Overview
TradingView is a charting and market-analysis platform, founded in 2011 and now valued around $3 billion after a 2021 funding round led by Tiger Global. It's not an advisory service and makes no trade recommendations of its own; instead it gives you the charting tools, screeners, and a scripting language (Pine Script) to build and test your own ideas, plus a large social "Ideas" community where other traders share their analysis publicly. It's the only entry in this category that's genuinely free at a usable level, with paid tiers layered on top for more charts, data, and alerts.
What you get
- Advanced charting: 100-plus drawing tools and 100-plus built-in indicators, across stocks, options, futures, forex, and 70-plus crypto exchanges
- Pine Script, a scripting language for building and backtesting your own custom indicators and strategies, plus a Pine Screener to scan for them
- A large social "Ideas" community where other traders publish their own chart analysis and reasoning publicly, free to read
- Broker integration with 100-plus partner brokers to trade directly from a chart
- Paper trading and real-time alerts (limits scale with your tier)
Pricing
Basic
Free. 1 chart, 2 indicators, delayed-friendly limits.
Essential
$12.95/mo. More charts and indicators, 30-day trial.
Plus
$29.95/mo. Higher limits, more alerts, 30-day trial.
Premium / Ultimate
$59.95-$199.95/mo. Max charts, data, and alerts, 14-30-day trial.
Annual billing knocks a meaningful chunk off the monthly rate at every paid tier. There's no fixed refund policy published; TradingView says exceptions "can be made at times" through support, and mobile app-store subscriptions can only be refunded through Apple or Google directly, not TradingView itself.
On the billing complaints
TradingView makes no return or performance claims of any kind, which is a genuine point in its favor since there's nothing to fact-check or overstate. But independent complaint records tell a real story on the business-practices side: its BBB profile (not accredited) shows 32 complaints over three years, with 29 unanswered and only 3 resolved, mostly centered on unauthorized auto-renewal charges, difficulty getting refunds, and no phone support. Trustpilot shows a similar pattern, roughly 62% one-star reviews out of 1,332, with recurring complaints about billing disputes and support that's largely limited to an AI chatbot. None of this touches the quality of the charting tools themselves, but it's worth knowing before you hand over a card number, especially on an annual plan.
Pros and cons
What stands out
- A genuinely usable free tier, unique in this category
- Pine Script lets you build and backtest your own logic rather than just trusting someone else's
- Broadest market coverage of anything reviewed on this site: stocks, options, futures, forex, and 70-plus crypto exchanges
- Makes no return or performance claims, so there's nothing misleading to correct for
Where it falls short
- Not an advisory service, you have to build or find your own trade ideas
- No fixed refund policy; mobile subscriptions route through the app stores, not TradingView
- Real complaint pattern around unauthorized renewal charges and support responsiveness
- Higher tiers get expensive if you need max chart/alert limits
Verdict
TradingView is the most broadly useful tool in this category precisely because it doesn't try to hand you conclusions, it gives you the charting depth, screening tools, and scripting language to build your own, backed by a free tier that's actually usable. The billing and support complaints are real and worth reading before you commit to an annual plan, but they're about account administration, not the quality or integrity of the platform itself.
Frequently asked questions
Is TradingView worth it?
If you want serious charting tools and the ability to build and test your own strategies, yes, and the free tier is a real way to try it before paying anything. It's not a fit if you're looking for someone else's trade ideas rather than tools to build your own.
Does TradingView give trade recommendations?
No. It's a charting, screening, and scripting platform. Other users share their own analysis in the public "Ideas" community, but TradingView itself doesn't publish recommendations.
Can I get a refund from TradingView?
There's no fixed refund window published; TradingView says exceptions can be made through support. Mobile app-store subscriptions are refunded through Apple or Google, not TradingView directly.
Curious about TradingView?
Free Basic tier available; paid tiers run $12.95-$199.95/mo with a free trial on each.
Visit TradingView →