# Trade Ideas vs TrendSpider: testing the scan is what decides it

Trade Ideas sells a live US stock scanner for Windows and charges double to test it; TrendSpider sells scans by bar size and tests them on every plan.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/trade-ideas-vs-trendspider*

- https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trade-ideas.md
- https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider.md

Both of these are bought for the same job, a scanner that tells you when a US stock meets your
conditions instead of a screen you re-run, and the cards above put them a few dollars apart at
the bottom. They are not a few dollars apart for the same thing. Trade Ideas divides its two plans
by feature and puts testing behind the top one; TrendSpider gives every plan the same features and
divides its four by the shortest bar it will scan or test. Which of those two units your trading
uses up decides the bill.

## What each one scans against

[Trade Ideas](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trade-ideas) builds a scan from more than 500 alert and filter conditions and
streams matches into alert windows the moment a condition triggers. Its card records no bar-size
floor on either plan: TI Standard at $127 is the whole scanner, with real-time data, ten charts on
screen, price alerts, paper trading and the TI Wave overlay. What TI Premium adds is everything
around the scan, chiefly Holly. Holly reselects a strategy set every night against simulated
backtests of past data and, during the session, issues named buy and sell alerts with suggested
entry, stop, target and exit levels. That is why its card is flagged as making recommendations.
The track record is the vendor's own and cannot be checked from outside a subscription, so treat
the scanner as the thing being compared here.

[TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider) starts from a chart that draws itself: trendlines, Fibonacci
levels and chart patterns detected automatically across several timeframes, with a scanner that
finds setups without the screen being written by hand. The scan runs in real time over a universe,
but only on the bar size your plan allows: two hours on Standard, five minutes on
Premium, one minute on Enhanced and Advanced. Its AI is flagged on its card as a research feature,
not as a recommendation engine.

So a daily or two-hour swing scan is an $82 purchase on TrendSpider and a $127 one on Trade Ideas.
A five-minute scan is $137 against $127. A one-minute scan is $183 against $127. Those are monthly
list prices on both sides, because that is the only basis on which the two cards can be compared;
more on that below.

## Where each plan stops

Trade Ideas' cap is a feature line. At $127 there is no backtesting, so there is no way inside the
product to check whether a scan you built has ever matched anything worth matching. The OddsMaker
backtester, Holly, smart risk levels, the RBI/GBI window and auto trading all arrive together at
$254.

TrendSpider's cap is resolution, plus the size of a test: 2,000 candles on Standard, 10,000 and
150 symbols per test on Premium, 20,000 and 250 on Enhanced, 30,000 and 510 on Advanced, which is
also the plan whose card note gives 100 bots and 400 alerts. Features are identical across the
four plans, bots included, and the backtester works under the same bar-size floor as the scanner.

That makes the comparison flip once a test is part of the job. Scan and backtest on five-minute
bars: $137 on TrendSpider, $254 on Trade Ideas. On one-minute bars: $183 against $254.

Neither card records how many scans or alerts a lower plan allows. Trade Ideas states no count at
all; TrendSpider states its counts only for Advanced. If you run many scans at once, that is the
number to get from each vendor before paying.

## The data feed

Both put real-time US equities and ETFs in the plan price. The differences are at the edges, and
in how much each card says about them.

TrendSpider's card spells out who pays what. Equities, ETFs, forex and crypto are included for
non-professionals; futures are $7.50 a month, OPRA options $9.50, a self-certified professional
owes NASDAQ $29 a month, and OTC and some index feeds are delayed up to 15 minutes. The
[guide to real-time data fees](https://stockmarketstack.com/guides/real-time-market-data-fees) explains why professional
status changes the line.

The Trade Ideas card says real-time data is part of TI Standard and that exchange rules for live
data are why there is no functional free trial. It does not say whether a professional subscriber
pays exchange fees on top. That field is blank, not zero.

Coverage is lopsided. Trade Ideas is US stocks and ETFs only: no futures, forex or crypto, and no
options analytics behind the options orders it can route. TrendSpider adds US options with an
options map, CME futures, forex and crypto. Neither has a non-US listed stock at any price.

## Desktop or browser

The full Trade Ideas product is a Windows desktop application. The browser build is real but is
not the full platform, and a free account buys only 15-minute delayed data on the browser
dashboards, metered. On a Mac the vendor's own advice is Parallels or a cloud Windows instance.

TrendSpider is a web app, with iOS and Android apps besides. There is nothing to install and no
operating system to choose.

## Automation and the broker link

Trade Ideas sends orders out through its Brokerage+ module to Interactive Brokers, TradeStation,
E*TRADE and Alpaca by API, with partner arrangements at moomoo, Centerpoint and Cobra. Auto
trading sits on TI Premium. Money Machine, the automated-execution layer the site promotes, was
an alpha in simulated mode only, restricted to Premium, when the card was checked. It has no
webhooks, no scripting language and no public API: alerts stay inside the application. What it
has that TrendSpider does not is paper trading, real-time, on the $127 plan.

TrendSpider's alerts and bots post to webhooks, and custom indicators are written in JavaScript
inside the platform. Execution runs through [SignalStack](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/signalstack): manual order entry
comes free with the subscription, automated execution is capped at five orders a month, and past
that SignalStack bills you separately. Its card records no paper trading. Neither has a data API
to pull scan results into your own code.

## Prices, dates and trials

Both cards were verified on the same day, 13 September 2026, for pricing, capabilities and
coverage, so nothing here rests on two snapshots taken months apart.

They do not quote the same tab. The Trade Ideas card gives both monthly and annual prices: $127
or $1,068 a year, an effective $89 a month; $254 or $2,136 a year, an effective $178. Annual
billing is its only discount. The TrendSpider card gives the monthly list prices, $82, $137, $183
and $321, says annual billing discounts them without stating the annual figure, and records a sale
on 13 September 2026 advertising up to 45% off the first twelve months, excluding add-ons and data
feeds and non-refundable. A reader comparing annual prices has a number for one side only.

Neither can be tried for free. TrendSpider's trial is 14 days for $19 to $49, non-refundable; a
full plan bought afterwards can be refunded within 72 hours, minus the trial fee. Trade Ideas
sells a "Test Drive", a quarterly window of one or two weeks at Premium level for a fee its card
calls small without stating it.

## The recommendation

**TrendSpider**, until the job is a live intraday scan of US stocks on a Windows machine that you
do not intend to backtest inside the tool. From that moment, **Trade Ideas Standard**: $127 a
month or an effective $89 billed annually for a scanner whose card records no bar-size floor, against $183 for
TrendSpider's one-minute scan, plus paper trading TrendSpider does not offer. The moment you want
to test the scan as well, the order reverses again: TrendSpider at $137 or $183 does that, where
Trade Ideas asks $254. And if you trade options, futures, forex or crypto alongside stocks, or work
on a Mac, it is TrendSpider whatever the bar size.

For the same TrendSpider plans set against a charting platform rather than a scanner, see
[TradingView vs TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/tradingview-vs-trendspider). The rest of the category is on
the [charting platforms and screeners page](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/charting-screeners).

## FAQ

### Which is cheaper for a real-time intraday scan of US stocks?

For the scan alone, Trade Ideas. TI Standard is $127 a month, or an effective $89 a month billed annually, and its plans are not divided by bar size. TrendSpider scans five-minute bars from Premium at $137 a month and one-minute bars from Enhanced at $183; its $82 Standard plan will not scan below two-hour bars.

### Which is cheaper if I want to backtest the scan as well?

TrendSpider. Its backtester is on every plan, limited by the same bar-size floor as the scanner, so a five-minute test is $137 a month and a one-minute test $183. Trade Ideas keeps its OddsMaker backtester on TI Premium at $254 a month, or an effective $178 billed annually; at $127 there is no backtesting at all.

### Can I run either one on a Mac?

TrendSpider runs in a browser and has iOS and Android apps. The complete Trade Ideas product is a Windows desktop application; the vendor tells Mac users to run it under Parallels or on a cloud Windows instance, and its browser version is not the full platform.

### Does either one place orders automatically?

TrendSpider's bots execute through SignalStack, with five automated orders a month included before SignalStack bills you separately. Trade Ideas connects to Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, E*TRADE and Alpaca for orders and lists auto trading on TI Premium, but Money Machine, the automated layer it promotes, was an alpha in simulated mode only when its card was checked.