Bookmap did not join the liquidity heatmap category, it created it, and every heatmap since has been measured against theirs. The reason it is good is architectural: the application runs on your own machine, subscribes to full depth, and records it locally, which is what makes replay and long history possible at all. Its free Digital tier is also genuinely generous on connectivity, reaching Binance, Bitfinex and a long list of other crypto venues rather than one. If the heatmap is the centre of your process, Bookmap is the reference implementation and nothing here disputes that.
The friction is where it runs and how much of it you get at once. Bookmap is software you install and keep running on a machine that has to stay on, the free Digital tier shows one symbol at a time, and technical indicators are not part of it — so the heatmap sits beside your charting rather than inside it. Basis puts the book, the tape and the heatmap in the same browser tab as the charts, on any operating system, with nothing to download.
Compared against Bookmap’s Digital (free) tier, read from their own plan page on 2026-09-05. Plans change — check before deciding.
Basis
A browser tab on any operating system, nothing installed
Bookmap
An application installed and running on your own machine
Running locally is what lets Bookmap record full depth to disk, so this is a design choice rather than an oversight — but it also means a machine that has to be on, and a platform it has to be on.
Basis
About two minutes, captured live from the moment you open the panel
Bookmap
One hour of full-depth backfill on the Digital tier
This one is squarely their strength and it is the honest cost of a browser-side book: Basis can only show liquidity it has watched, and it has watched since you arrived.
Basis
Multiple charts in one layout, each with its own symbol
Bookmap
One symbol viewable at a time on the Digital tier
Crypto leadership rotates between majors and the alt you are trading, and watching one book at a time means watching the wrong one about half the day.
Basis
Binance spot and USD-M perpetuals
Bookmap
Binance, Bitfinex and a long list of other crypto venues
Their free tier reaches venues this does not cover, which matters if your book is on one of them; check yours before moving rather than after.
Basis
200 indicators, 20 chart types and 73 drawing tools on the same chart
Bookmap
Technical indicators are not part of the Digital tier
Determines whether the order book informs your chart or sits in a second window you alt-tab to, which is the difference between using it and remembering to use it.
Basis
Screener, backtester, journal, alerts and an AI assistant in the same workspace
Bookmap
Not advertised on the cited plan page
Turns something you noticed in the book into a rule you can test and a trade you can review, rather than into a memory.
Basis
None — Basis is analysis only and connects to no account
Bookmap
Trading and simulated trading from the DOM
A real advantage to them, and not something Basis intends to match: nothing here touches an exchange key or places an order.
No, and the difference is worth being blunt about. Bookmap records full depth locally and can show you an hour or replay a session. Basis samples the live book twice a second and keeps roughly the last two minutes, so it answers what is happening now rather than what happened this morning.
Nothing at all. The book, the tape, the heatmap and the charts run in the browser you already have, on any operating system, and connect to the venue directly from your machine. There is no download, no licence key and no client to keep updated.
Neither. Basis has no paid tier, so order flow is not a preview of something else and there is no clock running in the background. An account is optional and exists only so saved layouts and journals follow you between devices.
4 exchanges are wired into the terminal for charting, with exact order flow — the book, the tape and the heatmap — sourced from Binance spot and USD-M perpetuals. The panel labels the active venue, so you always know which book you are reading.
The terminal opens with no account and no card. Nothing on this page is behind a tier, so you can check every claim above in the product itself rather than taking it on trust.
Open the free terminalCapability claims about Bookmap were read from their public plan page on 2026-09-05 and describe that tier only. This page quotes no prices, because they change and a stale figure would be misleading. Educational comparison, not financial advice.