ShowMyTrades vs Myfxbook vs MQL5: Which One Actually Verifies Your Trades Best?

If you're trying to verify a trader's track record, or you're a trader trying to prove yours, you've probably run into three names over and over: ShowMyTrades, Myfxbook, and MQL5. Two of them have been around for over a decade. One is much newer. So which one is actually worth using? We broke down the real differences in features, pricing, and trustworthiness so you don't have to test all three yourself.

A Quick History of Each Platform

Myfxbook launched in 2010 and has become one of the most recognized names in forex performance tracking. It supports MT4, MT5, cTrader, Strategy Trader, and TradeStation, and connects to over a thousand brokers. Its community forum and broker comparison tools have built a loyal user base over the years.

MQL5 is the official platform from MetaQuotes, the company behind MetaTrader itself. Since it's built into the MT4/MT5 ecosystem, signal verification on MQL5 is tightly integrated with the platform traders already use daily. It also doubles as a marketplace for Expert Advisors and indicators.

ShowMyTrades is the newest of the three. It started as a personal project to solve a simple problem: tracking performance across multiple MT4/MT5 accounts without paying for premium analytics. It officially opened to the public with real-time sync and public profile features, aiming to give traders institutional-grade analytics without the paywalls that older platforms eventually introduced.

Feature Comparison

Where ShowMyTrades Actually Wins

The biggest advantage ShowMyTrades has is simplicity. Every core feature is free, with no paywall pushing you toward a premium tier once you want to compare multiple accounts or pull detailed stats. Myfxbook started the same way but has added paid features over the years as the platform grew. ShowMyTrades, being newer, hasn't gone down that path yet, and the team has stated that staying free is part of their core mission.

The interface is also noticeably cleaner. Myfxbook's design hasn't changed much since its early years, which some traders find functional but others find dated. ShowMyTrades was built more recently with a modern, widget-friendly layout that's easier to embed on a website, which is exactly why we use it to display our own live performance.

For multi-account management, ShowMyTrades lets you compare live versus demo accounts and different strategies side by side without needing a separate subscription tier. This is a feature that took Myfxbook years to refine, and ShowMyTrades launched with it built in.

Where Myfxbook and MQL5 Still Have the Edge

Longevity matters in this business. Myfxbook has over a decade of track record and a massive user base, which means more brokers integrate with it directly and more traders trust the name simply because they've seen it before. If you need to connect a cTrader or TradeStation account, Myfxbook is currently your only real option among these three, since ShowMyTrades and MQL5 are both MT4/MT5 focused.

MQL5's biggest strength is that it's built directly into the platform most traders already use. If you're running an Expert Advisor from the MQL5 marketplace, your signal verification and your trading tool live in the same ecosystem, which simplifies things if you're already deep into that workflow. It also has the broadest reach among traders who specifically search for MetaTrader-native tools.

Both platforms also benefit from years of accumulated reviews, forum discussions, and third-party articles that reinforce their credibility. That kind of trust takes time to build, and it's an area where ShowMyTrades, being newer, is still catching up.

Which One Should You Trust for Verification?

The honest answer is that all three are legitimate third-party verification tools, and a trader using any of them is already more credible than one only showing you screenshots. The real question is what you personally value most.

• Choose Myfxbook if you need broker variety beyond MetaTrader, or you want access to a large, established community for additional research.
• Choose MQL5 if you're already deep into the MetaTrader ecosystem and want your signal verification tied directly to your trading platform.
• Choose ShowMyTrades if you want a free, modern, no-clutter way to verify MT4/MT5 performance with a clean public profile that's easy to share and embed.

For what it's worth, we use ShowMyTrades to display our own performance precisely because it's free, real-time, and doesn't require visitors to create an account just to see our numbers. You can view our live equity curve here and judge the transparency for yourself.

A Word of Caution on Any Verification Platform

No matter which platform a trader uses, verification only proves the numbers are real, not that future performance will match the past. Always check how long the track record has been running, look for consistency rather than occasional spikes, and confirm the account is genuinely connected and synced rather than manually updated. If you're new to evaluating a trader's history, our guide on whether copy trading is actually profitable goes deeper into what separates a trustworthy track record from a misleading one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion: They're All Legitimate, Pick What Fits Your Workflow

There's no single winner here. Myfxbook and MQL5 earned their reputation over many years and still offer things ShowMyTrades doesn't, particularly broader platform support and a longer community history. ShowMyTrades makes up for being newer with a cleaner experience, a genuinely free model, and features built for how traders actually want to share performance today. The most important thing isn't which logo is on the verification page. It's whether the track record itself is consistent, long enough to mean something, and easy for you to check without jumping through hoops.