Buyer's guide
Free Stock Scanner — No Credit Card
Market Census is the only US scanner that names all six of its scoring factors. You can read a page per ticker without an account or a card. Since 30 August 2026 you can run the scanner itself on a free account too — an email and a password, no card — showing the top ten scored rows of any scan you build. Below is an honest, feature-only look at what each scanner lets you reach with no card, and at where a card is still required, ours included.
At a glance — what you get with no card
Features only. We compare card-free access and whether the scoring factors are named — never claimed returns.
| Scanner | No-card access | Card needed | Factors named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market Census | Every per-ticker page with no account at all — plus a free plan that runs the scanner on an email and a password | None (free tier) | Yes |
| StockAnalysis.io | Free screener and fundamental tables with no login wall on the basics — nothing to sign up for | None | No score |
| Finviz (free) | Free web screener with no signup — 60+ raw filter fields, delayed data, ads | None (free tier) | No score |
| TradingView (free) | Free screener + charting; a free account is required, but no credit card | None (free tier) | No score |
| Trade Ideas | Paid only — free trials require a credit card up front | Card for trial | No score |
What Market Census gives you with no account and no card
None of the following asks for an email, an account or a card. They come from the same scoring the signed-in product uses.
- A page per scored ticker → — composite score, all six factor sub-scores and the plain-English read, open to everyone.
- How the score works → — what the 0-100 score and each signal label mean, in plain words.
And if you would rather run your own scan than read ours, that takes an email and a password — still no card. The free plan shows you the top ten scored rows of whatever you build. Prices are delayed about 15 minutes, on every plan.
Market Census
No-card access: Every per-ticker page with no account at all — plus a free plan that runs the scanner on an email and a password
The only US scanner here that names all six of its scoring factors. Without an account you can read a page per ticker. Since 30 August 2026 you can also run the scanner yourself for nothing: signing up takes an email and a password, no card, and the free plan reads the same prices as every paid plan (delayed about 15 minutes) — the top ten scored rows of any scan you build, one saved screen, a five-symbol watchlist and twelve ticker deep-pages a day. What a card buys is every matching row instead of the first ten, a second saved screen, alerts by email and web push, the 200-symbol watchlist and SEC Form 4 insider filings. Adding one starts the 30-day Premium trial through Stripe Checkout — $0 charged that day, the exact first-charge date shown before you confirm, an email about 7 days before the charge, and online cancellation any time before it.
StockAnalysis.io
No-card access: Free screener and fundamental tables with no login wall on the basics — nothing to sign up for
The cleanest genuinely-free experience — a usable screener and readable financial tables you can reach without an account or a card. It's a filter-based screener, not a scoring engine. If you just want to screen and read fundamentals with zero friction, it's excellent.
Finviz (free)
No-card access: Free web screener with no signup — 60+ raw filter fields, delayed data, ads
The free Finviz screener is usable without any signup — deep on raw filter fields so you build your own thesis from the data. No composite score. The paid Elite tier (which does take a card) removes ads and adds real-time data. For hand-built filtering, the free tier is genuinely useful.
TradingView (free)
No-card access: Free screener + charting; a free account is required, but no credit card
A free account (no card) unlocks a genuinely usable screener plus the best charting on the internet and a large community ideas feed. The screener is filter-based rather than a scoring engine, with no first-party record of how its screens have done. Best if charts are your primary workspace.
Trade Ideas
No-card access: Paid only — free trials require a credit card up front
Included here for honesty because people search for it: Trade Ideas has no genuinely free tier, and its trials ask for a card. It's a powerful intraday tool with AI-driven signals at premium pricing — but if a no-credit-card path is your requirement, it isn't one. Listed so the comparison is complete, not to knock the product.
How we compared them
Two feature criteria, no performance criteria: what you can reach with no credit card, and whether the tool names the factors behind any score it shows. We list what fails the first test — Trade Ideas, and our own 30-day Premium trial — so the comparison is complete rather than cherry-picked.
The split worth understanding on Market Census: reading costs nothing and asks for nothing — the per-ticker pages are open to anyone. Running the scanner yourself takes an account and nothing more than an email and a password, on a free plan that shows the top ten scored rows of any scan, with prices delayed about 15 minutes (the same delay as every paid plan). A card is the third step, and it buys the rest: every matching row instead of the first ten, a second saved screen, alerts, the 200-symbol watchlist and SEC Form 4 insider filings. Adding one starts the 30-day Premium trial — $0 that day, first charge on day 30, cancel online any time before then. The raw filter screeners don't produce a composite score, so the factors column simply doesn't apply to them — a difference in design, not a criticism.
Keep exploring
- Browse every scored US ticker → — the full coverage directory.
- Best swing trade stocks: the guide → — how the swing-trading ranking works. The live list is in your dashboard.
Read any ticker’s page — no account, no card.
The ticker pages stay open to everyone, with nothing to sign up for. Running your own scan takes an email and a password and nothing else — the free plan shows the top ten scored rows a scan. The 30-day Premium trial is the part that takes a card: $0 is charged that day, the first charge is on day 30, and you can cancel online any time before then. Pro is $8.25/mo ($99/yr billed annually). 30-day money back on monthly plans; annual plans get a prorated refund in the same window.