1. TradingView
TradingView offers the ultimate clean and flexible experience for looking at stock charts, and won No. 1 Stock Chart Website in investor.com's 2024 Annual Awards. It’s no wonder many of the best stock brokers license TradingView charts and widgets for their own sites.
Charts are exquisitely detailed and the service is less expensive than rival StockCharts.com (more on that below) if you feel you need a premium package. There are user delights throughout the site — for example, how the ticker box remembers the symbols you’ve already entered. It’s easier than creating a watch list.
The site hosts an active community passionately sharing ideas and advice on tons of chat channels. Sophisticated traders will appreciate the wide variety of techniques discussed in chats, while novices will be exposed to many traders’ opinions and forecasts. There’s also a killer mobile app. It has the same smooth charts as the website and it’s easy to mark them up, which is quite a feat on a phone.
As with StockCharts, you can use TradingView as your trading platform if you link it to your brokerage account. Some of the brokers that can link with TradingView include TradeStation, Interactive Brokers, Tradier, and Ally Invest.
- Pros: Most flexible stock charts, excellent community features including chat rooms, easy sharing, and over 100 charting tools and indicators included.
- Cons: Pop-up ads.
TradingView gallery
2. StockCharts.com
StockCharts.com is one of the original online charting services. It continues to offer its long-established SharpCharts suite, but its newer Advanced Charting Platform, or ACP, is where you’ll find best in class ease of customization. Regardless of whether you prefer ACP or SharpCharts, too many features are locked behind a paywall.
Even with a restrictive paywall, there’s still plenty of value to be found. Some of the best technical analysts in the industry can be found in the market commentary and education sections. Scouting around the site yielded articles and videos from famed technicians Tom McClellan, Larry Williams, Greg Morris and David Keller, among others. Also available – but behind the paywall – are posts from the legendary Martin Pring and John Murphy.
- Pros: ACP is powerful, intuitive and attractive. Articles and video content comes from the Who’s Who of technical analysis. Premium members can open and link a Tradier brokerage account to execute trades directly through StockCharts.
- Cons: Real-time data, along with many other features, requires a subscription.
StockCharts.com gallery
3. Yahoo Finance
Yahoo Finance offers clean HTML5 charts that are clear, easy to use, and ideal for everyday investors. Yahoo Finance is also an excellent website for stock quotes, research, and news (other than the annoying ads).
As I was testing out these sites, Yahoo was beta testing a rich charting experience. Don’t settle for the first chart that pops up on the quote screen. Click on the “full chart” link to get the whole experience. Do you want a Guppy Multiple Moving Average on your charts? You got it. There’s also automated pattern recognition, a feature I love (especially when it’s free). Unfortunately, advanced charting features like key event overlays require a subscription to Yahoo Finance Plus' Essential tier, for $35 per month.
- Pros: Comprehensive choice of indicators. Great tools and clean, full-screen stock charts that are easy to read and customize.
- Cons: Ads; premium pricing is listed monthly but only billed annually; the best features are locked away behind a paywall.
4. Stock Rover
While Stock Rover’s best assets are tied to its subscription accounts, the free registered version has much to recommend it, specifically in how it aligns fundamental data with a traditional price chart.
Overall, the charts are good, though limited in terms of number of indicators (15) and max historical time frame. Chart zoomers and scrollers will be happier on TradingView, StockCharts’ ACP and Charles Schwab’s thinkorswim. Still, Stock Rover packs plenty of features under the hood, especially in the paid versions. Stock Rover also offers market news and information on a wide range of stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds and commodities.
- Pros: Analyst ratings, clear charts and solid presentation of fundamental data.
- Cons: Stock Rover won’t be a top choice for pure technical analysts. Some of the labeling is odd and there’s no manual annotation on charts.
Honorable mention: FINVIZ
FINVIZ missed our top picks for stock chart websites, but its homepage is one our favorites for stock screening. It’s easy to imagine using the premium version as a daily research workstation.
FINVIZ charts are very simple but at least moving averages and volume are included by default. Basic features, such as intraday and fullscreen charts and OHLC bars, require upgrading to FINVIZ Elite for $39.50 per month (or $24.96 per month with an annual subscription).
- Pros: Additional fundamental data is also displayed right below each chart, including analyst ratings.
- Cons: Intrusive ads on the free version. Basic stock charts offer very limited customization on free version.
FAQs
Where can I chart stocks for free?
The best free stock charts are on TradingView. Other free charting websites include StockCharts.com, FINVIZ, Stock Rover and Yahoo Finance. Traders can also open an account at many of the best stock brokers for free and chart stocks, even with a zero balance.
What is the best free stock chart?
TradingView has the best free stock charts. They are crisp, easy to use, highly customizable and update with real-time quotes. For pure stock charts, Yahoo Finance’s real-time ChartIQ-powered charts are hard to beat.
Is TradingView free?
TradingView has both free and premium options. Most individual investors should be satisfied with the free tier, but active traders will likely crave a premium account. Another option is to trade with a broker that uses TradingView charts, such as TradeStation, Interactive Brokers, Tradier, and Ally Invest.
Is there a free version of StockCharts.com?
StockCharts.com offers free, limited-features charting on its homepage but does not offer a free account. There is a 30-day free trial available for its premium services, which start at $14.95 per month. You will have to provide payment information to access the 30-day trial.
Best free stock charts features comparison
Website |
Base Cost |
Premium Version |
Best Feature |
Rating |
TradingView.com |
Free |
$12.95/mo+ |
Clean, comprehensive charting |
5 Stars |
StockCharts.com |
Free |
$14.95/mo+ |
Education and commentary |
4.5 Stars |
Yahoo Finance |
Free |
$249.96/year |
Powerful advanced charting |
4.5 Stars |
Stock Rover |
Free |
$7.99/mo+ |
Charting fundamentals |
4 Stars |
FINVIZ.com |
Free |
$24.96/mo |
Automated analysis |
3 Stars |