Right, plugs into NinjaTrader. As for performance, I think the client is for decompressing the data stream. More often, on these forums and elsewhere, IQFeed seems to come out ahead on performance. By the way, Patsystems uses a client, too. NinjaTrader uses the client for the datafeed and executions. So, I don't think it's unusual.
Here's one more reason for me to like IQFeed (which I'm evaluating today)... their servers are based in Dallas, just down the block (17ms) from my hosted servers. Cool.
Esignal is just way too over price. Their pricy software is out of date. They are too focus on marketing works, sponsoring events rather than develop a good trading platform. Their data is good as feeds are pulled directly from IDC. If you are after good & reliable feeds with no concern about pricing and platform then Esignal is obviously your number 1 choice
NxCore runs about $500/mo. for ALL symbols. No symbol limit bs. It's supposed to be like..."IQFeed on steroids".
NxCore is good. Quant Station also has a built in support for NxCore but its data rate is way too high, not really suitable for visualization. If you are after a market monitoring, scanning and charting then NxCore is over-kill for you. However if you need a feed for your ATS then it is perfectly suited.
I've used eSignal for a while now. I've tried many others but I like eSignal the best, mostly for charting and overall functionality. Many of the comments I read here aren't reflective of my experience. Like all high-end data suppliers, they offer a trial so just see for yourself.
Effective this past weekend, we upgraded our ticker plant to read the Fix/Fast feed from CME Group for electronic futures. Thus, the aggregated trades that came through in the old CME protocol (ITC) is no longer an issue for DTN users.