Why Self-Hosting Your Trading Tools Is Worth It
The SaaS trading tool market charges a premium for convenience. TradingView Pro is $15/month. 3Commas starts at $29/month. Cryptohopper, Coinrule, Altrady — all $50–150/month for the features that actually matter. For active traders, the annual cost adds up fast.
The Cost Comparison
| Tool | Monthly | Annual | What you lose without paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| TradingView Pro | $15 | $180 | Multiple indicators, alerts |
| 3Commas Advanced | $49 | $588 | Smart trading, signals |
| Cryptohopper Hero | $107 | $1,284 | Strategy backtesting |
| TradeClaw (self-hosted) | $5 | $60 | Just your VPS cost |
What You Get with Self-Hosting
- Full data ownership — your signals, your history, on your machine. No vendor lock-in.
- Customisable — change the scoring weights, add indicators, modify thresholds. The code is yours.
- No rate limits — self-hosted means as many signals, backtests, and screener scans as your server handles.
- Privacy — your trading activity doesn't touch someone else's servers.
- Free API access — plug your own apps into
/api/v1/signalswithout paying for API access.
What You Give Up
Be honest with yourself here:
- Maintenance — you're responsible for updates, uptime, and backups. Minimal, but real.
- Support — no customer service team. GitHub issues and community.
- Mobile apps — TradeClaw is a web app. No dedicated iOS/Android app yet.
- Broker integrations — no one-click IBKR or Binance trading from TradeClaw (yet). Signals only.
10-Minute Setup
Three options, in order of simplicity:
Option 1: Docker Compose (recommended)
git clone https://github.com/naimkatiman/tradeclaw cd tradeclaw cp .env.example .env # edit if needed docker compose up -d # done
That's it. Open http://localhost:3000 and you have a running signal dashboard.
Option 2: One-click Railway deploy
Click the Railway deploy button in the README. It provisions a container, sets env vars, and gives you a public URL. Free tier works for personal use.
Option 3: npx demo (test first)
Runs a local Bloomberg-style demo in your browser with zero installation.
Recommended Hosting
- Hetzner CX22 (~€4/month) — best price/performance for EU
- DigitalOcean Droplet ($6/month) — simple, good docs
- Railway ($5/month) — one-click, no VPS management
- Render (free tier) — fine for testing, limited uptime
TradeClaw is free, MIT licensed, and self-hostable. If you want to help improve it, the repo is on GitHub. If you want a managed hosted version, that will be available soon via Alpha Screener.
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