Is TradingView worth it? Premium vs Plus vs Essential vs Free | 9 features you need!

 

Tradingview is a brilliant charting platform that offers loads of free features including free access to charting, market data, alerts and a ton of other great functionality. With all these free features you might be wondering why upgrade to a paid plan! Is Tradingview worth it?

In this post I’ll discuss why, if your on the fence about upgrading to a paid subscription, you should be upgrading your plan. I’ll outline 9 things you should know if your still using the free plan and how Tradingview can be an all in one trading workstation solution.

 

What are the benefits of the TradingView free plan?

TradingView free plan includes loads of features. This includes free but limited access to its charting, chart tools, indicators, screeners, community and news channels.

The free plan is structured for basic trading needs, which, for beginner and casual traders, is enough to get the job done.  

What are the benefits of TradingView Essential, Plus and Premium plans? Premium vs Plus vs Essential vs Free Plans

Although many of the basic features have free access, many of the usability and advanced features have restrictions. This includes limitations on chart indicators, multiple chart layouts, saved chart layouts, alerts,  historical price data and live data access.

These restrictions ease progressively with the 3-tiered paid plans. The TradingView Essential, Plus, and Premium plans offer flexibility for traders with different platform demands. It’s only a matter of finding which among the three best fits your style, workflow and needs. 

In the following sections I have created a list of 9 things you’ll want to consider when comparing Tradingview Free vs Essential vs Plus vs Premium plans…

Is it worth paying for TradingView? Is Tradingview worth it?

YES! 100%! Tradingview has become an all in one broker interface, charting analysis software, news feed and trading platform that can be accessed from anywhere!

Traders can trade multiple asset classes including stocks, options, forex and futures all on the one platform. Tradingview allows integration with a growing number of brokerage firms that allow users to trade directly from the charts!

The charting software is simple to use, charts and charting tools are clear. The software can be accessed via almost any web browser or mobile app and can also be downloaded to desktop using the desktop app for Mac, Linux and Windows!

For a relatively small fee each month or for a discounted annual fee. Users get access to loads of features all in one place. Having access to all the usability features, priority customer support, multiple chart, saved layouts, faster data feed, historical data plus all the other features that come with the paid plans in a no brainer! Personally I use the Plus plan. This suits my needs the best and is available for a great price.

The following section highlight 9 features that make upgrading to a Tradingview paid plan ESSENTIAL for anyone serious about trading…

1. Multiple charts on a single tab and native multi-monitor support on desktop app

TradingView’s multiple charts is a paid feature. This feature is essential building a trading workstation. Any trader that uses more than 2 or 3 charts will want to upgrade to the paid plans for this feature alone.

Multiple charts 

Free plans are only limited to a single chart per tab. Paid plans, however, can have up to 8 synced charts all arranged in a neat layout in a single tab. 

This feature enhances productivity through workspace expansion – eliminating the hassle of having to do tab/window switches when you want to look at another chart or having to change tickers on the same tab/window. 

The multiple charts feature also allows chart Syncing. When enabled, this feature automatically syncs interval, time, drawing, symbol, and crosshair changes made in one chart to all charts in the layout. If your interested in learning more about this feature check out my previous post ‘How to use Tradingview multiple chart layouts’.

Is Tradingview Essential or Plus worth it? – If like to use a multiple chart layout then getting a upgraded plan offers loads of options for setting up a well organized workstation.

Native multi-monitor support 

TradingView also offers multi-monitor support through its desktop application. With this feature, your workspace will not be limited within the space of a browser, but expands to fit your existing multiple monitor workstation setup. 

This enables you to arrange your overall workflow layout, and have it harmonized with your browser (YouTube, Bloomberg TV, etc) or other order management app solutions. 

2. Customer service

If you have questions/concerns regarding the platform, TradingView offers a help center where articles are published answering FAQs. However, user-specific concerns may not be adequately resolved. 

TradingView offers a dedicated customer service team for what they called “full individual support.” This offer is only available for paid, upgraded plans. 

Higher tier plans gain queue priority in TradingView’s “Customer Success” team.

See below for the tier-by-tier progression of priority level:

• Essential: Regular 
• Plus: Priority 
• Premium: First priority (Is Tradingview Premium worth? – If your wanting first priority customer service then absolutely)

3. Bar replay

TradingView’s bar replay runs a playback from a user selected starting point where you can either use autoplay or manual clicks to progress through the playback. 

Bar replays can be applied to several charts as long as they are in the same layout (Multiple chart layout is a paid feature – see section above).  

The bar replay feature is a must-have for strategy testing and analytics using actual historical price data. The free plan has access to this feature, BUT it’s limited to higher timeframes only (day, month, year). 

All upgraded plans (Essential, Plus +, and Premium) can playback intraday time frames – an important add-on especially for day traders. 

Is Tradingview Essential or Plus worth it? – If you’re an intraday trader that like to use a market replay functionality then absolutely!

4. Fastest Data Flow and ability to buy extra real time data

Fastest data flow 

Data flow speed is critical for achieving better trading results. As every trade unfolds, it’s important to have real-time price updates on your chart – one thing that the free/basic plan lacks. 

For US markets, free plans’ data updates only once every second – for many, this is a significant lag. If you are trading for a living you really want access to the fastest data! 

Upgraded plans data flow updates when trades occur; Data flow is fastest with any of the upgraded plans.  

Option to purchase real-time and official data of world exchanges 

As mentioned above, basic/free plan users trading the US markets have access to delayed real-time data, while upgraded plans enjoy the fastest data flow. 

However, it’s worth noting that TradingView’s data flow is not the official data as provided by official exchanges like NASDAQ and NYSE. Instead, data displayed is real-time US stock data from alternate exchange Cboe BZX. Hence, TradingView’s chart prices may differ from official prices. 

Additionally, non-US markets, like Australia, are not real-time stock data where the data delay is up to 15 minutes!

Non-official data applies even for upgraded plans as the exchanges supported on the platform charge fees that TradingView cannot cover for the user. 

Fortunately, upgraded plans have the option to purchase official exchange data at an affordable price. This option is NOT available for Free plans.   

See the list of available markets and exchanges plus data fees here. 

Is Tradingview Essential or Plus worth it? – Access to live data is a must for any trader. An upgraded plan is essential if your trading live!

5. Historical financial data on charts and Historical bars available

Historical financial data on charts 

Another feature that is hard to overlook is the availability of long and short term historical financial data that you can add on to your chart.

This is a great feature to visually map out fundamental trends for a stock. 

This includes annual and quarterly financial and economic metrics relating to company fundamentals as provided by third-party data provider FactSet. 

All plans have access to this historical financial data. However, upgraded plans have access to up to 20 years of data for annual filings, and 8 years for quarterlies. Meanwhile, free plans are limited to only 7 years of data for annuals. 

Historical bars available 

Historical price/chart data is free for all account types. However, the number of historical bars/candles on the chart will vary depending on the subscription level. 

At the lowest tier, Free/Basic plans have access to 5,000 historical bars. This may be enough for some, but for traders in need of more comprehensive data for analysis will get more from the upgraded plans. 

If you do any strategy backtesting upgrading at a minimum to the Essential or Plus plan is almost essential. Ideally you might want to consider the premium plan for a more comprehensive data set.

Upgraded plans enjoy more historical bars in all timeframes with Essential and Plus both accessing up to 10,000 bars, while premium accounts have twice that amount, accessing up to 20,000 historical bars.

Is Tradingview premium worth it? – If you backtest strategies you want the most comprehensive historical data set available. Premium offers 20,000 historical bars and making it the best option for backtesting your strategy.

6. Custom time intervals

Custom intervals

Tradingview has a series of defulat timeframes, or time intervals (D, W, M) and shorter intervals (intraday). Standard timeframes are generally set from 12 months to 1 minute. 

Free users have access to all these default time intervals. However, upgraded plans can customize timeframes into specific intervals for any instrument. 

Essential, Plus and Premium can set uncustomary intervals like 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 4 hours. Any within scope of the intraday (minutes, hours) to longer timeframes (weeks, months). 

Second-based interval

The shortest time frame that Free/Basic plan users can use is 1 minute.

Anything below one minute is considered as seconds-based intervals. Only Premium users have access to this feature. 

Seconds are pre-set, and cannot be customized. Nonetheless, this feature is great for tracking the most smallest price changes. 

Second-based trading strategies using Tradingview have become viable through this feature. 

Strategies include analyzing supply and demand runs. Limit order book strategies which typically analyze order books (bid and offer) will work well with this feature. 

7. Alerts

The number and types of trading alerts is another advantage of an upgrade plan. 

TradingView alerts notifications that can be set for any of the following:

• Price (e.g horizontal S/R levels)
• Indicator
• Strategy
• Custom drawing (e.g User-drawn trendlines, channels) 

All users regardless of the plan can get notifications via SMS, email, mobile push notifications, and/or audio or popups on your PC. 

Upgraded plans have access to a larger number of active alerts and longer alert durations.

As you will see in the table below, free plans have access to only one active alert! 

The alerts feature is essential for longer timeframe or higher timeframe intraday traders that don’t want to be staring at their screens all day.

These feature alone is reason alone to upgrade to a paid plan. A single alert is simply not sufficient if your watching multiple markets over extended periods!

The table below summarizes the number of alerts included with each plan plus the alert durations. 

Plan	Number of active alerts	Alert durations
Basic/Free	1	2 months
Essential	20	2 months
Plus	100	2 months
Premium	400	∞

The Essential account offers a decent 20 active alerts, the Plus offers plenty of alert options!

For longer term trader and holding trades for multiple months then the premium plan unlimited alert duration is a move convenient option.

To learn more about Tradingview alerts check out my previous post ‘Complete guide to Tradingview alerts‘

8. Indicators

Available indicators

TradingView offers over a 100 free and built-in indicators for all subscriptions. 

Most of the popular indicators, such as various types of moving averages and oscillators, are available in this library. 

If you trade using the Volume profile indicator it is only available with the upgraded plans.

Number of on-chart indicators 

Free users are limited to only three on-chart indicators at a time.

If your strategy requires more than 3 indicators you’ll need to consider an upgraded plan.

Upgraded plans offer progressively more indicators per chart: 

• Essential – 5 indicators
• Plus –  10 indicators 
• Premium – 25 indicators  

9. Saved chart layouts

Chart layouts is a brilliant usability feature that allows you to save and store your chart layout setting preferences. It allows you to build your ideal chart setup (this includes appearance and indicators) for easy retrieval every time you open your workstation.

To learn more about chart layouts, visit my complete guide to Tradingview chart layouts here.

The number of chart layouts that can be saved varies depending on the level of the plan. 

Plan	Number of saved chart layouts
Free/Basic	1
Essential	5
Plus	10
Premium	∞

In my experience a single chart layout was never enough. Having the ability to save multiple layout options is a great feature to have access too.

With more saved chart layouts, Essential, Plus, and Premium users enjoy more flexibility to build chart layouts suitable for different strategies and scenarios. This feature enables a quick switch from one tailormade workspace to another.

Is Tradingview Essential or Plus worth it? – If you like the usability of customized chart layouts then you’re going to want access to the chart layout feature.

Final Thoughts

TradingView is an all in one charting analysis software, broker interface, news feed and trading platform that can be accessed from anywhere on mobile, tablet or desktop (Mac, Linux and Window)

Free/Basic plans has access to loads of great features. However, limited!

On the flip side, having a TradingView paid plan is a must-have for serious traders or simple those looking for a better user experience. The Essential, Plus, and Premium offer a range of plans that offer progressively more features.

In this post I have highlighted 9 features that all Tradingview users should know about and why upgrading is a essential for getting the most out of the platform!