Most traders open a position from their phone before they open one from a desk. A platform's mobile app is not a secondary feature anymore, it is often the first thing a new client installs and the only thing they touch on a losing Tuesday when they just want to check a position between meetings. MetaTrader 5, cTrader and eTrader take three different paths to a phone screen, and one of the three is still partway through building it.
MetaTrader 5: apps built by MetaQuotes, listed under its own name
MetaQuotes publishes MetaTrader 5 directly on the Apple App Store and on Google Play, under its own developer name, free to download. The mobile apps carry charting tools, live quotes, market depth and the full set of order types, and support both of MT5's account modes, netting and hedging. A trader who already runs MT5 on a desktop terminal logs into the same account on the phone with no separate setup, and pushes trade notifications to the phone through the MetaQuotes ID system once it is linked from the mobile app. This is the most mature mobile setup of the three simply by age: MetaTrader 4 launched in 2005 and MetaTrader 5 in 2010, and the mobile apps have been in stores, briefly interrupted when Apple pulled both apps from the App Store in September 2022 before they returned in March 2023, for most of that time.
cTrader: native apps on both major stores
Spotware runs cTrader on Windows, Mac, the web, iOS and Android as a single connected platform, and the iOS and Android apps are what a trader installs to get cTrader on a phone. Because it is one account across every version, a chart layout or a position opened on desktop is visible immediately in the mobile app on the same login. cTrader Copy, the platform's own copy trading feature, and price alerts with push notifications are both available from the mobile apps, not held back for desktop only.
eTrader: native apps for iPhone, Android and Mac, one account everywhere
eTrader's mobile design starts from the same one-account principle. A position opened from an iPhone shows immediately on the same trader's Mac or in the trading terminal in a browser, because it is the same account synced live rather than three separate logins to the same broker. The mobile apps carry the full drag-based chart trading interface: pending orders, stop losses, take profits and alert lines placed by dragging, up to four take-profit levels per position, one-click trading, breakeven in one tap, trailing stop, and partial close in fixed percentages or any custom size, plus a close-all button built for clearing everything from a phone in a hurry. Push notifications cover price alerts and trade events, fills, stops, targets, opens and closes, with an alarm sound for the alerts that need attention now.
Here is the part worth stating plainly rather than softening: eTrader's iPhone and Android apps are not yet listed on the Apple App Store or Google Play. Store listings for both are coming, and today a trader on eTrader has two ways to get the full mobile experience: the trading terminal running in any mobile browser, which already covers the complete feature set, or the native Mac app for a trader working from a laptop rather than a phone. This is the newest platform of the three by a wide margin, and it shows up here specifically, not in the trading tools themselves, which are already built out. A firm evaluating eTrader for clients who trade heavily from a phone today should test the mobile browser terminal directly rather than assume store apps exist yet.
Mobile apps, side by side
| Platform | iOS | Android | One account across devices | Push notifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader 5 | App Store, published by MetaQuotes | Google Play, published by MetaQuotes | Yes, same login on desktop and mobile | Yes, via MetaQuotes ID linked from the mobile app |
| cTrader | App Store, published by Spotware | Google Play, published by Spotware | Yes, one cTrader account across Windows, Mac, web, iOS, Android | Yes, price alerts and trade notifications |
| eTrader | Coming soon; trading terminal in any mobile browser covers it today | Coming soon; trading terminal in any mobile browser covers it today | Yes, one account across web, Mac, iPhone and Android in real time | Yes, price alerts, alarm sound and trade events on iPhone, Android, Mac and web |
What "coming soon" actually means for a trader today
It is worth being specific here because the gap is easy to misread. eTrader is not missing mobile trading; it is missing a store listing. The trading terminal opened in a phone's browser already carries the same drag-based chart, order types, alerts and account sync described above, since it is the same platform rather than a stripped-down mobile substitute. What is genuinely still on the way is a native app icon on a home screen and the discoverability that comes with being searchable in the App Store or Google Play. For a firm whose clients are used to installing an app by name, that gap matters for onboarding even where the underlying trading experience does not suffer. For a firm whose clients are comfortable bookmarking a page, it barely registers.
Traders who want a closer look at what the eTrader mobile experience covers today can read our guide to the eTrader mobile apps, and firms weighing chart usability on a small screen specifically, across all three platforms, should also see our mobile chart trading comparison.
Choosing based on how clients actually trade
A firm whose clients are mostly desktop-first, checking a phone only occasionally, will not feel much difference between these three today. A firm whose clients live on their phones, opening and managing most positions from a commute, should weigh the store-listing gap on eTrader against the fact that eTrader gives that same trader native Mac trading and cloud-hosted robots that need no separate VPS, both genuinely difficult to get on MetaTrader or cTrader without extra infrastructure. Running eTrader alongside MetaTrader 5 or cTrader through the Broker CRM or Prop Firm CRM lets a firm offer both while the eTrader app store listings finish rolling out, rather than waiting to offer either.
"Our mobile trading is not waiting on a store listing. The App Store and Google Play are coming; the terminal already works in any phone's browser today."
— The SGHK Team
Key Takeaways
- MetaQuotes publishes MetaTrader 5 directly on the App Store and Google Play, with push notifications through the MetaQuotes ID system.
- cTrader's iOS and Android apps share one account with the desktop and web versions, since Spotware runs cTrader as a single connected platform.
- eTrader has native apps for iPhone, Android and Mac with full chart trading and push alerts, but the iPhone and Android store listings are coming soon rather than live today.
- Until eTrader's store listings go live, the trading terminal in a phone's browser already covers the complete mobile trading experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is MetaTrader 5's mobile app free?
Yes, MetaQuotes publishes the MetaTrader 5 apps for iOS and Android free to download, on the App Store and Google Play respectively.
Does cTrader mobile share the same account as cTrader desktop?
Yes. cTrader runs as one platform across Windows, Mac, the web, iOS and Android, so a trader logs into the same account and sees the same positions and chart layouts on any of them.
Is eTrader available on the App Store or Google Play?
Not yet. eTrader has native apps for iPhone, Android and Mac, but the iPhone and Android store listings are coming soon. Today, a trader gets the complete mobile trading experience through the trading terminal in any phone's browser, and the native app on Mac.
Does a position opened on one eTrader device show up on another?
Yes. One eTrader account syncs live across web, Mac, iPhone and Android, so a position opened on a phone appears immediately on the same trader's Mac or browser terminal.
Which platform is best for a client who trades mostly from a phone?
MetaTrader 5 and cTrader both have mature, store-listed apps today. eTrader's mobile trading tools are as complete, including dragging take-profit levels and one-tap breakeven, but reach a client through the browser terminal for now rather than a downloaded app, which matters most for clients who expect to search an app store by name.
About SGHK
SGHK is a FinTech company that designs and builds its own software for the trading industry: the eTrader trading platform, Launch your Broker and Launch your Prop Firm. Every product is written, hosted and supported in-house and licensed to trading firms, with the CRMs branded to them, all hosted by us in the cloud, managed by each firm and built to scale across clustered servers as our clients grow. Everything is encrypted, and each firm is the only one with access to its data and its clients' data.