Cryptowatch vs. TabTrader: All You Need to Know

If you’re reading this blog post, it means you’re in the market for a one-stop trading solution that lets you monitor and trade your crypto portfolio.

With so many exchanges available and new coins and features constantly springing up, now more than ever it pays to have a convenient overview of everything that’s going on.

That’s where TabTrader comes in, and over the years, we’ve been streamlining the crypto trading process and helping you track the market with ease.

However, we’re not alone — as crypto becomes more mainstream, more and more trading suites have appeared. The question, of course, is which one is right for you.

This post takes a look at the major differences between TabTrader and Cryptowatch, a crypto trading companion which also offers trading on multiple exchanges on a single platform. We analyze how each handles the important business of allowing you to track and trade the crypto markets. No bias here — we say what we see, and hope you find our overview useful.

Cryptowatch overview and key features

Cryptowatch is first and foremost a web-based platform that allows traders to track crypto markets and trade on multiple exchanges from within a single interface.

It’s been around — Artur Sapek, director of engineering at major U.S. exchange Kraken, founded it back in 2014 and it remains owned by Kraken and its operator Payward.

Since then, Cryptowatch has expanded into one of the industry’s best-known portfolio tools for traders, and together with Kraken’s own trading aids offers a trading solution that suits both entry-level rookies and the most technically proficient gurus out there.

Cryptowatch is (currently) centered on its web and desktop platforms. Just as with TabTrader, this is where users can set up an account and begin using the key technical features such as connecting their exchange accounts and placing orders.

The companion to the web interface is Cryptowatch Desktop, which gives users the same experience for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

What about smartphones? Cryptowatch released the first iteration of its app, Cryptowatch Mobile, last year. So far, however, this has a limited range of features compared to its flagship products, and acts more as a market tracker than a trading suite.

On the app, users can scan any of over 10,000 markets, create watchlists and set alerts, allowing them to get notified of specific changes or events in specific markets.

Cryptowatch plans to expand its app to match the scope of its web and desktop products in the future.

TabTrader review (key features)

You may already understand the main premise of TabTrader: we offer you an all-in-one crypto trading suite which allows you to trade like a pro without the pain of navigating endless exchanges and their peculiarities.

The benefits of the TabTrader app (and Cryptowatch, for that matter) become obvious as soon as you sign in — all your active markets are at your fingertips in the same place, plus you can trade, monitor and set alerts for them.

What’s more, becoming more professional as a trader no longer comes with the headache of understanding and remembering technical specifics unique to one exchange or another. You can build and execute a strategy on any supported exchange and the experience will look and feel the same.

TabTrader was designed first and foremost as a tool for mobile — unlike Cryptowatch, this is our core offering and the one that users overwhelmingly trade with.

The TabTrader app lets you monitor markets, create watchlists for your favorite pairs, set alerts, import and trade from exchange accounts via API and more.

We launched the TabTrader Web (which you can check out here), which offers those same features, last year.

User interface (UI)

Let’s compare the user interface (UI) across Cryptowatch and TabTrader. For this, we’ll use Cryptowatch’s web interface and the TabTrader app, as these are closest to one another in terms of features.

Sign in to Cryptowatch and you’re presented with the Overview screen. From here, you can navigate elsewhere via the toolbar at the top of the screen; this by default has a direct link to the Portfolio screen which contains exchange account information and acts as a launchpad for trading. There is also a search function and settings tool, while you can quickly switch to specifics such as alerts and watchlists using the panel on the right.

Just as with TabTrader, the first thing you see when opening Cryptowatch is live crypto pairs on specific exchanges. As such, the UI for both is essentially similar — trading data is privileged above all else, something which is essential as urgent trading requires ease-of-access with heavy navigation.

On TabTrader, however, the array of tools and data is kept minimized on sign-in, while Cryptowatch opts to display more information immediately. Part of this is down to the app versus web version, but the TabTrader web app also retains a cleaner design overall.

For details about specific aspects of the two products, keep reading.

Charts and Indicators

Charts on Cryptowatch and TabTrader are both designed to be customized easily.

The chart types (candlestick, bar, Heikin-Ashi, etc.) are grouped together with parameters such as changing what constitutes the start of the trading week and session — this is especially useful when trading traditional markets such as futures.

Below the chart price data are key indicators. In Cryptowatch web, these are set as volume data, moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) and relative strength index (RSI) as default, but are of course fully customizable.

Alongside the chart itself are key order book details such as market depth and the latest trades performed on the exchange being viewed.

Alerts

Creating an alert is done from within the chart page itself. On Cryptowatch Mobile, alerts consist of a price or volume trigger which is then set.

TabTrader offers customizable alert features such as persistent alerts, color-coding, presets for price movements, etc., along with the ability to annotate alerts.

Cryptowatch’s web interface likewise offers the full range of alert customization options.

Watchlists

Both TabTrader and Cryptowatch place significant emphasis on the concept of watchlists.

These allow traders instant access to currency pairs of particular interest to them without having to navigate through the entire collection of pairs or even use a search tool.

Open the TabTrader app and the watchlists screen opens by default as the first thing you see. There is no unrelated content on this screen, which can be customized as you wish — tickers can be dragged around into any order and separate watchlists can be created under tabs at the top of the screen.

Cryptowatch likewise opens with the watchlist screen on mobile, while as mentioned, the web interface launches with the overview screen.

Cryptowatch’s watchlist tickers cannot be dragged into a different order from the watchlist screen on mobile. Instead, this needs to be done by navigating to a specific editing tool.

Pricing

TabTrader and Cryptowatch differ considerably on paid services.

TabTrader’s core offering includes everything necessary to start benefiting from cross-exchange analysis and trading, and less intensive traders will do just fine with its range of free features.

Should you need more, TabTrader PRO is a subscription service which expands the tools and flexibility your account offers for a flat fee of €12 (around $13) per month.

We in fact offer PRO for free as part of giveaways and promotions, so be sure to follow TabTrader on Twitter and social media to have a chance of becoming a PRO user without any extra cost.

Cryptowatch, meanwhile, has a more complex approach to chargeable add-ons.

Instead of a flat rate, the product opts for an ‘a la carte’ approach, meaning that users choose paid products and services based on their needs.

This has the benefit of avoiding payment for things you don’t need, but on the flipside, the choice of options can seem bewildering at first. Add to that Cryptowatch’s credits scheme and its associated special offers and the picture gets even more confusing.

On that note, TabTrader has also launched an in-house token. More than a credit, TabTrader Token (TTT) is a full-fledged cryptocurrency on Solana which we’ll be rolling out across our platform in future.

Cryptowatch vs. TabTrader comparison

Here’s a summary of what you can do with TabTrader depending on what account type you’re using.

Cryptowatch has an a la carte pricing model, meaning that account features differ depending on how much you choose to pay for them.

Pros & cons