Key takeaways
- Forex Tester is not free to use for real testing. The free demo gives one month of data per symbol and cannot save projects.
- Paid plans are Starter and Pro, sold as lifetime licences or subscriptions, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- The guarantee is the real trial. Buying and refunding inside 30 days is the only way to test the full product.
Short answer: no, Forex Tester is not free - it has a free demo, and the demo is built to show you the software, not to hold a backtest. You can open Forex Tester Online with just an email, pick any symbol and trade through a month of history by hand. What you cannot do is save the project, which means the moment you close it, the trades are gone. Everything that keeps work - and most of the features that make Forex Tester distinctive - sits on the paid Starter and Pro plans.
All details below were read from Forex Tester's own site on 3 October 2026. The company runs promotions most of the year and its prices differ by region, so check the live page before buying.
What the Forex Tester free demo includes
Forex Tester describes the demo as a way to "explore Forex Tester Online freely - no install, no payment, no registration", where you enter an email and get an interactive preview. Its own list of what is and is not available:
| In the free demo | Status |
|---|---|
| Historical data | 1 month, any symbol |
| Manual backtesting mode | Included |
| Core interface and basic toolset | Included |
| Saving projects | Not possible |
| Custom indicators and custom EAs | Pro only |
| Prop firm mode | Pro only |
| Blind testing mode | Pro only |
| Install or card required | Neither |
Forex Tester itself notes that the preview "is simplified and doesn't include full functionality". That is a fair label. The demo is good for one thing - deciding whether you like the charts and the replay controls - and it is honest about not being more.
Why "no saving" matters more than "one month"
One month of data sounds like the tight limit, but on H1 a month is roughly 500 bars, and on M15 about 2,000 - enough to place a few dozen trades for a fast intraday setup. The limit that actually stops a backtest is that projects cannot be saved.
Backtesting only produces an answer at sample size. A usable sample is around 100 trades for one setup, and few people log 100 trades in a single sitting - a working trader typically needs several evenings. On the demo, every evening starts from zero. You can never hold a full sample in one place, so you never get to read the expectancy, profit factor and drawdown numbers that were the reason to backtest.
A rule for reading any free option: limits that slow you down (fewer indicators, less data) are fine to work around. Limits that throw away your work - no saving, a deletion window - mean the free option cannot answer "does my strategy have an edge?", only "do I like this tool?".
What the paid Forex Tester plans add
Forex Tester sells two plans, Starter and Pro, as lifetime licences or as subscriptions.
| Demo (free) | Starter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Symbols | Any, 1 month each | 80 | 283 |
| Historical data | 1 month | Up to 23 years | Up to 23 years |
| Save projects | No | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Data retention | None | Never expires | Never expires |
| Synced charts | Not stated | Up to 10 | Up to 10 |
| Spreads, swaps, commissions | Not stated | Yes | Yes |
| Exit optimizer | No | No | Yes |
| Trading robots and automations | No | No | Yes |
| Custom indicators | No | No | Yes |
| Prop firm challenges | No | No | Yes |
| Blind testing | No | No | Yes |
| Lifetime price, before promotion | €0 | €169 | €299 |
| Lifetime price, on promotion | €0 | €135 | €239 |
Starter's 80 symbols are 28 forex pairs, 16 stocks, 10 indices, 10 ETFs and 6 commodities; Pro widens the list to 283 and adds crypto and futures. Both paid plans keep projects and data with no expiry and no maximum project length - a deliberate contrast with competitors whose cheaper tiers delete work after six or twelve months.
Lifetime prices above are as Forex Tester's page showed them to a European visitor on 3 October 2026, each a single payment including future updates. Subscriptions are sold too, but their price changes with region and promotion, so we have not quoted a number that may be wrong by the time you read this.
Is a paid Forex Tester plan worth it?
For a committed tester, the lifetime licence is unusual value in a market that has moved almost entirely to subscriptions: a one-off €169 to €299 against $180 to $350 a year elsewhere. Over three years the gap is large. Two cases make it clearly worth paying:
- You trade low timeframes. Tick data resolves which of your stop or target was hit first inside a one-minute bar, instead of guessing from the bar's high and low. For scalpers that changes results; for H4 swing traders it rarely does.
- You want the tool to keep you honest. Blind testing hides dates, prices and symbols so you cannot recognise a famous move, and the exit optimizer tests your exits against thousands of alternatives. Both are on Pro.
The case against is simpler: if you have not yet built a weekly testing habit, a lifetime licence is a bet on a habit that does not exist. The 30-day money-back guarantee softens that - buy, test seriously for a month with saving and full data, and refund if it does not stick. That guarantee is effectively Forex Tester's real free trial, and it is more useful than the demo.
How the free demo compares with other free options
Most competitors that offer something free offer a tier rather than a demo. FX Replay's Beginner plan is permanent and saves work, but it caps you at 2 sessions and 50 records and deletes data after a week - see whether FX Replay is free. TradingView's free Basic plan replays daily and higher timeframes only - see TradingView bar replay free limits. For the two paid tools head to head, see Forex Tester vs FX Replay.
This is where we have a stake, so read it with that in mind. FxBacktest was built around the opposite free-tier decision: the free plan unlocks all 105 instruments and every timeframe from one minute to monthly, with full trade execution and the complete session report, capped at 3 saved sessions and 1 indicator at a time - and what you save stays saved. The trade-offs run against us: no tick data inside the minute bar, fewer markets than Forex Tester Pro, and no robots, exit optimizer or blind mode. If you need those, Forex Tester's paid plans are the honest recommendation. If you need to finish your first hundred trades without paying, that is the gap we fill. A wider look at the alternatives is in a Forex Tester alternative.
Bottom line
Forex Tester is free only as a demo: one month of data per symbol, manual mode, and no way to save a project. It is enough to judge the interface and not enough to judge a strategy. The paid Starter and Pro plans are sold as lifetime licences at €169 and €299 before promotion, keep your work forever, and Pro adds the automation and blind testing that set the product apart. If you are serious, use the 30-day money-back guarantee as your trial; if you are not sure yet, build the habit on a free tool that keeps your trades first.
Forex Tester Free FAQ
Is Forex Tester free?
Not as a working plan. Forex Tester Online has a free demo that needs only an email: one month of historical data for any symbol, manual backtesting mode and the core interface, but projects cannot be saved and custom indicators, prop firm mode and blind testing are locked. To keep a backtest you need a paid Starter or Pro plan.
How much does Forex Tester cost?
On 3 October 2026 the page listed lifetime licences at €169 for Starter and €299 for Pro before promotion (€135 and €239 on promotion), each a single payment including future updates. Subscriptions are also sold, priced by region and promotion. Every paid plan carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Is there a Forex Tester free trial?
The free entry point is the demo rather than a time-limited trial of the full product, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. In practice the guarantee is the real trial: buy, test for up to 30 days with saving and full data, and refund if it does not suit you.
Is there a free alternative to Forex Tester?
Yes. FxBacktest runs in the browser with a free plan that unlocks all 105 instruments and every timeframe, saves up to 3 sessions with no retention timer, and produces a full session report. It has fewer markets than Forex Tester Pro and no tick-level data, robots or exit optimizer.
Sources
- Forex Tester Online — plans and free demo — demo inclusions and exclusions, lifetime prices, symbol counts, tick-data depth, Pro features and the money-back guarantee, read 3 October 2026.
- FX Replay — pricing page — the subscription prices used for comparison, read 3 October 2026.