I like the Sierrachart DRM policy, it has to be renewed only once a month... so once a month you have to remove your intellectual property, open the firewall for the DRM check and you are good to go for awhile... Better yet are Openquant and Amibroker, they require no DRM server check at all...
I have lifetime licenses for both Ninjatrader and Multicharts. In my experience, NinjaTrader blows chunks.
For MC, I am quite happy so far but really hate their DRM. It connects to some outside machines quite often - so you have to trust them that they don't channel your self-written code through that and run it themselves. Couldn't they just send people a custom SSH key that unlocks the app? Anyway... . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My suggestion to all traders in 3 steps: 1. Turn off internet connection 2. Load your favorite backtesting or TA program 3. If it fails to load or execute because it cannot connect to the internet uninstall it and never use it again Simple, 1, 2,3 ...done ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Of course they can send a custom SSH, Tradestation did it before, first with a dongle and later (TS2000i) even without a dongle. But they want to see in your PC. And therefore they need internet access. If your own programs are interesting they will copy them. I asked MC to sell me a version without the internet connection, but they refused. Maybe it would be interesting to publish a list here with "safe" software.
Amibroker don't do any phoning home fooling around to their servers, for example. Better more competent software anyway.