How to protect your MT4 programs in a very simple way? (Even without being an MT4 programmer)

Surely you have ever wanted to share one of your MT4 programs with a friend or with a potential partner or client. However, you are afraid that your program may be shared with third parties or may even be marketed without your consent. Learn to solve this in a very simple way even without being an MT4 programmer.

Code snippet to bond a program to a single MT4 Forex account

Here we show you a very simple way to limit the use of your MT4 program to a single MetaTrader account. This way you can send your Expert Advisor, Indicator or Script to whoever you want with the guarantee that it will not work on any other account except the one you previously authorized.

Simply follow the following steps:

1. Open your MT4 program (Expert Advisor, Indicator or Script) in MetaEditor (press F4 in MetaTrader platform).

2. Copy the following code.

//--- code begin
int AcctNbr = 0;
if(AcctNbr > 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
   {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

3. Modify the second line of the code replacing ‘0’ (zero) with the number of the account authorized to use your MT4 program.

//--- code begin
int AcctNbr = 52068425; // <-- write here the authorized account number
if(AcctNbr > 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
   {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

4. Paste the above code between the brackets of OnInit (initialization function) of your MT4 program. It would look as follows.

5. Compile the MT4 program.

6. Share only the executable file (‘ex4’).

Code snippet to set a trial period

With this simple piece of code, you will be able to limit the use of your MT4 trading tool from a certain date. This is, the MT4 EA or Indicator will work until the date you set in the code. From this date on, the MetaTrader 4 program will stop working.

Follow the points above just replacing points 2 and 3 with the following ones:

2. Copy the following code.

//--- code begin
datetime TrialEndDate = 0;
if(TimeCurrent() > TrialEndDate)
   {Print("Trial period has expired!"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

3. Modify the second line of the code replacing ‘0’ (zero) with the date you want the MT4 program to stop working.

//--- code begin
datetime TrialEndDate = D'23.07.2020'; // <-- write here the date when you the MT4 program stops
if(TimeCurrent() > TrialEndDate)
   {Print("Trial period has expired!"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

Adding an extra layer of protection with MQL5 Cloud Protector

The MetaTrader 4 trading platform contains a tool that adds an additional layer of protection to the programs. This important tool is MQL5 Cloud Protector.

MQL5 Cloud Protector is actually a free service that adds a high degree of protection to MT4 programs. In fact, this is the same protection system used with the trading apps marketed in MQL5 market.

It is advisable to always use this protection, especially for those cases where a high degree of protection is desired in the MT4 program that you want to share or sell. From our point of view, MQL5 Cloud Protector significantly reduces the need to use DLL files in program protection.

MQL5 Cloud Protector was launched at the end of 2017 on MT5 build 1700. You can see the details of this version in the post “MetaTrader 5 Build 1700: Synthetic Instruments, Shared Projects and MQL5 Cloud Protector“. Consequently, the tool was also available for MT4 sometime later.