Charting platforms, trading terminals, backtesters and account analytics that traders use alongside their broker.
TradingView's free tier allows two indicators and one chart. We went through every plan, from Essential at $14.95 a month to Ultimate, to find the point where paying stops being optional.
Best for Discretionary forex and gold traders who want serious charts without a broker lock-in
NinjaTrader is a futures broker with a free platform and three commission plans: Free, $99 a month and a $1,499 lifetime licence. We checked the plan maths, the currency and gold contracts and the extras a forex trader will miss.
Best for Forex traders who want regulated micro futures on currencies and gold
MT5 has more timeframes, a faster tester and a proper depth-of-market window, but your old MQL4 robots will not run on it. We list what you gain, what you lose and who should stay put.
Best for Discretionary and multi-asset traders whose broker offers hedging on MT5
cTrader costs nothing to install and ships with depth of market, C# and Python bots and cloud execution. We weigh it against MetaTrader for manual and algorithmic forex traders, and say who should stay put.
Best for Manual scalpers and coders who want depth of market and C# or Python bots
Myfxbook links to a broker account with a read-only password and publishes the history it finds. We tested what the Verified badges prove, what they miss, and whether the free tools justify a login.
Best for Traders who want a free journal, or need to check a signal seller's claims
