# Best paper trading apps: 7 compared > Practice with pretend money first. Compare paper trading on TradingView, thinkorswim, Webull, moomoo, Interactive Brokers, Alpaca, and Tactfolio. Written by [Tactfolio research team](https://tactfolio.com/about/editorial-policy.md), published 2026-10-25, updated 2026-10-25. A paper trading app lets you trade with pretend money at real market prices. Nothing you do there can lose real money. We compared seven places to paper trade. Five are trading screens where you click buy and sell yourself. Two, Alpaca and Tactfolio, can also run a strategy that trades by itself. We make Tactfolio, so read our notes with that in mind. Every fact about the other apps comes from their own websites, checked on October 25, 2026. ## The short answer - **To practice trading by hand for free**, try TradingView, Webull or moomoo. None of them needs money in a brokerage account to start. - **To practice on a full broker platform**, try thinkorswim paperMoney from Schwab or the Interactive Brokers free trial. - **To test a trading bot you code yourself**, use an Alpaca paper account. - **To test a written strategy without code**, use a Tactfolio paper account. It runs the rules by itself each trading day and emails you after the close. ## How we compared We read each app's own paper trading pages and help pages. We looked at five things. Who can use it? What can you trade? How much pretend money do you get? What market data does it use? Can a strategy trade by itself? We did not score how well each app fills orders. Every simulator fills a little differently from a real market, and none of them can show how a big order moves prices. ## The 7 apps at a glance | App | Who can use it | What you can paper trade | Pretend money | Runs a strategy for you? | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | TradingView | Anyone, free | Stocks, forex, crypto, futures | Not stated | No | | thinkorswim paperMoney | Schwab clients, or 30 days with a Guest Pass | Stocks, options, futures, forex | $100,000 | No | | Webull paperTrade | Free | Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, crypto | Unlimited | Crypto grid bots only | | moomoo | Free, no brokerage account | Stocks, ETFs, options, futures | $1 million | No | | Interactive Brokers | Free trial | Most IBKR products, data delayed 10 to 15 minutes | Not stated | No | | Alpaca | Anyone with an email | US stocks, ETFs, crypto | $100,000 | With your own code | | Tactfolio | Free account | US stocks and ETFs. Hyperliquid perps, backtest and paper or testnet only | You choose | Yes, daily, no code | ## TradingView TradingView is a charting site with a free paper trading simulator. Its help page calls it "a completely risk-free simulator with no fees or catches." It works for almost every market TradingView charts, including stocks, forex, crypto and futures, and it is open worldwide. You place orders from an order ticket, the order book, or the chart itself. That makes it a good place to practice reading charts and placing orders by hand. ## thinkorswim paperMoney (Schwab) paperMoney is the practice mode of thinkorswim, the trading platform from Charles Schwab. You get $100,000 of virtual buying power and real-time market data. You can practice stocks, options, futures and forex. You need a Schwab account to log in. If you don't have one, Schwab's Guest Pass gives you 30 days in the same paperMoney simulator. ## Webull paperTrade Webull's paperTrade is free and covers stocks, ETFs, options, futures and crypto. Webull says you get unlimited virtual funds and can reset the account any time. You can practice multi-leg options trades and stock trades outside regular hours. It also lets you run simulated crypto grid bots, which buy and sell within a price range. ## moomoo moomoo's paper trading starts you with $1 million in virtual money. You can practice stocks, ETFs, options and futures with real-time quotes. moomoo says paper trading is free and "doesn't require the establishment of a brokerage account." It also runs paper trading contests from time to time. ## Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers offers a free trial of its platforms with simulated money. The trial includes IBKR Desktop, Trader Workstation and IBKR Mobile, and lets you test products, exchanges and order types. Prices and account values follow real market conditions, including commissions and fees. Market data in the trial is delayed by 10 to 15 minutes. ## Alpaca Alpaca is a broker built for software. Its docs say "anyone globally can create an Alpaca Paper Only Account" with just an email address. A new paper account starts with $100,000 and free real-time data from the IEX exchange. You can paper trade stocks, ETFs and crypto. Instead of resetting an account, you now create a new paper account and delete the old one. Alpaca has no strategy builder of its own. You send orders from your own code or from an app that connects to Alpaca. Our page on [Alpaca trading](https://tactfolio.com/alpaca-trading.md) shows the no-code options. ## Tactfolio Tactfolio paper trades a whole strategy, not single orders. You build the rules in a visual [builder](https://tactfolio.com/builder), or ask an [AI assistant](https://tactfolio.com/bots/claude-trading-bot.md) to build them. Then you [backtest](https://tactfolio.com/backtesting.md) the rules on decades of prices. When you start a [paper account](https://tactfolio.com/paper-trading.md), you pick its starting balance. About 15 minutes before each US close, Tactfolio checks the rules and trades if they call for a change. After the close you get an email with what changed. Tactfolio has limits. Stock strategies are long only and use daily prices, so you can't practice day trading, options or short selling. Crypto runs on Hyperliquid perps, which are backtest and paper or testnet only. When you trust a strategy, you can run the same rules in your own [Alpaca account](https://tactfolio.com/alpaca-trading.md). ## Practicing trades vs paper trading a strategy Most paper trading apps help you practice the act of trading. You decide each trade yourself, in the moment. That builds skill with orders and charts. Paper trading a strategy tests something else. You write the rules first and let them run. Then you see whether real prices and real timing match your plan. This is the step between a [backtest](https://tactfolio.com/learn/backtesting-explained.md) and real money. If a rule did well in a backtest but trades badly on paper, find out why before you risk anything. Our guide to [trading bots](https://tactfolio.com/bots.md) explains how a rules-based bot runs each day. ## How to choose - Pick the app that matches what you will trade with real money later. A paper test only helps if it uses the same market and the same rules. - If you will trade options or forex, use a broker that offers them, like thinkorswim or Webull. - If you plan to code a bot, start with Alpaca's paper account. - If you want rules you can read and test without code, start with Tactfolio, then move to Alpaca when you are ready. Paper results are not real results. Orders with real money can fill at worse prices or not at all. Paper trading also can't show how you will feel when real money falls. ## Common questions ### What is the best free paper trading app? It depends on what you want to practice. TradingView, Webull and moomoo are free for trading by hand, and none needs a funded brokerage account. Alpaca is free for testing code. Tactfolio is free for testing a whole strategy, and every feature is free until billing opens. ### Can I paper trade without a brokerage account? Yes. TradingView, moomoo, Alpaca's paper only account and Tactfolio all work without a funded brokerage account. thinkorswim needs a Schwab account, except for its 30-day Guest Pass. ### Can I paper trade a trading bot? Yes, with Alpaca or Tactfolio. On Alpaca, your own code sends paper orders through its API. On Tactfolio, a saved strategy runs on paper by itself once each trading day, with no code. See our [stock trading bot](https://tactfolio.com/bots/stock-trading-bot.md) page for an example. ### Is paper trading the same as backtesting? No. A backtest runs your rules on past prices, so it covers many years at once. Paper trading runs them from today on, so you learn slowly but nothing is tuned to the past. Use both. [Paper trading vs a backtest](https://tactfolio.com/paper-trading.md) compares them side by side. ### How long should I paper trade? There is no set time. Run it long enough to see many trades. A strategy that trades once a month needs months, not days. Compare what it did on paper with its backtest over the same dates. ### Can I paper trade options on Tactfolio? No. Tactfolio strategies hold US-listed stocks and ETFs, or cash. For options practice, thinkorswim, Webull and moomoo all offer paper options trading. ## Sources - [TradingView: paper trading main functionality](https://www.tradingview.com/support/solutions/43000516466-paper-trading-main-functionality/), accessed 2026-10-25 - [Schwab: thinkorswim paperMoney](https://www.schwab.com/trading/thinkorswim/paper-trading), accessed 2026-10-25 - [Webull paperTrade](https://www.webull.com/paper-trading), accessed 2026-10-25 - [Webull help: paper trading](https://www.webull.com/help/faq/11069-Paper-Trading), accessed 2026-10-25 - [moomoo paper trading](https://www.moomoo.com/us/papertrading), accessed 2026-10-25 - [Interactive Brokers free trial](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/free-trial.php), accessed 2026-10-25 - [Alpaca docs: paper trading](https://docs.alpaca.markets/docs/paper-trading), accessed 2026-10-25