Data cost vs software cost
Data cost and software cost are two separate lines of a trading budget: the software licence pays for the charting and analysis tools, while the data cost pays the exchange and the provider for the right to receive trades, depth and history. Comparing platforms only on the licence price omits a line that is often larger and more variable.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
The four lines of a real budget
The comparison guide on this site gives a hypothetical example: a $20 licence plus $35 of required extras costs $55 a month, while a $40 licence plus $10 of extras costs $50. Those are invented inputs, not vendor prices, and they show why the headline licence can rank platforms the wrong way.
| Line | Paid to | Varies with |
|---|---|---|
| Software licence | The platform vendor | Tier, monthly or annual billing |
| Required add-ons | The platform vendor or a third party | Modules such as depth history or options data |
| Data-provider connection | Broker, Rithmic, Databento or similar | Connection type, number of sessions |
| Exchange entitlements | The exchange through the provider | Product groups, depth level, professional status |
What changes the data line
- Instrument scope: one exchange product group versus several.
- Depth: price-level depth (MBP) and order-level depth (MBO) can be priced differently.
- History: historical trades and historical depth may be separate services with their own fees.
- Status: professional subscribers pay different exchange fees from non-professional ones.
- Sessions: some providers limit concurrent connections and charge for more.
In Senzoukria
The software price is published on the pricing page: an eligible first month at $9, then $29 per month, or $240 per year; a card is required and there is no seven- or fourteen-day free software trial. Exchange and market-data charges are separate and billed by the providers. Inside the desktop, the Account page hosts data feeds, brokers and the local cache; the Databento entry reports the licence measured on the user's own key, and the Databento source is optional, described as CME tick history and depth for backtests and replay, per dataset licence. The Binance Spot public feed requires no subscription, which is why crypto is the entry point for learning the notation without funding a futures account.
How to compare two platforms fairly
- Use the same instrument, contract and session on each.
- List every required module for the intended workflow, not the base tier.
- Add the provider connection and exchange entitlements the workflow actually needs.
- Check renewal rates, taxes, currency and whether cancelling a trial stops a pending charge.
- Record the total recurring cost before subscribing, together with the coverage you verified.
Related
- Free footprint charts: tools, trials and data limits
- DOM trading software
- Data licence and redistribution
- Compare platforms
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Frequently asked questions
- Why does a cheaper platform sometimes cost more overall?
- Because the licence is not the whole bill. If the cheaper platform needs a paid depth-history module and a separate options feed to do the same job, its total can exceed a pricier licence that bundles them. Compute total cost as software plus add-ons plus provider fees plus exchange entitlements.
- Does a paid software licence give me any market data?
- Not by itself. The licence pays for the tools. Data comes through your own broker or provider account and its exchange entitlements. Some vendors bundle a data connection in higher tiers, so read the tier description rather than assuming.