Crypto trading bots compared

How to pick the best crypto trading bot

The best crypto trading bot is one you can test before it trades: you can read its rules, backtest them with fees, and know who holds your money. Bots come in four kinds: grid and DCA template bots, signal and copy bots, open-source frameworks you run yourself, and platforms where you build and test your own rules. Keel is the last kind, for Hyperliquid perpetuals, and starting is free.

Build and test a bot free How backtesting works

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By Keel Research Team

Updated October 18, 2026

A bot you can test first

MA Crossover (Golden Cross) Strategy

Once a day, check 8 large coins.
Hold a coin long while its 20-day average is above its 50-day average.
When the fast average drops below, sell and sit in cash.
Give each coin the same slice of the account, and never borrow.

Sharpe

1.05

Return

+131%

Worst dip

−30%

Backtest on Hyperliquid, Aug 2024 to Sep 2026, after fees, slippage and funding.

Before you choose

What Keel does instead

You describe a rule, or let Keel's AI build it from blocks you can read. You backtest it on real Hyperliquid data with fees, slippage and funding, paper trade it on live prices, then run it on Hyperliquid perps from your own account.

A Keel strategy decides at the close of each bar it runs on. Stops, targets and adds are checked at that close too, never inside the bar. That rules out a few popular bot types, and the table says which.

Grid bots

Keel can't run a grid. A grid leaves limit orders waiting at fixed price levels and fills inside the bar. A Keel strategy can't place orders at levels it chooses; it decides at the close of each bar. It can run range strategies that buy dips and sell recoveries, and a ladder checked at each bar close.

What to run in a range instead

Arbitrage bots

Keel trades one venue, perps only, with no spot leg, so it can't arbitrage a price gap between exchanges. Funding carry is the nearest thing: a funding strategy on one venue, with real market risk.

Funding carry

Copy trading bots

Keel doesn't copy other traders. You run your own rule, after you have seen how it tested.

DCA bots

DCA on Keel means a safety-order ladder: add each time price drops a set amount, exit at a gain from the average price, checked at the bar close, on a perp that pays or earns funding. It doesn't buy on a schedule with new cash.

A DCA ladder you can fork

Signal, Telegram and exchange bots

Not supported. Keel doesn't sell signals, has no Telegram bot, and runs on Hyperliquid only.

The kinds

Four kinds of crypto trading bot

Pick the kind first and the list of tools gets short quickly. The biggest difference is whether you can test the bot before it trades.

Kinds of crypto trading bot
Kind	Backtest first?	Suits	What it costs
Grid and DCA template bots	Sometimes, often as a short simulation. Check whether it charges fees and, on perps, funding.	Traders who want one known pattern running on one or two coins today, with a few settings to fill in.	Some exchanges include simple ones. Hosted platforms usually charge a monthly plan.
Signal and copy bots	Rarely in a way you can check. You see the provider's track record, not a test of the rules.	Traders who would rather pick a source than write rules, and accept not seeing the full logic.	Often a subscription to the signal or strategy on top of the platform.
Open-source frameworks	Yes, with your own data. How realistic it is depends on how you set it up.	People who code, want full control and are happy to look after a server.	The software is free. You pay for a server, the data and your own time.
Build-and-test platforms	Yes, before anything trades. On Keel every backtest charges fees, slippage and funding.	Traders with an idea of their own who want to see how it would have done before any money goes in.	Keel starts free. Paid plans run more strategies at a lower fee.

Grid and DCA template bots

Ready-made bots on an exchange or a hosted platform. A grid bot rests buy orders below the price and sell orders above it. A DCA bot buys more after each drop and sells when price climbs back above its average.

Signal and copy bots

The bot trades on someone else's calls: a signal channel, a marketplace strategy or another trader's positions. You choose whom to follow and how much to risk.

Open-source frameworks

Free software you install and run yourself. You write the strategy in code, backtest it with the framework's tools and connect your exchange account.

Build-and-test platforms

You set your own rules, from blocks or by describing them to an AI, and the platform handles the data, the backtest and the live run. Keel is one, for Hyperliquid perpetuals.

How to pick

Five checks before you switch a bot on

Each one has a plain answer you can usually find in the docs or a free trial.

01
Backtest it first, with real costs
This is the first filter. A test should charge trading fees and slippage on every trade and, on perpetual futures, funding on every open position. A bot you can't test is one you learn about with your own money.
02
Read what it does
You should be able to say when the bot buys, when it sells and how much it risks. If the logic is hidden, a bad week and a broken bot look the same.
03
Know who holds the money
Most bots trade through a key or a signed permission on an account you own. Check whether that key can withdraw, and never send funds to a bot's own wallet without knowing who controls it.
04
Match it to the market you trade
A grid suits a coin moving sideways and gets hurt in a trend. A trend rule does the opposite. Spot and perpetual futures behave differently too, because perps pay or charge funding.
05
Run the tested bot unchanged
If going live means rebuilding the logic somewhere else, the bot you trade is not the bot you tested. Fewer hand-offs mean fewer surprises.

Free bots

Free crypto trading bots

Free usually means one of three things. Exchange bots are free to switch on, and the exchange earns from your trading fees. Open-source frameworks are free software, and you pay in a server and your time. Freemium platforms give you a free plan with limits, and charge to lift them.

Are free bots safe? The software being free says nothing either way. What matters is what the bot can do with your account. Give it a key that can trade but can't withdraw, start small, and stop it if it does anything you didn't expect.

On Keel: Building, backtesting and paper trading start free. The free plan paper trades one strategy and runs one live, with a 5 basis point fee on live trades. Paid plans start at $29 a month, run more strategies and lower that fee. Hyperliquid's own trading fees apply as usual. The pricing page has the full limits.

Open source

Open-source crypto trading bots

What each project is, from its own site, as of October 2026.

Freqtrade

A free, open-source crypto trading bot written in Python, with backtesting on historical data. Its docs list Hyperliquid among the supported futures exchanges.

Hummingbot

Open-source software for running automated trading bots across crypto exchanges and decentralised protocols. It has Hyperliquid connectors for spot and perpetuals.

OctoBot

A free, open-source crypto trading bot in Python under the GPL-3.0 licence, with a visual interface, grid, DCA and TradingView modes, backtesting and paper trading.

Jesse

An open-source Python framework for researching and defining strategies, under the MIT licence. It focuses on backtests without look-ahead bias, with paper and live trading.

NautilusTrader

An open-source trading engine with a Rust core and a Python control layer, under the LGPL-3.0 licence. The same strategy code runs in backtests and live, and Hyperliquid is among its integrations.

Each of these is a good choice if you want to own the whole stack. The cost is the work around the strategy: data that has to be downloaded and kept current, a backtest you have to trust, and a server that has to stay up.

Keel takes that work off you for Hyperliquid perpetuals. The backtest runs hosted, on Hyperliquid price and funding history, with no server of your own. The strategy is a short file of blocks you can read and edit, and the one you test is the one that paper trades and runs live.

Facts about each project come from its own site, docs or repository, read on 18 October 2026. Projects change, so check the source before you decide. We left out anything we could not confirm there.

Test before it trades

Testing a bot before it trades

Here is what testing a bot first looks like. The strategy below is from the Keel library: a plain moving-average trend bot, the kind many people start with. You see the rules, the same rules as blocks, and how they did on Hyperliquid, and you can fork it into your own account and change it.

The rules

Once a day, check 8 large coins.
Hold a coin long while its 20-day average is above its 50-day average.
When the fast average drops below, sell and sit in cash.
Give each coin the same slice of the account, and never borrow.

The same rules, as blocks

Read it from the top. Daily prices come in for each coin. Two averages are compared, and a coin is held while the fast one is above the slow one. The last blocks give each coin the same slice and cap leverage at one. Switch to Code to see the same strategy as text.

Configuration

Globalsconfig

target_timeframe1dbar_offset12h

UniverseassetsManual · HL Perps · 8 symbols8 resolved

Executionorders

rebalanceOn Change

Pipeline6 steps

PriceDataLoaderData Loader

Parallel2 branches

fast

EWMAIndicator

window20

slow

EWMAIndicator

window50

CrossoverSignal Composer

fast_keyfastslow_keyslow

AboveThresholdFilterSignal Transform

threshold0

FixedWeightSizerPosition Sizer

weight_per_position0.125

LeverageCapRisk Manager

max_leverage1

Globals(target_timeframe="1d", bar_offset="12h")

Universe(mode="manual", symbols=["BTC", "ETH", "SOL", "BNB", "XRP", "DOGE", "HYPE", "SUI"], market="perp", resolved=["BTC", "ETH", "SOL", "BNB", "XRP", "DOGE", "HYPE", "SUI"], resolved_at="2026-07-06T00:00:00Z")

Execution(rebalance="on_change")

Pipeline([
    PriceDataLoader(),
    {
        "fast": [EWMA(window=20)],
        "slow": [EWMA(window=50)],
    },
    Crossover(fast_key="fast", slow_key="slow"),
    AboveThresholdFilter(threshold=0.0),
    FixedWeightSizer(weight_per_position=0.125),
    LeverageCap(max_leverage=1.0),
], name="ma_crossover_crypto")

Fork it into your account Every setting tested, on the strategy's own page

The backtest

Sharpe

1.05

Total return

+130.9%

Worst drawdown

−30.4%

Trades

Hyperliquid, Aug 2024 to Sep 2026, after trading fees, slippage and funding, on the default settings. Look at the drawdown before the return: a long-only trend bot takes the full hit of a crypto sell-off before it steps aside. That is the point of testing first.

FAQ

What traders ask about crypto bots

Ask AI about Keel

What is the best crypto trading bot for beginners?

One you can understand and test before it trades. Start with a simple rule, such as holding a coin while its trend is up, backtest it with fees, then paper trade it on live prices with no money at risk. Keel lets you do all three from one place, and the free plan covers it.

Are free trading bots safe?

Free says nothing about safety. Check what the bot's key or permission can do: it should be able to trade and never withdraw. On Keel, your money stays in your own Hyperliquid account and Keel trades through an agent wallet that can place trades but can never withdraw, which you can revoke at any time.

Do crypto trading bots make money?

Some do and many don't. A bot follows its rules faster than you would, so it can't fix a rule with no edge. Our study of common bot strategies on Hyperliquid shows how many made money after costs, and how many didn't.

Which bot can I backtest first?

Open-source frameworks and build-and-test platforms let you backtest before you trade. On Keel every strategy is backtested on Hyperliquid history with fees, slippage and funding before you can paper trade or run it live.

Is there an open-source bot for Hyperliquid?

Yes. Freqtrade lists Hyperliquid among its supported futures exchanges, Hummingbot has Hyperliquid connectors for spot and perpetuals, and NautilusTrader lists a Hyperliquid integration. You run them on your own server. Keel runs the backtest and the live strategy for you, hosted.

Does Keel have a grid or DCA bot?

Not a grid: a Keel strategy can't leave orders at set price levels, so it can't run one. It can run a DCA ladder that adds after each drop and exits at a gain from the average price, checked at each bar close, and range strategies that buy dips and sell recoveries.

What does a bot on Keel cost?

Building, backtesting and paper trading start free. The free plan paper trades one strategy and runs one live, with a 5 basis point fee on live trades. Paid plans start at $29 a month, run more strategies and lower that fee. Hyperliquid's own trading fees apply as usual. The pricing page has the full limits.

Build a bot you can test first

Starting is free. You see the rules and the backtest before anything trades, and your money stays in your own account.

Build and test a bot free