TradeLocker and DXtrade both got a wave of new firms in 2024, after a number of prop firms had to change or add platforms at short notice when MetaQuotes enforced its MT4 and MT5 licensing terms more strictly. Since then the two have pulled in different directions: one sells itself on the charts and the trading experience, the other sells itself on letting a firm remove its own name from the platform entirely and replace it with its own.
TradeLocker's pitch: charts first
TradeLocker built its terminal around TradingView charts, embedded directly in the platform, plus a risk calculator that sizes a position from the risk a trader wants to take in money or percent terms. A discretionary trader who already charts on TradingView finds TradeLocker familiar from the first session. TradeLocker itself says it is newer than MetaTrader and cTrader, and that its algorithmic trading tools are still growing, which is an honest admission worth taking at face value rather than a marketing gap to paper over.
What that pitch is aimed at: firms whose traders care most about chart quality and a clean, modern interface, and less about running a specific inherited MQL5 robot or a decade-old trading habit. A firm whose client base skews toward newer, chart-focused traders gets more from TradeLocker's specific strengths than a firm whose traders are migrating from MetaTrader with existing automated strategies in hand.
DXtrade's pitch: your name, not ours
Devexperts sells DXtrade as a white-label platform, meaning a firm brands the entire terminal as its own, with none of the underlying vendor's name visible to a trader. That pitch has nothing to do with chart quality or UX and everything to do with identity: a firm that has built a name for itself gets to put that name on the platform screen a trader sees first. DXtrade became genuinely popular with prop firms for exactly this reason during the 2024 platform shuffle, when firms needed both a working platform quickly and one they could put their own name on immediately.
The honest trade-off, which Devexperts' own positioning does not hide: DXtrade's trader community and automation ecosystem are smaller than MetaTrader's. A firm choosing DXtrade is not choosing it because traders already know and trust the platform by name, since by design no trader is meant to notice DXtrade's name at all. It is choosing it because the firm's own name matters more than any platform's.
Side by side
| TradeLocker | DXtrade | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | TradeLocker | Devexperts |
| Main pitch | TradingView charts built in, plus a risk calculator | A terminal a firm brands fully as its own |
| What the trader sees | TradeLocker's own interface and charting | The firm's own brand throughout, white-labelled |
| Automation | Growing, by TradeLocker's own account, newer than MetaTrader and cTrader | Smaller ecosystem than MetaTrader's |
| Best suited to | Discretionary, chart-focused traders | Firms whose own brand is the main selling point |
| What the firm still builds | CRM, feed, risk tooling around the platform | CRM, feed, risk tooling around the platform |
Both leave the same gap
Neither TradeLocker nor DXtrade ships with a CRM, a price feed or a risk management layer built in. A firm on either platform connects its own liquidity, builds or buys a bridge, and runs a separate system to open accounts, take payments and manage clients. TradeLocker's charting strength and DXtrade's branding strength both sit on top of that same missing layer, so neither pitch answers the question of who runs the back office. Firms comparing the two on charts or branding alone often skip past this until integration work is already behind schedule.
Picking between a UX pitch and a branding pitch
If the deciding factor is what traders experience when they open the terminal for the first time, chart quality, familiarity with TradingView-style tools, a modern feel, TradeLocker's pitch is the more direct answer to that question. If the deciding factor is what the terminal says about whose business this is, and the firm has spent real money building a name it wants visible everywhere, DXtrade's white-label model answers that question instead. These are not really competing on the same axis, which is why firms rarely regret picking either one for the reason it is actually built for, and regret it more often when they pick based on price alone without checking which pitch matches what their traders actually want.
Where eTrader fits
eTrader is a third newer platform in this comparison, with its own native charts, drawing tools and Fibonacci tools built in rather than an embedded TradingView view, plus a dealing desk, price feed, native MAM / PAMM and copytrading bundled with the platform itself. Like TradeLocker, it is honest about being new: it is the youngest platform of the three, its third-party library of indicators and robots is smaller, and trading robots are written in Tide, eTrader's own language, so a strategy built for another platform has to be rewritten rather than imported. Like DXtrade, each firm on eTrader gets its own identity, its own server shown under its own name and logo, though not a fully white-labelled app; the terminal itself is eTrader, the same broker-server model MetaTrader and cTrader use.
A plain recommendation
Demo TradeLocker with a trader who already uses TradingView charts and watch how quickly they place a first order. Demo DXtrade with your own logo and colours already loaded and see how it actually looks carrying your brand rather than a template. Whichever platform wins that specific test, budget separately for the CRM, feed and risk tooling neither one includes, since that decision affects launch timelines more than the platform choice itself.
"TradeLocker is selling traders on the screen they see. DXtrade is selling firms on the name they see on it. Both are honest about what they are not: neither is a full back office."
— The SGHK Team
Key Takeaways
- TradeLocker's pitch is TradingView charts built into the terminal plus a risk calculator, aimed at chart-focused, discretionary traders.
- DXtrade's pitch is a fully white-labelled terminal, popular with prop firms that want their own name on the screen a trader sees first.
- Both platforms leave the CRM, price feed and risk tooling for the firm to build separately; neither includes a back office.
- eTrader is a third newer platform with native charts and a bundled dealing desk, feed, MAM / PAMM and copytrading, honest about being the youngest of the three with a smaller third-party library.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does TradeLocker include a CRM or payments?
No. TradeLocker is the trading terminal. A firm running TradeLocker sources or builds its own CRM, price feed, liquidity connection and payment processing separately.
Is DXtrade good for algorithmic trading?
DXtrade's own vendor material and industry reporting describe its trader community and automation ecosystem as smaller than MetaTrader's. A firm whose traders depend heavily on existing automated strategies should check current automation support directly with Devexperts before committing.
Can a firm run TradeLocker and DXtrade together?
Yes, firms running multiple platforms is common, especially since 2024 when many added a second or third platform after MetaQuotes changed its licensing terms. Running both means separate CRM integrations unless the firm's CRM connects to each platform's API natively.
How does eTrader's charting compare to TradeLocker's?
eTrader uses native charts built into the platform, with six chart types, up to four charts per screen, drawing and Fibonacci tools and market depth, rather than an embedded TradingView view. Traders who prefer TradingView-style charts specifically should compare both in a live demo before deciding.
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.