CompareVela vs thinkorswim · 2026
Vela: state-of-the-art charts, no brokerage account required.
Vela is our next-generation charting platform: charts engineered in-house, footprint and TPO built from real trades, unlimited Price Alerts, paper trading, Replay, and Quant, our coding agent, built in, on a free account. Here is how Vela compares with thinkorswim, Charles Schwab’s trading platform, with thinkorswim’s wins marked as wins.
The short answer
18 rows, 8 thinkorswim sourcesSources
Choose Vela if you want charts without opening a brokerage account: footprint and TPO from real trades, unlimited Price Alerts, Pine Script® through PineTS, and Quant, our coding agent, built in.
Stay with thinkorswim if you trade stocks, options, and futures live through Schwab, want phone apps, or build in thinkScript.
At a glance.
Both columns checked November 3, 2026
- Included
- Partial, or paid plans only
- Not included
- Not listed on its official pages
| Feature | Vela | thinkorswim | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you need to open it | Vela · Included: A free LuxAlgo account, no credit card and no brokerage account. | thinkorswim · Partial: A Schwab brokerage account. | thinkorswim platforms (Schwab) |
| Footprint and TPO | Vela · Included: Footprint and TPO on every plan, including Free, built from real trades. | thinkorswim · Partial: No footprint chart among its chart types. | Chart modes (thinkorswim learning center) |
| Price alerts | Vela · Included: Unlimited Price Alerts on every plan, Free included. | thinkorswim · Partial: Customizable alerts are part of the platform; Schwab’s thinkorswim pages publish no alert counts. | paperMoney (Schwab) |
| Coding agent | Vela · Included: Quant, our coding agent, built into Vela on every plan. | thinkorswim · Not listed: Not listed on Schwab’s thinkorswim pages (checked November 3, 2026). | thinkorswim desktop (Schwab) |
| Pine Script® | Vela · Included: Runs as written through PineTS: paste a script, press Run, or have Quant port an older one to v6. | thinkorswim · Not included: Doesn’t run Pine Script®: scripts are written in thinkScript. | thinkScript reference |
| Paper trading | Vela · Included: A $100,000 paper account on every plan, Free included. | thinkorswim · Included: paperMoney®, its simulator, with $100,000 of virtual buying power, at no cost to Schwab clients. | paperMoney (Schwab) |
| Live trading | Vela · Not included: Not on Vela: orders fill on paper. | thinkorswim · Included: Live trading through a Schwab account: stocks, options, futures, and forex. | thinkorswim platforms (Schwab) |
| Apps | Vela · Partial: In the browser, and a free desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. | thinkorswim · Included: Desktop, web, and mobile apps for Schwab clients. | thinkorswim platforms (Schwab) |
Charts
The engine, the layouts, the chart styles, and the tools you draw with.
Charting engine
Vela
State-of-the-art charts engineered in-house, on the open-source core of Vela by LuxAlgo.
thinkorswim
Charts inside Schwab’s trading platform, with 400+ technical studies, Stock Hacker scans, and order entry beside them.[7]
Chart types
Vela
Candles, bars, line, area, baseline, and Heikin Ashi, plus footprint and TPO.
thinkorswim
Area, bar, candle, candle trend, Equivolume, Heikin Ashi, and line, plus Monkey Bars and Seasonality modes.[2]
Multi-chart layouts
Vela
16 charts per tab on every plan, including Free, with up to 16 linked charts in one desktop window.
thinkorswim
A chart grid of independent chart cells on one screen, saved with its studies, patterns, and drawing sets.[4]
Orderflow and data
The flow inside every candle, where the data comes from, and the markets you can chart.
Footprint and TPO
Vela
Footprint and TPO on every plan, including Free, built from real trades. Orderflow lookback scales: 1 day on Free, up to full history on AI Ultra.
thinkorswim
No footprint chart among its chart types. Monkey Bars, its time-at-price profile mode, is built in.[3]
Markets
Vela
Crypto, US stocks and ETFs, forex, and commodities on every plan, plus CME futures on paid plans.
thinkorswim
What a Schwab account trades: stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and forex.[1]
Alerts
What you can alert on, how many you get, and where they reach you.
Price alerts
Vela
Unlimited Price Alerts on every plan, Free included.
thinkorswim
Customizable alerts are part of the platform; Schwab’s thinkorswim pages publish no alert counts.[6]
Where alerts reach you
Vela
In-app, email, browser notifications, Telegram, Discord, and Slack on every plan, and webhooks from Essential up: up to 16 destinations per alert.
thinkorswim
Schwab’s thinkorswim pages list no alert delivery to Telegram, Discord, Slack, or webhooks.[1]
Code and strategies
Who writes the code, what language runs it, and how a strategy is tested.
Coding agent
Vela
Quant, our coding agent, built into Vela on every plan: it reads and draws on your chart, writes indicator and strategy code, and tests it against history. Free includes Quant usage that refills every 5 hours and every week.
thinkorswim
Not listed on Schwab’s thinkorswim pages (checked November 3, 2026). thinkScript has a condition wizard to start from.[7]
Scripting language
Vela
Pine Script® v6 and v5 run on Vela as written through PineTS, our open-source runtime, with a Pine editor beside the chart.
thinkorswim
thinkScript, its own language, for studies, strategies, scans, and conditional orders.[5]
Pine Script®
Vela
Runs as written through PineTS: paste a script, press Run, or have Quant port an older one to v6.
thinkorswim
Doesn’t run Pine Script®: scripts are written in thinkScript.[5]
Indicator library
Vela
The LuxAlgo Library, the largest indicator library in trading: hundreds of free indicators on Free, and the full Library of 800+ advanced tools from Essential.
thinkorswim
400+ technical studies, and thinkScript for your own.[7]
Trading and practice
Paper accounts, replaying the past, keeping a journal, and what reaches a live market.
Paper trading
Vela
On every plan, Free included: a $100,000 paper account, up to 5 accounts, and market, limit, and stop orders from the chart with a stop loss and a take profit.
thinkorswim
paperMoney®, its simulator, with $100,000 of virtual buying power, at no cost to Schwab clients.[6]
Replay
Vela
On every plan with a free account: pick a start bar, play it forward, and trade it on a replay account of its own, with a results card when it ends. Up to 16 charts replay on one clock.
thinkorswim
OnDemand replays a trading day you pick, with playback controls and a simulated account.[8]
Live trading
Vela
Not on Vela: orders fill on paper. From Essential up, Custom Alerts reach your own bot over signed webhooks.
thinkorswim
Live trading through a Schwab account: stocks, options, futures, and forex.[1]
Platforms
Where it runs and what you need to open it.
Apps
Vela
In the browser, and a free desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
thinkorswim
Desktop, web, and mobile apps for Schwab clients.[1]
What you need to open it
Vela
A free LuxAlgo account, no credit card and no brokerage account.
thinkorswim
A Schwab brokerage account: no minimum funding to open one and use thinkorswim, per Schwab, with a Guest Pass to try it first.[1]
Plans
What you get for nothing and how the paid plans are sold.
Free plan
Vela
Free, no credit card: 16 charts per tab, unlimited tools per chart, unlimited Price Alerts and 5 Custom Alerts, the Orderflow suite with 1-day lookback, Replay, a $100,000 paper account, and Quant usage that refills every 5 hours and every week.
thinkorswim
No platform fee for Schwab clients; trades carry Schwab’s standard pricing.[1]
Paid plans
Vela
Essential, Premium, Ultimate, and AI Ultra, monthly or annual, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment.
thinkorswim
None: the platform suite is free for Schwab clients.[1]
Which one.
Vela
For traders who want state-of-the-art charts without opening a brokerage account: 16 charts per tab, footprint and TPO built from real trades, unlimited Price Alerts that reach Telegram, Discord, and Slack, Replay and paper trading, Pine Script® through PineTS, and Quant, our coding agent, built in. Paid plans add live CME futures data at no extra cost. Free to start.
thinkorswim
For Schwab clients who trade stocks, options, futures, and forex live from the chart, want desktop, web, and phone apps from one broker, and build their own studies and scans in thinkScript.
Questions traders ask about Vela and thinkorswim
Sources
thinkorswim · checked November 3, 2026
Vela · checked November 3, 2026
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See it on a chart.
Free to start, no credit card: 16 charts per tab, unlimited Price Alerts, the Orderflow suite on real trades, Replay, a $100,000 paper account, and Quant, our coding agent, from the first chart. The easiest charts you’ll ever switch to.
thinkorswim® and paperMoney® are registered trademarks of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. or its affiliates. thinkorswim facts checked November 3, 2026. Vela™ is a trademark of LuxAlgo Global, LLC. Vela runs Pine Script® through the independently developed PineTS engine and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or in any way officially associated with TradingView, Inc. “Pine Script”, “TradingView” and “Lightweight Charts” are trademarks or registered trademarks of TradingView, Inc. Third-party details are taken from the vendors' public documentation and may change; corrections are welcome at LuxAlgo.