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cTrader VPS
cTrader VPS —
a gigabyte per terminal.
Windows included. Three gigabytes runs three cTrader terminals, four runs four — the arithmetic is the whole of it, and it holds for MT4 and cTrader too.
- cTrader and cAlgo installed, .NET already there
- 42 cities — pick the one nearest your broker
- Windows Server licence included
How much RAM do I need?
So 3 GB runs three, 4 GB runs four, 8 GB runs eight. Count your terminals and that is the plan.
One gigabyte,
one terminal.
It is the figure we give when somebody asks in a ticket, and we would rather it were memorable than precise. A terminal uses less than a gigabyte and Windows takes a share of the first one — what is left over is the headroom that stops a chart stuttering when an expert advisor decides to allocate.
Three cTrader terminals wants three gigabytes. No subtracting for Windows, no working out what a chart costs — the headroom is already in the number.
Ten charts with a stack of indicators is the exception. That is nearer double, so count two gigabytes for a terminal like that — and if you are unsure, tell us what you run and we will say which plan rather than guess at it.
Which one holds
your terminals.
Straight from the rule. If it turns out wrong we move you up free of charge — you will not be asked to buy a second month to find out.
The High Frequency plan holds the same three as the Best. What you pay the difference for is clock speed — a Ryzen 9 at 5.7 GHz rather than an EPYC core — which matters for a scalping EA and not at all for a swing strategy.
cTrader or MetaTrader —
what you give up.
cTrader is the better platform by most measures and the smaller ecosystem by all of them. That trade is the whole decision.
cTrader
1 GB each
- Level II depth of market as standard, not an add-on
- cAlgo is C#, so a real language with real tooling behind it
- One cTrader ID works across every broker that offers it
- Far fewer brokers, and almost no third-party robots to buy
MetaTrader 5
1 GB each
- Nearly every broker offers it, so switching costs nothing
- A large market in ready-made expert advisors, for better or worse
- MQL5 is its own language, used nowhere else
- Depth of market exists but the implementation is thinner
What cTrader needs,
and what it costs you.
It is a .NET application, which changes the machine
MetaTrader is a native Windows program that will run on almost anything. cTrader is built on .NET, so it wants the framework present, a little more memory at rest, and noticeably more when cAlgo is compiling.
On our images .NET is already installed, so there is nothing for you to do — but it is why cTrader sits at the heavier end of our rule rather than the lighter end, and why we would not put it on the 1 GB plan alongside anything else.
cAlgo runs as its own process
In MetaTrader an expert advisor lives inside the terminal. In cTrader, cAlgo is separate: it compiles your C# and runs the robots, and it holds its own memory while it does.
In practice that means a cTrader terminal with three running cBots costs more than the terminal alone would suggest — count cAlgo as roughly half a terminal on top. It also means a badly written cBot can be killed without taking the terminal with it, which is the better half of the arrangement.
The language is C#, which cuts both ways
cAlgo robots are written in C#, a language with thirty years of tooling, documentation and people who already know it. If you can write software, or can hire someone who can, cAlgo is a far more pleasant place to work than MQL.
The cost is that almost nothing is available ready-made. The MetaTrader market has tens of thousands of expert advisors to buy; the cTrader equivalent has a fraction of that. If your plan was to buy a robot rather than write one, that is the thing to weigh.
One login, every broker
A cTrader ID is yours rather than your broker's. The same account opens a terminal at any firm offering the platform, and moving from one broker to another does not mean rebuilding your charts and reinstalling your bots.
The catch is how few firms offer it. IC Markets, Pepperstone, FxPro and a handful of others — against essentially every broker for MetaTrader. Check your broker supports it before you plan around it.
Pick the city your broker sits in.
Not the one you live in. Your remote desktop session does not need to be fast; your orders do.
Any of them can be chosen at checkout, and changed later free of charge once a month. See what each broker answers in →
Before you spend anything.
The questions our support desk actually receives, answered plainly.
Still unsure which plan or which city? Send us your broker's account server name and we will measure it before you buy.
Platform compatibility
MT4 and MT5 are installed for you on request. The rest take a couple of minutes — you have full Administrator access to the machine.