCP integration so your scans show up in your own tools, scripts, or AI clients.
• You want a useful free tier and paid plans from $39.99/mo.

Final word

These are different tools built on different philosophies. TrendSpider draws the chart for you, lets you backtest a strategy, and then automates the trade; if that end-to-end loop is your process, little else matches its polish. Scanr is a scanning platform: compose any idea as a filter, mix technicals with fundamentals and alt-data, find out which of your scans work, and pull it all through an API or MCP server.

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.