Scanr vs. TC2000: which stock scanner is right for you?

If you've spent any time around technical traders, you know TC2000 — the long-running charting and scanning platform from Worden Brothers. It traces back to TeleChart in the late '80s, it's been voted Best Stock Analysis Software by Stocks & Commodities for over two decades, and its EasyScan engine has a devoted following. Scanr.ai comes at the same problem — finding the right names fast — from a more modern, composable angle.

This post is a head-to-head from the team that builds Scanr. We've tried to be fair: TC2000 is a mature, beloved product with a fast scanner, a famously deep formula language, an integrated brokerage, and a price that's hard to argue with. There are traders for whom it's clearly the right call. If you find anything inaccurate, email us and we'll fix it.

TL;DR

• Scanr.ai is built around composable, deeply-configurable scans. You can stack technical study modifiers (slope, correlation, crossovers, divergences) on any indicator, mix in fundamentals, generate scans from plain-English prompts, hit everything from a public API or MCP server, and let an automated system re-scan your saved scans in the background so you can see which ones actually perform. Best for traders who want to express precise ideas as filters — and know which of those ideas are working.
• TC2000 is a fast, mature, all-in-one desktop platform. Its EasyScan engine screens thousands of symbols in seconds across 192 fundamental and 240+ technical criteria, its Personal Criteria Formula (PCF) language lets power users write custom conditions, its charting is quick and battle-tested, and an integrated brokerage lets you trade US stocks and options straight from the chart. Best for active US stock and options traders who want speed, PCF-level control, and execution all in one Windows-first app.

If you want the deepest, most flexible modifier logic, AI-assisted scan building, an API/MCP server, a genuinely free tier, and feedback on which of your scans truly perform — try Scanr. If you want a proven, lightning-fast scanner with a powerful formula language and a built-in broker, all for a low monthly price — TC2000 is hard to beat at what it's built for.

Feature comparison

How the scanners actually compare

1. The PCF formula language — TC2000's real strength

Let's lead with TC2000's biggest genuine advantage, because it's real and we won't pretend otherwise. Personal Criteria Formulas (PCF) give power users a proper formula language for expressing custom technical logic that goes beyond the point-and-click builder. Combined with the EasyScan Condition Wizard — which lets newcomers assemble conditions from dropdown menus without writing a line of code — TC2000 covers both ends of the spectrum well. There's a whole cottage industry of traders sharing and selling PCFs, which tells you how much people lean on it.

Scanr takes a different path to the same flexibility. Instead of a text-based formula syntax, every preset is a typed filter payload — a structured object you can edit, fork, and combine in the UI. It's arguably easier to read and recombine than PCF, and (as we'll get to) you can also generate it from plain English or drive it from an API. But if you've already invested years in PCF fluency and a library of formulas, that's a real asset TC2000 keeps for you.

2. Scan flexibility & modifier depth

This is where Scanr pulls ahead. Both products screen on fundamentals and technicals — TC2000 advertises 192 fundamental and 240+ technical criteria, and its EasyScan engine is fast. But the moment you want to filter on how an indicator is behaving rather than its raw value, the gap opens up.

In Scanr, you can mix technical conditions ("price closing above the 50-day EMA for 3 sessions") with fundamental conditions ("free cash flow yield > 5% and net debt/EBITDA < 2") in the same scan, against a ~7,000-symbol universe, narrowed without page reloads. Where Scanr really separates is modifier depth: apply a slope to RSI to find momentum that's accelerating, correlate a stock's SMA against its sector, or layer crossovers and divergences on top of any study.

You're not limited to "RSI(70)" — you can express "14-day RSI sloping up while price diverges from the 50-day SMA" as a single, reusable filter. That compositional logic extends across chart patterns, supply/demand zones, relative strength, insider (Form 4) activity, short interest, and even order-book microstructure.

TC2000 can express plenty with PCF, and a fluent user can encode sophisticated conditions. But the everyday experience is value-and-threshold filtering, with the heavy lifting pushed into formula text. Scanr makes behavioural modifiers a first-class, point-and-click part of every scan rather than something you hand- code.

3. Fundamentals + technicals in one scan

Credit to TC2000 here: it does let you combine fundamental and technical criteria in a single EasyScan — screen for quarterly EPS growth alongside a moving-average crossover, for example, and plot EPS right on the chart. That's more than some scanners offer, and it's been a quiet strength of the platform.

Scanr's fundamental coverage is built to be composed the same way — financials and technicals live in one filter payload, so you can stack "earnings and sales growth accelerating" against "breaking out of a multi-week base on rising relative strength" without leaving the scan. The difference is less about whether you can mix them and more about how deeply you can express each side, and how easily the result composes with modifiers, AI generation, and the API.

4. Knowing which scans actually work

Most scanners — TC2000 included — stop at "here are the matches." In fact, the absence of historical validation is one of TC2000's most commonly noted gaps: there's no built-in way to test whether a scan has produced consistent results over time, and reviewers routinely suggest pairing it with another tool for that.

Scanr keeps going. Its automated scan-performance system re-runs your saved scans in the background and tracks how the symbols they surface actually go on to perform, so over time you get win-rate and edge analytics on each scan, plus per-ticker performance breakdowns. You stop guessing which of your setups are pulling their weight — the scan you thought was your best idea might be quietly underperforming a throwaway you forgot about, and Scanr tells you which is which, automatically, without you re-running anything.

If "which of my scans is actually making money?" is a question you care about, this is a meaningful differentiator.

5. AI scan generation

Scanr lets you describe a setup in plain English and get back a runnable scan. "Show me small-caps breaking out of a multi-week base on rising relative strength with insider buying in the last quarter" becomes a real, editable filter payload you can run, fork, and refine — and it's available even on the free tier (with daily limits).

TC2000 has no equivalent. It's a mature, deterministic platform: you build scans with EasyScan and PCF, not by talking to it. There's no plain-language scan builder and no AI generation layer that we're aware of. That's not a knock on a 20-plus-year-old product doing what it does well — it's just a category where the two tools diverge sharply. If you want AI to turn a sentence into a filter, Scanr is the one that does that today.

6. Charts and the integrated broker

TC2000's charting is a genuine, long-standing strength — fast re-draws, hot-key-driven workflows, EPS and fundamental overlays, and reviewers regularly clocking sub-200ms S&P 500 scans and near-instant multi-chart sync. On top of that, TC2000 bundles something Scanr deliberately doesn't: an integrated brokerage. You can scan, chart, and then place a stock or multi-leg options trade directly from the chart, all in one app. For active options traders running credit spreads, iron condors, or covered calls, that unified scan-to-execution workflow is a real selling point.

Scanr takes a deliberately different stance. We believe a scanner's job is to scan — to surface the right names — not to be a do-everything charting-and- trading platform. Our charts are clean and focused: multi-timeframe analysis, indicator stacking, and direct annotation of fundamental events (earnings beats, guidance changes, insider activity) on the time axis — enough depth to make a decision and not so much that you drown in it. We're not a broker, and we don't try to be. If living inside a richly-configured chart with execution attached is central to your day, TC2000 will feel more powerful. If you want to find setups fast and confirm them on a clean chart, Scanr's focus is the point.

7. Platform, mobile & the Mac question

This one cuts both ways. TC2000 is Windows-first. It has a fast native Windows client, a web version with the same functionality (a touch slower), and a native Android app, with an iPhone app described as in progress. The well-documented friction is Mac: there's no native Mac app, so Mac users run TC2000 through the browser, a virtual machine, or remote access — workable, but reviewers consistently flag it as a performance and convenience compromise.

Scanr is browser-native and runs identically on Mac, Windows, and Linux — no VM, no streaming workaround. And our iOS app is now live on the App Store, so you can scan from your iPhone too (Android is on the way). Today TC2000's native Android app still leads on that platform, while Scanr is ahead on desktop Mac. Pick your poison based on where you actually work.

8. Maturity, community & track record

Credit where it's due: TC2000 is the far more established product. Worden Brothers has been at this since 1988, TC2000 has been named Best Stock Analysis Software by Stocks & Commodities for well over two decades, and there's a large, long-lived community — active discussion forums, shared PCF libraries, conferences, and a base of traders who've used it for 20-plus years. That kind of heritage and ecosystem isn't something a newer tool can fake.

Scanr is younger and growing quickly. Our preset library and community are expanding fast, but we won't pretend they carry the history of Worden's user base. Where we focus instead is filter depth, flexibility, AI assistance, and giving you the tools to validate your own edge — plus a modern, programmable surface (API and MCP) that a desktop-era platform was never designed for.

9. Pricing

TC2000 is genuinely affordable. Its tiers run Basic $24.99/mo, Premium $49.99/mo, and Premium+ $99.99/mo, with discounts for annual or biennial billing, and real-time US stock data included on every plan. Note that EasyScan's Condition Wizard and PCF land on the Premium tier, and some data feeds (real-time US indexes, real-time US options, consolidated tape) are paid add-ons of roughly $2.50–$15/mo each. It's a closed, paid-only product, though a free trial is available.

Scanr's paid plans start at $39.99/mo, and there's a genuinely free tier that gives you real-time scans plus a generous number of saved presets and daily AI-generated scans. So TC2000 undercuts Scanr's starting paid price — but if you want serious scanning before paying anything, only Scanr has a permanent free plan.

Pricing is a moving target — see Scanr pricing for the current numbers and compare directly.

10. API and automation

This is where Scanr leans into something TC2000 doesn't offer: a public API and an MCP server. Every scan you can build in the UI you can also run from your own code, or from inside an AI client like Claude or Cursor. Want a daily cron job that pings you when a specific setup fires across the Russell 2000? That's a few lines against the Scanr API.

TC2000 is a closed, self-contained platform — you work inside its apps, not on top of its data, and there's no public API or MCP integration that we're aware of. For traders building their own dashboards or LLM-driven research workflows, the API and MCP server are often the deciding factor. You can see the rate limits, tiers, and the full list of MCP tools on the Scanr API pricing page.

11. Who each one is for

Pick TC2000 if:

• You want a fast, proven scanner with a powerful custom formula language (PCF) and a deep library of community-shared formulas.
• You're an active US stock or options trader who wants charting, scanning, and execution in one app via the integrated brokerage.
• You're on Windows (or happy to run it in a browser/VM) and want a low monthly price with real-time US data included.
• You value 20-plus years of maturity, a large community, and battle-tested charts.

Pick Scanr if:

• You want the deepest, most flexible filter logic — slope, correlation, crossovers and divergences stacked on any indicator.
• You want to combine technicals, fundamentals, chart patterns, supply/demand zones, relative strength, insider and short-interest data in a single scan.
• You want to generate scans from plain-English prompts.
• You want an automated system telling you which of your saved scans actually perform.
• You want an API or MCP integration so your scans show up in your own tools, scripts, or AI clients.
• You want a genuinely free tier, native Mac access, and paid plans from $39.99/mo.

Final word

There is no objective winner here — these are different tools built on different eras and philosophies. TC2000 is a mature, all-in-one desktop platform: fast scans, a beloved formula language, and a broker built in. Scanr is a flexibility-first, programmable platform: compose any idea, validate it, generate it from plain English, and automate it.

If you tell us what your workflow looks like, we'll honestly tell you whether Scanr is the right fit. And if it isn't, we'll point you somewhere else.

Want to try Scanr? Run your first scan — no credit card required.