Time-Limited Free Trial Options for MQL5 Market Products (Feature Request)

New comment
 

1. Problem Statement:

Currently, demo versions of Market products (EAs, Utilities, and Indicators) are restricted to running exclusively inside the MetaTrader Strategy Tester. While this works well for standard automated trading strategies, it severely limits products that rely heavily on interactive UI panels, complex visual tools, manual trading simulators, or multi-chart utilities.

For these types of products, testing inside the Strategy Tester fails to deliver a realistic user experience, preventing potential buyers from evaluating real-time performance, responsiveness, and control mechanics in a live demo environment.

2. Proposed Solution:

Introduce an optional Time-Limited Free Trial feature that sellers can enable for their products. This would allow prospective buyers to install and test the fully functional product on a Demo Account for a limited duration specified by the seller.

Key Seller Controls:

  • Toggle Feature: Sellers can choose whether to offer a Free Trial for a specific product.
  • Custom Duration: Sellers can set the trial period (e.g., anywhere from 1 to 30 days).

3. Three-Way Benefits (Win-Win-Win Model):

  • For Buyers:

    • Complete, unrestricted testing of product UI, execution speed, and resource usage (CPU/RAM) in a live/demo environment before purchasing.Increased buyer confidence and fewer purchasing hesitations.

  • For Sellers:

    • Higher conversion rates from product views to sales.

    • Enhanced product exposure, leading to more reviews, constructive comments, and valuable feedback loops for continuous product improvement.

  • For MetaQuotes / MQL5 Platform:

    • Higher Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) driven by reduced buyer hesitation.

    • Increased daily platform engagement and activity across the MQL5 Market.

4. Addressing Free Trial Abuse & Security Mitigation:

To prevent users from continuously exploiting trials via multiple accounts (Sybil attacks), we propose the following multi-layered safeguard system:

  1. Access Restrictions:

    • Limit Free Trial downloads exclusively to Verified Users (ID/Phone verified) or users meeting a minimum MQL5 community rating/account age threshold.

  2. Terminal / Hardware ID Locking:

    • Bind the trial authorization to the specific MT4/MT5 Terminal ID or Hardware ID (HWID), preventing repeated trial activations on the same machine even if a new MQL5 account is created.

  3. Monthly Trial Quota:

    • Restrict buyers to a maximum number of active product trials per month (e.g., 3 to 5 trials max).

  4. Demo Account Restriction:

    • Mandate that Free Trial versions operate solely on Demo Accounts, preventing execution on Live/Real accounts.

New comment