A comprehensive list of the most recommended Option Scanners
Over the years, options scanning technology has evolved tremendously. What once was based on a basic screening filter now comes with real-time data, machine learning insights, and advanced analytics. These scanners no longer filter options but optimize strategies, predict volatility, and maximize profit potential in seconds.
But when one has so many choices to sift through, choosing the correct option scanner is rather challenging. Which of them actually makes an investment worth the penny? Whether you’re a seasoned trader diving into multi-leg strategies or a beginner stepping onto that first step, this article ranks and evaluates the best option scanners of 2025 based on features, pricing, and strengths.
Let’s dive right in!
1. ORATS
ORATS (Option Research & Technology Services) is the leader in options analytics, offering advanced tools for traders of all levels. Their Option Scanner combines powerful analytics, live data for over 5,000 symbols, and customizable features, enabling precise and efficient strategy building. With proprietary edge calculations and seamless integration with trading tools, ORATS adapts to both beginners and professionals seeking top-tier performance.
Key Features
Proprietary Theoretical Edge Calculations: ORATS leverages unique metrics like D%, F%, and S% to provide insights into theoretical edge calculations, helping traders identify opportunities with high precision.
Integration with Backtesting and Implementation:
Seamlessly transition from scanning to backtesting and executing strategies. This integration ensures traders can validate their strategies before live implementation, minimizing risks.
Stock Scanner Integration:
The platform doesn’t stop at options. With built-in stock scanning capabilities, traders can comprehensively evaluate underlying assets before formulating options strategies.
Customizable Strategies:
ORATS supports multi-leg strategies ranging from 1 to 4 legs, empowering traders to craft calendars, verticals, and complex multi-leg spreads tailored to their needs.
Live Data Capabilities:
The platform provides real-time data for over 5,000 symbols, ensuring traders have the most up-to-date market information for decision-making.
Broker Integration for Direct Trade Execution:
ORATS integrates with top brokers, allowing users to execute trades directly from the platform. This eliminates the need for switching between systems, streamlining the trading process.
Robust Entry Criteria for Strategies:
Particularly useful for advanced strategies like calendars, the scanner allows users to set detailed entry criteria to fine-tune trade setups.
Competitive Pricing with Trial Options:
ORATS offers flexible pricing plans, making it accessible to both retail and institutional traders. Their trial options provide an excellent opportunity for users to explore the platform’s capabilities.
Strengths
Institutional-Grade Analytics: Proprietary metrics and advanced features cater to professionals while remaining accessible to individual traders.
Comprehensive Toolset: From scanning and backtesting to trade execution, the platform supports the entire trading lifecycle.
Customizability: Multi-leg strategies and detailed entry criteria empower users to fine-tune strategies for optimal results.
Real-Time Market Data: Live updates ensure traders are always equipped with the latest information.
Pricing
ORATS offers competitive pricing tailored to meet diverse trading needs:
Individual Plan: $99/month with features like real-time data, options scanning, and 100 backtests per month (10 during the trial). A 14-day trial is available for $29.
Professional Plan: For advanced users, this plan provides extended features. Pricing details are available on request.
The accessible trial pricing allows traders to explore the scanner’s powerful features before committing to a subscription, making it an excellent entry point.
In summary, ORATS’ Option Scanner is undoubtedly the most versatile and robust tool for options traders in 2025. With proprietary analytics, real-time data, and integration with backtesting and execution, it empowers traders to make informed decisions and craft high-precision strategies. Whether you’re just starting your options journey or are a seasoned professional, ORATS stands out as the go-to choice for all your options trading needs.
2. Barchart
Barchart, a renowned platform in the financial analytics world, offers an advanced Options Screener as part of its suite of trading tools. Designed for both beginner and advanced traders, the Barchart Options Screener provides many scanning capabilities in a user-friendly interface, making it easy for users to identify lucrative trading opportunities in the options market. Its integration with Barchart Premier further enhances the user experience by unlocking advanced tools and functionalities.
Key Features
Customizable Screeners: Barchart’s Options Screener offers extensive customization options, allowing traders to filter options based on key parameters such as implied volatility, expiration dates, strike prices, and more. This helps users customise the screeners to their specific trading needs.
Advanced Analytics: The platform provides analytics like options flow, time and sales, and volatility trackers. These tools allow traders to better understand the market sentiment and identify profitable trades.
Historical Charts & Data: Users can access historical data of options indicators, which will help them in trend analysis and backtesting. But for those data to be for an extensive period, you should be a premier member.
Screener Integration: The Options Screener integrates with the other platform’s tools, such as stocks and ETF screeners, which allows you to monitor concurrently multi-asset portfolios.
Multi-Leg Strategies: Barchart supports advanced multi-leg strategies, empowering traders to implement complex trades like spreads and straddles with ease.
Educational Resources: The platform includes educational content and tutorials aimed at helping new traders understand and effectively use the screener’s functionalities.
Strengths
Ease of Use: Barchart’s user-friendly interface makes it accessible even for new traders. The screener’s customization options further enhance its usability.
Data Access: Premier members can access extensive historical data, including real-time updates and historical trends, allowing them to analyze market conditions more easily.
Cost-Effective: Starting at $29.95/month, Barchart Premier offers solutions that offer a 360 view to your portfolio.
Integration with Other Tools: The platform’s option screener integrates with other Barchart tools (like equity screeners), making it a one-stop solution for traders managing diverse portfolios.
Weaknesses
Limited Free Features: The free plan is restricted to basic tools, which will not be enough for demanding users.
Advanced Features Behind a Paywall: Features like options flow, volatility data, and advanced analytics are only available to Premier members, which might be a deterrent for budget-conscious traders.
Less Focused on Multi-Leg Customization: While the platform supports multi-leg strategies, its depth and flexibility may not match specialized competitors like ORATS or Option Samurai.
Pricing
Barchart (except for the free plan) offers its Premier subscription with three plans:
Monthly Plan: $29.95/month.
Annual Plan: $199.95/year ($16.67/month, a 45% savings).
2-Year Plan: $368 for two years ($15.33/month, a 51% savings).
All plans include a free 30-day trial, giving the new user ample time to explore the platform before committing. Premier features include ad-free browsing, advanced analytics, historical data access, and more.
To conclude, Barchart’s Options Screener is a robust and versatile tool for traders looking to enhance their market analysis and strategy execution. While it has good analytics and integration across asset classes, you have to be a paid member to utilize its full capabilities. However, Barchart remains a strong contender in the options scanning space for traders looking for a value-for-money balance.
3. Market Chameleon
Market Chameleon is a well-established player in the world of financial analytics, specializing in a wide array of tools and insights focused on options traders. Its Option Screener stands out as a tool specifically designed to serve both beginners and professional traders. With user-friendly features and advanced analytics, Market Chameleon’s screener is a popular choice for many in finding high-potential options trades.
Key Features
Versatile Screening Capabilities: The platform provides a range of filters for options screening, including implied volatility, delta, gamma, and historical volatility comparisons. Traders can filter their search with their own criteria to align with specific trading strategies.
Earnings Analysis: An important feature is the earnings analysis tool, which allows the users to assess the impact of earnings announcements on options prices and volatility. This feature is ideal for strategies centered around earnings events.
Unusual Options Activity: Market Chameleon tracks and shows unusual options activity, helping traders identify significant market moves and potential opportunities based on volume and volatility spikes.
Pre-Built and Customizable Screeners: The platform offers pre-built screeners for common strategies like covered calls and spreads so the user can immediately jump-start without a lot of effort while also allowing users to create custom scans tailored to their specific tastes.
Trade Idea Generation: Market Chameleon’s screener is equipped with tools for generating actionable trade ideas, such as arbitrage opportunities, mispriced options, and high-probability strategies.
Strengths
Earnings-Focused Analytics: The earnings analysis and event-driven tools are highly important for traders focusing on short-term trades based on volatility.
Rich Historical Data: Market Chameleon provides historical data and backtesting options, allowing users to validate strategies against historical market conditions.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform is designed with a user-friendly layout, allowing traders of all levels to navigate and use it effectively.
Comprehensive Educational Resources: With tutorials and educational content, Market Chameleon provides traders information to expand their knowledge and improve their skills.
Weaknesses
Pricing Barrier: At $99 per month, the platform’s premium pricing might be a hurdle for traders looking for value-for-money solutions, especially those just starting out.
Limited Real-Time Data: While the platform offers powerful analytics, it does not provide the same real-time data depth as some other tools like ORATS.
Steep Learning Curve: Even though the user interface looks friendly, there still is a steep learning curve for novice traders.
Pricing
Market Chameleon offers a Premium Plan priced at $99 per month, which includes a 7-day free trial. This paid plan provides access to all advanced features, including the full suite of options screeners, historical data, and earnings analysis tools.
In summary, Market Chameleon’s Option Screener is a robust and versatile tool for traders looking to identify and capitalize on opportunities in the options market. While earnings analysis and trade idea generation are at an advanced level, their higher cost and potential learning curve may make them less appealing to budget-conscious or beginner traders. Nonetheless, for traders seeking advanced analytics and actionable insights, Market Chameleon is a strong alternative as an option screener.
4. Option Samurai
Option Samurai’s Option Screener is a robust platform for individual investors looking to discover profitable trading opportunities in the options market. Its stress on balancing risk and return makes it stand out, offering a well-designed interface backed by powerful analytics to help traders make informed decisions.
Key Features
Scanning Capabilities: Option Samurai scans over a million options contracts, balancing between technical and fundamental data. It analyzes key metrics such as implied volatility, ATR (Average True Range), dividend ex-dates, and earnings dates to ensure traders receive the most relevant opportunities.
Predefined and Customizable Scans: Traders can use predefined screeners for well-known strategies or create custom scans according to their criteria. The platform constantly monitors and updates these scans to align them with the changing market.
Optimize Options Strategies: The Options Optimizer tool helps users find their market’s best strategies, strikes, and expirations. This feature evaluates multiple combinations to pinpoint optimal trades that align with the user’s goals.
Detailed Insights: The Analyze Tab merges critical information about selected trades, strategies, and stocks, guaranteeing traders have everything to decide without switching between multiple tools.
Alerts and Workflow Integration: Alerts notify users of new opportunities matching their scans, eliminating the need for constant monitoring. Also, the platform integrates with Excel and Google Sheets, allowing traders to include Option Samurai’s data in tools that they are more familiar with.
Strengths
User-Friendly Design: Option Samurai focuses on individual investors with simplicity and relevance. The predefined scans and Analyze Tab make it a valuable tool for traders of all levels.
Customization: The ability to optimize options strategies and customize scans to personal preferences is an important advantage, allowing traders to fine-tune the screener to their taste.
Alerts and Integration: Alerts and spreadsheet plugins save time and streamline trading decisions, making the platform ideal for effortless trading.
Affordable Pricing: Option Samurai provides competitive pricing compared to other platforms with a monthly subscription of $49 or an annual plan of $450 ($37.50 per month). Additionally, the 14-day free trial offers a risk-free experiment with its features.
Weaknesses
Limited Community Support: Option Samurai lacks active user communities or forums, which can be found on other platforms and could make troubleshooting or sharing trading ideas easier.
Data Scope: While the platform offers all known metrics, its live data or historical capabilities may not be as extensive as those of competitors like ORATS.
Pricing
Option Samurai offers two subscription tiers:
Monthly Plan: $49 per month.
Annual Plan: $450 per year (equivalent to $37.50/month).
A 14-day free trial allows users to explore predefined scans and create custom strategies before committing.
In conclusion, Option Samurai is ideal for traders desiring a balance of simplicity and advanced analytics. Its tailored scans, optimization tools, and workflow integration provide a reliable solution for options trading. Its competitive pricing and user-focused design make it a useful tool for individual investors aiming to improve their trading strategies.
5. OptionStrat
OptionStrat’s Options Trade Optimizer is a specialized tool designed to help identify and analyze option trading strategies. This product is made for traders who want to maximize profitability by optimizing trade configurations with real-time insights and progressive evaluation tools.
Key Features
Strategy Optimization: The optimizer assesses multiple options strategies, helping traders identify the most effective mixtures of strikes, expirations, and risk-reward ratios for their market view.
Market Event Integration: Traders can monitor market events such as earnings reports or ex-dividend dates to evaluate their impact on specific strategies.
Historical Strategy Tracking: Save and track previous strategies to analyze historical performance and help on future trades.
Real-Time Data: For users on the Live Flow Plan, real-time options flow and price updates ensure timely decision-making, a critical feature for active traders.
Custom Filters and Alerts: The platform lets traders to set personalized alerts for specific market setups and save custom filters, ensuring relevant strategies filter the noise.
Chance of Profit & Risk Metrics: Visualizes the chance of success for each strategy, allowing traders to make informed decisions based on risk-reward setups. Displays net Greeks for multi-leg strategies, offering a broad view of the strategy’s events like price changes, volatility, and time decay.
Strengths
User-Friendly Interface: The platform’s interface makes it convenient for traders of all skill levels, offering a pleasant experience for creating and analyzing strategies.
Comprehensive Optimization: Features like volume overlay, probability charts, and net Greeks allow traders to evaluate multiple scenarios and select the best-fit strategy for their market view.
Custom Filters and Alerts: Traders can personalize their experience, ensuring they only receive information relevant to their trading system.
Weaknesses
Limited Data on Free Plan: While the Free plan offers access to the optimizer, the data is delayed, which may not suit traders seeking their edge with fast timeframes.
Lack of Advanced Charting Tools: The Trade Optimizer provides visualizations for strategy comparison but lacks more advanced charting capabilities that some competitors offer in their platforms.rting capabilities that some competitors offer for deeper analysis.
Pricing
OptionStrat’s Options Trade Optimizer is available under three pricing plans:
Free Plan: Access with delayed data and limited features.
Live Tools Plan: $19.99 monthly for delayed tools and historical data.
Live Flow Plan: $59.99 monthly, unlocking real-time options flow and all premium features.
A 7-day free trial is offered for both premium plans, allowing traders to test the optimizer’s capabilities before committing.
In summary, OptionStrat’s Options Trade Optimizer is a powerful and user-friendly solution for traders aiming to simplify the decision-making process on their options trades. By offering real-time data, probability metrics, and customizable filters, the optimizer allows users to make data-driven decisions confidently. While advanced charting features are missing, its ease of use and focus on strategy optimization make it a strong competitor for traders looking for a tool to help them with their options trading.
Final Thoughts
Options scanners are not extras but are now absolutely integral parts of a trader’s options-trading arsenal that aim at seeking an edge on the options market. Be it complex analytics (ORATS), detailed earnings insights (Market Chameleon), or inexpensive simplicity (Option Samurai), a scanner is available to serve your purpose.
For beginners, Option Samurai has an intuitive platform to begin with. Meanwhile, advanced traders will appreciate the depth and versatility of ORATS. Barchart and Market Chameleon cater to traders seeking rich data and event-driven opportunities, while OptionStrat’s optimizer simplifies the process of refining trade setups.
The features like AI-powered scans and automated trade execution are very likely to become part of these scanning technologies, thereby increasing the speed and the smarts involved in trading. Whichever tool you choose, these scanners are here to help you uncover opportunities and trade with confidence.
With that, you’ve reached the end of the article. I hope this guide helps you find the perfect option scanner to level up your trading game. Thank you for reading!