Aurafy vs Tradervue (2026): Honest Side-by-Side for Futures Traders

Updated June 2026 · ~11 min read · Written by the Aurafy team — we obviously have a side, but we tried to keep this fair and useful.

Transparency: We make Aurafy. We are not affiliated with Tradervue, have no referral relationship with them, and didn't copy their marketing. Pricing and feature details below are current as of June 2026 — both products change, so verify on the live sites before signing up. If you spot something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.

TL;DR — both have honest free tiers; pick by what you actually trade

You trade futures only (especially at a prop firm): Aurafy. Native screen recording + prop-firm trailing-drawdown / consistency tracking for Topstep, Apex 4.0, MFFU. The $19 founder plan is the cheapest "real" tier in the journal market right now.
You trade equities + options + futures and want a battle-tested, no-frills journal: Tradervue. It is the OG — minimalist UI, fast import for ~30 brokers across asset classes, the most useful free tier in trading-journal history.
You want a journal with a social/community feed: Tradervue. Public trade sharing with annotations has been a Tradervue thing for over a decade. Aurafy does not have a community feed.

Quick verdict box

DimensionAurafyTradervue
Best forFutures + prop-firm tradersEquities/options/futures generalists who want no-frills
Free tier"Trial that never expires" — 1 account, 3 playbooks, last 30 days, no cardFree forever — limited to 100 trades/mo, no card
Paid (monthly)$49 (or $19 founder — first 50 only)Silver $29 / Gold $49
Paid (annual)$490~$299 Silver / ~$499 Gold
Native screen recordingYes (Aurafy Recorder)No
Trade replay / chart playbackBar-replay backtester (coming soon)Basic — chart at entry / exit overlaid
Prop-firm rule tracking (trailing DD, consistency, DLL)Built-in for Topstep, Apex 4.0, MFFUNo — generic journaling
Broker importsTradovate, NinjaTrader, Sierra Chart, Rithmic~30+ brokers across stocks/options/futures
Community / public trade sharingNoYes — established trader community feed
UI / UXModern (2025+)Utilitarian, dated visuals — fast though
Playbook / strategy taggingYes (structured playbooks)Tagging, but no formal playbook concept
Track recordNewer (2025–2026)Founded 2011 — longest-running

1) Price + free tiers (this is the fairest fight)

Both products take "free" seriously, which is rare. The shapes are different though:

If you're a low-volume swing trader who takes a handful of trades a week, Tradervue free will never make you pay. If you're a futures day-trader at 10+ trades/day, the 100/mo cap is gone by the second day and you're choosing between Silver, Gold, and Aurafy. At that point Aurafy's $19 founder seat is the cheapest "real" tier on the market — but only if any seats are left.

2) Screen recording — the biggest functional difference

Tradervue does not offer screen recording in any plan, including Gold. If you want to capture your screen during the session you pair it with Loom (~$15/mo) or OBS (free).

Aurafy ships Aurafy Recorder as part of the product. It captures your full screen while you trade and ties the recording to each trade automatically — entries, exits, news pops, the moment you hesitated, the size you didn't take. We wrote the long version in Trade Replay vs Screen Recording, but the short version: chart replay (which Tradervue does at a basic level) shows what the chart did; screen recording shows what you did. Eval failures and blown funded accounts are almost always behavioral, so we built the behavioral layer first.

If you don't care about behavioral review and you just want a price chart over your fills, Tradervue's overlay is adequate and you can save the $15/mo Loom subscription by simply not recording.

3) Prop-firm rule tracking

Tradervue treats every account the same way — it logs trades, does P&L, tags strategies. It does not know what "Apex 4.0 EOD trailing drawdown" is, or that MFFU Core requires 40% consistency. You log the trades; you do the math.

Aurafy was built for prop-firm traders specifically. It tracks:

You can replicate this in Tradervue with notes + a spreadsheet, but if you're at Topstep / Apex / MFFU, the prop-firm focus is what Aurafy is for. If you're trading your own equities account, this difference is irrelevant.

You can also use Aurafy's free prop-firm calculators standalone (no login): the trailing-drawdown calculator and consistency calculator work with any journal — Tradervue included.

4) Broker imports + asset class coverage

Tradervue is straightforwardly ahead here, and the right answer if you trade more than one asset class.

Hard line: if your day involves anything other than futures, Aurafy is the wrong product and Tradervue (or TradeZella) is the right one. We are honest about this.

5) Community + public trade sharing

This is the place Tradervue wins on something Aurafy doesn't even compete on. Tradervue has run a public trade-sharing feed for over a decade — traders post their journaled trades publicly with charts + commentary, others browse and comment. Some well-known SMB traders have used it as a teaching tool. The community feels like a forum-era trading community, not Twitter.

Aurafy has no community feed and no public sharing today. Your journal is private. If a community-driven learning loop is part of how you improve, Tradervue is meaningfully better at that and we won't pretend otherwise.

6) UI maturity vs UX modernity

Tradervue's interface is utilitarian — fast, no-nonsense, but dated visually. Some users love that ("it just works"); others find it hard to read.

Aurafy is built on a modern stack with a cleaner, denser layout designed for futures-specific data (ticks, R, drawdown headroom in dollars). Tradeoff: fewer reports than Tradervue Gold today, but the ones we have are formatted for prop-firm reality.

Two worked examples

Example A — Equity day-trader, <100 trades/mo

You trade equities at Interactive Brokers, take 2–4 trades a day, mostly swing entries. You want a journal that's free forever and lets you tag setups.

Pick Tradervue free. 100 trades/mo is more than enough for your volume. Aurafy doesn't import IBKR equity tickets at all, so it would simply not work for you.

Example B — Topstep 100K Combine trader, ES/NQ scalper

You're working a Topstep 100K Combine, 10–20 trades a day, blowing out at 75% of target every time. You want to figure out why.

Pick Aurafy. The trailing-drawdown tracker tells you in-session how much intraday DD you have left; the screen recording surfaces the actual failure mode (oversizing after losses, revenge-trading after stops). Tradervue would log the trades but not the trailing-DD math or the behavioral video — you'd still be in the dark on the "why."

"Which one should I pick?" — decision blocks

You're brand new + low volume: Tradervue free. Genuine $0 forever if you stay under ~100 trades/mo.
You're a futures-only prop-firm trader: Aurafy. Prop-firm rule tracking + screen recording are uniquely ours.
You trade equities/options + futures and need one journal: Tradervue. Broader broker coverage; we don't import equities yet.
You learn best from watching what other traders post: Tradervue. Community feed is a real, useful feature we don't have.
You already pay for Loom alongside a journal: Aurafy. Native screen recording, lower total bill.
You want the cheapest "real" paid tier: Aurafy $19 founder seat (first 50 only). Otherwise Tradervue Silver at $29/mo.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tradervue still being actively developed in 2026?

Yes — it's the longest-running pure trading journal (founded 2011) and still ships updates, mostly to imports and reports. The UI hasn't been radically redesigned in years, which some users prefer.

Can I use Tradervue free forever?

Up to 100 trades per month, yes. Past 100 you can either wait until the next month, upgrade to Silver ($29/mo), or move to another journal.

Does Tradervue track Apex 4.0 / Topstep / MFFU rules?

Not natively. It treats every account the same. You'd track trailing drawdown and consistency manually with notes or a sidecar spreadsheet. Aurafy is built around those rules.

Does Tradervue have screen recording?

No. Trade replay is a basic chart with your entries and exits overlaid. For session screen recording you'd pair it with Loom (~$15/mo) or OBS (free).

Which is better for community / learning from other traders?

Tradervue. Its public trade-sharing feed has been around since the early 2010s and is the closest thing to a real trader community feed in the journal space. Aurafy doesn't compete on this dimension.

Can I import my Tradervue history into Aurafy?

Not directly. If you re-import your broker history (Tradovate / NinjaTrader / Sierra / Rithmic) into Aurafy you'll get the same trades from source. Tradervue tags and journal notes don't carry over.

Tradervue Gold or Aurafy Pro at the same $49?

If you trade futures and prop-firm rules apply, Aurafy. If you trade across asset classes or want chart-replay maturity + community, Tradervue Gold. They are not the same product even at the same price.

Try Aurafy free — see if the futures + prop-firm focus is what you've been missing

30-day window, 1 account, 3 playbooks. No card. If you've been blowing evals or can't pinpoint a leak, the screen recording is usually where the answer hides.

Start free at aurafy.dev

Or grab a $19/mo founder seat (first 50, locked for life) at the same link.