MetaTrader (MT4/5) vs cTrader (Best Platform)

Which platform gives you the best odds to win your Forex trades? It’s MetaTrader (MT4 /MT5) vs cTrader, a debate that is on-going, but we have used both platforms thoroughly, and have a conclusion.

Choosing between MetaQuotes (MetaTrader) or Spotware (cTrader) is an important aspect of your trading journey, but not one that requires a whole lot of effort and time. Obviously, you want to be as complete as possible with your research, but you don’t want to over-emphasize every decision, or else you will be frozen and unable to act.

The purpose of today’s article is to make the process simpler, and get you in the right frame of mind to make a quick, and educated decision.

MetaTrader vs cTrader

There are many differentiating factors between these two platforms, but the most important aspects come down to popularity, market depth, visual aesthetic, reliability and accessibility. While it’s possible for cTrader and Metatrader (MT4/MT5) to be ahead of the other in one category or another, each category has to be weighted differently.

You may be surprised by how much stake we put in certain categories, but we will break it all down for you, and review every single aspect so no stone is unturned.

Popularity

While you may think popularity doesn’t matter, you should think again. As far as we are concerned, popularity is the #1 category for a multitude of reasons.

MetaTrader is the more popular platform. Both MT4 and MT5 have more concurrent users on a daily basis than cTrader by over 3000%. This number is likely credited mostly to the fact that MetaTrader is the original Forex trading platform. Thus, they had a significant head start in acquiring both clients, and brokers. At this point you are probably asking yourself, why does it matter?

Well here’s a list of reasons popularity matters:

• More brokers offer the platform (accessibility)
• More videos on YouTube and other video sharing services
• More products, expert advisors, indicators, signal services
• More strategies, discussions, and communities

The bottom line is, popularity gives you more of everything. So, unless you are only interested in using your own trading approach and methodologies, you will always find more assistance in the MT4 or MT5 platform. With cTrader you have access to very few resources, which makes it a worse option for most levels of traders, especially beginners.

Obviously, as a website dedicated to finding the best Forex robots, our bias is leaning to the MetaTrader platform, because it’s built with automated trading in mind. There are over 10,000 available robots in MT4/MT5, but only a few “cBots” available in cTrader. Don’t let this be the only reason to be swayed though, as the same goes for indicators, signals services, strategies and much more. cTrader simply can’t compete with everything the MetaTrader platform has to offer in 2020.

Market Depth

Market depth is a function that offers treaders key details about the quantity of buy and sell orders and their price levels. While originally MetaTrader did not offer this on screen data, they did upgrade their platform recently to include it. This upgrade isn’t the best option as it requires 3rd party plugins to work, and many brokers haven’t fully implemented it themselves yet.

cTrader provides better market depth, because they built this tool directly into their platform upon release. So, it is much cleaner and easier for clients to rely on.

While, we don’t feel that a market depth tool is incredibly important in picking your platform, it is worth noting that cTrader does edge out Metatrader in this category.

Accessibility

Both platforms can easily be accessed via a PC, an application, or web trader on a browser. Which makes them both great options for traders at home or on the road.

The differentiation in accessibility, comes down to how many brokers have adopted each platform.

MetaTrader is the market standard. Every broker in the market starts by offering their services on MT4 and MT5. In fact, there are over 300 active Forex brokers available, which makes it easy for traders to sign up with a broker close to where they live. On the other hand, cTrader is only associated with 36 Forex brokers, which really limits a trader’s options.

So, not only do traders miss out on local brokers, but they also miss out on managed account services.

Reliability

Both MetaTrader and cTrader are very reliable platforms. They are coded by experts, and have millions of trades processed each. The security protocols are better for MT4 and MT5, but not significant enough to matter.

There is a slight edge in terms of execution and technical charting options with cTrader. Which is really to be expected as it was developed 6 years after MetaTrader.

We would say it’s a tie in terms of reliability.

Visual Aesthetic

While it took some getting used to at first, we do find that the cTrader platform is more visually appealing. It’s easier to analyze the charts and trade manually with this platform, but if you are coming from MetaTrader, it’s not worth dealing with the learning curve for a slight boost.

Rankings

In this section we provide a quick overview of each platform, and let you know what you can expect.

As you can see, both options fair well in our chart.

Conclusion

Based on all the data we’ve collected, it’s clear that MetaTrader (MT4/MT5) is the best option in 2020. While cTrader offers some great advances, and built upon the original Metaquotes platform well, they haven’t done enough to consider making the switch.

With less accessibility to brokers, automated trading, indicators, signals and just about every other service being sold the cTrader platform is relegated to manual trading exclusively. So, unless you are an expert trader, you will want to stick to MetaTrader, where you can participate in forums, watch YouTube videos, and develop your trading skills at a much faster rate.

If you have anything you want to contribute to this discussion, I implore you to leave a comment and tell us which platform you prefer, and why.