I am across connect and publisher for trying out algorithm trading. I am new to this and waned to know the difference between the two. Also should I start out with Publisher as that is free and I only wish to try paper trading?
Kite publisher is only to place orders. Whereas KiteConnect are set of APIs for everything you need to do in stock market,place orders,stream live data,access to historical data and much more. Kite publisher is free whereas KiteConnect is 2000/month and 2000/month extra if you want historical data api. You can read all about KiteConnect and KitePublisher here: https://kite.trade/docs/connect/v3/
https://kite.trade/docs/connect/v3/