54.6k stars · GPL-3.0 · 2026.8 (2026-08-31, ungh). GitHub's page read 2026.6 of 29 June 2026 and was one release behind · Track this in Scout
A crypto trading bot you run yourself, with backtesting, parameter optimisation and paper trading in the same tool.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
Freqtrade is a Python framework for automated cryptocurrency trading. You write a strategy as a Python class; it handles connecting to exchanges, placing orders, managing positions, and reporting. It includes a backtesting engine, a dry-run mode, a web interface and a Telegram bot for control.
What it is good for. Anyone who wants to test a trading idea properly before putting money behind it. The pipeline it gives you is the useful part: download historical data, backtest, optimise, paper trade, then live. It also suits people who want their rules running on a small machine of their own rather than on somebody else's platform.
- Backtesting, hyperparameter optimisation, dry-run and live trading are all in one tool with the same strategy file, so nothing is rewritten between stages.
- Very active and open about breaking changes. Release 2026.8, dated 31 August 2026, states plainly that a caching change alters behaviour by default.
- A large community, many published example strategies, and real documentation.
- GPL-3.0. Using it privately is unrestricted; distributing something built on it is not.
- It is cryptocurrency exchanges only. There is no support for shares, futures on regulated venues, or foreign exchange through a broker.
- A profitable backtest is not evidence. The tool makes overfitting easy and comfortable, and the honest use of it is mostly discovering that an idea does not work. Support for the Bitmart exchange was removed entirely in 2026.8 after that exchange closed, which is a reminder of where the other risks sit.
- hummingbot/hummingbot
Aimed at market making and arbitrage rather than at strategy rules, and it covers decentralised exchanges too.
Track this in Scout - jesse-ai/jesse
A smaller Python bot with a cleaner research workflow and a narrower set of exchanges.
Track this in Scout - QuantConnect/Lean
A far larger engine covering shares, options and futures as well as crypto, in C# and Python.
Track this in Scout
git clone https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade.git cd freqtrade ./setup.sh -i source .venv/bin/activate freqtrade create-userdir --userdir user_data freqtrade new-config --config user_data/config.json
