Updated August 18, 2026. Quick answer: the screening a retiree actually needs — dividend history, payout durability, balance-sheet strength — is available free at Finviz and Yahoo Finance, and Stock Rover runs a free plan too. The tier with the word Retiree in its name is Stock Rover’s Ultimate For the Wealth Builder & Retiree, and it is the second most expensive of that vendor’s four tiers, quoted at “$79/mo”, “Billed annually at $948/yr”. Being the target market is not the same as being given a discount.
What’s actually free, checked today
Each of these served a working screener on 2026-08-18 with no login wall in the response.
| Tool | What is free | Price the vendor shows | In the vendor’s words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finviz | Stock screener, free tier | Free | We include a free 7-day trial of Finviz Elite. |
| Yahoo Finance | Equity screener | Free | Served without an account when we checked it |
| Koyfin | 2 watchlists & 2 screens | $0/month | 2Y financials & 1Y estimates |
| Stock Rover | Free plan | Free | The free plan is designed for users that want to do basic research on individual stocks |
Stock Rover publishes what its free plan is for in plain terms: “The free plan is designed for users that want to do basic research on individual stocks”. Koyfin’s free tier includes “2 watchlists & 2 screens” — enough to run and keep a couple of income screens, though its history is capped at “2Y financials & 1Y estimates” against “10Y financials & 10Y estimates” on the paid tier.
The tier with “Retiree” in its name
Stock Rover names its tiers after who it thinks you are. The third one is called “Ultimate For the Wealth Builder & Retiree”. What it adds over the tier below is genuinely relevant to income investing — “30-Year Dividend History”, “Percentile screening, OTC stock screening” and “Fund Reports (7,400 ETFs & 20,000 Funds)” — so this is not pure marketing. It is also the point where the price steps up sharply. All three billing cadences the vendor publishes:
| Tier | Annual, per month | Annual billing | Monthly billing | Two-year billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium For the Independent Investor | $29/mo | Billed annually at $348/yr | $34/mo | $288/ year (Billed $576 every 2 years) |
| Premium Plus For the Tactical Investor | $49/mo | Billed annually at $588/yr | $70/mo | $504 / year (Billed $1,008 every 2 years) |
| Ultimate For the Wealth Builder & Retiree | $79/mo | Billed annually at $948/yr | $99/mo | $828/ year (Billed $1,656 every 2 years) |
| Ultimate Pro For Advisors & Wealth Professionals | $149/mo | Billed annually at $1788/yr | $199/mo | $1,548/ year (Billed $3,096 every 2 years) |
Read the retiree row across and the cost of paying month to month is plain: “$99/mo” billed monthly against “$79/mo” when billed annually. Over a year that is $1,188 versus $948, a difference of $240 — our arithmetic from the vendor’s own two figures, not a saving Stock Rover advertises in those words. The vendor also publishes a two-year rate of “$828/ year (Billed $1,656 every 2 years)”. Every plan carries the same trial: “Try any plan free for 14 days before subscribing.”
Finviz, the free one most retirees will actually use
Finviz’s free screener served without an account on 2026-08-18 and covers the income filters most retirees want. Its paid tier is priced two ways:
| Plan | Price the vendor shows | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Finviz Elite, monthly | Monthly — $39.50 USD / month | Billed monthly |
| Finviz Elite, annual | Annual — $299.50 USD / year | Billed once a year |
| Finviz, free tier | Free | Served with no account on 2026-08-18 |
The vendor states the same choice a second way in its trial small print: “$24.96/mo (billed annually) or $39.50/mo (billed monthly)”. Twelve months of monthly billing is $474 against the $299.50 annual figure — a gap of $174.50, again our arithmetic from the vendor’s own numbers. Elite adds real-time quotes & charts, ad-free interface, advanced screener, ETF & fundamental data, export/API access, push alerts. If you are screening once a quarter to check an income portfolio, the free tier is very likely enough.
What to screen for when the portfolio is paying the bills
The filter almost everyone reaches for first is dividend yield, and on its own it is the worst one. A yield rises when a price falls, so an unfiltered high-yield screen sorts partly by trouble. The filters that survive contact with a real retirement are about durability: length of dividend history, payout ratio, debt, and cash flow covering the distribution. That is why Stock Rover’s “30-Year Dividend History” is the specific thing worth paying for, if you pay for anything — it is the field that tells you whether a payout has ever actually been cut.
None of these tools knows your tax situation, your other income, or when you need the money, and none of them should be read as a recommendation to buy anything.
One well-known name is missing, and here is exactly why. Morningstar’s own pricing pages did not load for us on 2026-08-18: every attempt came back empty. Its definitions pages served normally the same hour, so this is that vendor blocking those particular paths rather than a fault at our end. The rule this page runs on is that a price is only publishable if the vendor published it and we read it today — so Morningstar is named here and left out of the tables, instead of being listed at a price we could not check. The paths tried:
- https://www.morningstar.com/products/investor
- https://www.morningstar.com/products/investor/pricing
- https://www.morningstar.com/lp/investor-free-trial
No affiliate link on this page, deliberately. We do have a paid relationship with one research provider elsewhere on this site. A page that ranks free tools against paid ones cannot also be paid to prefer one of them, so this page carries no partner link at all and nothing below moves on who pays us.
Screening funds rather than individual stocks? Free fund screeners compared. The wider map is research it yourself.
Sources
- Stock Rover — published plans and pricing. https://www.stockrover.com/plans/. Fetched and read 2026-08-18.
- Finviz — published plans and pricing. https://finviz.com/elite.ashx. Fetched and read 2026-08-18.
- Koyfin — published plans and pricing. https://www.koyfin.com/pricing/. Fetched and read 2026-08-18.
- Yahoo Finance screener — the free tool itself. https://finance.yahoo.com/research-hub/screener/equity/. Fetched and read 2026-08-18.
Every price on this page was fetched from the vendor’s own site on 2026-08-18 and is quoted in the vendor’s own words, billing cadence included. Prices change without notice; where a vendor does not publish a figure, this page says so rather than filling the gap. Any number described below as our arithmetic is ours, not a price the vendor quotes.