TrendSpider vs Trade Ideas: Automation Platform or Real-Time Scanner?

At a glance

What TrendSpider is built for

TrendSpider puts finding, testing, and acting on setups in one browser workspace. Scanners, scheduled scans, and alerts surface candidates; charts let you analyze them; the Strategy Tester backtests rules against history; and trading bots automate entries and exits by sending signals through SignalStack to your broker. Plans differ mainly in speed and capacity: how often scanners refresh, backtest resolution and depth, and how many bots, alerts, and workspaces you get.

Read the full TrendSpider review →

What Trade Ideas is built for

Trade Ideas watches the US stock and ETF market in real time and alerts you the moment a condition you've defined is met, using any of 500+ data points. Standard covers that scanning workflow with charts, real-time paper trading, and in-app trading. Premium adds Holly's AI suggestions, OddsMaker backtesting, and Auto Trading. Trade Ideas describes itself as a publisher, not a broker or investment adviser.

Read the full Trade Ideas review →

Scanning and markets

The clearest difference is timing. Trade Ideas' Streaming Alerts fire as soon as a configured condition triggers. TrendSpider's scanners refresh on a schedule set by your plan: every 2 hours on Standard, every 5 minutes on Premium, and every minute on Enhanced and Advanced. For intraday discovery, Standard's 2-hour refresh is the main constraint to check.

Coverage differs too. TrendSpider covers US stocks and ETFs, futures, options, forex, and crypto, with real-time CME, NYMEX, COMEX, and CBOT futures data at $7.50/month for non-professionals. Trade Ideas is centred on US stocks and ETFs; its current documentation doesn't establish futures, forex, or crypto, and its options capability is a filter for stocks by total options volume, not contract-level analysis.

Backtesting, AI, and automation

Both platforms backtest, use AI, and automate, but none of these tools are like-for-like, so this page describes each rather than ranking them.

• Backtesting: TrendSpider's Strategy Tester, on every plan, tests rules on stocks, futures, crypto, forex, and OTC symbols, from 2-hour bars on Standard to 1-minute bars on Enhanced and Advanced; it can't test indices or options and assumes $0 broker fees. Trade Ideas' OddsMaker, on Premium, scores how a scan, entry signal, or trading plan would have performed against recent history.
• AI: TrendSpider's Sidekick is an AI assistant with 25 messages a month on every plan. Trade Ideas' Holly, on Premium, surfaces real-time stock suggestions with entry and exit levels from strategies it re-evaluates nightly through simulated backtests.
• Automation: TrendSpider includes 5 to 100 trading bots by plan. Bots send signals to SignalStack, which routes orders to your broker; 5 automated trades a month are free, and more needs a paid SignalStack plan. Trade Ideas lists Auto Trading as a Premium feature, separate from acting on Holly's suggestions by hand; how it works isn't detailed in our review.

Paper trading and order execution

Trade Ideas includes Real-Time Paper Trading on Standard. For live orders, its Brokerage Plus module connects to E*TRADE, TradeStation, or Interactive Brokers, with one-click order entry from a chart or scanner. Alpaca also connects through Brokerage Plus, but Trade Ideas describes that connection as paper-trading access; live trading through Alpaca isn't established.

TrendSpider sends orders through SignalStack, which TrendSpider owns, to a connected broker. SignalStack is free for manual trading from TrendSpider. Its broker directory marks seven brokers for futures: cTrader, E*Trade, Ironbeam, MetaTrader5, Optimus Futures, TradeStation, and Tradovate. Paper trading isn't documented in our TrendSpider review.

Pricing, trials, and refunds

The two vendors structure plans and billing differently, so this page lists each one's published prices rather than saying which is cheaper.

• TrendSpider: Standard is $89/month, Premium $149/month, Enhanced $199/month, and Advanced $349/month on monthly billing. First-year annual pricing works out to $79.54, $112.34, $150.06, and $263.22 a month; it's introductory, for new customers on the first invoice only, and TrendSpider states that promotional plan sales are final and non-refundable.
• TrendSpider extras: futures data is $7.50/month and OPRA options data $9.50/month for non-professionals. Automation beyond 5 trades a month needs a paid SignalStack plan, from $27/month for the first 12 months; SignalStack doesn't show what its plans cost after that.
• Trade Ideas: Standard is $127/month, or $1,068 billed annually ($89/month equivalent). Premium is $254/month, or $2,136 billed annually ($178/month equivalent). The annual figures only apply when paying for the full year upfront.

Neither offers a free trial. TrendSpider has no free plan and offers a 14-day trial for a fee it doesn't publish. Trade Ideas has a permanent free account limited to delayed data on a browser dashboard, and occasionally runs a paid Test Drive of Premium-level access for one or two weeks; it wasn't open at our verification date.

Refund terms are narrow on both. TrendSpider never refunds trial fees, and other refunds must be requested within 72 hours of the charge. Trade Ideas subscriptions are non-refundable, with no early termination, and Test Drive sales are final.

Which fits which trader

TrendSpider fits if

• You want to find, test, and automate setups in one place. Scanners, the Strategy Tester, and trading bots are on every TrendSpider plan, in the same browser workspace.
• You trade beyond US stocks. TrendSpider covers futures, forex, crypto, and options, and its Strategy Tester runs on futures, forex, and crypto. Real-time CME Group futures data is $7.50/month for non-professionals.
• You scan intraday and can use Premium or above. Scanning runs every 5 minutes on Premium and every minute on Enhanced and Advanced; Standard refreshes every 2 hours.

Trade Ideas fits if

• You trade US stocks and want alerts the moment a condition triggers. Streaming Alerts and 500+ data points are the core of Trade Ideas, from the Standard plan, including premarket scanning.
• You want paper trading on the entry plan. Real-Time Paper Trading is included on Standard, alongside order entry through E*TRADE, TradeStation, or Interactive Brokers.
• You want AI suggestions with entry and exit levels. Holly, on Premium, surfaces real-time stock suggestions. Its nightly re-evaluation is based on simulated backtests, so it isn't a track record of executed trades.

What this comparison doesn't cover

This isn't a setup guide, and it doesn't test either platform's scans, AI, or backtest results against the other. It doesn't cover how Trade Ideas' Auto Trading works, OddsMaker's data depth, or how Trade Ideas' desktop and web versions differ, which our review doesn't establish. On the TrendSpider side, it doesn't cover how bots handle futures contracts and rollovers, the trial fee, or SignalStack prices after the first year, which aren't published, and it doesn't add up an all-in cost. For Trade Ideas alongside a news-first platform, see Trade Ideas vs Benzinga Pro. For TrendSpider alongside a charting platform, see TradingView vs TrendSpider; for how backtesting differs from replay and paper trading, see our guide to backtesting, replay and paper trading.