Open-source arbitrage bots let you see exactly what the code does before you trust it with your trades — no black box, no hidden fees, no vendor lock-in. For anyone serious about automation, that transparency is a genuine advantage over closed "just-deposit-and-earn" products.
This guide covers the leading open-source projects, the real pros and cons versus hosted tools, the hidden costs of self-hosting, and how ArbiScreen gives you a free, zero-setup way to find the gaps your open-source bot then acts on.
Transparent
You read the code
Why Open Source Matters for Arbitrage
With a closed bot you're trusting a promise. With open source you're trusting code you can read. That means you can verify it isn't secretly front-running you, confirm exactly how it handles your API keys, and modify the strategy to fit your own exchanges and risk. No monthly fee, no vendor deciding to shut the service down.
The Leading Open-Source Projects
| Project | Best for | Note |
|---|
| Hummingbot | Market-making & cross-exchange arbitrage | Largest community; configurable |
| Freqtrade | Strategy-based trading with backtesting | General-purpose, Python |
| ccxt | Building your own from scratch | Library, not a full bot |
Hummingbot is the closest to a purpose-built arbitrage framework — it supports cross-exchange and market-making strategies out of the box. Freqtrade is more of a general trading bot you script strategies for. Both are free and actively maintained.
Open Source vs Hosted Tools — Honest Trade-offs
| Factor | Open-source bot | Hosted scanner |
|---|
| Transparency | Full — read the code | You trust the provider |
| Setup effort | High — install, configure, host | None |
| Running cost | Server + your time | Free tier available |
| Control | Total | Provider-defined |
| Maintenance | You keep it alive | Handled for you |
⚠️ "Free" open source still has costs
Open-source software has no licence fee, but self-hosting isn't effort-free. You need a server running 24/7, the skill to configure strategies, and ongoing maintenance as exchange APIs change. Budget your time, not just your money.
How ArbiScreen Fits In — Free, and Every Exchange at Once
Even the best open-source bot is only as good as the market data feeding it. Rather than building and hosting your own 17-exchange data pipeline, you can point your bot at gaps a scanner already surfaces.
ArbiScreen takes the hardest part off your plate: the monitoring. It tracks 17 exchanges simultaneously — Binance, Bybit, OKX, KuCoin, MEXC, Gate.io, HTX, Bitget, Kraken and regional venues — compares every coin across all of them, and ranks the widest live spreads net of fees. No bot can profit from a gap it never saw; ArbiScreen makes sure you see them all.
✅ A scanner does the watching; you (or your bot) do the trading
Whether you run a Telegram alert bot, a Python script, or an open-source project, they all need the same thing first: accurate, real-time cross-exchange data. ArbiScreen is that data layer — free to start, covering all 17 venues — so your automation acts on real gaps instead of stale prices.
Explore the other ways to run an arbitrage bot:
Who Should Use an Open-Source Bot?
Open source is the right call if you're technical, want full control, and enjoy tuning a system. If you just want to catch gaps without running infrastructure, a hosted scanner with a free tier gets you there faster. Many traders do both: ArbiScreen to find the gaps, an open-source bot to execute.
Most open-source tools live on GitHub — see our pick of crypto arbitrage GitHub repos and the red flags to check first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best open-source crypto arbitrage bot?▼
Hummingbot is the most established open-source option built around market-making and cross-exchange arbitrage. Freqtrade is excellent as a general strategy bot with backtesting. Both are free and actively maintained.
Is open-source software safe for trading?▼
It can be safer than closed tools because you can read exactly what it does. The caveat: you must actually review the code (or trust a large, audited community) and use trade-only API keys with withdrawals disabled.
Is open source really free?▼
There's no licence fee, but self-hosting costs a server and your time to configure and maintain it. Factor those in when comparing against a hosted tool's free tier.
Can I combine an open-source bot with a scanner?▼
Yes — that's a common, powerful setup. Use ArbiScreen to monitor 17 exchanges and surface real net-profit gaps, then let your open-source bot execute the trades. The scanner is the eyes; the bot is the hands.
Do I need to be a programmer?▼
For most open-source bots, some technical comfort helps — you'll edit config files and run a server. If that's not you, start with a no-setup scanner and trade manually until you're ready to automate.
Feed your open-source bot real gaps — free.
ArbiScreen surfaces live net-profit spreads across 17 exchanges, no setup or server required.
