---
title: "Vela™ vs TradingView Advanced Charts vs Lightweight Charts (2026)"
description: "Four charting libraries, row by row: TradingView Lightweight Charts, Vela™, Vela™ Pro and TradingView Advanced Charts. Chart types, footprints, indicators, Pine Script®, drawings, data, licensing and what each actually costs. Checked September 2026."
canonical: https://www.luxalgo.com/vela/compare/
---

# Vela™ vs TradingView Advanced Charts vs Lightweight Charts (2026)

> Four charting libraries, row by row: TradingView Lightweight Charts, Vela™, Vela™ Pro and TradingView Advanced Charts. Chart types, footprints, indicators, Pine Script®, drawings, data, licensing and what each actually costs. Checked September 2026.

TradingView Lightweight Charts™, Vela™, Vela™ Pro and TradingView Advanced Charts, chapter by chapter. Marks: ✓ included, ± partial, paid or by agreement, ✗ not included. Facts checked September 2026.

## Price

- TradingView Lightweight Charts™: $0. Apache-2.0. TradingView attribution required, no tier removes it.
- TradingView Advanced Charts: Unpublished. Free with attribution for approved companies. Beyond that, sales; teams report quotes from $144,000 per year.
- Vela™: $0. Apache-2.0. Small attribution mark; any paid license removes it.
- Vela™ Pro: $1,199. Per developer per year, self-serve. Business $20,000 per year flat, unlimited developers, white label.

## 01 Charting

The renderer, the price styles, the orderflow views, and how many charts one screen holds.

Included, out of 9 rows: TV Lightweight 2 · TV Advanced Charts 4 · Vela™ 5 · Vela™ Pro 7.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Renderer | ± HTML5 canvas (2D). | ± HTML5 canvas (2D). | ✓ Native WebGL2 with a canvas2d fallback. Built for deep history and streaming updates. | ✓ Same renderer. |
| Price styles | ± 6: candlestick, bar, line, area, baseline, histogram. | ✓ 13 built in, including Heikin Ashi, Renko, Kagi and Point & Figure. | ± Candles, bars, line, area, baseline. More through the plugin SDK. Heikin Ashi not yet native. | ± Same styles, plus footprint and TPO as full interfaces. |
| Footprint charts | ✗ No. | ✗ Not in Advanced Charts. | ✗ Not in the open-source core. | ✓ Native footprint interface: bid and ask volume stacked at every price, imbalances highlighted. |
| TPO / Market Profile | ✗ No. | ✗ Not in Advanced Charts. | ✗ Not in the open-source core. | ✓ Native TPO interface: letter profiles per session, value areas and points of control. |
| Multi-pane | ✓ Yes, since version 5. | ✓ Yes. | ✓ Indicators on their own panes, resize and maximise. | ✓ Same. |
| Multi-chart layouts | ✗ None. Compose and synchronise several charts yourself. | ± Single chart. Multi-chart layouts are in the separate Trading Platform product. | ✓ Grid layouts (2, 4, 8 and custom) under one topbar, with crosshair, style and drawing sync groups. | ✓ Same. |
| Sessions and extended hours | ✗ None built in. You filter the bars. | ✓ Yes, through the datafeed’s session definitions. | ✓ Regular or extended session per market, plus session highlight bands. | ✓ Same. |
| Market replay | ✗ No. | ✗ Not in Advanced Charts. Bar Replay is a Trading Platform feature. | ✗ Not yet. | ✗ Not yet. |
| Theming | ✓ Every colour and font is an option. | ✓ Custom CSS themes and overrides. | ✓ Dark and light themes, per-element settings, a settings schema the host can edit. | ✓ Same. |

## 02 Indicators & Pine Script®

What is built in, what your users can write, and whether the scripts they already own will run.

Included, out of 10 rows: TV Lightweight 0 · TV Advanced Charts 2 · Vela™ 7 · Vela™ Pro 10.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Built-in indicators | ✗ None. You compute every series and pass it in. | ✓ 107 built-in studies. | ✓ 70+ indicators, with new ones added through Pine Script® or the plugin SDK. | ✓ 70+ built in, plus 800+ indicators from the LuxAlgo Library. |
| Orderflow indicators | ✗ No. | ± Volume profile studies and VWAP. No delta, footprint or trade-count tools. | ✗ Not in the open-source core. | ✓ Volume Delta, Volume Bubbles, Volume Profiles, Trades Count, Volume Tails, Bar Stats. Built from real trades. |
| Indicator library included | ✗ No. | ✗ No third-party library. Built-ins only. | ✗ The LuxAlgo Library is free for personal use; commercial use needs a seat. | ✓ The LuxAlgo Library preloaded in the indicator menu and cleared for commercial use. |
| Pine Script® on the chart | ✗ No scripting layer of any kind. | ✗ Not available. Pine Script® stays on tradingview.com; the library takes JavaScript studies only. | ✓ Native Pine Script® v5 and v6 through Vela-PineTS, our open-source runtime addon. Paste the source, get the indicator. | ✓ PineTS runtime built in and commercially licensed. No addon, no AGPL obligations in your product. |
| Built-in script editor | ✗ No. | ✗ No editor. Studies are compiled into your build. | ± addIndicator takes a source string; an editor is a textarea away. | ✓ A Pine Script® editor wired to the runtime: write or paste, run, inject with structured errors. |
| Custom indicators | ± Your own series, or plugins built on series and pane primitives. | ± JavaScript custom studies written against the library’s own API. | ✓ Pine Script® source, or native TypeScript indicators through the plugin SDK. | ✓ Same. |
| Inputs become settings | ✗ No dialog. Build your own UI. | ✓ Study inputs render in the study dialog. | ✓ Every input.* declaration renders as a settings dialog automatically. | ✓ Same. |
| Strategies and trade markers | ✗ No. | ± Strategy display exists for built-in strategies. Custom strategies are not part of the library. | ✓ strategy() scripts run; entries and exits draw on the chart. Research, not prophecy. | ✓ Same. |
| Alerts | ✗ No. | ✗ Not in Advanced Charts. Alerts are a Trading Platform feature. | ✓ alert() and alertcondition() fire as events. The workspace aggregates them in a topbar bell. | ✓ Same. |
| Off-main-thread scripting | ✗ Not applicable. | ✗ Studies run on the main thread. | ✓ PineWorkerEngine runs scripts in a Web Worker so heavy indicators never block painting. | ✓ Same. |

## 03 Licensing & Cost

Who is allowed to use it, what it says on the invoice, and what it says on your chart.

Included, out of 10 rows: TV Lightweight 6 · TV Advanced Charts 0 · Vela™ 6 · Vela™ Pro 7.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| License | ✓ Apache-2.0. | ± Proprietary agreement. Free with attribution for approved companies; not open source. | ✓ Apache-2.0. | ± Commercial license, one seat. Terms published as the Developer License Agreement. |
| Source code | ✓ Public on GitHub and npm. | ✗ Closed. A private GitHub repository you are invited to after approval. | ✓ Public on GitHub and npm. Fork it, read it, vendor it. | ± Pro extensions are proprietary; the core underneath stays Apache-2.0 and public. |
| How you get it | ✓ npm install lightweight-charts. | ✗ Submit an access request. Wait for approval. Accept an invitation. | ✓ npm install @luxalgo/vela. No form. | ✓ Buy a seat by card, self-serve. Business by card or Stripe invoice. |
| Who may use it | ✓ Anyone. | ✗ Companies, for public web projects or applications. Personal, hobby, study and testing use is excluded by the agreement. | ✓ Anyone: individuals, startups, enterprises, students. | ✓ Anyone with a seat. Business for companies under 100,000 end users and $25M revenue; Enterprise above that. |
| Redistribution | ✓ Allowed under Apache-2.0. | ✗ Prohibited. No part of the library may appear in a public repository. | ✓ Allowed under Apache-2.0, in public repositories included. | ± Business and Enterprise carry OEM and redistribution rights; the Developer seat does not. |
| Attribution | ✗ A TradingView link or logo is required and there is no tier that removes it. | ± TradingView attribution required under the free agreement. | ± A small mark by default. Any paid license removes it. | ✓ None. Zero LuxAlgo branding. |
| Published pricing | ✓ Free, and nothing to buy. | ✗ None published. Removing the branding or going beyond the free agreement is a sales conversation; teams report quotes starting around $144,000 per year. | ✓ Free. | ✓ $1,199 per developer per year. Business $20,000 per year flat. On the page, with a checkout button. |
| White label and OEM | ✗ No. | ± By agreement with sales. | ✗ Not without a paid license. | ✓ White label with any seat; OEM and redistribution rights on Business and Enterprise. |
| Pine Script® runtime license | ✗ Not applicable. | ✗ No Pine Script® runtime exists outside tradingview.com. | ± Vela-PineTS and PineTS are AGPL-3.0: free for open-source stacks. | ✓ PineTS commercial license included in the seat. Closed-source products are covered. |
| Support and SLA | ✗ Community only. | ± Support for licensees through the private repository. | ✗ Community only: GitHub issues and discussions. | ✓ Support tier per license; Enterprise adds a written SLA with severity-based response targets. |

## 04 Drawings & Workspace

The tools a trader reaches for, and the chrome around the chart you would otherwise build.

Included, out of 7 rows: TV Lightweight 1 · TV Advanced Charts 4 · Vela™ 7 · Vela™ Pro 7.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Drawing tools | ✗ None built in. Community plugins cover a few. | ✓ 84 built-in tools. | ✓ 76 interactive tools: trend lines, channels, Fibonacci, harmonics, shapes, annotations, a measure ruler. | ✓ 76, the same suite. |
| Undo, magnet, object tree | ✗ No. | ✓ Undo and redo, magnet, object tree. | ✓ Undo and redo, a three-state magnet, lock and reorder, an object tree, keyboard shortcuts you can remap. | ✓ Same. |
| Drawings survive reloads | ✗ Not applicable. | ± Yes, through a save and load adapter you host. | ✓ Anchored to bars across pan, zoom and timeframe changes; persisted to JSON. | ✓ Same. |
| Symbol search and timeframes | ✗ None. Build it. | ✓ Built in, fed by your datafeed’s search. | ✓ Topbar with symbol search, timeframe entry, style and layout dropdowns, indicator picker. | ✓ Same. |
| Keyboard workflow | ✗ None built in. | ✓ Keyboard shortcuts for common actions. | ✓ One keyboard map for the whole workspace: tools, timeframes, layouts, fit. | ✓ Same. |
| Persisted state | ✗ No. | ± Layouts and drawings save to a storage endpoint you implement. | ✓ One state document for layouts, indicators, drawings and settings. localStorage by default; bring your own storage. | ✓ Same. |
| Headless mode | ✓ It is only a series renderer, so yes by definition. | ✗ The widget is the product. | ✓ Use the core without any chrome and draw your own UI on top. | ✓ Same. |

## 05 Data

Where the bars come from, and how much plumbing you owe before the first candle paints.

Included, out of 7 rows: TV Lightweight 2 · TV Advanced Charts 1 · Vela™ 5 · Vela™ Pro 6.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Data providers | ± Bring your own. You fetch, shape and set every series. | ± Bring your own. You implement the Datafeed API (UDF or the JS API). | ✓ Binance, Coinbase and Hyperliquid providers ship in the package, or bring your own. | ✓ Binance, Coinbase and Hyperliquid, or bring your own through the LuxProvider interface. |
| Bring your own feed | ± Call setData and update with your own shaped arrays. | ± Implement the full datafeed contract: symbol info, resolution, history, quotes, search. | ✓ Implement one provider port: resolve, history, subscribe. | ✓ Same. |
| Offline bars | ✓ setData with any array. | ± Possible by wrapping your arrays in a datafeed. | ✓ Pass a data array and no network call happens. Recommended for tests and first runs. | ✓ Same. |
| Live streaming | ✓ series.update() per tick. | ✓ Through the datafeed’s subscribeBars. | ✓ Live mode with persistent engine sessions; every tick patches the exact series in place. | ✓ Same. |
| Trade-level data for orderflow | ✗ Not applicable. | ✗ Bars only. | ✗ Bars only in the open-source core. | ✓ Footprint, TPO and the orderflow suite are built from real trades your feed supplies. |
| Multi-timeframe and cross-symbol data | ✗ Not applicable. | ± Built-in studies only; custom cross-symbol requests need your own datafeed work. | ✓ request.security() in Pine Script® resolves through the chart’s own cached feed. | ✓ Same. |
| Managed data subscription | ✗ Not offered. | ✗ Not offered. | ✗ Not offered. Bring a provider or your own feed. | ✗ Not offered. |

## 06 Developer Experience

From npm install to a chart that looks like a terminal, and how far you can bend it after that.

Included, out of 8 rows: TV Lightweight 6 · TV Advanced Charts 2 · Vela™ 7 · Vela™ Pro 6.

| | TV Lightweight | TV Advanced Charts | Vela™ | Vela™ Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Install | ✓ npm, or a CDN script tag. | ± Clone the private repository and copy the build into your project. | ✓ npm. ESM, CJS and type declarations, plus a self-contained browser bundle for a script tag. | ✓ Same, plus the Pro package from the licensed registry. |
| TypeScript | ✓ Written in TypeScript. | ✓ Type declarations shipped. | ✓ Written in TypeScript; every public surface is typed. | ✓ Same. |
| Framework | ✓ Framework-agnostic; community wrappers exist. | ✓ Framework-agnostic widget. | ✓ Framework-agnostic: a container element and an options object. Works in React, Vue, Svelte, plain HTML. | ✓ Same. |
| Extension SDK | ✓ Series and pane primitives, custom series types. | ± Custom studies and a broad options surface. The rendering core is closed. | ✓ Register chart types, renderer layers, native indicators and widget actions. The shell is built on the same kit. | ✓ Same. Footprint and TPO are built on it. |
| Scripting engine port | ✗ No. | ✗ No. | ✓ A public ScriptingEngine interface. Vela-PineTS implements it; write your own for any language. | ✓ Same, with PineTS wired in. |
| Issues and roadmap in public | ✓ Public GitHub issues. | ± Issues in the private repository, visible to licensees. | ✓ GitHub issues, discussions and releases on the public repository. | ± Core in public; Pro through the support tier. |
| Bundle footprint | ✓ About 35 kB for the base bundle, per TradingView. Nothing else here is close. | ± Not published. A large widget. | ± Not published. A whole terminal, not a micro-chart. | ± Not published. |
| Built for agents | ✗ No agent-facing surface. | ✗ No agent-facing surface. | ✓ Structured errors, injected execution and read-only state snapshots for tools that write scripts on the fly. Quant, our coding agent, is built on the same port. | ✓ Same. |

## Which one

- **TradingView Lightweight Charts™.** For a price series on a dashboard, a weekend build, or a prototype. Small, free, stable. The moment you need an indicator, a drawing, or a chart users configure, you are writing the rest of a charting library yourself.
- **TradingView Advanced Charts.** For a funded company shipping a public product that qualifies for the agreement, is comfortable with closed source and a private repository, and never needs Pine Script®, footprints or a price on the page.
- **Vela™.** For anyone who wants to own the chart: Apache-2.0, npm install, a native WebGL2 renderer, the drawing suite, multi-chart layouts, and the Pine Script® your users already run. Free, with no form to fill in.
- **Vela™ Pro.** For products that trade: footprints, TPO, the orderflow suite, the LuxAlgo Library cleared for commercial use, and a Pine Script® editor on a commercially licensed runtime. $1,199 a seat, or $20,000 flat for the whole company, white label included.

## Common questions

Q: Is Vela™ a drop-in replacement for TradingView Lightweight Charts?
A: No. Lightweight Charts is a series renderer; Vela™ is a full charting library with a workspace, drawing tools, a plugin SDK and a scripting port. Moving between them is a rewrite of the integration, not a package swap. Your bar data carries over: Vela™ takes { time, open, high, low, close, volume } with time in epoch milliseconds, so multiply Lightweight Charts’ seconds by 1,000.

Q: Is Vela™ an alternative to TradingView Advanced Charts?
A: Yes, and it is the open one. Advanced Charts is closed source, obtained by application, restricted to companies shipping public products, and not redistributable. Vela™ is Apache-2.0 on npm and GitHub, usable by anyone. Vela™ Pro adds footprints, TPO, the orderflow suite and a commercially licensed Pine Script® runtime at a published price.

Q: How much does TradingView Advanced Charts cost?
A: TradingView publishes no price. The library is free with attribution for approved companies. Anything beyond that, including removing the branding, is quoted by sales; teams have reported starting figures around $144,000 per year. Vela™ prints its prices on the page: free, $1,199 per developer per year for Pro, $20,000 per year flat for Business.

Q: What is the difference between Vela™ and Vela™ Pro?
A: Vela™ is the open-source core: renderer, workspace, drawings, 70+ studies, data providers, the plugin SDK and the scripting port. Vela™ Pro is the paid layer on top: footprint and TPO interfaces, the orderflow indicator suite, the LuxAlgo Library cleared for commercial use, the PineTS runtime built in under a commercial license, a Pine Script® editor, and no attribution mark.

Q: Can I run Pine Script® on any of these libraries?
A: Only on Vela™ and Vela™ Pro. Vela™ runs native Pine Script® v5 and v6 through the Vela-PineTS addon on PineTS, our open-source runtime; Pro ships the runtime built in and commercially licensed. Advanced Charts accepts JavaScript studies written against its own API and cannot execute Pine Script®. Lightweight Charts has no scripting layer at all.

Q: Can a solo developer or hobby project use each library?
A: Vela™ and Lightweight Charts: yes, both are Apache-2.0. Vela™ Pro: yes, one seat. Advanced Charts: no. Its agreement is for companies and public web projects, and excludes personal, hobby, study and testing use.

Q: Which is the smallest?
A: Lightweight Charts, by a wide margin. TradingView documents its version 5 base bundle at about 35 kB. Vela™ does not publish a bundle size and is not competing on it; it ships the whole terminal.

Q: Where do these facts come from?
A: Each vendor’s public documentation, license text and npm metadata, checked in September 2026 and linked at the bottom of the page. Where a fact is only reported second-hand, such as Advanced Charts pricing, the cell says so.

## Sources

- [Lightweight Charts on GitHub](https://github.com/tradingview/lightweight-charts)
- [Lightweight Charts version 5 announcement](https://www.tradingview.com/blog/en/tradingview-lightweight-charts-version-5-50837)
- [Advanced Charts documentation](https://www.tradingview.com/charting-library-docs/)
- [Advanced Charts access request and terms](https://www.tradingview.com/advanced-charts/)
- [Vela™ documentation](https://docs.luxalgo.com/vela)
- [Vela™ on GitHub](https://github.com/LuxAlgo/Vela)
- [Vela™ Pro](https://www.luxalgo.com/vela/pro/)
- [Vela™ pricing and license terms](https://www.luxalgo.com/vela/pricing/)

"TradingView" and "Pine Script" are trademarks or registered trademarks
of TradingView, Inc. LuxAlgo is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or
endorsed by TradingView, Inc.

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