The best backtesting software in 2026: ten tools compared
By DT Terminal · Published · Prices checked 10 September 2026
The right backtesting software depends on what you are testing. For manual replay on charts you may already use, TradingView replays daily charts free and intraday from $14.95 a month. For the deepest history, Forex Tester Online has up to 23 years of tick data from $159 a year, and FX Replay replays major forex pairs back to 2003 with a prop firm simulator on Pro. To keep backtests beside live trades, TradeZella does both from $35 a month, and DT Terminal does the same with a free tier and broker-verified live records, on less history today. For automated strategies, the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester is free for Expert Advisors, NinjaTrader suits futures traders on Windows, and QuantConnect runs Python or C# strategies over decades of data. Backtestingmax gives unlimited free sessions on the last 12 months of forex and metals data, and Tradervue is a journal with no backtesting at all.
Who wrote this
DT Terminal publishes this guide, and DT Terminal is one of the ten tools. Our entry says where we are behind, which today is historical data depth against FX Replay and Forex Tester. Every competitor price was checked on the vendor's own site on the date above. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
At a glance
Ten tools, side by side.
| Tool | Markets | Bar replay | Journal integration | From price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TradingView | Stocks, forex, crypto, futures, indices | Yes, intraday from Essential | Session stats, not saved | Free, intraday $14.95/mo |
| FX Replay | Forex, indices, stocks, futures, crypto, commodities | Backtest analytics, no broker link | Free, paid $17.99/mo | |
| Forex Tester | Forex, stocks, indices, commodities, crypto, futures | Backtest analytics; Pro imports MT and NinjaTrader history | $159/yr | |
| TradeZella | Stocks, futures, forex, crypto | Same journal as live trades | $35/mo | |
| Backtestingmax | Forex, metals; more on Premium | Trade log, 5 a month free | Free | |
| DT Terminal | Forex, metals, futures, crypto | Same journal as broker-verified trades | Free, Pro $18/mo | |
| NinjaTrader | Futures, forex | Market Replay, funded account | Strategy reports only | Free |
| MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester | Forex, CFDs, stocks, futures, per broker | Visual mode, for robots | Test report only | Free |
| QuantConnect | Equities, options, futures, forex, crypto, CFDs | Backtest reports only | Free | |
| Tradervue | Stocks, options, futures, forex | Free |
USD, as listed on each vendor's site on the date above. Annual billing is usually cheaper than the monthly figure.
The ten tools
Grouped by the job, not ranked. Entries 1 to 6 are manual replay tools, 7 to 9 test automated strategies, and 10 is a journal. Each one answers the same five questions.
01TradingView
Charting with replay
- What it is for
- Charting first. Bar Replay steps any chart forward by hand, and the Strategy Tester runs strategies written in Pine Script. Web, Windows and macOS.
- Data coverage
- Stocks, forex, crypto, futures and indices. Replay on daily and higher charts covers all history on every plan, free included. Minute replay starts on Essential with 180 days of 1 minute data, 365 days on Plus and all stored minute data on Premium, which also adds seconds.
- Price
- Basic is free. Essential is $14.95 a month, or $12.95 a month billed annually. Plus is $34.95 and Premium $69.95 a month.
- Limitation
- Replay trades live only in the session. TradingView's own help says the trades and the result are not saved anywhere, so there is no running record of what you tested.
- Best fit
- Traders who already chart on TradingView and want a quick replay without learning a second platform.
02FX Replay
Browser replay backtester
- What it is for
- Manual backtesting in the browser: pick a market and a date, replay it and trade it. No coded strategies and no live trading.
- Data coverage
- Forex, indices, metals, energy, bonds and crypto, with stocks, CME futures and seconds data on Pro. 1 minute data throughout, back to 2003 on major forex pairs and 2016 on some others, on charts down to 5 seconds.
- Price
- Free for 2 sessions of 50 trades, kept for a week. Intermediate is $17.99 a month or $180 a year. Pro, which adds the prop firm simulator, is $35 a month or $350 a year.
- Limitation
- The lower plans cap sessions, trades per session and how long a session is kept, and it cannot test code or Expert Advisors.
- Best fit
- Discretionary forex and index traders who want deep intraday history and prop firm rule practice in a browser.
03Forex Tester
Replay backtester
- What it is for
- Manual replay backtesting, plus trading robots on Pro. Forex Tester Online runs in the browser; the older desktop Forex Tester is Windows only.
- Data coverage
- Up to 23 years of tick data per symbol, included in the price. Starter has 80 symbols across forex, stocks, indices, ETFs and commodities; Pro has 283 and adds crypto and CME futures.
- Price
- Online Starter is $159 a year. Pro is $239 a year or $31.99 a month, and lifetime licences start at $239. The prices are listed as a sale, so check before you buy. A free demo needs no card.
- Limitation
- Prop firm challenges, robots and custom indicators are all Pro only, so Starter is manual replay and little else.
- Best fit
- Forex traders who want the longest tick history and a yearly or one-off price instead of a monthly one.
04TradeZella
Journal with backtesting
- What it is for
- A trading journal first, with candle by candle backtesting, and automated runs from plain English rules on the higher plans. Web.
- Data coverage
- Futures, stocks, forex and crypto from a fixed symbol list (its help centre names about 150 stocks, 29 futures and 23 crypto pairs), from 2014, on charts down to 1 second.
- Price
- No free plan. Essential is $35 a month, or $26 a month billed annually, and backtests up to 10 strategies by hand. Pro, at $59 a month, adds automated runs and trade replay.
- Limitation
- Symbols come from a fixed list and a missing one is a request to support. History starts in 2014, and automated runs are capped each month.
- Best fit
- Traders who want backtests and broker-synced live trades in one journal and are comfortable paying monthly for it.
05Backtestingmax
Browser replay backtester
- What it is for
- Manual replay backtesting in the browser, with daily and historical challenges on a leaderboard and an AI that drafts strategies from plain English.
- Data coverage
- Forex and metals on the free plan, limited to the most recent 12 months. Premium adds crypto, indices, commodities, ETFs, bonds, futures and stocks, and the full history the site puts at 20 years or more.
- Price
- Free with unlimited sessions. Premium and lifetime plans are sold, but the pricing page did not show their prices when we checked, so confirm on the site.
- Limitation
- The free plan has no technical indicators, a year of data and five logged trades a month.
- Best fit
- Forex traders who want unlimited free sessions to practise reading recent price action.
06DT Terminal
Replay backtester and journal
- What it is for
- Manual bar by bar backtesting on charts DT Terminal built, with up to four panes on different timeframes, a full drawing toolset and jump to any date. A session ends with its stats, and on Pro its trades move into the same journal as your broker-verified live trades. Web, Windows and macOS.
- Data coverage
- Forex, metals, crypto and CME futures, including the US index contracts. 1 minute candles are the smallest bar, with no tick or seconds charts, and futures history starts in August 2024. No stocks.
- Price
- Free for 2 sessions of up to 50 trades. Pro is $18 a month or $149 a year, with unlimited sessions and export to the journal.
- Limitation
- Historical data is thinner than FX Replay or Forex Tester: 1 minute is the smallest bar, futures go back to August 2024, and there is no prop firm rule simulator or automated strategy testing yet.
- Best fit
- Traders who want to replay on full charts and carry what they test into a broker-verified track record, and who can accept less history for now.
07NinjaTrader
Futures platform
- What it is for
- A futures trading platform. Strategy Analyzer backtests and optimises automated NinjaScript strategies, and Playback replays recorded market data by hand. Backtesting lives in the Windows desktop app.
- Data coverage
- Futures and forex. Market Replay data, level I and level II, is kept for roughly the last 90 days on popular contracts; older tick history comes from your data provider.
- Price
- Free for simulation. The $99 a month plan and the $1,499 lifetime licence mainly lower commissions. Market Replay needs a funded account.
- Limitation
- Backtesting is Windows only, and automated strategies are written in C# as NinjaScript.
- Best fit
- Futures traders who trade through NinjaTrader and want to automate a strategy or replay order flow.
08MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester
Expert Advisor tester
- What it is for
- Tests automated Expert Advisors inside MetaTrader 5, with a visual mode to watch the robot trade and optimisation spread across the MQL5 Cloud Network.
- Data coverage
- Whatever your broker offers, usually forex, CFDs, stocks and futures. It can test on real ticks recorded by the broker, so how far back you can go depends on the broker.
- Price
- Free with MetaTrader 5. Renting cloud agents for optimisation costs about $0.08 an hour per standard agent.
- Limitation
- Built for robots, not people. Placing trades by hand in visual mode needs an Expert Advisor with buy and sell buttons, and strategies are written in MQL5.
- Best fit
- Forex and CFD traders building or buying Expert Advisors with an MT5 broker.
09QuantConnect
Code-first research platform
- What it is for
- Automated backtesting in Python or C# on the open source LEAN engine, in a web IDE or locally, with live trading through brokers on paid tiers.
- Data coverage
- US equities from 1998, US futures from 2009, forex from 2007, equity options from 2012 and crypto from 2015, down to tick resolution on most, included for cloud backtests.
- Price
- Free for unlimited backtests on one small node, which waits a few seconds before each run. Paid tiers add nodes and live trading, and compute nodes are billed on top.
- Limitation
- Everything is code. There is no manual replay, so it tests rules rather than your discretion.
- Best fit
- Systematic traders who program and want long, survivorship-bias-free equity and options history.
10Tradervue
Trading journal
- What it is for
- A journal for trades you have already taken: import from your broker, tag them, see each entry and exit on a chart, and report on the results.
- Data coverage
- Stocks, options, futures and forex, from your own imported trades. There is no historical market data to test against.
- Price
- A free plan with a monthly import cap. Silver is $29.95 a month and Gold $49.95 a month, with a trial on both.
- Limitation
- It is not a backtester. There is no replay and no simulation, so ideas have to be tested somewhere else first.
- Best fit
- Stock and options traders who want to review live trades in depth and do their testing in another tool.
Questions
What is the best free backtesting software?
It depends on what you test. For manual replay, TradingView replays daily charts free and Backtestingmax gives unlimited free sessions on the last 12 months of forex and metals. For automated strategies, the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester is free with any MT5 broker and QuantConnect has a free tier for coded strategies. FX Replay and DT Terminal each give two free sessions to try.
Is TradingView good for backtesting?
For quick manual replay, yes, and its Strategy Tester runs Pine Script strategies. The limits are data and memory: intraday replay needs a paid plan, Essential covers 180 days of 1 minute data, and replay trades are not saved after the session, so there is nothing to review later.
What is the difference between manual and automated backtesting?
Manual backtesting replays a chart bar by bar while you decide every entry and exit, so it tests your judgement. Automated backtesting runs written rules over years of data in seconds, so it tests the rules. FX Replay, Forex Tester, TradeZella, Backtestingmax and DT Terminal are built mainly for the first. The MT5 Strategy Tester, NinjaTrader and QuantConnect are built for the second, and TradingView does both.
How much historical data do I need to backtest?
Enough to cover the conditions you will trade in: trends, ranges, news days and quiet sessions. For an intraday setup that usually means at least a year of minute data and a hundred or more trades. For a swing strategy it means several years of daily or 4 hour bars. Check the depth for the exact symbol and timeframe you trade, because every tool here varies by market.
Can I backtest prop firm challenge rules?
Of the ten, FX Replay and Forex Tester Online advertise prop firm challenge simulation, both on their Pro plans. DT Terminal does not have one today, so on DT Terminal you would track a firm's drawdown and daily loss limits yourself.
Do backtest results carry over to live trading?
Only if you compare them honestly. Keep the backtest trades, log live trades with the same setup tags, and compare win rate, average R and drawdown. TradeZella and DT Terminal keep both in one journal, Tradervue analyses the live side only, and Forex Tester Online Pro can import live platform history. With the rest, the comparison is yours to do.