Comparison · updated September 2026
Portfolio Visualizer alternatives, honestly compared
Portfolio Visualizer is the long-standing US backtester, billed annually and centred on US-listed assets. The alternatives go further in different directions: European UCITS funds, monthly pricing, market research, or diagnosing and stress testing a portfolio holding by holding. Pick by the job you need done.
Disclosure: this page is published by MEDGE Capital, one of the tools listed. Competitor details come from each vendor’s public pages and public listings, checked in September 2026; sources are linked under each tool. Prices and features change — verify on the vendor’s site before you buy.
At a glance
| Tool | Best for | Free option | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio Visualizer | Classic backtests on US-listed assets | Yes — up to 15 assets, limited history | Basic $30/month and Pro $55/month, billed annually |
| testfolio | Free, daily-data backtesting with very long simulated histories | Yes — core tools free; a free account raises limits | Pro and Pro+ tiers for higher limits and premium tools |
| PortfoliosLab | Low-cost optimization and screening in one place | Yes — 15 holdings per portfolio, 10 calculations a month, 5 years of history | Plus from about $8/month, Pro about $21/month, Max $75/month (annual billing) |
| Curvo Backtest | European index investors backtesting UCITS ETFs | Yes — free, no sign-up | — |
| Koyfin | Market research: screeners, dashboards, fundamentals, charts | Yes — screener, watchlists, dashboards, one portfolio account | Plus $39/month, Premium $79/month, Advisor plans from $209/month; discounts for annual billing |
| MEDGE Capital | Understanding why a portfolio behaves as it does — and testing the scenario you fear | Yes — no time limit | Essential €14.99, Plus €39.99, Pro €59.99, Advisor €159 per month; monthly (cancel anytime) or yearly |
1. Portfolio Visualizer
Classic backtests on US-listed assets
Strengths
- Backtesting with rebalancing rules, Monte Carlo simulation and a view of historical scenarios.
- Optimization on mean-variance and risk-return objectives.
Keep in mind
- Paid plans are billed annually: $360 up-front for Basic, $660 for Pro.
- Free plan capped at 15 assets.
- Users investing through European UCITS funds regularly report that many of them cannot be found.
Pick it if: Your portfolio is entirely US-listed and annual billing suits you.
Sources: Portfolio Visualizer pricing · Portfolio Visualizer analysis tools
2. testfolio
Free, daily-data backtesting with very long simulated histories
Strengths
- Daily data; simulated tickers extend histories back to the 1920s.
- Several portfolios per run, negative weights and leverage, cash flows, rebalancing bands and glidepaths.
- A rebalancing-sensitivity tool that runs hundreds of backtests across rebalancing frequencies.
Keep in mind
- Focused on backtesting and allocation research rather than holding-level diagnosis or market data.
Pick it if: You want to research allocations and rebalancing rules over the longest possible history, for free.
Sources: testfolio · testfolio pricing
3. PortfoliosLab
Low-cost optimization and screening in one place
Strengths
- Backtests, risk metrics, correlations and screeners for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds.
- Optimization with mean-variance, risk parity, HRP and HERC.
Keep in mind
- The free tier is capped on holdings, calculations and history.
Pick it if: You want optimizers such as HRP/HERC and screeners at a low monthly cost.
Sources: PortfoliosLab subscription
4. Curvo Backtest
European index investors backtesting UCITS ETFs
Strengths
- Built for European investors, with hundreds of UCITS ETFs and their official histories.
- Shows the effect of broker fees and compares rebalancing strategies.
Keep in mind
- A focused backtester for ETF portfolios rather than a full analytics suite.
Pick it if: You are a European index investor who wants a quick, free backtest of a UCITS ETF portfolio.
Sources: Curvo Backtest
5. Koyfin
Market research: screeners, dashboards, fundamentals, charts
Strengths
- Global stock screener, custom dashboards, advanced charting, financials and estimates.
- Portfolio tracking; model portfolio tools on the Premium plan.
Keep in mind
- A research platform first; portfolio backtesting and stress testing are not its core.
Pick it if: Your main job is researching companies and markets, with portfolio tracking alongside.
Sources: Koyfin plans comparison
6. MEDGE Capital (publisher of this page)
Understanding why a portfolio behaves as it does — and testing the scenario you fear
Strengths
- Stress Lab: shock any of 45 indices, sectors, countries, rates, commodities and currencies; everything else moves with its historical relationships, with results per holding.
- Backtests with real rebalancing policies and transaction costs, exact per-holding attribution, bear/neutral/bull and volatility regimes, what-if replays and holding diagnosis.
- Regulatory and macro data in the same workspace: SEC 13F and Form 4, CFTC positioning, central banks.
- US-listed and European exchange listings, including UCITS ETFs, from one ticker list.
Keep in mind
- Factor regression on ETF-based factors through AI assistants, not the academic Fama-French series.
- Real price data for each instrument (more than 15 years where it exists), no simulated extensions.
- No look-through of fund holdings.
- No base-currency conversion: each instrument is analysed in its own trading currency.
Pick it if: You want to diagnose and stress test a real portfolio holding by holding, not only replay its past.
Sources: Stress Lab · Backtesting · Methodology
Where MEDGE is different
Most tools on this list answer what did this portfolio do? MEDGE is built around the next three questions: why — exact attribution of every gain and loss to each holding, and how each one behaves in bear, neutral and bull markets; what if — replaying the backtest with a holding removed, replaced or re-weighted, under the same rebalancing policy and costs; and what next — the Stress Lab, where you set the shocks you worry about and see every holding’s response.
All of it runs from a single ticker list, in one workspace, next to regulatory positioning data and central-bank dashboards. If you only need a quick historical backtest, the free tools above do that well. If you need to decide what to change in a real portfolio, that is where MEDGE saves the most time.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best free alternative to Portfolio Visualizer?
- MEDGE has a free tier with no time limit that includes the full backtesting lab: per-holding attribution, bear/neutral/bull regimes, what-if replays and Monte Carlo, on US and European listings; the Stress Lab starts with the Essential plan. testfolio and Curvo Backtest are free options focused on replaying a portfolio's past.
- Is there a Portfolio Visualizer alternative for European investors?
- Yes. Curvo Backtest is built for European index investors and UCITS ETFs. MEDGE accepts European exchange listings, including UCITS ETFs, alongside US-listed assets, with deeper analysis than a backtest alone. Results are computed on each instrument’s own price series; MEDGE does not convert portfolios into a base currency.
- What replaced Morningstar Instant X-Ray?
- Morningstar retired its free Instant X-Ray and its Portfolio Manager in April 2025. None of the tools on this page reproduces X-Ray’s fund look-through exactly; they cover the analytics side — returns, risk, correlations and scenarios — instead.
- Which Portfolio Visualizer alternative has factor regression?
- MEDGE runs factor regressions on tradable ETF factors (market, size, value, momentum, quality, low volatility, global, macro or your own long-short pairs) with Newey-West t-stats, collinearity checks and rolling betas, through its MCP tools for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. PortfoliosLab also offers factor tools.
Morningstar retirement of Instant X-Ray and Portfolio Manager: Morningstar announcement.
Head-to-head comparisons
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