TradingView vs MT4 | Which trading platform is better?

TradingView vs MT4 – Two of the most popular trading platforms particularly among Forex traders.

This post aims to highlight key platform features and variations. Plus list the advantages and disadvantages of each platform to provide a TradingView vs MT4 comparison.

TradingView and MT4 Key Features Comparison

Below I have created a comparison list of the key features to look for on any trading platform. The key features I have examined for our TradingView vs MT4 comparison include:

• System Requirements
• Interface and Chart Design 
• Supported Markets and Instruments 
• Indicators and Charting Tools
• Subscription Options 
• Brokers and Real time Trading 
• Direct Market Access 

System Requirements

TradingView and MT4 both don’t require loads of computing power to run compared to peers. Both platforms are run and are accessible quite differently from each other. 

	TradingView	MT4
Web-based	✔	✔
Desktop (Windows only)		✔
Mobile application  (iOs & Android)	✔	✔

Supported Instruments

	TradingView	MT4
Forex/Currencies	✔	✔
Stocks/Equity/Index	✔
Futures	✔
Cryptocurrency	✔

Subscription Options/Pricing

	TradingView	MT4
Free access/download	✔ Free web-based access	✔ Free download with demo account
Subscription Options	Flexibility of 4-tiered subscription options Basic, Essential, Plus and Premium. Click here for a full list of plan pricing options.	Live trading is offered for free upon integration with brokerage account  Full service access will depend on brokerage accessibility

Overall Appearance of Interface and Chart

	TradingView	MT4
User Interface Design	Modern Smart and highly intuitive which appeals to more recent generation of traders	The MT4 interface is very simple. However, it sacrifices the appeal of modernity
Chart Design	HTML 5 Charts are powered by HTML5Highly intuitive charts A developer friendly chart that utilizes a common programming language	MQL4 Simplistic chart design Zooming function is not as flexible as peers MT4 charts are powered by MQL4 This is a native language of MT platforms MQL4 market grants access to a comprehensive library of user-made indicators and tools

Indicator Library and Access

TradingView and MT4 both have comprehensive indicator libraries. Each has a distinctively different programming language for those interested in building custom indicators. 

	TradingView	MT4
Built-in Indicators	100+ built-in indicators	40 built-in indicators
Add-on Indicator Library	Library of indicators have up to 5,000+ custom made by users	Up to 2,000+ technical analysis indicators and 1,700 robots
Programming Language	Pine Script Native language of TradingView Recognized as a light language whereby indicators/scripts are created with fewer lines of codes compared to peers	MQL4 Built similarly to popular C++ language Compared to Pine Script, MQL4 may have a higher learning curve for newbies

Brokers and Real Time Trading

	TradingView	MT4
Real Time Trading	✔ Link brokerage account to access real time trading  Click here for a full list of TradingView eligible brokers.	✔ Link brokerage account to access real time trading. 300+ brokers supported.

Direct to Market Access (DMA)

	TradingView	MT4
Direct Market Access for speedy executions	✔ Now powered to have direct market access	✔ MT4 partnered with direct access brokers

TradingView Advantages and Disadvantages

Now, let us take a glimpse at the pros and cons of each platform. First lets take a look at TradingView.

TradingView Pros

General User Experience

Interface Design

The modern interface of TradingView is easy and intuitive. Despite being packed with advanced features, the interface still has an easy learning curve. Its sleek interface is easily one of the most user friendly and nicely designed on the market. 

Instruments

TradingView supports data feeds of multiple instruments: stocks, indices, currencies, cryptocurrencies, and futures. All of which can be charted. 

Minimal Software Requirements

TradingView is accessible just with the use of a modern internet browser such as Google Chrome, microsoft edge, Safari, Mozilla etc. Fully featured charts and trading platform is available via mobile app for both iOS and Android. 

Advanced Charting – Charting Experience and Tools

TradingView is most recognized as a high-performance charting software. 

Charting Experience

• TradingView is loved by a range of users mostly for its beautiful charting experience.
• The platform uses HTML 5 charts with a sleek, smart, and lightweight design. The HTML 5 charts use just 40kb with automatic data updates without the need to refresh.
• TradingView streamlined package creates a professional level charting experience. 

Charting Tools and Indicators 

• TradingView charts are available with hundreds of free technical indicators, 50+ drawing tools, volume profile indicators.
•  All tools and indicators can be customized to a users preferred styling. 
• Charts are available in multiple customizable timeframes
• Users can create their own scripts to create indicators.

Affordability

TradingView plans are generally budget friendly. The most expensive plan, Premium, which has access to full features, is affordable at a price of $59.95/month. 

Community

TradingView has a thriving trading community.  Share trading ideas or read through the editors’ picks for free!

On Chart Trading

One of the recent developments in TradingView is allowing on chart trading upon integration of a broker. This means that users can trade real time directly from the charts! This is a fantastic feature. Personal I would trade on a platform that doesn’t offer this feature. It makes trading super simple and you have so much more control over open positions. 

Advanced Features

Easy Programming Language

TradingView utilizes its native Pine Script language – a less complex programming language that can easily be learned by beginner traders. With Pine Script, its much simpler to learn to build custom indicators than most other programming languages.

Trading Alerts

All trading alerts are cloud-based and are available for free (up to a limited number for basic accounts).  

Alerts can be assigned to price, indicators, a strategy, and drawing tools. 

TradingView Cons

General User Experience

Broker Access

Compared to MT4, TradingView’s broker access is limited. This certainly a disadvantage users with a preference for specific brokers. Or those wanting to shop around for the best brokerage deals. 

Advanced Features Require Paid Plans

TradingView’s Free Plan is limited. Traders wanting more indicators, multiple chart layouts, more charting timeframe selection and more alerts need to opt for a paid plan option. 

To see a full list of the features available for the free and paid plans check out my post ‘How to open a TradingView membership’.

Data Level Limitations

Level 2 market data is only available to certain broker: TradeStation, CQG, AMP, Tradovate, iBroker and Alor.

Summary of Pros and Cons

MT4 Advantages and Disadvantages

Mt4 Pros

General User Experience

Interface Design and Performance

One of the appeals of MT4 is its user-friendly interface that simple to learn and use. This makes Mt4 a great option for beginner traders.

Beyond design, MT4, powered by MetaQuotes, is also a very powerful software Since its inception in 2005, MetaQuotes developers continuously introduce performance improvements. 

Broker Support / Network

MT4 is widely recognized in the trading community. Much of its popularity is attributed to its vast network of brokers that offer Mt4 as their trading platform solution. 

MT4 supports over 300 brokers to date. This includes popular choices FxPro, Swissquote, FXTM, Admiral Markets, among others. 

Customer Support

The MT4 website has a dedicated page for customer support. The page has a healthy amount of help topics such as getting started and how-to’s for charting, tools, signals, among others. 

Partner brokers have their own set of customer support teams that are also knowledgeable of the platform functionalities and services. 

Beyond the MT4 proprietary and third-party customer support. There is a huge amount of help articles and reviews accessible on the internet via blogs and youtube. 

Minimal Software Requirements

MT4 is a downloadable software that runs on minimum PC requirements:

• Compatibility: macOS, Linus, Windows 7,8,10 
• 32-bit and 64-bit processors 

Mt4 is also available via app on iOs and Android. 

Free Subscription

Typically, MT4, whether through a broker or stand-alone, is a free-of-charge forex trading platform. 

The software is available as a free PC or smartphones/tablet download. 

Direct Market Access

MT4 grants real time access to market quotes and liquidity through a direct market access (DMA) feature. The DMA is an electronic trading mechanism that gives traders super fast executions. 

Advanced Features

MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4)

The development of the MQL syntax was a game changer for MT4. This served as a catalyst that opened the very popular niche – MQL4/5 marketplace/community.

This is not only a place to discover extensive codebase, articles and algorithmic-based trading systems but also a place where users can contribute and get monetized for custom scripts. 

The best part of the MQL space is that it continues to grow.

The huge amount of coded resources available via MT4 is one of the major advantages and is a significant reason the MT4 platform is so popular.

Automated Trading: Market Service

One of the core features of MT4 is its automated trading strategies through the so-called ‘Experts Advisors’ under the Market services. This service is akin to algorithmic trading system based trading. 

Users can either create, rent, or purchase automated trading strategies from the marketplace then subsequently test and optimize these strategies on the system’s strategy tester.

Copy Trading: Trading Signals Service

Another popular service is the ‘Trading Signals’ service. This feature automatically copies the trades of ‘Signal Providers’ either for free or for a small fee. 

Signal Providers are those traders who publish their trades publicly. MT4 promotes these traders through a ranking system based on their trading results. 

To date, there are around 200+ free and commercial signals found on MT4 website. 

MT4 Cons

General User Experience

Interface Design

Whilst the MT4 interface is very simple and has generally a low learning curve. Some users may find the interface old fashioned and similar to the old Windows XP appearance. I personally find the platform very “clunky” and isn’t as smooth to navigate around as TradingView. 

MT4 interface design hasn’t had many if any development in recent years. 

On Chart Trading

My biggest issue with Mt4 is there is no on chart trading. For the most part orders still need to be executed via an order execution window. For traders working on low timeframes with wanting to execute orders fast this is very clumsy.

Instruments

Unlike TradingView which supports a broad instrument list, MT4 is mostly recognized as a forex centric platform. A disclaimer – this limitation is not always the case as other instruments are made accessible depending on your broker.  

Unavailability of Level 2 Data

MT4, unfortunately, does not offer level 2 forex market data. However, depth of market (DOM) is offered in the MT4 platform. 

Charting Experience and Tools

Charting Experience 

• Chart manipulation such as the zoom function and chart scrolling is clunky. This makes chart navigation poor compared to TradingView.
• MT4 charts also have limited timeframes, only 9 to be exact. 

Charting Tools and Indicators 

Although MT4 has quite an advanced set of technical analysis tools, a notable con is the limited number of built-in indicators. To expand this library, users would have to download either for free or for a fee from MetaTrader’s Code Base and marketplace.

Summary of Pros and Cons