The Best Forex Brokers

Best Overall Forex Broker

Our Rating: 9.5/10

Account Minimum: 100$
Fees Per Trade: low

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Offers research tools across various channels such as the cPattern plugin for MT4 and Duplitrade, a social-copy trading platform
• Great pattern-recognition tools and chart indicators for technical and fundamental analysis
• Offers SharpTrader research where you can find daily/weekly analysis from expert analysts to give you better trading ideas
• Great educational resources for traders to learn both basic and advanced knowledge involved in trading
• Good access to options and cryptocurrencies
• Allows automated and robot trading
• No withdrawal fee
• Low minimum deposit of $100

Cons

• Customer phone support seems to be slow and quite poor
• Average spreads are a little on the higher end of the average versus other platforms
• Only Forex, CFDs and Cryptocurrencies based products on offer
• Inactivity fee charged of $50 per quarter if idle for 3 months
• Slow withdrawal speed
• Limited customizability
• No price alert notifications

Avatrade In-Depth Review

AvaTrade is another well-established option that offers a wide range of features but on a limited market of financial products. While Avatrade charges no commissions on trade, the cost contained in their spreads are higher than average versus other platforms. 

However, AvaTrade gives you access to a lot of services and resources via third-party providers, giving you a great base for executing your trading strategies fully informed. 

These resources even include dedicated educational content for both beginner and veteran traders who want to learn more about trading.

For those of you who have an interest in buying and trading options, their AvaOptions platform greatly simplifies the whole experience of trading options and allows you to adjust your strategy in a few clicks.

If you’re new and don’t want to pick stocks yourselves, then AvaTrade also allows copy trading where you mimic the portfolio of more vetern trading experts. On the other end, if you’re a bit more advanced, it also allows for automated and robot trading.

Also, its AvaProtect feature can partially hedge your trades, to protect against volatility so you’re not caught off-guard by market forces

Overall, while not the cheapest platform on the market, AvaTrade has a very solid line-up of features and resources that really boost your ability to trade.

Best for Copytrading

Our Rating: 9.1/10

Account Minimum: 200$
Fees Per Trade: low

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Commission-free on trades (excluding short or leveraged positions)
• Great access to a selection of stocks, currencies, ETFs and CFDs
• No limit on trading volume
• Can buy fractional shares
• Free access to TipRanks expert stock analysis and price targets
• Innovative ProCharts tool for in-depth market analysis
• CopyPortfolios function to copy existing portfolios of stocks in a few clicks if you are new to investing and don’t want to go through the hassle of picking stocks
• Great customer satisfaction
• Fast and easy sign-up process
• Very user friendly and well-designed platform

Cons

• Minimum of 200$ deposit to open an account
• No interest is paid on cash or cryptocurrencies for accounts under 5,000
• There is no DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) available
• Large spreads on CFD and Forex trading
• Withdrawal fees of $5
• Only allows USD accounts, foreign currencies like EUR have to be converted
• Limited customizability

Etoro In-Depth Review

Etoro is one of the major trading platforms known for its ease of use and friendliness to beginners in the world of investing/trading.

One of its main features that makes it a great platform is ‘copy trading’. It basically allows you to copy existing portfolios of active public traders so that you benefit from more experienced traders so you don’t have to pick stocks yourselves.

The platform itself is very easy to use, even for beginners, and has a good range of functionalities, but has little customizability.

It should be noted that Etoro’s fees per trade in some categories like cryptocurrencies and forex are on the higher end of the spectrum, but this is easily compensated by its platform features. And if you only buy stocks, then there are no real commission fees to deal with at all.

Overall though, retail traders don’t choose Etoro for its fees, but rather its platform and social trading features.

Remember that Etoro also only allows USD accounts, so any foreign currencies like EUR or GBP must be converted beforehand in order to avoid their currency conversion fees. For this, it’s handy to have a multi-currency bank account like N26.

On the research and education side of things, it provides decent resources, but could definitely expand their offering.

In terms of its mobile application, Etoro really did well here. It’s very slick and syncs up well with its desktop version, with great support and ability to handle your trading and keep tabs on news and transactions from your phone.

Overall, while a little on the pricier side, Etoro gives a really good platform with decent functionalities and an excellent social/copy trading network. Really solid choice as a trading brokerage platform.

Best for Experienced Traders

Our Rating: 9.0/10

Account Minimum: 100$
Fees Per Trade: very low

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• They charge no commission on trades, all costs are contained within spreads and they are extremely low versus other platforms
• Simple web interface and very easy to use
• The mobile application has all the features that the desktop interface has
• You can use charts for technical analysis as well as monitor trades and watchlist interests
• Access to a very large range of over 2000 financial products like stocks, currencies, etc
• No charges for withdrawals or account termination
• Good customer services with often very quick response times
• Access to simple call and put options
• Can open an account with as little as $100

Cons

• Their WebTrader is a closed application and not easily integratable with other third-party applications often used by advanced traders
• No access to MetaTrader4 (MT4) platform trading alternative which has more functionality and customizability
• Very little in-house research offered other than access to earnings calendars
• No educational material offered. 
• No special features like copy/social trading or automated algorithms. Clearly meant as a simple cheap platform for executing trades.
• Inactivity fees for accounts that have been idle for 3 months

Plus500 In-Depth Review

Plus500 is another one of the majorly successful trading platforms, and their success lies in their costs. Plus500 targets users who want to minimize the costs of their trades as much as possible. 

Their commissions are non-existent and the costs that they do have are contained within spreads. But even those spreads are extremely low in comparison to other trading platforms in the market. 

Their platform is very easy and simple to use in streamlining trades in a few clicks but doesn’t offer many functionalities in addition to simple trades. Neither does it offer much educational content, in-house research, or integration with third-party trading applications. 

They expect their users to know what they’re doing or seek educational content on trading/investing elsewhere. 

Even though it offers limited advanced features and resources, the tradeoff of functionality versus the low costs gained makes it extremely worth it as a platform to trade with. Definitely one of the best for low-cost trading.

Runner Up

Our Rating: 8.5/10

Account Minimum: 1$
Fees Per Trade: low

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Commission-free stocks and ETFs and low CFD fees
• Allows trading with real stocks and ETFs if you open a Trading 212 Invest account
• No fees for deposit, withdrawals or inactivity
• A minimum deposit of $1 for CFD accounts and $10 for Invest or ISA Accounts
• Very easy and simple to open an account versus other platforms
• Good selection of base currencies to have your account balance in
• Well designed and user-Friendly
• Good customizability
• Clear portfolio and fee reporting
• Price alerts on mobile
• Good access to cryptocurrencies and commodities
• Great charting tools for technical analysis]
• Great Demo account and quality educational videos to teach trading
• Regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority

Cons

• Limited product range
• Very basic tools for fundamental analysis
• No/poor quality access to news and research
• No two-step login security
• Cannot set the level of leverage in the application

Trading212 In-Depth Review

Trading212 is another widely-used service that provides one of the best trading platforms targeted to users who are cost-conscious and don’t want to be hassled by fees over and over again.

It charges no commission on its trades such as with CFDs and ETFs and even gives you access to real stocks whereas other brokers would only offer CFDs.

Its platform, in both versions of desktop and mobile, is extremely user friendly and customizable to your preferences. 

Trading212 also takes care to provide a lot of educational resources for traders to learn all there is to know about trading and how it works. This makes life a lot simpler if you’re not too comfortable with how everything works yet. They even provide a great demo account for you to try things out without risking any real money.

Past the beginner level, Trading 212 also gives a lot of tools, such as in charting, to allow for technical analysis, but doesn’t provide many resources for fundamental analysis. 

When it comes to account and administrative fees, Trading212 is very unique in that they don’t charge any inactivity fees, nor do they charge withdrawal fees. This, in addition to having a very low deposit minimum, really makes Trading212 very cost-friendly versus other brokers.

On the other hand, it could be criticized that its product range is limited, and access to news and research tools for fundamental analysis is limited.

Overall though, Trading212 is a solid platform with few and low fees versus other brokers and has a solid amount of features, access to products, and educational content for you to trade happily with.

Runner Up

Our Rating: 8.3/10

Account Minimum: 500$
Fees Per Trade: medium

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Provides access to full MetaTrader suite (MT4 and MT5), as well as the cTrader platform, giving you a varied selection of options depending on your trading style
• Respectable research base with market updates and analysis, streaming news, Trading Central, and an economic calendar
• The platform offers a seamless trading experience offering good functionality and a variety of trading tools
• Good customer service with fast response times
• Globally regulated by multiple institutions including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority
• No fees charged by FXPro for deposits or withdrawals (subject to conditions)
• Fast sign-up process
• Good access to currency pairs and other Forex market products

Cons

• The mobile app doesn’t allow you to make trades, but instead just account management and access to news and market rates
• Spreads are just average in most things versus other brokers, but depends on the product
• The educational content on trading is good as an introduction, but it is quite limited.
• Limited amount of shares to trade with
• The research updates could be more in-depth

FxPro In-Depth Review

FXPro is another great platform that offers No Dealing Desk (NDD) trading execution and is seen as one of the best brokerages available today. 

They provide access to multiple trading applications such as MetaTrader (MT4 and MT5) as well as their own white-labeled version of cTrader, an excellent trading platform for researching and executing trades at a low cost.

They are regulated by multiple entities including the UK’s FCA, meaning that security and peace of mind are very much a thing with FXPro. 

In terms of costs, while the spreads are average, no commissions are charged on non-leveraged trades and there are no withdrawal or deposit fees as long as you follow their terms and conditions.

The research they provide is respectable with market updates, analysis and so on, but what makes them shine is the access to Trading Central. This gives you access to an excellent stream of research and trading ideas, though the analyses themselves could a bit more in-depth.

The educational content is great for introducing traders to concepts and strategies, especially with a dedicated section to psychology, which is often a big hurdle for traders to get an understanding of. 

However, the overall content is perhaps a bit limited, and they should definitely expand upon it.

Overall though, FXPro provides a seamless experience when it comes to trading, offering a wide range of applications and content for you to conduct analysis and make trades with at a low cost. This makes them one of the most solid choices in the market as a preferred broker.