Our review from earliest time to latest time:

January:

It’s certainly interesting so far. There are -definitely- errors though so use caution. Just got assigned an option (on purpose). Luckily it was a small assignment as the platform was scrolling error messages on across my screen when I tried to sell at a profit. Looks like it has issues grasping assignment to stock selling?
Worst part was the execution button was covered with the errors. Luckily, I was able to log into the web browser version of the platform and get out of my position still at a profit. Missed out on some money, but not a lot.
But boy, if I had a larger position and missed out on a bigger move, that would have been infuriating. I expect glitches, but wow.
 

February:

Following up now a month later, Tastyworks has come a long way. I have been using their software web-based for several months, and their desktop platform since January.

A little about me. I have been trading for a long time. Fully independent and self employed.
I like to test software and hardware. Built my own computers and coding since I was a kid. And, if I’m trading, I want my software to work very fluidly, without hangups. I am quite picky in that regard. Time is money. Mistakes cost money. Improper data costs money. These costs can be huge when scaled.

I’ve tested many platforms over the years: Cqg, Sierra Charts, Interactive Brokers, Tradestation, Multicharts (.com & .net), Ninjatrader, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Chase, Vanguard, Tradingview, Robinhood, Investor RT, Bookmap, S5 - to name a few.

Here are comments I can make and some noticeable improvements:

It’s a very easy to navigate and read. Big font. Updates very quickly. Easy to breakdown individual tickers into an overall reading by ticker or individual options within said ticker.

Logs for errors now automatically submit errors (before they did not).

If there is an error, the program doesn’t spam you with messages stating such, it simply notifies you and you can generally fix the problem easily. IE: if an order you are attempting to place can’t be found via your account, delete the selected option in the table, and repeat. This fixes the problem.

This is a beta so expect bugs. But these bugs are extremely non-invasive from what I have experienced. And occurring quite rarely at this point.

The platform itself is very nice and smooth looking. Seriously. I know I said it before, but it’s one of the most easy to quickly navigate platforms I’ve used (I have used many).

Drag and drop is an amazingly easy feature for moving option chain components around. As well as an easy click to change to buy or sell. Or quantity amounts. Fluidity is super simple.

I feel like it is similar to the TD Ameritrade platform, except just better. Much better. Navigation, readability, information, and more.

The fees they charge are cheap. At least, I feel so. And rather transparent. They want your business.
Customer service is quick, nice, helpful, and easy to work with if needed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the program will auto sign you out every 24hours. It also gets updated frequently. I advise you sign out an hour before market opens so you can have it do any updates it needs and you can sign back in. You sign out via the sign out button in the bottom left of the window. If you don’t sign out and leave the program open from the day before, as soon as you try to make it a trade, it will auto-sign you out to have you sign back in as a security measure. Problematic to waste time like that during open hours.

Their downloadable platform can be supplemented by their web-based platform. I actually like to have the web-based platform up on one monitor for the follow and grid IV rank system, with the desktop version on another monitor.

I use Tastyworks in conjunction with Simpler Options very successfully. It is VERY easy to make set up trades either manually or with their “quick place” buttons. It is also very hard to make an accidental trade.

There are very bluntly placed percentage accuracy numbers listed in the options selection table based upon their algorithms they have. Very useful when selling premiums to maximize income based on possibilities and the costs to buy (the money you make selling). Their IV Ranking system is just cool. And works fairly well. I found a biotech stock a while back that had HUGE IV rank (aka high premiums for selling) that was sitting around $30 and you could sell huge premium all the way down 15 and all the way up to 80. Was a very easy way to make quick money by researching when announcements would come out compared to expiration dates and premium selling. I would not have found that stock without their IV ranking system. I recommend the web browser version for that though.

If you like this review and want to sign up with them, I request that you please use my referral link to sign up:

https://start.tastyworks.com#/login?referralCode=B75WN2SJKN

As a thank you for doing so, I’ll continue to look back and try to answer any questions you may have based upon my experience in working with their program both desktop and web-based.
 
 

Update 04/01/2017:
 

Still working well. Came across one additional bug yesterday. I had a working order already submitted, attempted to replace. Within a close enough time period between me hitting submit to replace the order, the order I was replacing filled. This caused the order to appear both as “filled” and “working” as far as the platform considered it to be. Same went for their web-based system, so it must have been a bug on their broker side. I could -not- cancel or replace the working order. It also wouldn’t fill since it thought it already had.

In addition, the bug made it so I couldn’t close the existing position either as their system does not allow a buy and sell submission of the same expiration, date, and type. I was stuck in the position. One fifteen minute phone call later to tech support and the problem was resolved. Their developers had to go in and manually fix.

In the end, not a huge deal, but it is good to know what can happen and potentially go wrong. This was only one out of hundreds of trades since starting their system.

I am quite happy with the service and platform so far.

FEE STRUCTURE

No reoccurring monthly fees.

General Updates:

You can tell the people at Tastyworks are hard at work on the system. There’s minor tweaks that are noticably implemented. For example, working orders show a very quick pop up (you choose the time length) as a reminder that they are open/working after platform close. It still is essential to remember to sign out of your desktop platform BEFORE market opens and not just leave the desktop platform open 24/7. It wants a password entry for security reasons every 24 hours. Imagine needing to do a trade immediately and then that pop up interrupts you. Whoops. But obviously an easy fix to just get in the habit of logging out/back in.

Don’t take my word for it though, feel welcome to try out their desktop system yourself:

http://goo.gl/hUk9JF

You will need to fund your account, but there’s not actual fees to just have the account and check out the platform.
I know they are developing an iOS platform too, whiche is nice. Though I do know for a fact you can log in via Safari to the https://trade.tastyworks.com/tw/login website platform just fine.