TabChart vs Altrady

Altrady is one of the better-known paid multi-exchange trading platforms. It connects to a long list of exchanges, provides trading execution, portfolio tracking, automated strategies, smart orders, and charting — all behind a monthly subscription. The pitch is "everything in one place."

TabChart covers a lot less surface area and is free. It doesn't place orders, doesn't manage portfolios, doesn't run strategies. It charts. What it does it does well — 7 exchanges, real-time WebSocket data, multi-chart workspaces, a screener, and a TradingView-powered charting engine with some genuinely useful quality-of-life features.

Which one makes sense depends on what you actually need day to day.

Where Altrady genuinely wins

Altrady is built as a trading terminal, not a chart viewer. That difference matters. If you want to place orders across multiple exchanges without logging into each exchange's web interface, Altrady does that. You can set up smart orders — trailing stops, take-profit ladders, break-even triggers — things exchanges either don't offer natively or bury deep in their UI.

Portfolio tracking is built in. Across all your connected exchanges, you can see total holdings, PnL, allocation, and performance history. Price alerts, automated strategies, and an arbitrage scanner round out the toolkit.

Exchange coverage is broader than TabChart's — 20+ exchanges to TabChart's 7. If you trade on Gate.io, MEXC, Bitfinex, or something more niche, Altrady probably supports it and TabChart probably doesn't.

Where TabChart fits a different need

TabChart is for the slice of the workflow that's specifically about looking at charts. You place orders on the exchange's own interface (or in Altrady, if you have it). TabChart is what's open on the second monitor while you make that decision.

For that slice it has some real advantages. It's free — no subscription, no tier limits. It's a true native WPF app, not Electron, so it's lighter on memory and stays smooth over long sessions. Multi-chart workspaces are unlimited and tab-based. The screener runs on the same direct WebSocket feeds as the charts, so everything updates live in lockstep.

And there's a feature that's genuinely unusual: a user-configurable default indicator preset. Build your indicator stack once, save it as a TradingView preset, and set it as the default in settings — every new chart opens with it applied. Drawings and chart styling persist across sessions and across detached views too. Small things, but they matter when you open charts dozens of times a day.

The pricing reality

Altrady's plans run into real money. The entry tier covers basic multi-exchange trading and charting; higher tiers unlock more exchanges, more connected accounts, and more automation features. For an active trader, the yearly cost is non-trivial — several hundred dollars.

TabChart has no tier, no plan, no free trial because there's nothing to buy. Public exchange data is public; the app connects directly, so there's no server overhead to cover. If you want charting without the trading terminal overhead (and the price tag that comes with it), that's the proposition.

Side-by-side comparison

Which one should you use?

If you want to trade across multiple exchanges from one interface, manage a multi-exchange portfolio, run automated strategies, or need price alerts — Altrady is the tool. It's built for that. No free alternative really matches its scope, and the subscription is reasonable for what you get.

If you trade on one or two exchanges, place your own orders through the exchange's interface, and mainly want a fast, clean, native charting workspace — TabChart fills that specific need without asking you to pay for features you won't use.

Some traders use both: Altrady for execution and portfolio, TabChart as a lightweight second-monitor charting view that doesn't live inside the terminal. They're not mutually exclusive.