If this is you
Choose MetaTrader Strategy Tester
You code your strategies, you want optimization and tick modeling, or you need backtesting and live execution inside the same terminal.
BacktestFlow vs MetaTrader Strategy Tester
A MetaTrader Strategy Tester alternative built for trading by hand
Both test a forex strategy on historical prices before you risk money on it. The MetaTrader Strategy Tester goes wide on automation: Expert Advisors, real tick modeling, parameter optimization. BacktestFlow goes deep on trading by hand: a candle by candle replay, every trade recorded, and statistics on how you executed.
4rows BacktestFlow leads
4rows MetaTrader Strategy Tester leads
0prices quoted: they change, check them at the source
The tell
Built for Expert Advisors.
MQL5, MetaQuotes' own developer community, publishes articles that teach traders to build on chart button toolkits. Their purpose is placing manual trades inside the Strategy Tester. Two titles: “Manual Backtesting with On-Chart Buttons in the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester” and “Manual Backtesting Made Easy: Building a Custom Toolkit for Strategy Tester in MQL5”.
You don't write a custom toolkit for a workflow a tool already supports natively. If your strategy is discretionary, you are working against the tester's design. Every hour spent building or configuring a toolkit is an hour not spent testing.
Side by side
Feature by feature. Where one tool leads, its cell is marked: 4 rows for BacktestFlow, 4 for MetaTrader Strategy Tester. Every claim about MetaTrader Strategy Tester is sourced and dated below.
| Feature | MetaTrader Strategy Tester | BacktestFlow |
|---|---|---|
| What it's designed for | Testing and optimizing Expert Advisors: strategies written in MQL | Testing strategies you trade by hand, forex first, and measuring how you executed them |
| Manual, bar by bar backtesting | Reached via Visual Mode, plugins, or custom on chart toolkits traders build themselves | LeadsThe core of the product, with nothing to build. Market, stop and limit orders; entry, stop and target dragged on the chart; partial closes; sizing by risk % or by lots |
| Record of hand placed trades | The tester report is built around EA runs; trades you place by hand leave you keeping your own record | LeadsEvery close opens a write up with notes, tags, checklist and screenshots, and the replay waits until it is saved. On paid plans, more than 40 metrics in five sections, in R, %, money or pips; on the free plan, the Verdict and Edge sections |
| Discipline and behavior metrics | Not documented in the tester's reporting | LeadsPlanned against captured R:R, target hit rate and position sizing consistency on every plan; the checklist discipline score on paid plans |
| Installation | Desktop terminal; Mac typically needs a virtual machine or similar workaround | LeadsNothing to install: runs in the browser, the same on macOS, Windows and Linux |
| Backtesting a coded EA | LeadsExcellent, with parameter optimization across large numbers of runs | Not part of the product: every trade is placed by hand |
| Modeling quality and tick data | LeadsReal tick modeling with configurable modeling quality | 1 minute OHLC candles from bid prices; no tick data and no spread modeling |
| Broker connection and live trading | LeadsIt is your broker terminal: test and trade in one place | Entered by hand in the live journal, which keeps its own statistics and Flow Coach reports |
| Indicators and ecosystem | LeadsVery large marketplace of EAs, indicators and scripts | TradingView Charting Library indicators and drawings, plus built in Session and TDI studies. On the Max plan, a developer rebuilds your Pine Script® indicators by hand |
| Cost | Free, and your broker has probably already given it to you | Free plan on 8 instruments, with the replay and a write up on every close |
Where BacktestFlow leads
Built deeper for forex traders who trade by hand. The reasons to pick BacktestFlow, each with the mechanism behind it.
“Manual Backtesting Made Easy: Building a Custom Toolkit for Strategy Tester in MQL5”
You don't write a custom toolkit for a workflow a platform already supports natively. In BacktestFlow, replaying and trading by hand is the product.
A record you cannot skip
Every close opens a write up with notes, tags, checklist and screenshots, captured automatically on close if you want. The replay waits until it is saved, so the sample keeps the trades you would rather forget. On paid plans, those trades feed more than 40 metrics in five sections.
A coach that can't make things up
Flow Coach runs 28 analyses across your backtests and your live journal. It keeps a finding only if it passes a significance check: a 90% Wilson interval and a group of at least 8 trades. Its report may only quote numbers the engine measured. See how many trades you actually need.
Execution, not just outcomes
Describe your strategy in plain words and it becomes the checklist you are measured against. On every plan, the statistics measure planned against captured R:R, target hit rate and sizing consistency. Paid plans add a discipline score and split results by checklist item, so you see what each rule is worth.
Manual backtesting is the product, not a workaround
No Visual Mode, no plugin, no toolkit to build. Pick a pair and a date, replay the chart forward and trade it with market, stop and limit orders. Switching timeframe never shows a candle that hasn't finished. More on how that works.
Built around forex
Statistics in pips, multi hour candles on the DST aware 17:00 New York grid, and Session and TDI studies on the chart. On paid plans, results by trading session. Forex history starts between 2010 and 2015 depending on pair.
Nothing to install, and no Windows requirement
It runs in the browser, the same on macOS, Windows and Linux: no terminal, no plugin, no virtual machine. That last point is a recurring cost for Mac traders.
Where MetaTrader Strategy Tester leads
When MetaTrader Strategy Tester fits better. Where the job decides it.
If your strategy can be written as code, the Strategy Tester is the better fit.
An Expert Advisor tests faster and more consistently than any manual process, across far larger samples. The tester can also sweep large numbers of parameter combinations.
If you need real tick modeling, the Strategy Tester is the better fit.
Ticks matter when a strategy lives inside a single candle: scalping, very tight stops, entries that depend on the spread. For 15 minute charts and above, one minute candles are usually enough.
If you want testing and live trading in one terminal, MetaTrader is the better fit.
It is the terminal your broker gives you, so you test and trade in the same place, on the same charts.
The short answer
Which should you use?
If this is you
Choose BacktestFlow
You trade forex by hand and your edge depends on judgment that can't be written as rules. You want every trade recorded and measured, with no spreadsheet to maintain.
The two work together: MetaTrader for execution and anything automated, BacktestFlow for testing the discretionary side and measuring how you executed it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions. About MetaTrader Strategy Tester, and about the differences.
The Strategy Tester runs Expert Advisors, and it leads on coded testing, tick modeling and optimization. BacktestFlow is built for trading by hand: the replay waits until every trade is recorded. The statistics measure your sizing consistency on every plan and your checklist discipline on paid plans. Flow Coach keeps a finding only if it passes a significance check.
You can, but the Strategy Tester in either version was not built around it. The usual routes are Visual Mode, where you run a test with the chart displayed and trade yourself, or a third party plugin. MQL5, MetaQuotes' own developer community, publishes articles on building on chart button toolkits for manual testing inside the tester. That is a fair sign it is not native.
Not built in. MT5's Strategy Tester is designed to run Expert Advisors, so manual backtesting there means Visual Mode, a third party plugin, or a toolkit you build yourself, as the MQL5 articles cited below describe. BacktestFlow is a manual backtester on its own: it runs in the browser with its own forex history, no MT5 installation needed, and the replay waits until every trade is recorded.
For its actual purpose, testing and optimizing Expert Advisors with real tick modeling, it is excellent, and free. For a trader placing trades by hand it is awkward. Its workflow and its performance report are both organized around automated test runs, not around chart study and individual trade records.
No. BacktestFlow runs in the browser with its own historical data. There is no MetaTrader installation, no plugin, no download and no broker account needed to start. That also removes the virtual machine step Mac users often face.
No. BacktestFlow is built for strategies you trade by hand, and that is a design choice rather than a gap to close. A discretionary strategy can only be tested by replaying the chart and trading it, so that is the whole product. For an Expert Advisor, the Strategy Tester is the tool built for the job, and it is free.
Sources
Check it yourself. Every claim about MetaTrader Strategy Tester on this page was checked against its own published material in August 2026.
- MQL5, Manual Backtesting with On-Chart Buttons in the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester
- MQL5, Manual Backtesting Made Easy: Building a Custom Toolkit for Strategy Tester in MQL5
We quote no prices: they change often, so check them at the source. Software changes too, so if something here is out of date, it is an error rather than a position, and it gets corrected.
BacktestFlow is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by MetaQuotes. MetaTrader, MT4, MT5 and MQL5 are trademarks of their respective owner. MetaQuotes' terminal documentation could not be retrieved directly. Claims here come from MQL5 community articles and third party reporting: verify them against the platform if they decide your choice.