Below is what each platform actually requires, what it's good at, and where it falls short. Every fact was checked on the company's own website on 14 October 2026.
Disclosure: Passive Nomads is our own free simulator. We've included it because it answers the question this page is about, and we've tried to be equally plain about where the others are better. There are no affiliate links on this page.
Which paper trading platforms need a brokerage account?
Last checked: 14 October 2026
| Account needed to paper trade | Cost | Options | Historical replay | Platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thinkorswim (Charles Schwab) | Schwab account, or a free 30-day Guest Pass with no Schwab account | Free | Yes | Yes: OnDemand replays past trading days | Desktop, web, mobile |
| Webull | Webull sign-up/login. Whether a funded account is needed isn't stated. | Free | Yes, including multi-leg | Chart replay of the last month (not stated as tradeable) | Mobile, desktop, web* |
| Interactive Brokers | Approved and funded IBKR account (a separate free trial has delayed data) | Not stated | Yes | Not offered | TWS, IBKR Desktop, Client Portal, mobile |
| tastytrade | No paper trading for customers listed | — | — | No (separate backtesting tool for account holders) | — |
| Passive Nomads (ours) | None. No brokerage account; no signup for the first 10 orders, then a free account | Free | Yes, including multi-leg spreads | Yes: 5 years of daily history on 4 stocks/ETFs, plus SPX 0DTE sessions | Web (desktop and mobile browser) |
Webull's newer paper trading system is on the mobile and desktop apps only; its legacy system also runs on web.
thinkorswim paper trading (paperMoney)
What you need: paperMoney is for Schwab account holders; non-clients can use the 30-day Guest Pass, which needs no Schwab account, only a login you create. It can't be extended, and your data isn't kept afterwards.
What you get: $100,000 of virtual buying power, real-time market data, and stocks, options, futures and forex in a live simulation.
Where it's stronger: This is the most complete free practice environment from a major broker. You practise on the same platform you'd trade on, with real-time data and futures. Its OnDemand feature lets you replay past trading days.
Limits: Schwab notes that simulated executions and costs don't reflect real trading. Without a Schwab account, access ends after 30 days.
Webull paper trading
What you need: Webull's paper trading page offers "Sign up / Log in / Start paperTrade". Its help pages don't say whether you need a funded brokerage account. If that matters to you, check with Webull before signing up.
What you get: Free, with "unlimited virtual funds" that you can reset. Options are supported, including multi-leg strategies such as "butterflies, condors, and spreads". On Webull's newer system, options paper trading supports all strategy levels available in live trading.
Where it's stronger: Orders are filled against real-time data, and Level 2 market data is shown. Stocks and ETFs can be paper traded 24 hours a day on weekdays on the newer system. It's a realistic rehearsal of Webull's own app.
Limits: Webull says paper orders fill based on real trading activity: "If there is no trading volume… it will not be filled." It offers a chart replay of the last month, but doesn't say you can place paper trades during a replay. The legacy and new systems behave differently, and the legacy one "does not fully mirror live trading functionality."
Interactive Brokers paper trading
What you need: IBKR's glossary describes paper trading as "available to approved and funded accounts". All new clients receive a paper account with $1,000,000 in simulated funds. IBKR also runs a separate free trial through an application form, with delayed market data: 15 minutes for US stocks and options, per IBKR's delayed-data table.
What you get: Stocks, options, bonds, futures, forex and more, in the same platforms as a live account. You can reset the balance to $1 million or another amount at any time.
Where it's stronger: The widest range of products of any platform here, and the full professional toolset. If you already have an IBKR account, it's the closest thing to rehearsing your real trading.
Limits: You have to be an approved, funded client. Without a real-time data subscription, paper quotes are delayed. IBKR notes that "certain behavior such as order execution may vary" from live trading. We found no historical replay feature.
tastytrade paper trading
What we found: tastytrade's platforms page doesn't list paper trading for customers. tastytrade does offer a free options backtesting tool, "included with every tastytrade account at no additional cost", using more than ten years of market data on its web and desktop platforms. It also runs a developer "sandbox" for testing its API with simulated money. That's built for programmers, not for practising trades by hand.
Where it's stronger: If you have an account, the backtester is a quick way to see how an options strategy would have performed over a decade.
Limits: No hands-on paper trading for customers listed. Backtests show the result of a rule, not the experience of making decisions as the market moves.
Passive Nomads simulator (our tool)
What you need: Nothing. No brokerage account, and no signup for the first 10 orders. After that, a free account (name, email and password) keeps your history.
What you get:
- Five years of real daily price history on SPY, Tesla, Nvidia and Rio Tinto, plus SPX same-day (0DTE) sessions
- Calls, puts and multi-leg spreads with estimated margin shown
- Live Delta, Gamma, Theta and Vega, priced with the Black-Scholes model
- Step through history day by day, or play it at speed
Where it's stronger: It's the only option here that needs no account at all, and replaying years of history is its core purpose rather than an add-on. You can see in minutes what took the market five years to show: how time decay, volatility and leverage behave across a bull run and the 2022 bear market.
Where the others are better (plainly):
- Far fewer tickers. Four stocks and ETFs plus SPX 0DTE, against whole markets at the brokers.
- No live market. It replays history; it doesn't trade today's market. thinkorswim, Webull and IBKR do.
- Daily data for stocks. No intraday candles on the four stocks. Intraday data is limited to the SPX 0DTE sessions.
- Modelled option prices. Options are priced from the real price history using Black-Scholes, not from recorded broker quotes, so bid/ask behaviour is simplified.
- No futures, forex or bonds.
If you want to rehearse a specific broker's platform with live data, use that broker's paper account. If you want to learn how options behave without opening an account, a replay simulator is the faster route.
Practise options with no account and no broker. Replay five years of real SPY, Tesla and Nvidia history with live Greeks. Free, and no signup for your first 10 orders.
Free. No signup for your first 10 simulator orders; the game needs no signup to play.
What's the difference between paper trading and historical replay?
Paper trading runs in today's live market. You place simulated orders and wait for the market to move, so a month of practice takes a month.
Historical replay runs on past market data. You step through days, weeks or years of history at your own speed, so you can practise across market conditions you'd otherwise wait years to meet, such as a crash, a rally or a volatility spike.
Both are useful for different things. Paper trading tests execution in today's conditions. Replay tests whether your strategy survives different conditions. thinkorswim (OnDemand) and Passive Nomads are the two here that do replay.
Does paper trading make you a better trader?
It helps with mechanics and with testing whether a method works. It doesn't fully reproduce the pressure of real money. Treat it as the place to make every expensive mistake once, for free, before it costs anything. Then keep a record of what you did and why: the review is where most of the learning happens.