CompareOptions trading toolsUpdated September 2026
ORATS vs Unusual Whales
I am loving the tool so far. This is coming from someone that has been experimenting with Unusual Whales, Quant Data, Predicting Alpha, Barchart.
ORATS sells institutional-grade volatility analytics, a strategy backtester with data since 2007, and broker routing.
Best for ORATS
- Backtesting options strategies with your own entry and exit rules
- Valuing options against an arbitrage-free volatility surface
- Greeks and implied volatility history on every strike since 2007
Unusual Whales sells real-time options flow and flow alerts.
How far back the data goes
Unusual Whales' self-serve API plans have a 2-year lookback. ORATS one-minute backtests cover about 140 of the most-traded symbols.
ORATS
Daily chains with greeks and IV
Since 2007
Backtests on one-minute data
Since Oct 2020
Unusual Whales
Daily option chains with greeks
Since Oct 2021
Full options tape
Since Jan 2022
Feature comparison
Unusual Whales details are from their public pages, read on September 29, 2026.
| Feature | ORATS | Unusual Whales |
|---|---|---|
| Options strategy backtester | ORATS 45 strategies on daily data since 2007; 16 on one-minute data since October 2020 | Unusual Whales None found; the Backtesting page tests stock portfolios |
| Greeks and implied volatility | ORATS Every strike, live and historical, from a smoothed surface | Unusual Whales Per strike, and per print from the NBBO mid at trade time; no model named on its pages |
| Volatility surface | ORATS Arbitrage-free, per expiration and at constant maturities | Unusual Whales No; an at-the-money term structure and 25- and 10-delta risk reversals |
| Volatility forecasts | ORATS Volatility and skew forecasts, with history | Unusual Whales None described; realized volatility and variance risk premium |
| Broker order routing | ORATS Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, and Tradier; paper trading | Unusual Whales None found; alerts go to the web, mobile, Discord, and Telegram |
| Scanner | ORATS Option scanner ranked by theoretical edge, plus a stock scanner | Unusual Whales Options, contract, and volatility screeners, ranked on activity and IV rank |
Pricing
ORATS Trading Tools, at $99 a month, is within Unusual Whales' $50 to $120 paid dashboard range, and includes a strategy backtester on data since 2007, volatility forecasts, and broker routing.
Unusual Whales prices as of September 29, 2026.
Retail and API plans are for personal use only; commercial use starts at $750/mo.
ORATS
- Trading Tools, individual
- Every tool, real-time data, broker connections, 2,000 backtests a month
- $99/mo
- Trading Tools, professional
- The same platform under a professional license
- $199/user/mo
- Trading Tools, student
- With a .edu email; delayed data, no broker connections
- $49/mo
- Data API
- A separate product; Trading Tools does not include API access
- from $199/mo
Unusual Whales
- Free
- Options flow delayed 2 trading days, alerts 30 minutes
- $0
- Retail Basic
- Real-time flow, GEX heatmap, 25 alerts; $504 a year billed annually
- $50/mo
- Retail Max
- Unlimited alerts, plus one-minute SPX Periscope
- $120/mo
- API Basic
- 2-year lookback; no WebSocket streaming or futures data
- $150/mo
Common questions
Is ORATS an alternative to Unusual Whales?
For research and backtesting, yes. ORATS covers three things we did not find at Unusual Whales: valuing options against an arbitrage-free surface, volatility forecasts, and backtesting options strategies on data since 2007. The two can be used together, with Unusual Whales to find trades and ORATS to value and test them.
Does Unusual Whales have an options backtester?
Not that we found. Its Backtesting section tests stock portfolios, such as an institution's 13F holdings. For options, its guidance is to download the daily tape into your own data lake and replay your filters. ORATS Trading Tools runs custom options backtests on daily data since 2007 and on one-minute data since October 2020 for about 140 of the most-traded symbols. It also has 300 million-plus precomputed backtests you can search.
Which has more options history, ORATS or Unusual Whales?
ORATS. Its chains with greeks and implied volatility go back to 2007. Unusual Whales sells daily chains from October 2021 and the full tape from January 2022, and its self-serve API plans have a 2-year lookback. One of its comparison pages says its history goes 'Back to 2020', which is earlier than any dataset start date we found on its Data Shop or enterprise pages.
How much does Unusual Whales cost?
At list prices, the dashboard has a free tier with options flow delayed two trading days, then plans at $50, $75, and $120 a month. The API is $150 a month for Basic and $375 for Advanced, which adds WebSocket streaming and futures data, after a free one-week trial. Retail and API plans are for personal use only. ORATS Trading Tools is $99 a month, within the $50 to $120 dashboard range, and includes a strategy backtester, volatility forecasts, and broker routing, with a full refund if you cancel within 24 hours of signing up.
Where do these facts come from?
Unusual Whales details come from their public pages, read on September 29, 2026, and may have changed since. If something here is out of date, email support@orats.com and we will correct it. Unusual Whales product names and trademarks belong to their owners.
- Unusual Whales homepage
- Unusual Whales dashboard pricing and FAQ
- Unusual Whales API plans
- Unusual Whales enterprise plans and dataset coverage table
- Unusual Whales OpenAPI specification
- Unusual Whales WebSocket option trades channel (per-print greeks)
- Unusual Whales Data Shop
- Unusual Whales vs FlowAlgo landing page (history 'Back to 2020')
- Unusual Whales options flow feed breakdown
- Unusual Whales flow alert rules
- Unusual Whales: IV rank
- Unusual Whales portfolio backtesting
- Unusual Whales options data lake skill (do-it-yourself backtests)
- Unusual Whales FAQ
- Unusual Whales features
- Unusual Whales annual pricing landing page
- Unusual Whales business and enterprise pricing
- ORATS Trading Tools
- ORATS Options Backtester
- ORATS Data API pricing
