Tradecopia is available as a desktop application and as two cloud-hosted plans. The core trade replication functionality is identical across all three — the difference is where the software runs and what that means for your hardware, connection, and setup.

You might need this article if:

The Pro plan runs as an application installed on your own computer. Tradecopia connects directly from your machine to your broker accounts using WebSocket connections — a real-time communication channel that keeps your accounts synchronised.

Because the software runs locally, your setup depends on your machine staying active:

What you need for a reliable desktop setup:
- A stable internet connection — wired Ethernet is strongly recommended over Wi-Fi
- A modern computer with sufficient CPU and RAM available during your trading session
- A clean OS environment — minimise background load from scheduled scans, downloads, and other resource-heavy applications

With a stable connection and capable hardware, the desktop plan can manage 50+ accounts simultaneously.

For full hardware and operating system requirements, see What are the system requirements for Tradecopia desktop?.

Pro+ Lite and Pro+ run on Tradecopia's infrastructure instead of your local machine. Your trading environment is hosted on a dedicated cloud instance (Pro+ Lite) or a dedicated server (Pro+) managed by Tradecopia on your behalf.

Because the software runs remotely:

Your environment on both cloud plans is isolated to you. No other user can see or access your groups, accounts, or settings.

On Pro+ Lite infrastructure: Pro+ Lite uses dedicated cloud instances that share underlying server capacity with other Pro+ Lite users for efficiency. Your trading environment remains isolated — your data, trades, groups, and settings are not accessible to or shared with other users. The resource pooling happens at the infrastructure level, not at the application level. This is meaningfully different from multi-tenant trade copiers where multiple users run inside the same application environment. Pro+ Lite does not work that way.

Where your orders originate from depends on where Tradecopia is running.

On the desktop Pro plan, follower copy orders are sent from the machine running the Tradecopia application. This is typically your own computer, but some desktop users run Tradecopia on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) — in that case, follower copy orders come from the VPS IP address rather than your local device. Leader trades originate from wherever you place them through your trading platform. If you run both your trading platform and Tradecopia on the same machine, all activity for those accounts comes from that machine's IP.

On Pro+ Lite and Pro+, your follower copy orders originate from Tradecopia's infrastructure — not your local machine. Leader trades still originate from wherever you place them through your trading platform.

For prop firm traders: Tradecopia is whitelisted with the prop firms it supports. Those firms are aware of Tradecopia sessions and how they originate — this covers all plan types and setup configurations, including desktop users running on a VPS. This is recognised as legitimate trading activity and is not flagged against your account. You do not need to take any action.

If you are on a prop firm that Tradecopia does not yet support, or you have a specific question about how your firm handles third-party copy trading, confirm directly with your firm. For a full overview of platform compatibility and what to verify before connecting, see Is my prop firm compatible with Tradecopia?.

Regardless of which plan you are on, Tradecopia connects to your broker accounts via WebSocket connections. A WebSocket is a persistent, real-time communication channel that allows Tradecopia to detect fills on your leader and send instructions to your followers instantly.

WebSocket connections can be interrupted by:

Tradecopia automatically attempts to reconnect when a disruption occurs. On the desktop plan, your local network must also remain stable. On cloud plans, Tradecopia's infrastructure handles the reconnect regardless of your local connection state.

The right choice depends on your trading workflow. Key questions to consider:

This article covers the architectural differences. For a full side-by-side comparison of features and pricing across all three plans, see What's the difference between Tradecopia Pro, Pro+ Lite, and Pro+?.