FirmTape vs Profitabul (2026)
SPX dealer-gamma levels, head to head · Profitabul's pages read 2026-09-30
Profitabul sells a futures trading workspace for ES, NQ, CL and GC: footprint order-flow charts, 50+ statistical reports, a journal, paper prop-firm challenges and an AI coach, with a "dealer-aware" GEX layer on the chart. FirmTape measures SPX dealer positioning from the options tape, rebuilt every second while the session runs, and gives away 1,113 finished sessions with no account. The table is what each vendor's own pages state, and one row is marked amber against us on purpose.
| FirmTape | Profitabul | |
|---|---|---|
| Price / month | $0 archive · $49 live | $99 · $899 a year |
| Free tier | 1,113 sessions + today delayed | None: billed from day one |
| Symbols | SPX every second + 100 on snapshots | ES, NQ, CL, GC; GEX on ES, NQ, SPX, SPY, QQQ |
| Inspectable history | 1,113 sessions, free, since 2022 | In-app replay, subscribers |
| Dealer side | Inferred from the tape | Inferred, confidence-gated; accuracy not published |
| Backtests your rule | Yes: LAB, out-of-sample | Preset reports + strategy backtests |
| MCP for AI assistants | Live, in the registry | Yes, subscribers |
| API | Yes: Lab API, OpenAPI | Agent context API, subscribers |
| Publishes null results | Yes: /research | Not stated |
| Sells signals | Never | No, stated as educational |
| Community / education | None | Discord, YouTube lessons |
Where Profitabul is stronger
- A whole futures workstation. Footprint charts down to one second, delta and CVD, volume profile, paper execution with broker connections and native phone apps, all in one subscription. FirmTape is an SPX options-positioning instrument, not a charting or execution platform.
- The trader's process around the levels. Playbooks, a journal that scores adherence, prop-firm rule guards and an AI coach that reads the user's own trades. FirmTape has none of that and does not plan to.
- GEX on the futures chart. The levels are drawn on the ES and NQ chart the trader executes from. FirmTape draws SPX index points; there is no ES or NQ price in it.
- Session statistics. Initial balance, opening range, gap fill and event studies across years of futures history, run per symbol.
Where FirmTape is stronger
- History anyone can check. Every finished SPX session since 2022 replays minute by minute with no account and no card. Profitabul's replay sits behind the subscription, which bills from day one.
- The signing error is published. Both products infer the dealer side from the tape. Profitabul gates its read behind a confidence check and publishes no accuracy figure; FirmTape publishes how often its inference is wrong and where.
- A backtester with a holdout and a baseline. The LAB tests a plain-words rule out of sample and prints "no edge" when that is the answer. Profitabul's reports print hit rates; its pages state no out-of-sample split or baseline.
- Free inside the assistant. FirmTape's MCP server answers the archive tools without an account and is listed in the official registry. Profitabul's MCP needs a paid login.
- Price for the positioning alone. $49 a month live, $0 for the archive, against $99 a month for the bundle.
The row we lose
FirmTape's dealer side is inferred: each print is signed by which side of the spread the aggressor hit, and the book is rebuilt from that. The inference is good in some regimes and poor in others, and rather than describe it with an adjective the site publishes the measurements: which gamma measure sees anything and which book is the zero-gamma flip. Profitabul's pages describe their positioning as inferred and gated behind a confidence check; how well that works is not something their pages let a reader check, which is the difference this page is about rather than a claim that ours is better.
Who should pick which
Questions people ask
- Is FirmTape a Profitabul alternative?
- Only for the gamma part. Profitabul is a futures workspace (footprint charts, reports, journal, paper challenges, an AI coach) with a GEX layer; FirmTape is SPX dealer positioning alone, with a free archive, a backtester and a free MCP server. A futures day trader who wants the workspace is Profitabul's customer, not ours.
- How much does Profitabul cost compared with FirmTape?
- Profitabul lists one plan, All Access, at $99 a month or $899 a year, billed from day one (read 2026-09-30). FirmTape's live stream is $49 a month or $490 a year, and every finished session is free without an account.
- Where does Profitabul's data come from?
- Its site calls the GEX "dealer-aware" and "computed futures-natively" and does not name a vendor on its pages; its web app loads market data from its own relays. FirmTape reads the SPX options tape from ThetaData, an OPRA-licensed vendor.
- Which one is more accurate?
- Neither can be ranked from the outside on Profitabul's side, because it publishes no signing accuracy. FirmTape publishes its own, including the regimes where the inference is close to a coin flip.
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Other comparisons
“Not stated” means the vendor's own public pages did not state it when they were read; it is not a claim that the thing does not exist. Competitor details were read from the vendor's own public pages on 2026-09-30 and are reproduced for comparison only. They change without notice, so check the source before relying on any of them. No affiliation with, or endorsement by, any product named. Not investment advice.