Why we need a real Free Trial option for Market utilities & EAs - page 2
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Lots of EA builders offer 1 month rental, i think thats a good way to show how your product
Yes it is and it is very telling those that let people try for a month and those that want a one time high price . The one month is great but the minimum $30 needs to come down and if EA's gained real reviews and got popular they have proved themselves and can move up a tier , would be a better system ( It could still be gamed of course so they'd have to come up with something but they don't care about it being gamed right now with those one time high fee martingale shams ) .
Yes it is and it is very telling those that let people try for a month and those that want a one time high price . The one month is great but the minimum $30 needs to come down and if EA's gained real reviews and got popular they have proved themselves and can move up a tier , would be a better system ( It could still be gamed of course so they'd have to come up with something but they don't care about it being gamed right now with those one time high fee martingale shams ) .
Yes i see your point. I did mine for $30 for 1 month because as you say thats the minimum. I could see people trying more if there was say a once per user 2 week trial for say $10 so that people get more confidence that the EA they purchase works properly on their terminal and broker.
There has to be a trial, because otherwise it ends up with the client buying something without knowing how it behaves on a real market. Testing in the tester is one thing, but the real market is completely different. In my opinion, a price of 5 dollars for a one‑day trial is much more acceptable than 30 dollars for a month. However, many products will never have any buyers at all. Besides that, it’s good to have a bundle option as well: several indicators offered together at a lower price.
Fair enough. I'm not affiliated with Metaquotes, so whatever.
Having said that, any user who is proficient with the MT5-integrated AI Assistant/MCP can reverse engineer software rather easily. The moment that you describe something online and post a picture, it's out there. A fully functional free trial would just be icing on the cake.
I see your point regarding AI assistance, Ryan, but there’s a big difference between generating basic UI boilerplate and replicating complex underlying logic.
While AI can easily draft a visual layout from a screenshot, it cannot reverse-engineer the core architecture, proprietary algorithms, execution logic, or complex event-handling required for a production-ready trading panel.
A Free Trial isn't about protecting the UI design—it's about allowing serious traders to evaluate real-time performance, execution speed, and UX responsiveness before committing to a purchase.
I think Metaquotes should give developers the option to easily enable a free trial, even if it is a 24 hour trial. That would be really great for what I am trying to do as well - figuring out whether a particular trading panel will work for my needs...
Yeah I was talking they change the barrier I am talking all rentals forever no buying and 5 bucks a week or something and you earn moving up a tier and price ( only slightly ) by real reviews and something that is totally accessible to everyone . Free trials for retail traders for the most part would not convert to money all it takes is one bad day on the first day and retail traders ditch it, thus no revenue for MetaQuotes , rental means a constant stream of revenue at a lesser amount but higher uptake .
That's a fair distinction regarding automated signal EAs, Victor—a bad trading day during a trial can indeed turn a trader away from an automated strategy.
However, there is a fundamental difference between Signal EAs and Interactive Utilities/Trading Panels. When a user tests a GUI panel, they aren't evaluating an automated trading strategy; they are testing execution speed, UI responsiveness, chart interaction, and risk calculations to see if it fits their manual workflow.
It's also worth highlighting that a Free Trial feature should be entirely optional for developers. No author would be forced to enable it. EA developers who prefer rental models or one-time purchases can keep things as they are, while utility creators can opt-in to let users test their interfaces on live charts.
While cheap micro-subscriptions would require MetaQuotes to completely rework their entire revenue model, an optional, hardware-bound Free Trial is a light feature addition that directly solves the UI testing problem without disrupting existing sales channels.
The only reason i agree with this thread heading is because few and seems to be fewer and fewer mt5 users as time goes on -- even know how to do a backtest with the demo ea and strategy tester -- just clicking start is useless if the broker has 9% real data because then mt5/strategy tester creates fantasy data, or they rely on sellers backtests that have been done on very different broker conditions to their own.
Yes i see your point. I did mine for $30 for 1 month because as you say thats the minimum. I could see people trying more if there was say a once per user 2 week trial for say $10 so that people get more confidence that the EA they purchase works properly on their terminal and broker.
Spot on, Steven! The broker and terminal compatibility issue is one of the biggest reasons traders hesitate to buy.
Whether it's a short $10 paid trial or an optional hardware-bound Free Trial, the core need is identical: traders need to verify that a product functions correctly on their specific broker's execution, latency, and terminal environment before committing to full price.
Lowering the entry barrier for testing directly protects buyers and boosts overall conversion for developers.
You’ve raised a crucial concern for automated signal EAs, Lungile! Trade-copying abuse is a very real risk when providing demo or trial versions for automated systems.
This is precisely why a native, MetaQuotes-integrated Free Trial framework is necessary rather than relying on custom demo builds:
1. For Interactive Utilities/Panels: Trade copying isn't an issue at all, as these tools generate no automated signals—traders just need to test interface latency, execution, and risk functions.
2. For Signal EAs: A platform-enforced trial could incorporate built-in safeguards—such as limiting trial runs to extremely short windows (e.g., 24–48 hours) or disabling external DLL/API execution—making it practically impossible to exploit via trade copiers.
A well-architected trial system must protect the developer’s intellectual property while still giving buyers the confidence they need.