NinjaTrader has been a mainstay in the futures and forex trading software industry for close to two decades. Yet, as we should expect with revolution, new players come into the game to disrupt the existing services.
One of these platforms is Tradovate. But how does it compare to NinjaTrader? Is one marginally better than the other? Let’s answer these questions and more in this comparative article.
What is Tradovate?
Since being established in 2015, Tradovate has been aiming to become the best futures trading platform, providing technological innovation, seamlessness, and cost-effective pricing.
Clients can trade futures in many markets using small to full-sized contracts on the platform’s advanced proprietary software. Tradovate was founded by Rick Tomsic, with headquarters out of Ohio in the United States.
In 2015, the company was registered with the National Futures Association (NFA). Unlike other futures brokers with a host of additional costs and complex fee structures, the Tradovate platform has three flat-rate plans, one of which is free with reasonable commissions.
The additional two cost $99 monthly and $199 annually, providing reduced and zero commissions, respectively. No platform licensing, order routing, inactivity, or other miscellaneous costs apply with Tradovate.
As a technology-focused product, Tradovate is integrated with several other notable fintech providers, namely TradingView, Daytradr, Collective2, and Bookmap.
What is NinjaTrader?
Unlike Tradovate, NinjaTrader has been around for longer, having been established in 2003. NinjaTrader is also a futures NFA-regulated brokerage and a standalone, state-of-the-art charting platform for futures and currencies trading.
The NinjaTrader Group is the parent company based in Denver and Chicago, United States. NinjaTrader is integrated with a handful of financial services providers, namely CQG, TD Ameritrade, FXCM, Forex.com, Oanda, Interactive Brokers, and City Index.
Clients can use the platform free of charge to trade futures and forex directly on NinjaTrader, or a range of other securities from the integrated brokers.
Users must purchase three-month, six-month, or yearly subscriptions for premium features like enhanced depth of market, VWAP, volume profile indicators, etc. Alternatively, one can buy a one-time lifetime license for $1099.
Advantages of Tradovate vs. NinjaTrader
Tradovate is better than NinjaTrader in three key areas, namely:
- Availability in all formats: You can use the Tradovate app, Tradovate desktop application, and the web version of the software across Mac and Windows operating systems.
You can only download NinjaTrader as a desktop platform. A specific version of the program works on mobile but not directly through NinjaTrader itself.
Furthermore, you cannot run NinjaTrader natively on macOS without installing third-party software.
- Special features at no additional cost: With NinjaTrader, you pay extra for premium functions such as the volume profile indicator, depth of market, etc.
Yet, you can get nearly all of these features with Tradovate freely. Moreover, even if users cannot find a particular function, it’s likely to be available with any of the other platforms integrated with Tradovate, such as TradingView and Bookmap.
- Zero commissions: If you pay $199 annually, you can get zero commissions across all the futures products on the Tradovate platform.
Advantages of NinjaTrader over Tradovate
The only main advantages of NinjaTrader over Tradovate are having access to more instruments and keeping your demo account longer.
- Access to more instruments: Several NinjaTrader brokers such as Forex.com exist, where you can trade other spot-based markets like forex, equities, commodities, bonds, indices, energies, etc.
- Longer time keeping a demo account: The demo account doesn’t expire with NinjaTrader 8 (the latest version). Sadly, Tradovate only has a 14-day trial.
Trading automation and backtesting with Tradovate vs. NinjaTrader
Both platforms allow for trading automation and backtesting. However, NinjaTrader is a lot more welcoming than Tradovate in each aspect. For starters, with NinjaTrader 8, the demo account doesn’t expire, which is advantageous for backtesting.
Contrastingly, Tradovate only provides a 14-day trial before users have to sign up for a live account. Therefore, you are more limited with backtesting, particularly if you have little experience with online trading.
For automated trading, NinjaTrader uses the general-purpose C# programming language. Contrastingly, traders need to have a working knowledge of NodeJS and JavaScript, two languages that many programmers consider slightly harder than C#.
The other limitation is that you need to be a registered user on Tradovate with a funded account with at least $1000 to use their automated trading functionalities.
Costs and fees
One critical difference is that Tradovate doesn’t charge a premium for accessing their advanced features, a stark contrast to NinjaTrader.
Overall, it’s cheaper to trade with Tradovate. Yet, you should note other hidden costs that may apply with futures brokers (data fees, clearing, add-ons, etc.) as this table only lists the most pertinent to execution.
| Tradovate | NinjaTrader | |
| Account minimum deposit | Varies according to the instrument (lowest is $10 day trading margin for Nano Bloomberg and Nano SuperTech) | $50 (forex); $400 (futures) |
| Platform costs | None | Free (but added quarterly, semi-annual and annual leases for special features) – $1099 lifetime lease – $720 annually – $425 semi-annually – $225 quarterly |
| Trading costs | – $0 (commissions from $0 to $0.79 per side) – $99 monthly fee (for reduced commissions)$199 yearly fee (for zero commissions) | Starts from $0.35 per micro contract; various spreads on forex |
| Deposit/withdrawal fees? | Yes, varies by method | Yes, varies by method |
| Inactivity fee? | No | Yes, $25 every month |
Summary
Tradovate has undoubtedly given more established platforms like NinjaTrader a run for their money despite being a relatively new player in futures brokers. Going through numerous forums on social media networks told us how users view NinjaTrader as slightly antiquated, like a Windows 98-type program.
Understandably, Tradovate doesn’t have these qualities as it focuses on being modern. This might be one reason why you can use Tradovate across several operating systems where NinjaTrader is limited to a few.
Of course, no trading platform is perfect as Tradovate only has futures and a limited-time simulated trading account, unlike its counterpart. Furthermore, it’s more user-friendly to build automated trading strategies and backtest with NinjaTrader than Tradovate.
But, one of the critical areas where Tradovate excels is cost. Unlike NinjaTrader, which provides much of their advanced features at a high fee, much of this is available with Tradovate at no charge. Moreover, their monthly plans on trading commissions are reasonable as well.
All in all, NinjaTrader does win when it comes to backtesting, automation, and a broader range of instruments. Tradovate is better when it comes to cost and wider format accessibility.
