Quantly vs Composer

Composer is strongest when you want everything in one place: strategy building, backtesting, and automated execution through Composer's own brokerage. Its Trading Pass unlocks live automation, IRA accounts, and options strategies. The free tier is genuinely useful for learning and refining ideas before committing capital. Historical backtests typically reach ~1993 at the earliest, depending on the ticker.

Quantly is strongest when you want transparent monthly pricing for both paper and live trading, a tree-based strategy editor, and the flexibility of your own Alpaca brokerage. Quantly Paper ($15/mo) includes automated paper execution. Quantly Pro ($25/mo) adds live trading. Quantly also supports importing Composer symphony JSON exports, reference blocks for reusing repeated logic in one place, and offers deeper history on select tickers - back to ~1962 where data is available.

Composer separates building from execution: you can build and backtest for free, but automated trading requires a Trading Pass ($32/mo on annual billing, or $40/mo monthly). That single pass covers unlimited automated strategies on Composer's platform.

Quantly charges for platform access from the start but includes automation in both tiers. Paper automation is available on the $15/mo Paper plan. Live automation is available on the $25/mo Pro plan. There is no separate "trading pass" add-on.

Composer and Quantly are the only platforms in this comparison with referral programs. Composer gives the referrer and referee 25% off per successful referral, stacking toward a free-for-life subscription after 4 referrals. Quantly gives both sides 20% off per referral, with a free lifetime subscription after 5 referrals.

QuantMage and ExxaHub do not offer referral discounts. If you plan to share the platform with friends or a trading community, compare how quickly each program reaches a free subscription.

Composer custodies assets through its integrated brokerage. This simplifies onboarding for investors who want a single app for strategy design and account management, including retirement accounts.

Quantly connects to your Alpaca account. You maintain the brokerage relationship directly with Alpaca while Quantly handles strategy logic, backtesting, and automated order generation. This model suits users who already use Alpaca, prefer separating platform fees from custody, or live outside the US in a region Alpaca supports.

Quantly lets you set a different trade time for each strategy, anywhere from 9:30 AM to 3:59 PM Eastern - including the last minute of the regular session. That matters when you run multiple strategies and want to stagger execution, align with specific data releases, or avoid a single end-of-day batch.

Composer typically executes automated trades in a narrow window around 3:50-3:55 PM ET. QuantMage and ExxaHub also tend to trade near 3:50 PM. If per-strategy scheduling through the trading day is important to your workflow, Quantly is the only platform in this comparison that offers it.

Quantly is the only platform in this comparison with reference blocks. Define a reusable sub-tree once, reference it wherever it appears in your strategy, and edit it in a single spot when logic changes. That matters for larger strategies where the same filter, weighting, or branch logic repeats across multiple sections.

Composer, QuantMage, and ExxaHub do not offer an equivalent. If you build complex multi-part strategies, reference blocks can reduce duplication and make maintenance much easier over time.

Quantly can import Composer symphony JSON exports and convert them into native strategy trees. After import, run a backtest and review the tree - complex symphonies may need small edits. See the import guide in Quantly documentation for step-by-step instructions.