Tessera Alpha vs Finviz: Which Stock Screener Is Right for You?

Finviz is the default free screener. Tessera is built for systematic investors who want AI scoring, backtesting, and regime-aware signals. Here's the honest comparison.

6 min read

title: "Tessera Alpha vs Finviz: Which Stock Screener Is Right for You?" description: "Finviz is the default free screener. Tessera is built for systematic investors who want AI scoring, backtesting, and regime-aware signals. Here's the honest comparison." publishedAt: "2026-04-01" updatedAt: "2026-04-01" keywords: ["finviz alternative", "finviz vs tessera", "best stock screener", "stock screener comparison"]

If you've spent any time screening US stocks, you've used Finviz. It's the default. Fast filters, a heatmap everyone recognizes, and a free tier that covers most casual use cases. Tessera Alpha is a different kind of tool: less about filtering a universe and more about scoring one, backtesting rules against it, and managing the resulting portfolio through changing market regimes.

This isn't a "Finviz is bad" post. It's a straight comparison so you can pick the right tool, or use both.

TL;DR

| Feature | Tessera Alpha | Finviz | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricing model | Free tier + paid tiers (see /pricing) | Free + Elite ~$39.50/mo or ~$299/yr | | Screening approach | 24 quality factors + sector-relative P/E ranking | ~70 absolute filters | | Backtesting | Full portfolio backtests with rotation and stops | Light, screen-level (Elite only) | | Portfolio simulation | Yes, with regime-aware rules | No (watchlists only) | | Signal generation | Yes, multi-factor scoring + regime | No (filtering only) | | Regime detection | Yes (breadth-based, 5 regimes) | No | | Mobile | Responsive web + iOS | Responsive web |

What each tool is best at

Finviz is a filtering and visualization engine. You point it at the US equity universe, apply a stack of absolute filters (P/E less than 15, market cap over $5B, RSI under 30, whatever), and it returns a list with inline sparklines. The heatmap is genuinely great for eyeballing what sectors are moving today. The free tier is generous by any standard, and Elite adds real-time data, better charting, email alerts, and removes ads. It covers equities, ETFs, forex, and crypto. Ten-plus years of community content means almost any question you have has been answered on a forum somewhere.

Tessera Alpha is a systematic investing platform. Instead of filtering down a list, it scores the investable universe on 24 quality factors, ranks candidates by P/E discount relative to their sector median rather than an absolute cutoff, and feeds those scores into a portfolio simulator with real rules: 7% max position size, competitive rotation when a candidate outscores a holding by >=0.20, regime-adjusted trailing stops, and exit signals. You can backtest any of this over multi-year windows with point-in-time universes and as-reported financials, which matters more than people realize — most "backtests" you see online are contaminated by survivorship and look-ahead bias.

When Finviz wins

  • Day-trading watchlists. If your holding period is hours, Finviz's real-time filters and charts are closer to what you need.
  • Quick visual market overview. Nothing beats the heatmap for a morning glance at what's green and red.
  • Simple absolute filters. "Show me profitable small caps with P/E under 12" is one click. Tessera can express this, but it's overkill if that's really all you need.
  • Free-tier users. Finviz's free screener is more capable than most paid tools from ten years ago.
  • Forex, crypto, broader asset coverage. Tessera is US equities only. If you trade across asset classes, Finviz has you covered.
  • Real-time native charts. Tessera integrates charts; Finviz draws them itself and does it well.

When Tessera wins

  • Multi-week or swing-trade horizons. Anything where the question is "is this a good position to hold through the next rebalance" rather than "is this moving right now."
  • You actually want to backtest your rules. Finviz Elite has a light backtester bolted onto the screener — it's useful, but it's not portfolio-level. Tessera's backtester is the product: point-in-time universe discovery, full rotation logic, trailing stops, benchmark comparison.
  • Quality and valuation in one score. Finviz filters are AND/OR gates. Tessera combines quality scoring with sector-relative valuation so you don't have to choose between "cheap junk" and "expensive quality" — the score weights both.
  • Regime awareness. Tessera detects 5 market regimes from breadth (CRISIS, BEAR, NEUTRAL, BULL, STRONG_BULL) and adjusts exposure accordingly. Finviz shows you the market; Tessera responds to it.
  • Honest backtests. Point-in-time universe, as-reported financials, no survivorship cherry-picking. This is table stakes for systematic work and it's surprisingly rare.

Pricing comparison

Finviz is straightforward: free tier with most basics, Elite at roughly $39.50/month or $299/year (check their site — the annual rate is the one that matters if you're going to stay). Elite pays for itself quickly if you rely on real-time data or alerts.

Tessera runs a tiered model — a free tier for exploring the platform and paid tiers that unlock backtesting, signals, and the full portfolio simulator. See the /pricing page for current numbers; we won't quote them here because they change, and a stale blog post quoting stale prices is worse than no post. As with Finviz, comparing monthly to annual plans matters: annual commitments are meaningfully cheaper per month on both platforms.

Feature-by-feature breakdown

| Capability | Tessera | Finviz | | --- | --- | --- | | Screener filter count | ~24 quality + sector-relative overlays | ~70 traditional absolute filters | | Sector-relative valuation | Yes (core to the scoring) | No | | Backtesting | Full portfolio strategies with rotation and stops | Light, screen-level only (Elite) | | AI / signal scoring | Yes, 24-factor + regime-adjusted | No | | Portfolio simulation | Yes (paper and backtest) | No (watchlists only) | | Regime detection | Yes (breadth-based, 5 regimes) | No | | Real-time charts | Via integration | Yes, native | | Forex / crypto | Equities only (US) | Yes | | Free tier | Yes | Yes | | API | Paid | Paid (Elite) |

When you'd use both

Honestly, plenty of people will. A reasonable workflow:

  • Finviz in the morning for the heatmap, intraday watchlists, and quick "what's moving" scans.
  • Tessera on the weekend for the weekly rebalance: run the screener, check scores, inspect signal changes, look at the regime, paper-trade or execute.

They don't overlap much once you use them this way. Finviz is the market monitor; Tessera is the strategy engine.

Let Tessera do this automatically

Tessera scores every US stock weekly on 24 quality factors and ranks them against their sector. Get the top picks in your inbox — no credit card.

Try the free screener →

Honest caveats

  • Tessera is newer and has a smaller userbase than Finviz. If community and existing tutorial content matter to you, Finviz has a decade-plus head start.
  • Finviz covers more asset classes. Tessera is deliberately narrow — US equities, done carefully — and that won't change soon.
  • Neither tool is a brokerage. You still need a broker to execute, and paper-trading results are paper.
  • Backtest results, even honest ones, are not guarantees. Tessera surfaces biases rather than hiding them, but the future still doesn't owe the past anything.

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