# What to use instead of thinkorswim

thinkorswim costs nothing and cannot be kept without a Schwab account. What covers its charts, scans, options analysis and thinkScript at a price of its own.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/alternatives/thinkorswim*

## The subject

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Product | thinkorswim |
| Status | live |
| Website | https://www.schwab.com/trading/thinkorswim |
| Category | Stock Charting Platforms & Screeners |

Schwab's trading platform on desktop, web and phone — charts, scans, options analysis, the thinkScript language and paperMoney — with no fee and no way in except a Schwab brokerage account.

## Replacements

*Ordered by how much of the original’s job each one covers, closest first. Paid placement does not affect this order.*

1. [TradingView](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradingview.md) — The most of thinkorswim in one subscription — charts, a scripting language with a strategy tester, screeners, an options strategy builder and paper trading.
2. [TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider.md) — Charts, real-time scanning, JavaScript indicators and no-code backtests in a browser and on a phone, from 82 dollars, for US-listed equities only.
3. [TC2000](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tc2000.md) — Real-time charts, EasyScan and option chains for US and Canadian stocks, with a free practice simulator; scanning starts at 49.99 and there is no backtester.
4. [Barchart.com](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/barchart-com.md) — The options screens without a brokerage account — IV rank, unusual activity, options flow and covered call, naked put and vertical screeners for 29.95.
5. [Market Chameleon](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/market-chameleon.md) — Options analytics built around earnings — ten years of implied against actual moves, IV rankings and multi-leg screeners, 15 minutes delayed, at 99 dollars.
6. [AmiBroker](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/amibroker.md) — If thinkScript was for testing rules, a portfolio-level backtester in its own array language, sold once from 299 dollars. Windows only, data not included.

## The product

thinkorswim is a trading platform in three pieces — a downloadable desktop application with
installers for Windows, Mac and Linux, a browser version and a phone app. It came to Charles
Schwab with TD Ameritrade, whose acquisition Schwab completed on 6 October 2020; Schwab put it in
front of its own clients in 2023, and its annual report for 2024 records the last Ameritrade
client transition group converting in May 2024.

What people use it for is described plainly on Schwab's own pages, read on 26 September 2026:
400-plus technical studies and chart types down to Monkey Bars and Renko; scans across
fundamental, technical and option-related data; "what-if" simulations on real and hypothetical
trades, volatility and probability analyses and options back-testing; thinkScript, the platform's
own language, with a Condition Wizard for building conditions without code; and paperMoney, a
simulated account that runs on live market data.

Nothing has happened to it. The page exists because of how it is sold. Schwab's FAQ says the
suite costs clients nothing and that a Schwab account is required to log in. There is no deposit
minimum to open one, but there is no route to the software that does not pass through a
brokerage account either, and the price of it is the brokerage relationship — which is exactly
why this catalogue does not carry a card for it. The one exception is the 30-day Guest Pass,
introduced in January 2024: paperMoney only, not extendable, and nothing set up under it
transfers to an account opened later.

So the readers of this page are specific. They are moving their brokerage somewhere without
thinkorswim, or they want their analysis tool to stop depending on where their money is held, or
they are outside the account and have used up the Guest Pass. What they want is the analysis
half, sold on its own terms.

## What to use instead

thinkorswim is a broker's platform, and nothing here is. Each pick below sells software at a
published price, which means none of them places your orders the way thinkorswim did — that is
the one piece this page cannot replace, and it is covered under what you give up. Split what you
actually used into jobs.

**The charts and the language.** [TradingView](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradingview) is the widest single
replacement: charts across stocks, options, futures and more, Pine Script with a strategy tester,
screeners, an options chain with a strategy builder and paper trading, with desktop apps on the
same three operating systems thinkorswim supports. Plans run from a free Basic to 199.95 a month
billed annually. [TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider) is the browser alternative with custom
indicators in JavaScript and a point-and-click backtester, from 82 dollars.

**The scans.** thinkorswim's scanner came with the account. [TC2000](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tc2000) is the
closest in shape — EasyScan runs across the market in real time and pushes matches to a chart —
but it needs Premium at 49.99, because Basic has no scanner. TrendSpider scans in real time too,
with the catch that the 82-dollar plan will not scan below two-hour bars. If the scans you ran were
fundamental rather than technical, [Stock Rover](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stock-rover) is built for that job.

**The options analysis.** This is the part that splits furthest. The chain-and-screen side is
covered by [Barchart.com](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/barchart-com) Premier at 29.95 — IV rank and percentile, unusual
activity, options flow and pre-built covered call, naked put and vertical spread screeners — and by
[Market Chameleon](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/market-chameleon) at 99, whose reason to exist is ten years of earnings
dates with the implied move beside the realised one, plus screeners for most standard structures.
Market Chameleon is 15 minutes delayed throughout, and Barchart.com everywhere except Cboe BZX
prints. If what you used was the numbers themselves — greeks and implied volatility to compute against — that is a data purchase rather than a platform:
[ORATS](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/orats) sells a smoothed volatility surface over REST from 199 a month.

**The testing.** If what you used thinkScript for was testing rules, and the next question is how
a rule behaves across a whole universe of symbols rather than on one chart, the move is a proper
backtester rather than another charting platform.
[AmiBroker](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/amibroker) tests rules across a whole symbol universe with shared equity, for
299 dollars once; [WealthLab](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/wealthlab) does the same in C# or drag-and-drop blocks, from
49.95 a month. Neither analyses options. The wider field is in [backtesting
frameworks](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/backtesting-frameworks).

**paperMoney.** TradingView carries paper trading, TC2000's free mode is a simulator on delayed
data, and [MotiveWave](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/motivewave)'s free Community edition simulates too. What changes is
the link: paperMoney's simulated account sat beside the real one at the same broker, and a
simulator on an analysis platform is attached to nothing you will trade.

**If a brokerage account stays.** Some platforms here connect to a broker you already use rather
than bringing their own. Of the cards in this catalogue, WealthLab and MotiveWave both list Schwab
among their connections — the path for someone who keeps the account but wants the analysis
somewhere with its own price.

## What you give up

**The price.** Zero. thinkorswim charges clients nothing for the platform, and every pick on this
page charges for the software instead of for the trades. The realistic comparison for someone
who used scans and options data is TC2000 Premium at 49.99 plus 9.99 for real-time options, or
TrendSpider at 82 plus 9.50 for OPRA — before anything for options analytics. The free tiers that
exist, TradingView's, TC2000's and Barchart.com's, are the smallest versions of their products.

**The order ticket in the analysis window.** thinkorswim analyses a trade and places it in the
same application, against the same account. Here, Barchart.com and Market Chameleon place no
orders at all; TC2000 trades only through TC2000 Brokerage, a separate broker-dealer under common
ownership; TrendSpider routes through SignalStack; AmiBroker reaches Interactive Brokers only.
Analysis and execution become two windows and two logins.

**Options analysis on the positions you hold.** Schwab describes thinkorswim's what-if
simulations as running on real trades as well as hypothetical ones, inside the account they sit
on. The options tools on this page work on a symbol or a hypothetical structure — Market Chameleon
has no portfolio at all, and Barchart.com's linked portfolio is a read-only mirror refreshed
overnight. None of the cards here documents modelling a change in volatility or time against your
actual open positions.

**One language for everything.** thinkScript drove studies, custom scan criteria, conditions and
strategy tests in one place. The picks divide that up: Pine on TradingView, JavaScript for TrendSpider's
indicators, PCF for TC2000's scans, AFL for AmiBroker's tests. Choose where the scripts go
before choosing where the charts go.

## Migration notes

**Export the thinkScript before the login goes.** The thinkScript IDE lists export and share in
the right-click menu of the script list, and imports scripts back as files. Nothing on this page
will run them, but a study's exact formula and default inputs are what you will be checking the
rewrite against, and they are gone when the account is.

**A watchlist exported to Excel is live formulas, not values.** thinkorswim's Export to Excel
pastes `RTD` formulas that pull each field from a running copy of thinkorswim on Windows. When
thinkorswim stops running they stop updating. Paste the sheet as values before the account
closes; the symbols survive inside the formulas, the prices do not.

**The Guest Pass is not an exit ramp.** It is 30 days of paperMoney, it cannot be extended, and
Schwab states that its settings and data are not reachable from a real account. Rebuilding a
workspace inside it to keep using thinkorswim after leaving buys a month.

**Implied volatility will not match to the decimal.** Greeks and IV depend on the pricing model,
the rate and dividend assumptions, and which price was fed in — mid, mark or last. ORATS, for one,
fits a smoothed surface and takes its daily snapshot 14 minutes before the close. A different
number on the new platform is usually a different convention rather than an error; compare on a
liquid at-the-money contract before trusting either.

**Check what "real-time" means on each pick for options.** TC2000 bills real-time options
separately, TrendSpider bills OPRA separately, and Barchart.com and Market Chameleon are delayed
on most prices at every tier. Schwab's pricing guide mentions market-data fees only at some
futures exchanges; on the other side of the move, the options feed is a line item of its own.

## FAQ

### Can I use thinkorswim without a Schwab account?

For 30 days. Since January 2024 Schwab has offered a Guest Pass that runs any of the thinkorswim platforms in paperMoney, the simulated environment, with 100,000 dollars of virtual buying power and no account. It cannot be extended, and nothing set up under it carries into a Schwab account opened afterwards. Beyond that, Schwab's own FAQ says a Schwab account is required to log in.

### Is thinkorswim free?

The platform is. Schwab's FAQ says clients get the thinkorswim suite at no charge and that its standard pricing applies to trades placed through it — 0 dollars online for listed equities and 0.65 a contract for options. No deposit minimum is needed to open the account, though trading options has requirements of its own. The cost of the software sits in the brokerage relationship, which is why this catalogue carries no thinkorswim card.

### Can I take my thinkScript studies with me?

The files, yes; the code, no. The thinkScript IDE exports and imports scripts as files, but nothing on this page reads thinkScript. TradingView runs Pine, TrendSpider JavaScript, TC2000 its PCF formulas and AmiBroker AFL, so every study is a rewrite. Export them anyway — the logic and the parameter values are the specification for the port.

### What happened to thinkorswim at TD Ameritrade?

It moved to Schwab with the clients. Schwab completed its acquisition of TD Ameritrade on 6 October 2020, launched thinkorswim on Schwab in 2023, and converted the last Ameritrade client transition group in May 2024, according to its annual report for 2024. The platform carried on; the accounts became Schwab accounts.

### Is anything here free the way thinkorswim is?

Not the whole of it. TradingView has a free Basic plan with one chart per tab and two indicators, TC2000 a free simulator on delayed data with no scanning, Barchart.com a free tier of 20 page views a day, and Market Chameleon a free account limited to watchlists, newsletters and basic option volume views. TrendSpider and AmiBroker have no free tier. Each of them charges for the software rather than for trades, so the free versions are the smallest ones.