Quantower

What it is

Quantower is a Windows desktop trading terminal aimed at order-flow traders: DOM, footprint charts, volume profiles and the rest of the tape-reading kit, sitting on top of a connection to whichever broker you already use. It is one application against 68 listed integrations — futures through CQG, Rithmic and the prop-firm gateways, equities through Interactive Brokers and Alpaca, forex through cTrader, and a long list of crypto exchanges connected directly.

The part that separates it from the rest of the category is the free version. It is not a trial: no registration, no expiry, and it places live orders. You get one connection, two indicators per chart and one overlay, and none of the volume-analysis tools. That is a real product, not a demo.

Pricing

All-in-One is $70 a month, $588 for a year, or $1,690 once. Below it sit two packages — Multi-Asset at $50 and a crypto-only build at $40 — which buy unlimited connections, the volume tools and the alternative chart types but not TPO, DOM Surface, Power Trades or full options analytics. Individual extensions can be bought on their own against the free version: Volume Analysis $35 a month, DOM Surface $30, Option Trading $50.

A 7-day full-featured trial needs an account. Refunds run ten days and never apply to a lifetime licence. No licence includes a byte of exchange data.

Integrations

Quantower Algo is a C# API with a Visual Studio extension, and it is free on every licence including the free one — indicators, strategies, custom panels and your own broker connectors, against the same trading core the platform is built on. Strategies backtest and optimise over history with brute force, Monte-Carlo, Las-Vegas or particle-swarm search. It is an in-process .NET API, not a network one: there is no REST endpoint and no Python. History Exporter and chart export write CSV on the free tier; the Excel RTD link needs a paid package.

Limitations

• Windows only. One 64-bit build, .NET Desktop Runtime 10, no Mac or Linux version and no committed date for one.
• The stock screener is doubly gated: Multi-Asset or All-in-One, and a separate dxFeed Scanner subscription bought outside Quantower. It covers US-listed stocks and ETFs only.
• Free means one connection at a time. Watching futures and crypto side by side is a paid licence, not a setting.
• No news product. The RSS panel reads feeds you supply; nothing is included.
• Option Analytics shows four strikes below All-in-One, which makes it a preview rather than a tool.
• Exchange and feed fees are always separate and always yours.

Alternatives

Sierra Chart is the closest match on Windows and on order flow, cheaper per month but with no free tier and a C++ scripting layer instead of C#. NinjaTrader gives away the platform against commissions and is a futures house first. Bookmap goes deeper on the heatmap and does much less of everything else. For anyone who wants the charts without the broker connection, see the rest of the charting platforms and screeners.