Best Automated Covered Call Software for Passive Income in 2026

If you own shares and want monthly income without manually picking strikes and rolling positions every cycle, the best automated covered call software for passive income in 2026 is a mix of full no-code bot platforms and simpler screening or ETF-based alternatives — the right one depends on how much control you want to keep versus hand off. OptionBots, Option Alpha, TradersPost, and Trade Steward lead the field for traders who want the strategy fully automated, while Born To Sell and covered call ETFs serve traders who want less setup and less ongoing management.

Covered calls are one of the most widely used income strategies in options trading because the mechanics are repetitive: pick a strike, sell the call, close or roll it, repeat. That repetition is exactly what makes the strategy a strong candidate for automation — and it's also why a crowded field of tools has emerged to serve it.

Quick Answer

• OptionBots — Best for: traders who want a full no-code covered call or Wheel bot with backtesting before going live.
• Option Alpha — Best for: cost-conscious traders who don't mind being locked into Tradier as their broker.
• TradersPost — Best for: traders who want to automate covered calls across a broker they already use, rather than switching.
• Trade Steward — Best for: traders running covered calls alongside other multi-leg strategies who want centralized position management.
• Schwab thinkorswim (native tools) — Best for: traders who want built-in strike scanning and conditional orders without adding a third-party subscription.
• Born To Sell — Best for: traders who want a premium screener to find covered call candidates but plan to place trades themselves.
• Covered call ETFs (e.g., JEPI, QYLD) — Best for: fully passive investors who want covered-call-style income without running a bot or owning individual option positions at all.

Methodology

We evaluated each option against six criteria that matter specifically for covered call income: broker compatibility (which brokers the tool connects to), strategy support (whether covered calls are a first-class feature or a workaround), automation depth (whether the tool handles the full cycle — strike selection, entry, profit-taking, rolling — or only part of it), ease of setup, risk controls (profit targets, roll triggers, IV filters, stop rules), and pricing relative to what the tool automates.

Sources consulted include each platform's official pricing and documentation pages, broker integration pages, and public user reviews from TradersPost, Strike.money, and TheStockDork. No vendor return claims are cited here — you should be skeptical of any covered call tool that promises a specific yield.

Author: OptionBots Team • Last updated: July 14, 2026

Comparison Table

OptionBots

Best for: Traders who want covered calls (standalone or as part of the full Wheel) automated end to end, with the ability to backtest before risking capital.

Features: Visual, no-code bot builder for covered call and Wheel strategies. Configure delta-based strike selection (typically 0.20–0.30 delta), 30–45 DTE entry windows, 50% profit-target closes, 21 DTE roll triggers, and IV rank filters. Connects to Tastytrade, Tradier, and Tradestation. Includes backtesting against historical data and a paper trading mode with roughly $500,000 in simulated capital before going live. See also: How to Automate Covered Calls.

Limits: Doesn't connect to Schwab/thinkorswim or Robinhood. Pricing starts higher than free alternatives like Option Alpha.

Pricing: OptionBots Pro is $197/month ($147/month billed annually) with 15 bots and up to 20 contracts per bot. OptionBots Scale is $297/month ($222/month billed annually) with 100 bots and up to 50 contracts per bot.

Choose if: you want a purpose-built, no-code covered call or Wheel bot with backtesting and paper trading, and you're on (or willing to move to) a supported broker.

Option Alpha

Best for: Traders who want no-code automation without paying a monthly platform fee.

Features: Visual workflow builder for rule-based automation — sell a call at a target delta, close at a profit percentage, roll near expiration. No coding required, and the core platform is free to use.

Limits: Requires Tradier as your broker, which means traders on other platforms have to open a new account. Feature depth for advanced multi-leg strategies is more limited than paid competitors.

Pricing: Free (standard Tradier commissions and data fees still apply).

Choose if: cost is your main constraint and you're comfortable using Tradier as your broker.

TradersPost

Best for: Traders who want to keep their existing broker rather than switch to a platform-specific one.

Features: Bring-your-own-broker automation with a wide list of supported integrations, including IBKR and TradeStation for multi-asset execution. Built around webhook-triggered automation, giving more flexibility for traders who already have a signal source elsewhere.

Limits: Setup leans more technical than a fully visual, guided builder — traders with no automation experience may find the learning curve steeper than OptionBots or Option Alpha.

Pricing: Paid subscription tiers; exact cost depends on plan and trading volume.

Choose if: you already have a broker you don't want to leave and are comfortable with a more technical setup process.

Trade Steward

Best for: Traders running covered calls as one piece of a broader multi-strategy book.

Features: Supports covered calls alongside credit spreads, debit spreads, iron condors, strangles, and ratio spreads in one interface, with performance charts and trade analytics across all strategies.

Limits: The multi-strategy focus means it's built for more active, diversified traders — if covered calls are your only strategy, you're paying for capability you won't use.

Pricing: Paid subscription (check current site for tier pricing).

Choose if: you're running covered calls plus other options strategies and want one dashboard instead of several tools.

Schwab thinkorswim (Native Tools)

Best for: Traders who want built-in scanning and conditional orders without adding a subscription.

Features: Options screeners, conditional and OCO orders, and the ability to build simple trigger-based order chains — for example, closing a call automatically at a target price. Comes free with a Schwab brokerage account.

Limits: Not full automation in the same sense as a dedicated bot platform — you're building conditional order logic rather than a persistent, self-running strategy that re-enters new positions on its own.

Pricing: Free with a Schwab account.

Choose if: you already bank with Schwab and want semi-automated tools without paying for a third-party platform.

Born To Sell

Best for: Traders who want to find the best covered call opportunities but are comfortable executing trades themselves.

Features: Screens a large database of live covered call opportunities with filters for industry, expiration, and moneyness, plus ex-dividend and earnings dates for each underlying — both relevant to assignment risk.

Limits: This is a screener, not an execution or automation tool. You still place, monitor, close, and roll every trade by hand.

Pricing: $59.95/month, with discounts for quarterly or annual billing (two-week free trial).

Choose if: you want help finding strikes and premium opportunities but prefer to keep manual control over execution.

Covered Call ETFs (JEPI, QYLD, and Others)

Best for: Investors who want covered-call-style monthly income with zero setup, zero bot, and zero ongoing management.

Features: These funds hold a basket of stocks (or track an index) and systematically write calls against the holdings, distributing the collected premium as income — no account minimum beyond the ETF's share price, no broker integration required, no configuration.

Limits: You don't choose strikes, expirations, deltas, or IV filters — the fund manager does. Returns and tax treatment differ from running your own covered calls, and you give up all customization in exchange for simplicity.

Pricing: No subscription — cost is the fund's expense ratio, typically 0.35%–0.60% annually.

Choose if: you want the income profile of covered calls without running a strategy yourself, and you're fine ceding all strike and expiration decisions to a fund manager.

Decision Framework

Choose OptionBots if you want a dedicated, no-code covered call or Wheel bot with backtesting and paper trading before going live, and you're on Tastytrade, Tradier, or Tradestation.

Choose Option Alpha if budget is the deciding factor and you're willing to use Tradier as your broker to get free automation.

Choose TradersPost or Trade Steward if you're already running other automated strategies and want covered calls integrated into that same system rather than as a standalone tool.

Choose Schwab thinkorswim if you're not ready to pay for a third-party platform and want to test conditional-order automation using a broker you already have.

Choose Born To Sell if you enjoy picking your own trades but want a faster, more data-driven way to find candidates.

Choose a covered call ETF if you want the income style of covered calls with no setup and no ongoing decisions — understanding you're trading customization for simplicity.

Avoid full bot automation if you don't yet understand how assignment risk, delta, and IV rank affect a covered call position — automating a strategy you don't understand just executes mistakes faster and more consistently.

Proof & Context

A covered call requires 100 shares of the underlying per contract — at roughly $540/share for SPY, that's about $54,000 in shares to sell one SPY covered call (see our cash-secured put automation guide for the acquisition side of this). The 50% profit-target close is one of the more commonly cited exit rules among systematic options traders, because it reduces exposure to gamma risk that accelerates near expiration. Selling calls when IV rank is above roughly 20–30 is a common filter used to avoid collecting thin premium in low-volatility environments. Not all brokers support automated order placement for third-party tools — Tradier, Tastytrade, and TradeStation are the most automation-friendly (see FINRA's notice on auto-trading services before connecting any bot to a live account).

For the full step-by-step mechanics of setting strike rules, DTE windows, and roll logic, see our guide How to Automate Covered Calls. Related: How to Automate the Wheel Strategy and the OptionBots homepage.

Disclaimer: Options trading involves substantial risk and is not suitable for all investors. Nothing in this article is financial advice. OptionBots is software for automating options strategies, not a broker, dealer, or investment advisor.