MT4 vs MT5: what actually differs, and which one you should ask for

MetaQuotes stopped selling new MT4 licences, but MT4 is still running at dozens of brokers. Here is what separates the two platforms in practice.

Last verified 5 August 2026 · Scored against our published checklist

MetaTrader 5 is not “MetaTrader 4, but newer”. It is a separate platform with its own programming language, and code written for one does not run on the other. That single fact drives most of the practical differences below.

The differences that matter

Timeframes. MT5 fills the gaps MT4 leaves: M2, M3, M6, M10, M12, M20, H2, H3, H6, H8, H12. If your method depends on a two-hour or twelve-hour chart, MT4 will make you improvise.

Depth of Market. MT4 shows only the best bid and ask. MT5 shows resting volume at each price level, which matters if you trade size or care where liquidity sits.

Hedging and netting. This is the one people get wrong. MT4 always hedges: buy and sell orders on the same instrument sit side by side as separate positions. MT5 can do either, and it is the broker who decides when they configure the server. If hedging matters to you, that is a question to ask the broker, not an assumption to make about the platform.

Backtesting. MT5’s strategy tester runs multiple instruments and timeframes at once and models execution more realistically. For anyone testing automated strategies, this is the largest single gap between the two.

Why the tester gap is bigger than it looks

The two testers are not the same tool with different feature lists. They work differently enough that a strategy can pass in one and fail in the other.

MT4 tests on a single processor thread, one symbol at a time, from modelled ticks: the platform interpolates what happened between bars rather than replaying what actually did. The result is a curve that can look convincing for a strategy whose entries depend on movement inside the bar, which is exactly where the modelling is weakest.

MT5 runs multi-threaded across several symbols at once, uses real tick data where the broker supplies it, and can push optimisation runs out to the MQL5 Cloud Network. The phrase to check is where the broker supplies it, because real tick history comes from the broker’s server and its depth and quality vary between firms.

If you test automated systems, this difference decides the platform on its own. A backtest built on interpolated ticks is a hypothesis; one built on recorded ticks is a measurement, and the two should not be given equal weight.

The symbol limit nobody mentions

MT4 supports up to 1,024 symbols. That is comfortable for a broker offering currency pairs and a handful of CFDs, and it becomes a wall for one adding equities, futures and a few hundred stock CFDs.

The limit is the technical reason behind a commercial pattern that traders notice without knowing the cause: brokers with wide product ranges push clients to MT5, while forex-only firms are content to stay on MT4. It is not always a judgement about which platform serves you better.

The licensing situation

MetaQuotes has stopped selling new MT4 licences and is winding down legacy support. By 2026 MT5 has overtaken MT4 in both broker adoption and volume, and it is now the default choice for new accounts at most providers.

The white label route closed as well. A firm starting a brokerage today cannot buy an MT4 licence or an MT4 white label at any price; the only MetaTrader option available to it is a full MT5 licence. Every MT4 server still running belongs to a broker that licensed it before the door shut.

MetaQuotes also set a floor under which platform builds stop being supported: from 1 July 2025 the minimum supported versions are build 1440 for MT4 and build 4755 for MT5. Firms that let their servers fall behind leave clients on software that no longer receives fixes, which is worth a moment’s attention when a platform has not prompted you for an update in a long time.

MT4 has not disappeared, though. Active MT4 servers are confirmed at more than thirty brokers, and firms with a large installed base keep them running because their clients’ expert advisors are written in MQL4 and would have to be rewritten from scratch to move.

Porting is not a translation job. MQL4 is procedural and was built for straightforward scripts against forex; MQL5 is object-oriented and closer to C++, and it separates orders, deals and positions as distinct concepts. An expert advisor that assumes MT4’s model needs its logic reworked, not its syntax converted, which is why paid tools from the MQL4 era so often never make the jump.

Which one to ask for

Choose MT5 unless you have a specific reason not to. It is where development is going, the tester is genuinely better, and you get the extra timeframes and the order book.

Before you commit either way, check that the broker’s MT5 server is set to the mode you need. Hedging is standard at retail forex brokers and rarer where the firm comes from an exchange-traded background, and switching later means opening a new account rather than changing a setting.

Choose MT4 if you rely on a particular expert advisor or indicator that exists only in MQL4 and that you cannot or will not port. That is a real constraint for people who bought tools years ago — but understand that you are choosing a platform its maker has stopped selling.

What the platform does not decide

The terminal draws charts and sends orders. Everything that determines what a trade costs sits on the broker’s side of the connection, and none of it changes when you switch platform.

Spreads and commission. Set per account type by the broker. The same firm often runs different pricing on its MT4 and MT5 servers, so comparing platforms across two brokers tells you nothing about the platforms.

Execution and slippage. Decided by the broker’s model and liquidity, not by MetaTrader. An identical order can fill differently at two firms running the same build.

Which instruments exist, and their contract specifications. Symbol names, minimum lot, swap rates and rollover times all come from the server.

Server time. MetaTrader charts run on the broker’s clock, which is frequently not UTC and not your local time. Two brokers can show the same instrument with candles that close an hour apart.

So the useful questions are about the account, not the software: which entity holds it, what the total cost per lot comes to, whether hedging is enabled, and what the server time is set to. We record those per broker rather than per platform; see the methodology.

A caution about “MT5 support” as a marketing line. Every broker that offers MetaTrader advertises it, and the label tells you nothing about execution quality, spreads or whether the server is configured for hedging. The platform is a terminal; what you actually pay and how your orders fill are decided by the broker behind it. That is what our methodology checks, and it is not visible from the platform name.

Sources

• CMC Markets — MT4 or MT5, the difference explained
• LiteFinance — MT4 vs MT5 comparison
• ForexBrokers.com — Best MetaTrader 5 brokers