# Self-hosted crypto trading and market data tools

Where the process runs, not what the licence says — and why those are two different lists that happen to overlap.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/collections/self-hosted*

## Where the process runs, and nothing else

This page answers one question: can you install it and run it yourself? Not what it costs, not
what licence it carries, not whether anyone else can see what it does. Just where the process
lives.

That is a narrower claim than it sounds, and it is worth separating from the one next door.
[Open source](https://cryptomarkets.tools/collections/open-source) is about the licence on the code. This list is about the
deployment. The two overlap heavily — nearly everything open source here is also runnable on your
own machine — but they are not the same list, and the places they come apart are the most useful
things on this page.

## The eight where the code is yours to run and not to read

These are the cards that make this a different list rather than a second door onto the same one.
Each ships something you install on your own hardware under terms that are not open source.

**Proprietary libraries you compile into your product.**
[TradingView Advanced Charts](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tradingview-advanced-charts) is free to use and explicitly
not open source — the repository is granted on application, the attribution has to stay visible,
and the terms bar putting any part of it in a public repository.
[Highcharts Stock](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/highcharts-stock) and [ChartIQ](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/chartiq) are commercial licences,
bought per developer seat and per year, that you then host yourself.
[DXcharts](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dxcharts) is the paid half of an open core — its free
[Lite](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dxcharts-lite) edition is genuinely open, and the product with the indicators and
the drawing tools is proprietary and quoted from 499 dollars a month. In all four cases the code
sits inside your build and outside your control.

**Source-available, which reads as open until you check.**
[vectorbt](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/vectorbt) is Apache-2.0 *with a Commons Clause* — you may read it, run it and
modify it, and you may not sell it. That one added condition takes it out of the open-source
definition and off the other page, while changing nothing about your ability to install it.

Its paid edition, [vectorbt PRO](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/vectorbt-pro), goes a step further: the licence is
proprietary and the source is available *to members*, which means you install it from a private
repository you keep access to by continuing to pay. Run it wherever you like; read it for as long
as the subscription lasts.

**A licence that can be withdrawn.** [dYdX v4 Clients](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dydx-v4-clients) carries a bespoke
grant whose text reads like MIT but is conditioned on complying with the vendor's terms of use,
with rights terminating automatically if you do not. The repository's own badge says AGPL and one
package manifest says AGPL-3.0; only the Rust crate labels it honestly. Install it wherever you
like — just do not call it open source on the strength of the badge.

**A paid application rather than a library.** [Gunbot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/gunbot) is the odd one here and the
clearest case: a signed binary you install on your own machine under a lifetime licence, with the
licence itself registered on a blockchain against an ERC-20 wallet you create during setup. You own
the process, the server and the key file, and the source is not published. Everything else in this
section is something you compile into your own product; this is the thing itself.

## The one going the other way

[L2BEAT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/l2beat) is open source and is not on this list: the code is public and the product
is a site somebody else runs. That is the shape most of the on-chain and market-data half of the
catalogue takes, and it is why this page is dominated by engines rather than by data.

## What self-hosting actually buys

**Nobody else holds your keys.** For anything that connects to an exchange account with trade
permission, this is the whole argument. The key sits in a file on a machine you administer instead
of in a vendor's database. That moves the risk rather than removing it — the security of that
machine is now part of your trading system — but it is your risk to manage.

**Nobody can change the terms under you.** A hosted product's free tier can be retired, its price
can move and its API can start requiring a key; six pages in [what to use
instead](https://cryptomarkets.tools/alternatives) exist because exactly that happened. An installed binary keeps working on
the terms you installed it under. What it cannot keep working without is its upstream data.

**The feed is still somebody else's.** This is the honest limit of the whole page. You can run the
backtester, the bot and the chart yourself, and every price they draw still arrives over the
network from a venue or an aggregator, on that vendor's terms and subject to that vendor's outage.
Self-hosting buys independence from the application layer and none at all from the data layer.

## What you take on

The machine, its uptime and its patches; the key file; and, for anything that trades, the fact
that it has to keep running while you are asleep, which is a server rather than a laptop. The
hosted versions of several products on this page exist precisely because that is real work, and
paying somebody to do it is a legitimate answer.

## Cards

- [AGGR](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/aggr.md) — Live multi-exchange tape and liquidations in one chart — GPL-3.0, and yours to host.
- [Backtesting.py](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/backtesting-py.md) — Two thousand lines, one OHLC series, and no idea what a funding payment is.
- [Barter](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/barter.md) — Rust trading engine and market-data streams — live execution is a trait you implement.
- [ccapi](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccapi.md) — Header-only C++ market data and execution for 30 venues, on a Bloomberg-shaped API.
- [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt.md) — One MIT client for 104 crypto exchanges, 76 of them over websocket.
- [ChartIQ](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/chartiq.md) — Heavyweight broker charting SDK, domain-locked, priced by an account manager.
- [DXcharts Lite](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dxcharts-lite.md) — The MPL-2.0 renderer under a broker charting product — candles and axes, no indicators.
- [DXcharts](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dxcharts.md) — The paid half of the open core — 100+ indicators, 40+ drawing tools, from $499 a month.
- [dYdX v4 Clients](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dydx-v4-clients.md) — Four language clients for one perp DEX, under a licence that is not the one on the badge.
- [Freqtrade](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/freqtrade.md) — Write the strategy in Python, backtest it, then run the same class live.
- [GoCryptoTrader](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/gocryptotrader.md) — A Go trading engine for 22 exchanges that has never cut a release or a tag.
- [Gunbot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/gunbot.md) — A closed-source bot you install once, licensed against an ERC-20 wallet you control.
- [HftBacktest](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/hftbacktest.md) — Tick-by-tick backtesting that models order queue position and feed and order latency.
- [Highcharts Stock](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/highcharts-stock.md) — Per-seat commercial charting whose free licence excludes anything you sell.
- [Hummingbot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/hummingbot.md) — Apache-2.0 Python framework for running market-making bots on CEXs and DEXs.
- [Hyperliquid Python SDK](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/hyperliquid-python-sdk.md) — The official Python client for signing and sending orders on one perp DEX.
- [Jesse](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/jesse.md) — Python backtesting and research framework whose live-trading half is a paid plugin.
- [KLineChart](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/klinechart.md) — Zero-dependency candle engine with no market-hours rules to switch off for 24/7.
- [LEAN](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/lean.md) — The engine behind QuantConnect, Apache-2.0 and runnable on your own machine.
- [Lumibot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/lumibot.md) — One Python strategy that backtests and then trades live, across eight CCXT exchanges.
- [NautilusTrader](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/nautilus-trader.md) — Event-driven Rust engine that settles perpetual funding at the venue boundary.
- [OctoBot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/octobot.md) — GPL-3.0 Python bot with a web interface for grid, DCA, basket and TradingView strategies.
- [Passivbot](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/passivbot.md) — A contrarian perp market maker you configure in JSON and leave running for months.
- [TradingView Advanced Charts](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tradingview-advanced-charts.md) — The chart engine inside half this market — free with visible attribution, not open source.
- [TradingView Lightweight Charts](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tradingview-lightweight-charts.md) — Apache-2.0 canvas renderer for candles and lines. No indicators, no drawing tools.
- [VectorBT PRO](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/vectorbt-pro.md) — The paid VectorBT — leverage and limit orders, and still no funding leg.
- [VectorBT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/vectorbt.md) — Vectorised Python backtesting that has never heard of funding or liquidation.

## FAQ

### Is self-hosted the same as open source?

No, and this page exists because the difference is easy to miss. Open source is a fact about the licence on the code; self-hosted is a fact about where the process runs. Most of this list is both, but eight products ship a binary or a source-available licence you install on your own machine under commercial terms — you run it, you do not get to read or fork it. One card in the catalogue is the opposite — open code that only exists as somebody else's hosted service.

### What do I actually take on by self-hosting?

The machine, the uptime, the patches, and the exchange API keys in a file on disk. For anything that trades, that machine has to stay up without you, which usually means a server rather than a laptop. In exchange nobody else holds your keys and nobody can change the terms under you. It is a trade, not an upgrade.

### Does self-hosted mean free?

Often, but not on this page by definition. Several cards here are paid licences you install yourself — priced per developer seat, per year or perpetually — and one is free to install while charging for the data it runs on. Where the money is, and what it buys, is on each card.

### Can I self-host a data provider?

Almost never, and that is the shape of this list. What you can run yourself is the engine — a backtester, a bot, a charting library, a client. The prices, order books and on-chain tables come over the network from somebody who is not you, on their terms. A self-hosted stack is only as independent as its upstream feed.