The Best Footprint Chart Software in 2026

A footprint chart splits every bar into bid-side and ask-side volume at each price, which is the difference between knowing a bar closed green and knowing whether buyers actually did the work. Plenty of tools claim to draw one. Fewer draw it from real trade data with the aggressor side known, and several put it behind a higher tier than the one advertised. This compares six on verified 2026 pricing — footprint chart software that genuinely works, and what each charges to unlock it.

Disclosure. We build NOROVIEW, so read this the way you would read any vendor's comparison page. What we can offer instead of neutrality is checkable numbers: every competitor figure below was taken from that vendor's own pricing page on 13 August 2026, not from a review site — the review sites disagreed with the vendors on nearly every number we checked. Where a competitor is better, it says so. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

The short version

Cheapest real footprint: free — on NOROVIEW's free plan, Bookmap's free Digital tier, or ATAS Start within its indicator limits. All three are permanent free tiers with real-time crypto.

Watch out for: Sierra Chart, where Numbers Bars need Package 5 or an Integrated package rather than the 26 USD entry package; and Quantower, where Volume Analysis is a separately paid extension on top of the $70/month licence.

Most configurable: ATAS, by a distance. Best on futures specifically: Sierra Chart's Numbers Bars, if you will do the configuration work.

Start free if you want to try it without a card: Open NOROVIEW free.

First: what makes a footprint chart real

To draw a true footprint you need the trade stream with the aggressor side on every print — whether each trade was a buyer lifting the offer or a seller hitting the bid. That is a trade feed with side information, and every platform below has it.

What deserves scepticism is indicators that reconstruct delta by splitting a candle's volume according to where the close sits in its range, or by inferring direction from a lower-timeframe candle's shape. These are common in general charting ecosystems, they look convincing on a slow market, and they fail exactly where you need them: on absorption, where heavy volume at a price produces no movement. A real footprint shows you that instantly. An approximation usually shows you a normal bar.

If you have not read one before, our complete guide to reading footprint charts covers the mechanics free, and absorption, exhaustion and imbalance covers the patterns worth looking for.

What each platform charges to draw one

Platform	Footprint available at	Free tier includes it?
NOROVIEW	Standard footprint free; customizable NORO footprint from $19/mo	Yes
Bookmap	Digital (free) upward	Yes
ATAS	Start (free) within 3 indicators per chart; more at PLUS €24.95/mo	Yes, limited
Exocharts	Web $28/mo; Desktop Pro $49/mo	Desktop free build: SHIBA, DOGE and SOLANA only
Sierra Chart	Numbers Bars need Package 5 (36 USD/mo) or Integrated 10–12	No — not in Package 3 at 26 USD/mo
Quantower	Volume Analysis is a separately paid extension on top of $70/mo	No

Two of those rows are why this article exists. Sierra Chart's entry package at 26 USD/month does not include Numbers Bars — you need Package 5 at 36 USD or an Integrated package. And Quantower's $70/month all-in-one licence does not include Volume Analysis, which is sold as an extension. Neither vendor hides this, but neither leads with it either, and both are frequently listed in roundups at their entry price as though footprint were included.

Which one to actually use

If you are learning: any of the three free tiers, on crypto. Footprint charts are free to access on Binance because the exchange publishes the data, so the only cost of learning to read one is your evening.

If you want the most configurable footprint: ATAS. Their cluster analysis is deeper than anyone else's here, and if you enjoy tuning imbalance thresholds and cluster filters you will be happier there than with us.

If you trade CME futures: the question is not the footprint, it is the data bill behind it. Real-time CME order flow costs $19/month all-in on NOROVIEW, €69.95 on ATAS PRO, $49 plus VAT on Exocharts Desktop Pro, $83 on Bookmap Global with BookmapData, or a Sierra Chart package plus Denali plus exchange fees. The footprint renderers are broadly comparable; the invoices are not.

If you are on a Mac or a work laptop: a browser platform, since most of this category is desktop software.

Settings that matter more than the platform

Once you have chosen, most of your results come from configuration rather than vendor. Three settings do most of the work:

Tick aggregation. A footprint on raw ticks for an instrument like ES is unreadable. Group price levels until each bar shows a shape you can take in at a glance — the right number depends on the instrument's tick size and current volatility, and it changes.

Imbalance threshold. Usually a ratio between diagonal bid and ask volumes. Set it too low and every bar lights up; too high and you never see anything. Start around 3:1 and adjust until roughly the top few percent of levels are flagged.

Bar type. Time bars split the session evenly regardless of activity. Volume or tick bars give each bar equal information content, which usually makes footprints far more comparable to one another. Most experienced footprint traders end up on volume or range bars.

None of these is platform-specific. All of them matter more than which logo is in the corner.

What real-time US futures order flow actually costs

Software price is the number vendors advertise. For CME order flow it is rarely the number you pay, because on several platforms the market data is a separate line item. This is the comparison that matters, all-in:

Platform	Software	Real-time futures data	All-in / month	Runs in
NOROVIEW Basic	$19	Included	$19	Browser
Exocharts Desktop Pro	$49	dxFeed included	$49 + VAT	Desktop
Bookmap Global	$49	+ $34 BookmapData	$83	Desktop
ATAS PRO	€69.95	Included in PRO	€69.95 + VAT	Desktop
Quantower	$70	Purchased separately	$70+	Desktop
Sierra Chart	$36–$56	Denali + exchange fees	$36+ and up	Desktop
TradingView Plus+	Plan price	CME add-on, extra	Plan + add-on	Browser

Two things are worth saying plainly about that table. Bookmap's advertised $49 is not the price of futures order flow — BookmapData futures is $34/mo on top, so the real figure is $83. And NOROVIEW and TradingView are the only two that run in a browser, but TradingView bills CME real-time data as a separate add-on. That is the whole argument for NOROVIEW in one row.

Where NOROVIEW is the wrong choice

NOROVIEW covers Binance only for crypto — Exocharts reaches five exchanges and Bookmap more than twenty. It is analysis only: no execution, no broker routing, so you trade through your own broker or exchange. Historical tick depth and replay do not go as deep as Exocharts' six years. And futures data on the free plan is last-closed-session history rather than a live feed — real-time CME starts at $19.

On footprint charts specifically: ATAS's cluster tooling is more configurable than ours, and Sierra Chart's Numbers Bars are more customisable if you will do the work. Our free plan gives you the standard footprint but not the depth ledger or the heatmap, and the customizable NORO footprint starts at $19.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best footprint chart software?
For free access, NOROVIEW, Bookmap Digital or ATAS Start — all three include footprint on a permanent free tier with real-time crypto. For configurability, ATAS. For CME futures at the lowest all-in cost, NOROVIEW at $19/month with the data included.

Are there free footprint charts?
Yes. NOROVIEW's free plan includes the standard footprint chart, Bookmap's free Digital tier includes footprint, and ATAS Start does within its three-indicators-per-chart limit. All three are real-time on crypto, since exchanges publish that data publicly.

Does Sierra Chart include footprint charts?
Numbers Bars — Sierra Chart's footprint — require Service Package 5 (36 USD/month) or one of the Integrated packages, 10 to 12. The entry Package 3 at 26 USD/month does not include them, which catches people out.

Does TradingView have footprint charts?
TradingView lists volume footprint across its paid plans. Be more careful with third-party Pine indicators that estimate delta from candle data rather than the trade stream — those break down on absorption, which is the main thing you want a footprint for.

What settings should I use for footprint charts?
Aggregate ticks until a bar is readable at a glance, set the imbalance ratio so roughly the top few percent of levels flag (start near 3:1), and prefer volume or range bars over time bars so each bar carries comparable information. These matter more than which platform you chose.

Sources

Every figure above was read from the vendor's own page on 13 August 2026. Prices change — check before you subscribe.

1. NOROVIEW — plans and features — https://noroview.com/pricing
2. Bookmap — packages comparison — https://bookmap.com/en/packages-comparison
3. ATAS — pricing — https://atas.net/pricing/
4. Exocharts — pricing and features — https://exocharts.com/
5. Sierra Chart — service packages and pricing — https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?page=doc%2FPackages.php
6. Quantower — prices and licenses — https://www.quantower.com/pricing

More comparisons in this series:
NOROVIEW vs Exocharts · NOROVIEW vs Bookmap · NOROVIEW vs ATAS · NOROVIEW vs Sierra Chart

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Soroosh Moghimi — six years inside financial markets: algorithmic trading, HFT, crypto and AI, after a decade building startups. He publishes this material free because he already paid for the lessons in it. There is no paid course and no signal group. @sorooshmoghimi · About

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⚠️ DISCLAIMER — EDUCATIONAL CONTENT ONLY

This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, or trading advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Trading cryptocurrencies and leveraged derivatives is high risk and can result in the loss of some or all of your capital. Only risk money you can afford to lose. Comparisons and prices reflect what each vendor published on 13 August 2026 and change without notice — always check the vendor's own pricing page before subscribing. Always do your own research. You alone are responsible for your decisions.