Hummingbot vs OctoBot: Comparing Open Source Market Making Solutions
An in-depth comparison of two leading open source market making solutions: Hummingbot and OctoBot. Discover which of the two platform best suits your goals.
What is Open Source Market Making?
Over the recent years, as more and more crypto projects and large exchanges emerge, market making has become a crucial element for both cryptocurrency exchanges and projects. In parallel to traditional proprietary market making services, open source automated market making solutions have appeared as powerful software that open access to sophisticated trading algorithms, which were previously exclusive to institutional firms.
Hummingbot and OctoBot Market Making represent the forefront of open source market making technology. They are providing token projects, exchanges, traders and developers with solutions that are secure, transparent and customizable for improving liquidity and managing trading strategies.
In this article, we will compare the two platform to help you get a global understanding of each and be able to make an informed decision about which is right for you.
What is Hummingbot?
Hummingbot is an open source framework designed to create and deploy cryptocurrency trading bots. Launched in 2019 by CoinAlpha and is famous for its Pure Market Making algorithm. It has gathered a substantial community of users leveraging its Python-based framework to implement trading strategies, including market making, arbitrage, and more.
The platform was created with the goal of democratizing algorithmic trading, allowing developers and traders without extensive technical backgrounds to deploy sophisticated trading algorithms.
Best for: Technical users comfortable with Python and complex configurations who look for trading automation in both centralized and decentralized exchanges.
Key Features
- CEXes and DEXes support
- Many strategy templates
- Command line interface
What is OctoBot Market Making?
OctoBot Market Making is an innovative open source market making software designed with modern trading requirements and non-technical usability in mind.
The platform has been founded by members of the team who created OctoBot, a powerful Python-based open source trading bot created in 2018. Built with a focus on user experience and performance optimization, OctoBot Market Making offers an open source, yet accessible approach to market making that balances power with accessibility.
With its approach to liquidity optimization and self-service platform, OctoBot Market Making’s goal is to serve both exchanges, token projects and traders looking for accessible and transparent ways to maintain healthy trading conditions for their coins.
Best for: Crypto projects, exchanges and traders seeking a user-friendly, self-service platform with powerful built-in strategies, risk management and analytics.
Key Features
- Self-service platform
- Liquidity optimization focus
- User-friendly interface
Detailed Comparison
| Feature | Hummingbot | OctoBot Market Making |
|---|---|---|
| User Interface | Command line and Dashboards | Modern web interface |
| Technical Barrier | Higher - Python knowledge beneficial | Lower - Designed for accessibility |
| Installation & Maintenance | Manual - Server, Updates & Monitoring | Cloud Platform or Manual |
| Exchange Support | Most DEXes and CEXes | Most centralized exchanges |
| Strategy Customization | Highly customizable (coding required) | Parameter-based & pre-configuration |
| Risk Management | Basic tools available | Comprehensive suite built-in |
| Analytics | Community tools available | Advanced analytics dashboard |
| Community | Large, established | Growing, active development |
Which Solution Fits Your Needs?
Choose Hummingbot
- •When you need to support decentralized exchanges
- •If you have Python developers on your team
- •When you require highly custom algorithms
Choose OctoBot Market Making
- •When you want to avoid the technical hassles of Python development and self-hosting
- •If comprehensive risk management is essential
- •When you need better analytics and reporting
Conclusion: The Future of Open Source Market Making
Both Hummingbot and OctoBot Market Making represent valuable options when looking for affordable open source crypto market making automation.
While Hummingbot offers more flexibility in strategies customization and crypto exchanges, OctoBot Market Making comes with a focus on non-tech usability and integrated risk management.
The choice between these platforms depends on your exchange goals, technical capabilities, and market making strategy goals.
- Technical users with very specific strategies in mind and a lot of time to invest needs may prefer Hummingbot
- Those looking for an intuitive platform with powerful built-in tools might find OctoBot Market Making to be a better choice.
As open source projects, both solutions continue to improve with community input, changing market conditions and new exchanges. We encourage readers to explore both platforms and contribute to their development, may it be by giving constructive feedback or by improving their code directly on GitHub.