PineTester runs Pine v6 strategies in the cloud and sweeps their inputs across hundreds of settings on crypto spot pairs, from 1,500 free credits. Alpha Charts runs Pine v6 on US stocks and ETFs, charges costs and checks every run on held-out data by default, with an optimiser judged against random tries and AI that writes the script. Here is how to choose.
PineTester's column is what pinetester.io says, checked on 24 October 2026.
| ALPHA CHARTS | PINETESTER | |
|---|---|---|
| What runs your script | The Strategy Tester runs the Pine v6 script you paste, on its own Pine runtime, on real market data | The Pine v6 script is converted to Python by a specialised service provider (PyneCore 6.10.11, by PyneSys) and run on Google Cloud infrastructure in the EU; results may differ from TradingView's Strategy Tester |
| Pine Script | Pine v6, as TradingView has it | Pine v6 strategies declared with strategy(); request.security() for other timeframes and markets |
| Markets | US stocks and ETFs; NQ, MNQ, ES and MES futures for signed-in accounts | Crypto spot markets only, major pairs from several exchanges; no indicators, stocks or forex |
| Timeframes and history | Stocks live from IEX, the full US tape after 15 minutes (Alpaca); daily history from 2016, intraday from one minute | 1D, 4h, 1h, 15m and 5m on the markets with this data; all the history a market has, from 2018 at the earliest |
| Trading costs in a backtest | 5 bps commission and 2.5 bps slippage per side on every run, by default; a commission the script declares wins | Commission and slippage as the script sets them (its examples use 0.1% per order and 3 ticks), with a warning when fees are missing |
| Every backtest | Split into in-sample and out-of-sample with a verdict, drawdown analytics, the full trade list and every trade on the chart | Net profit, trades, win rate, drawdown and profit factor for every setting, a heatmap of the settings, Sharpe and Sortino from bar-by-bar returns, every result as XLSX and the best setting as a .pine file |
| Held-out test | Every run: about the last third of the history is kept apart and judged on its own, with its dates and a verdict | A 70/30 hold-out split, a selection-bias verdict, and warnings for fewer than 30 trades and look-ahead; the overfitting check on the paid plans |
| Optimiser | Fits a script's inputs on the past, judges them on data it never saw, and compares the winner against the best of the same number of random tries (Pro and Max) | Every combination of your input ranges in one cloud run: up to 1,000 combinations free, 2,500 on PineStarter, 10,000 on PinePro and pay as you go; larger grids are tested as a random sample |
| AI | The Pine Copilot writes Pine v6 from plain words, checks it and backtests it | No AI features on its pages |
| Free start | Unlimited free backtests on a free account, no card; free tools with no account | 1,500 credits once at sign-up, no card, not renewed: about 2 backtests on 1h at 320 settings |
| Plans | $49.99, $99.99 or $129.99 a month, less on the yearly plan; every plan comes with 30 days money back | PineStarter EUR 4.99 a month (25,000 credits), PinePro EUR 9.99 a month (60,000 credits), or pay as you go from EUR 0.50 plus EUR 0.15 per 500 combinations, VAT included |
The Strategy Tester runs the Pine script itself on real data, not a rewrite of it. Orders fill at the next bar's open, the script never sees future data, and every fill pays 5 bps commission and 2.5 bps slippage per side by default.
Each run is split into an in-sample and an out-of-sample period, stated as dates. The held-out part gets a verdict: survived, decayed, did not survive, or too few trades to judge. Drawdown analytics and the full list of trades come with every run.
The optimiser fits a script's inputs on the past, judges them on data it never saw, and compares the winner against the best of the same number of random tries.
The data and its adjustments, the universe and its survivorship bias, the fill rules and the verdict's thresholds are written out in Data and methodology.
For traders of US stocks and ETFs who want costs and a held-out verdict on every run, AI that writes the script and unlimited runs on a plan, yes. PineTester is the tool for sweeping a crypto strategy's inputs across thousands of settings in one run.
Both start from your Pine v6 script. PineTester converts it to Python with PyneCore and runs it in the cloud, and says results may differ from TradingView's. Alpha Charts runs it on its own Pine runtime, which can also occasionally differ from TradingView.
Both, differently. PineTester tests every combination of the input ranges you give it, up to its plan's limit, and shows a heatmap. Alpha Charts' optimiser fits the inputs on the past, judges them on data it never saw and compares the winner against the best of as many random tries.
Both. PineTester splits each backtest 70/30 and gives a selection-bias verdict, with its overfitting check on paid plans. Alpha Charts keeps about the last third of every run apart by default, on the free backtests too.
PineTester. Alpha Charts backtests US stocks and ETFs, plus NQ, MNQ, ES and MES futures for signed-in accounts.
Alpha Charts plans start at $49.99 a month, with 30 days money back, and a free account backtests without limit. PineTester gives 1,500 credits once for free, then EUR 4.99 or EUR 9.99 a month, or pay as you go from EUR 0.50 a backtest.
Sources for PineTester: pinetester.io (home page and FAQ) and pinetester.io/pricing, read on 24 October 2026. If anything here has changed, tell us and we will correct it. PineTester is a trademark of its owner; Alpha Charts is not affiliated with or endorsed by PineTester. Every tool side by side: AI Pine Script tools compared.