QChartist (QC) – MetaTrader 4 (MT4) comparison tab:
| QChartist | MetaTrader 4 | |
| Drawing tools (objects) | 60 | 24 |
| Indicators | A hundred | Tousands available from various contributors |
| Live or Realtime charts | Yes, Live Charts for tousands of tickers from various data sources. Also a realtime watchlist.. Custom Price Alerts with sound and email. | Yes, Realtime charts but for a limited number of symbols Realtime watchlist + realtime updated charts. Custom Price Alerts with sound and email. |
| Intraday data available | Yes | Yes |
| EOD data available | Yes | Yes |
| Stocks | Tousands of stocks available from various data sources | Only a few stocks are available depending on your broker |
| Indices | All indices available | All indices available |
| Forex | All pairs available | All pairs available |
| Commodities | All commodities available | All commodities available |
| Crypto | All crypto pairs are available | Some crypto pairs are available |
| Depth of historical data | Down to the 1970’s depending on the data source | It depends on the broker, difficulty to get data before 2000 |
| Indicators loading speed | Faster thanks to C++ coding abilities | Fast thanks to MQL which is almost as fast as C++ |
| Historical data passes year 2038 and after | Yes | No |
| Backtesting tools | No | Yes |
| Can trade directly with a broker | No | Yes |
| Tools for orders management (expert advisors…) | No | Yes |
| Market Scanner | Yes (QTGuard) | No, but paid solutions are available |
| Astro tools and indicators | Yes, built-in | Yes, but not built-in, complex to install with libraries… |
| Open Source | Yes | No |
| Set price alerts | Yes | Yes |
| Beauty, design, GUI, coding cleanliness | Very basic | Quite beautiful |
| Number of separate indicators that can be attached to the chart | Just one for the moment | As much as you want |
| Templates can be accessed easily | Just click on the template icon and choose your template from the selection You can click on the File menu > Load template and choose a .tpl file in the filedialog | Just click on the template icon and choose your template from the selection Also accessible from in the Menu |
| ease to pass from one chart to another | You have to click on the combobox and click on the filename | Simply click on the tabs (faster) |
| Level of complexity that can be achieved | Complex (C++), unlimited (Open Source) | Almost as complex (MQL), limited (Closed Source) |
| Chart types available | 8 | 3 (Bars, Candlesticks, Lines) |
| Logarithmic price scale | Yes | No |
| Draw symbols (arrows, stickers, thumbs) | Yes | Yes |
| Change indicators colors, line style and width, transparency | Not implemented. Causes buffers limitations | Yes |
| One indicator can be attached multiple times with different parameters | No | Yes |
| Languages available | 1 (English) | 39 |
| Full screen chart | Yes | Yes |
| Chart windows can be arranged (mosaic…) | No | Yes |
| Text To Speech function | Yes | No |
| Data source flexibility (new data sources can be easily added with API keys) | Yes | No |
| Complete documentation | Basic documentation but many undocumented features | Precise and complete documentation |
| Easy to program | Easy | Difficult |
| Rapidity to download charts | Medium | Fast |
| User can interact with drawing directly on the chart with the mouse cursor | Not implemented yet! | Yes |
| Maximum amount of indicator buffers | Unlimited amount of indicator buffers! | The amount of indicator buffers cannot exceed 512 |
| Subscription Free Charts | You can get charts without a subscription thanks to the Yahoo Finance Free API | It requires a subscription to a broker to get charts and quotes |
To conclude: QChartist and MetaTrader 4 are good free charting software alternatives and they are complementary. They are a good and powerful combo when used together because there are some things that QChartist can’t do and some things that MT4 can’t do. Together, they can do many things, otherwise everything !