Cloud vs desktop trade copier: which should you use?

A trade copier has to be running whenever you trade. Where it runs, on your own computer, on a VPS you rent, or on the copier company's servers, decides most of what can go wrong. Edgeable is a cloud copier, but the trade-offs are worth understanding whichever tool you use, so here's a straight comparison.

Desktop copiers

The copier runs on your computer, alongside your trading platform.

• Pros: everything is on a machine you control. No third party holds a session to your broker.
• Cons: your computer has to be on, awake and online for the whole session. A Windows update, a sleeping laptop, a dropped Wi-Fi connection or a crashed platform stops copying. Your home connection's distance from the broker adds to every order.

Desktop copier on a VPS

A common fix is renting a Windows VPS and running the platform and copier there.

• Pros: always on, and usually closer to the exchange than your home.
• Cons: another monthly bill, another machine to patch and log in to, and you still have one process copying to every account in sequence unless the software says otherwise.

Cloud copiers

The copier runs on the provider's servers and connects to your brokers directly. You manage it from a web dashboard.

• Pros: your computer can be off. No VPS. With Edgeable, each follower has its own connection and orders are dispatched in parallel, so one slow broker doesn't hold up the rest.
• Cons: you're trusting the provider with broker sessions and with uptime. Ask how sessions are secured, how you're told when something drops, and what happens if their service has an outage.

Questions to ask any copier

1. How do I know it's working? Look for a live heartbeat and per-follower results, not just a green dot.
2. What happens on a reject? You should see the broker's reason for every follower, as the broker sent it.
3. What speed figures can I verify? Treat any headline latency number as marketing until you can see it measured on your own orders.
4. How do I get out fast? There should be a single control that flattens everything.

Which to choose

If you trade from one reliable machine that's always on, a desktop copier is fine and keeps everything local. If you trade from a laptop, travel, or run many accounts, a cloud copier removes the machine as a point of failure. Compare Edgeable's plans on the pricing page.