Ctrader vs. MT4 – The Professional Side-by-side Comparison
Have you ever wondered about the cTrader vs MT4 comparison, one of the two best trading platforms you can encounter online these days? Are you interested in knowing why these platforms are so popular among devoted Forex traders motivated to earn huge profits in the long run?
Before getting to know more about the cTrader vs MT4 comparison, it’s crucial to know all the basics about each platform. Understanding the features and benefits to its users will be more than helpful in knowing what could be the best choice for you as a professional trader.
There are countless risks involved in Forex trading. Thus, serious traders’ priority should always be to protect their capital and have great.
So, what is so essential about cTrader and MT4 platforms? Let’s find out why individual traders are so obsessed with using these solutions nowadays!
What is cTrader?
cTrader represents one of the best multi-asset CFD and Forex trading platforms. It includes advanced order types, rich charting tools, fast execution and entry, and level II pricing. With the most sophisticated backend technology and intuitive user interface, cTrader is available to individual traders worldwide on multiple devices.
Besides that, cTrader offers numerous fantastic features for proper risk management, allowing traders to focus entirely on planning their Forex trading strategies and analyzing the Foreign exchange market.
The FxPro cTrader platform uses cTID login functionality and includes fantastic functionality and superior charting. To open an account with cTrader, you’ll need a minimum deposit of $250.
What should you know about the MetaTrader 4?
MetaTrader 4 or MT4 represents one of the most popular trading platforms that are extremely fast, simple to use, and includes Expert Advisors with a huge library of automation bot programs. We are talking about an electronic trading platform entirely used by retail Forex speculative traders online. It was created by the famous MetaQuotes Software and released back in 2005.
It is crucial to know that this software is primarily licensed to Forex brokers who enable software to their devoted clients. Even though MT4 is usually associated with trading on the Forex market, this platform could also be utilized in other markets, such as:
- Cryptocurrencies
- Commodities via CFDs
The MT4 platform is entirely free to download and use. The minimum deposit is $100. So, what about the cTrader vs MT4 comparison? Why do motivated traders compare these two platforms, wondering which is the better option for them? Let’s find out more!
cTrader vs MT4 – all that you need to know
Once you’ve learned the basics of the cTrader and MT4, it’s time to do the cTrader vs MT4 comparison. Not only will you learn more about these well-known Forex trading platforms, but you’ll also get a full insight into their pros and cons and what would be the better option for you! So, let’s get started!
A Brief History of cTrader vs MT4 platforms
| cTrader platform | MT4 platform | |
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2005 |
| Parent Company | Spotware Systems | MetaQuotes Software |
| Accessibility | Windows, iOs, Android, Mac, Web-Browser, Tablets | Windows, iOS, Android, Tablets Mac, Web-Browser |
| Supported Markets | CFDs and Forex
|
CFDs and Forex
|
cTrader trading platform was launched in 2011 by Spotware Systems. It’s a famous Fintech company from Cyprus. The MT4 platform, on the other hand, was developed by MetaQuotes Software in 2005, becoming the standard platform for foreign exchange trading.
MetaTrader 4, or MT4 platform, is known to be licensed to more than 1,200 different broker companies. However, it stopped issuing new licenses in 2018. It was replaced by MetaTrader 5, which represents an upgraded version and a multi-asset trading platform.
On the other hand, the cTrader platform has more advanced capabilities regarding trading. It is all-in-one multi-asset trading software that includes the following features:
- Algorithmic trading via cBots
- ECN/STP market execution
- The depth of DOM (market feature with level ii)
Remember that the order types of cTrader are the strongest points that enable it to outshine the competitive MT4 platform.
The Main Differences and Similarities – cTrader vs. MT4
| cTrader | MetaTrader 4 | |
| Execution Model | ECN+STP | ECN |
| Programming Languages | #C | MQL4 & MQL5 |
| Custom Indicators | +860 | +7,000 |
| Online Community | Huge | Small |
|
Built-In Technical Indicators |
+70 | 30 |
|
Trading Robots |
+270 | +15,000 |
| One-Click Trading | Yes | Yes |
cTrader vs. MT4 Similarities
Regarding similarities between cTrader and MT4, in terms of functionality and features, the biggest similarity is that both cTrader and MetaTrader 4 are perfect for CFD and Forex trading. They’re not meant for Bond, Option, nor Stock trading.
In addition to that similarity, we can tell that both are very accessible and associated with mobile devices, Windows PCs, and other web-based versions. With trading robots, both cTrader and MT4 allow algorithmic trading.
MT4’s programming language, MQL4, allows traders to create and customize expert advisors. On the other hand, cTrader’s cAlgo is based on the famous C# programming language. It provides the creation of cBots, specific robots, too:
- Perform strategies
- Build Custom indicators
- Execute trades
- Do the backtesting.
MT4 offers the best support functionalities, including a big online community. Thus, all of its users can easily find support when needed. The support for cTrader’s auto-trading too, on the contrary, is less widespread. Ultimately, cTrader and MT4 allow one-click trading that can be found directly from charts.
Differences between cTrader and MT4
When it comes to differences between cTrader vs. MT4, it’s crucial to understand first that cTrader offers its clients three vital options for assessing the market’s depth:
- Price Depth
- VWAP Depth
- Standard Depth
Thanks to all these available options with cTrader, traders are able to gain a better view of market liquidity in terms of price levels. Therefore, they’re able to execute more precise market entries.
On the other hand, MT4 includes only one market depth feature. Besides that, cTrader has richer chart types, a set of tech indicators, order types, and time-frames. It has more advanced:
- Stop-loss levels
- Market Sentiment
- Take-profit levels
- Stop-out features
On the other hand, MT4 doesn’t include these features. On real-time data, the cTrader trading platform allows traders to do a strategy backtesting and to conduct trading performance analysis, while MT4 doesn’t.
In addition, the cTrader allows traders to customize email, watchlists, access cloud-hosted watchlists, price alerts, workspaces, and push notifications, and MT4 doesn’t have all of that.
It’s also crucial to note that cTrader is developed for use with the real ECN+STP brokers, while, on the other hand, MT4 could only be appropriate for the ECN execution.
Robots and Automated Trading
When considering doing the cTrader vs. MT4 side-by-side comparison, it’s al
so important to check its robots and automated trading features. Even though both trading platforms offer exquisite automated trading capabilities, it’s obvious that cTrader tops MT4 due to more complex automated trading features and programming languages.
cTrader Trading Platform and automated Forex trading
cTrader trading platform supports C# coding language and is considered a natively integrated trading solution. The name for that solution is cAlgo or cTrader Automate. The main goal of this platform’s language is to create a proprietary cTrader API and trading robots.
The cTrader API is created for Forex margin trading needs. It includes the following:
- Pre-Built indicators
- All order types
- Market data
- Account
- Trading history
- All order modification options
- Connectivity
- Trading instruments.
With cTrader Automate, traders can expect Visual Studio, a built-in code editor that traders use for writing codes for indicators or trading robots. Besides that, it also includes the “plug and play” functionality.
That functionality enables traders to load a custom indicator or a trading robot. Without any need to go through tedious installation procedures, traders are able to start trading instantly. Thanks to the plug-and-play functionality, cBots are able to be easily installed and run right away.
Other features of cTrader Automate
- Deal Map
- Backtesting history
- Advanced optimization
- Trade statistics
- Visual backtesting
- Historical data
MT4 trading platform and automated Forex trading
Regarding the MT4 trading platform, it’s crucial to know that the MQL4 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is considered one of its greatest strengths. The reason for this is that it allows its users to create, test, and use technical indicators and expert advisors for algorithmic trading.
The core of the MQL4 programming language’s core is IDE. It ensures high functionality and efficiency. Besides that, it includes the following components:
- Documentation which includes the knowledge base of MQL4
- MetaQuotes Language 4
- MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester
- com – the official website that ensures access to special services for financial markets trading
- MetaEditor
It’s crucial to understand that when MetaEditor develops a certain trading strategy, it’s moved automatically to the MT4 platform for optimization and testing in the Strategy Tester. Once tested and compiled, a trading strategy can be run into the platform with the tech indicator for analyzing the environment of the market and the expert advisor.
Platforms security – what you need to know
One of the most important and prioritized things when considering the cTrader vs. MT4 comparison is their safety. What kind of security do these platforms provide to their users, and how reliable are they?
First of all, both of these trading platforms include modern-day standards. MT4 utilized 128-bit encryption of transferred data between the trading platform’s servers and transferred data. Regarding cTrader’s security, Spotware has given us the following info:
- Data is very well protected
- Services are maximum reliable
- Environments are segregated
- Proxies protect servers.
What is the brokerage availability?
Finally, it’s essential to know the brokerage availability of these two trading platforms. The MetaTrader 4 is offered by 750+ Forex and CFD brokers worldwide, including some of the best industry leaders such as FP Markets, IG, AvaTrade, FxPro, etc.
At the same time, cTrader software needs to be specified by Spotware with the exact amount of brokerages that are offering it. However, it claims that cTrader is offered among long-term and good-standing brokers such as Pepperstone, FxPro, and IC Markets.
What about the cTrader vs MT4 vs MT5?
In terms of design, when comparing MT4 vs. MT5, they are almost the same. They both include four charts on the screen, while other trading instruments, market watches, and other things have less space in the interface. In cTrader, there’s only one chart in the center, enabling enough space for the other features and trading instruments.
MT5 has faster backtesting than MT4 and allows the depth of market functionalities. Unlike MT4 also, it’s technically supported by MetaQuotes. It’s crucial to know that MT4 was created to trade Forex, while MT5 is designed for traders trading non-Forex CFDs.
Comparing MT5 to cTrader, it’s vital to understand that cTrader offers more complex indicators and tools for trading. However, it uses a more common C# language, unlike MT4 and MT5. Speaking of design, it’s obvious that cTrader, a younger platform, is more modern-looking and includes a dot chart, which is one additional chart type available to their users!
