Trading bot for MT5 vs cTrader vs TradingView: which platform fits you?

MT5: the standard for automated trading

Pros: most brokers support MT5, MQL5 is a mature language, EAs run 24/7 without external tools, backtesting engine is solid, large community.

Cons: MQL5 syntax is dated (looks like C++), debugging is mediocre, mobile app is a disaster, and visuals look like the 90s.

Best for: serious automated trading on forex, indices and gold. Our bot runs here.

cTrader: technically better, smaller ecosystem

Pros: cBots run on C# (modern), platform has better visuals, depth-of-market is much better than MT5, native multi-asset.

Cons: fewer brokers support it, smaller community, fewer pre-built bots available, and integration with external tools is more limited.

Best for: experienced developers who can no longer stand MT5's ergonomics and accept a narrower broker offering.

TradingView + webhooks: flexible but fragile

Pros: Pine Script is much easier to learn than MQL5 or C#, great visuals and alerts, and with webhooks you push orders via an external service to your broker.

Cons: you need an external webhook bridge (extra failure point), latency is higher than native MT5, and if TradingView is down your bot is down. Plus: TradingView Pro subscription €60+ per month for webhooks.

Best for: people who want signal-driven work (one trigger per day, not HFT) and want to keep TradingView chart flexibility.

In practice

On the EU/UK retail market: 90% of brokers support MT5 without hassle, 30% support cTrader, almost no one integrates natively with TradingView.

For someone starting out: MT5 is the pragmatic choice. Not because it is the best platform, but because the entire toolchain (broker, EAs, VPS providers, communities) runs on it.