I used to use standalone, but got so frustrated because of poor update and silly bugs. The browser based TWS is always the latest. Started using browser based TWS was good until last month, however it takes ages to come up lately after I logged in. Mind you IB platform is one of the poor and less user friendly platform out of all out there. TWS charting software is terrible, supports only handcount indicators/studies half of them are flexible. I use Thinkorswim, MBtrading, lightspeed, charles schwab for trading. Why I still use IB ? l use IB platform to execute orders only because IB comm is very low and comparable with lightspeed. P.S Be careful with IB customer support, they are very rude and cold when answering requests.
Install both. They can co-exist on the same machine. The installer will put them in separate directories. If you customize them, and I expect you will, just ensure that you do it in both versions or you may end up not being able to do something in one version and not the other. Then log-in using one or the other. Make up your own mind. Obviously there are differing opinions here on ET. IB spends money on making both versions available for some reason. Jack
At university, I go the library, use the browser based version, and lo and behold all my settings are saved. I also have my settings file emailed to myself in case i forget to check the "Use/Store setting in server" check-box on the login box And voila! Other times, I just use the one I have downloaded...
well, I know, back in the days before wireless internet, I had the standalone on my home computer, but I could go to any internet cafe in Mexico and down load the browser and my tws screen would show up exactly the way I had it set up on my home stand alone computer version.
Andy...for the best reliability/familiarity, you would probably do better by downloading the standalone and getting accustomed to one particular version. If you open up a new "browser based" version every few days, you might find yourself fumbling around, trying to figure out some new feature. As some have pointed out, sometimes the latest ain't the greatest. However, in my experience, (most of the time) either version will be suitable.