Disclosure: Deploy Finance publishes this page and offers a competing product that appears in it.
Not financial advice. Crypto, DeFi and perpetual-futures strategies can lose money, including your whole deposit. Yields are variable, and past or backtested results do not predict future returns. Read the risk disclosure.
A crypto trading bot does what you tell it, around the clock. Whether that means a grid on Pionex, a rule on Coinrule, a DCA bot on 3Commas, or a Python strategy on Freqtrade, the bot executes and you decide. The strategy, the parameters, and the decision to change them stay with you.
Deploy Finance takes that decision off your plate. It offers two agents whose strategies Deploy defines and runs: one collects perpetual funding, one trades direction. You choose an agent and an allocation instead of a rule set. This page compares the main bot families with each other and with that approach.
How crypto trading bots compare
| Product | Who writes the strategy | Where your funds sit | Can it withdraw? | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deploy Finance | Deploy; the agent runs a defined mandate | Your own self-custodial wallet | No; the session key can trade only | No subscription or management fee; gas and trade fees |
| 3Commas | You, with DCA, Grid, and Signal bots | Your exchange account, or a Hyperliquid wallet | No, per 3Commas | Subscription |
| Coinrule | You, with if-this-then-that rules and 350+ templates | Your exchange account, or your own wallet on Hyperliquid | No; API connections without withdrawal rights | Free Starter plan; paid plans from $29.99 a month |
| Cryptohopper | You, or a strategy or signal bought on its marketplace | Your exchange account | Cryptohopper states it does not hold funds | $29 to $129 a month; copy bots extra |
| Bitsgap | You, with GRID, DCA, COMBO, BTD, LOOP, and QFL bots | Your exchange account | No; API keys, and Bitsgap states it never accesses funds | Free plan; paid plans $29 to $149 a month, less billed annually |
| WunderTrading | You, with TradingView signal, DCA, grid, and market-neutral bots | Your exchange account | No; trade-only API keys with withdrawals disabled | Free plan; paid plans $9.99 to $99.99 a month |
| HaasOnline | You, in its HaasScript language or visual editor | Your exchange account | Depends on the API keys you create | Cloud plans $11.99 to $59.99 a month; self-hosted TradeServer $149.99 |
| TradeSanta and Gunbot | You, with grid, DCA, long, and short bots | Your exchange account | Depends on the API keys you create | TradeSanta: subscription; Gunbot: one-time license |
| Pionex, Bitget, Bybit bots | You, within the bot template's parameters | The exchange | The exchange holds the funds | Exchange trading fees |
| Freqtrade and Hummingbot | You, in code | Your exchange account or wallet | Depends on your setup | Free software; you run the server |
What trading bots have in common
Every bot on the list is software that executes your decisions. You pick the pair, the range, the indicators, the leverage, the stop, and the moment to turn it off. Templates and marketplaces make the starting choice easier, but the configuration you end up running is yours.
That means three jobs stay with you:
- Strategy design. Grids earn while price oscillates inside the range and stall or take open losses when it breaks out. DCA averages into a trend. Funding arbitrage needs both legs sized correctly. You have to know which one fits the market.
- Maintenance. A grid set for a quiet market needs resetting when volatility changes. Rules written for one regime need rewriting for the next.
- Custody choices. Exchange bots trade your exchange balance. API-connected bots trade your exchange account under keys you must scope correctly. Some now support Hyperliquid wallets.
None of this is a flaw. Bots exist for traders who want control over every parameter.
The bots, one by one
3Commas
3Commas offers DCA, Grid, and Signal bots, SmartTrade, and an AI assistant that helps configure DCA bots and backtest them. It connects to exchanges through API keys and to Hyperliquid through a wallet connection, and it says it cannot withdraw through its service.
Coinrule and Cryptohopper
Coinrule is a no-code rule builder with more than 350 templates, backtesting, and an MCP server for AI assistants. On Hyperliquid you connect your main wallet and sign a trading permission it cannot use to withdraw. Cryptohopper is a cloud bot for centralized exchanges with a marketplace of strategies, templates, and signals. Its AI strategies, market making, and arbitrage sit on the $129 Hero plan.
Bitsgap and WunderTrading
Bitsgap is a cloud bot platform built around grid and DCA bots, with COMBO, buy-the-dip, LOOP, and QFL variants. It connects through API keys and states that it never stores or accesses your funds. A free plan covers COMBO bots only; paid plans run from $29 to $149 a month, or $23 to $119 billed annually, with a 7-day Pro trial. WunderTrading is best known for turning TradingView alerts into trades, alongside DCA, grid, and market-neutral bots. It asks for trade-only API keys with withdrawals disabled and starts free, with paid plans from $9.99 to $99.99 a month.
HaasOnline, TradeSanta, and Gunbot
HaasOnline is for traders who script. Its HaasScript language and visual editor drive bots across 24+ exchanges, with backtesting depth that grows by plan. Cloud plans cost $11.99 to $59.99 a month, and a self-hosted TradeServer costs $149.99. TradeSanta is a simpler cloud bot for grid, DCA, long, and short strategies with a free tier and monthly plans. Gunbot is downloadable software you run on your own machine or server, sold as a one-time license rather than a subscription.
Pionex, Bitget, and Bybit bots
Exchange bots are templates built into the exchange: grids, DCA, and spot-futures arbitrage. You set the range, grid count, leverage, or schedule and fund the bot from your exchange balance. The exchange holds the funds, and KYC and regional availability apply.
Freqtrade and Hummingbot
Open-source bots give you the most control and the most work. Freqtrade is built for strategy research and backtesting in Python. Hummingbot ships market-making and arbitrage templates, including funding-rate arbitrage. OctoBot adds a web interface and an optional hosted cloud for people who want open source without a terminal. Neither includes a strategy you can trust out of the box, and you run the infrastructure.
Where Deploy Finance differs
Deploy is the end of the automation ladder: the strategy, entries, hedge, risk controls, and exits are all automated, and what remains yours is which agent, how much, and when to stop.
- Income: Funding Rates holds roughly 75% of capital as the spot asset and uses 25% to back a 3x perpetual short of matching notional on Hyperliquid. It collects funding and rebalances automatically. The closest bot equivalent is a spot-futures arbitrage bot, which you would have to configure and watch.
- Superstar takes long or short positions on perpetual markets under a strategy Deploy defines and manages. You do not set indicators, thresholds, or schedules.
You sign in with email or Google, which creates a self-custodial wallet on Privy's embedded-wallet infrastructure. You fund it with USDC, choose an agent, and approve a session key that can trade but cannot transfer or withdraw. You can revoke it at any time.
The trade-off is range. Bots trade any pair on dozens of venues with any logic you can express. Deploy runs two strategies on one venue. If you have your own edge to automate, a bot is the right tool. If you want a strategy run for you, it is not.
When one of them fits better
- 3Commas if you want a broad DIY toolkit across many exchanges with signal integrations.
- Coinrule if you want to automate your own rules without code, including on Hyperliquid from your wallet.
- Cryptohopper if you want to buy strategies or signals from other traders.
- Bitsgap if grid and DCA bots are your main tools and you want many of them running across exchanges.
- WunderTrading if your signals come from TradingView and you want them executed automatically.
- HaasOnline if you want to script strategies in a dedicated language with deep backtesting.
- Gunbot if you prefer a one-time license and running the bot on your own hardware.
- Exchange bots if your funds already sit on an exchange and you want a grid or DCA running in minutes.
- Freqtrade or Hummingbot if you write code and want full control of the strategy and the stack.
Learn more
- How to choose an agent
- Best automated crypto trading bot
- Best crypto trading bots for beginners
- Deploy Finance vs 3Commas
- Deploy Finance vs Coinrule and Cryptohopper
- Deploy Finance vs exchange trading bots
- Deploy Finance vs AI Trading Agents
Start with Deploy Finance
Create a self-custodial Deploy Finance wallet and review the live agents.