MQL4 developers often spend weeks or months perfecting an EA. Decompilation destroys their business model. In response, modern developers use:

: Decompiling protected software may violate copyright laws or Terms of Service .

MetaQuotes explicitly forbids reverse engineering in its EULA. Additionally, EX4 files from recent MT4 builds (after build 600) include obfuscation and anti-decompilation measures, such as:

Some developers use GitHub to host open-source "parsers." These tools might be free to download and can analyze the metadata of an EX4 file (such as the number of buffers in an indicator or the timestamp of compilation). However, to actually decompile the source code, these tools often require a paid API key or a connection to a private, commercial server. This hybrid model uses GitHub as a distribution platform for what is essentially a paid service.