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Tradovate VPS
Tradovate VPS —
for the bot, not the charts.
Tradovate was built to run in a browser, and it does that well enough that a VPS adds little to manual trading. What it is for is the API — anything automated needs a machine that stays awake.
- Chrome, Edge and Python ready for the API
- 42 cities — pick the one nearest your broker
- Windows Server licence included
Do I need a VPS for Tradovate?
The platform is theirs and runs on their infrastructure, so charts and orders work fine from any browser. A VPS earns its place when something has to talk to their API around the clock.
One gigabyte,
one session.
A Tradovate session is a browser tab, and an API client is a small program. Neither is demanding. A gigabyte covers a session, and an API bot rarely needs one of its own unless it is doing real analysis.
One account open in one window fits a gigabyte. A Python client alongside it usually fits in the same one.
This is the cheapest platform we host to run properly. If you are running an API bot and nothing else, the smallest plan does it — and the money is better spent on being in the right city than on memory you will not use.
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.
Built for the cloud,
which cuts both ways.
Tradovate was designed as a browser platform from the start rather than being ported to one, and that shows in what it does and does not offer.
Tradovate
1 GB a session
- Genuinely fast in a browser, on any machine
- A documented REST and WebSocket API, which not every futures broker has
- Flat-rate commission plans rather than per-contract at volume
- No desktop platform, no scripting language, nothing to install
NinjaTrader
2 GB an instance
- NinjaScript runs inside the platform, on your machine
- Order-flow and charting tools well beyond a browser
- Connects to Tradovate as a broker, if you want both
- Heavier, licensed per machine, and more to keep running
The API is the reason
to rent anything.
Manual trading does not need a VPS
Tradovate runs in a browser and runs well. If you place your own orders and close the laptop afterwards, a VPS adds a login step and nothing else, and we would rather tell you that than take the money.
The case changes entirely the moment something is automated. Their REST and WebSocket API is properly documented, people build against it, and whatever you build has to be running when the market moves — which is a machine that stays on, on a connection that does not drop.
There is no scripting language inside it
Unlike NinjaTrader or TradeStation, Tradovate has nothing equivalent to NinjaScript or EasyLanguage. You cannot write a strategy into the platform and leave it there.
Everything automated therefore lives outside: a Python or Node client holding a WebSocket open, watching the feed and placing orders through the API. That program is the thing on the VPS, and it is usually small — which is why the smallest plan is genuinely enough for most people here.
It connects to NinjaTrader, if you want both
Tradovate is a broker as well as a platform, and NinjaTrader will connect to a Tradovate account as a data and execution source. A fair number of people use exactly that arrangement: Tradovate for the account and the commissions, NinjaTrader for the charts and the strategy engine.
If that is your setup, size for NinjaTrader rather than for Tradovate — two gigabytes an instance, and read the NinjaTrader page for the licence activation problem, which applies to you too.
Location matters more than the plan
An API client does almost no work. What matters is where it sits: Tradovate routes to CME, and the difference between a machine in Chicago and one in Singapore is not subtle on a futures fill.
Our broker pages carry measured figures from each of our cities. For this platform, that is the number to choose on — the plan size barely matters, and we would rather sell you the cheap one in the right city than the expensive one in the wrong one.
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.