CFD brokers

Capital.com is a globally regulated CFD broker offering commission-free access to over 4,500 trading instruments, including forex, stocks, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and futures-based CFDs. With regulatory licenses from top-tier authorities like the FCA (UK), CySEC (EU), ASIC (Australia), SCA (UAE), and SCB (Bahamas), it provides traders with robust security, segregated client funds, and negative balance protection across most jurisdictions. Its award-winning proprietary platform, alongside MT4 and TradingView integration, ensures fast execution and a flexible, user-friendly trading environment.

In addition to its competitive spreads and transparent fee structure, Capital.com supports a wide range of deposit and withdrawal methods without charging internal fees. Traders can choose from multiple account types—including swap-free, spread betting (only for UK clients), and 1X accounts—each tailored for different strategies and regions. With strong 24/7 customer support, free educational resources, and platform accessibility across devices, Capital.com caters effectively to both beginner and professional traders worldwide.

XM stands among the world’s leading multi-asset brokers, trusted by over 15 million clients across nearly 200 countries. Operating under multiple regulators including CySEC, DFSA, FSC (Mauritius & Belize), FSCA, and FSA (Seychelles), the broker upholds global standards of transparency, security, and fair trading.

Clients can trade more than 1,400 instruments across forex, stocks, indices, commodities, precious metals, cryptos, and new categories such as Turbo Stocks and Thematic Indices. The unified XM App and MetaTrader 4/5 platforms deliver TradingView charts, XM AI insights, and instant 24/7 withdrawals, giving traders a fully connected experience from analysis to execution.

With spreads from 0.8 pips, leverage up to 1:1000, and execution speeds under one second, XM offers institutional-grade performance backed by negative balance protection and segregated Tier-1 bank accounts. Comprehensive multilingual education, XM Traders Club rewards, and round-the-clock support make XM a dependable, innovation-driven choice for traders worldwide.

According to our XTB experience, there are significantly more advantages than disadvantages that speak in favor of XTB. XTB is a reputable, regulated, publicly listed, and established broker that has been enabling CFD and Forex trading for traders from many different countries since 2002. For most traders, especially advanced traders, XTB is a good choice. Unfortunately, due to the high minimum fees for stocks, XTB may not be the right fit for every trader. Smaller accounts, in particular, might be better off with other brokers (if the focus is on stock trading).

Plus500 is a well-established online trading company that offers a wide range of financial instruments, including CFDs, shares and futures across three platforms and specific regulations. The company was founded in 2008 by alumni of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology with an initial investment of $400,000. It has since grown to become one of the largest CFD platforms globally, with over 23 million registered traders. Plus500 is a regulated broker, overseen by multiple financial authorities across the world. These authorities include the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA), Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS), South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and Financial Services Authority Seychelles. This extensive regulatory coverage indicates that the platform operates with transparency, integrity, and responsibility for its clients.

The company currently offers three platforms to their clients while planning on expanding to more markets.

The Plus500CFD platform operates in more than 50 countries in the world, providing traders with access to more than 2800 instruments in seven categories forex, cryptocurrencies (availability subject to regulation), stocks, commodities, indices, options, and ETFs, all available for trading with leverage. There are two types of accounts on the platform – demo and real. The demo account offers unlimited trading as it has no time restriction and also has the same features as the real account, so the traders can get a feel of the Plus500 platform with fictitious money. The real account requires a minimum deposit of $100 to start, along with passing the mandatory requirements to verify the account and fill out a questionnaire to determine the trader’s experience.

The Plus500Invest platform on the other hand gives traders the opportunity to trade with more than 2700 real shares from 17 exchanges around the world. However, this one is available in specific European countries only so one should check if they can access the Invest platform.

In recent acquisitions, Plus500 expanded on the US market with a future contracts platform, where more than 50 futures are at the disposal of traders to negotiate. The platform also comes in demo and real trading accounts, allowing US traders to practise first before diving in.

Plus500 is known for its competitive trading environment, offering  low minimum deposits, competitive spreads and no hidden fees. The platform also provides a range of trading tools, including market data, analysis charts, and educational resources. Additionally, Plus500 offers a mobile trading app, allowing traders to access the platform on-the-go.

In summary, Plus500 is a reputable and regulated online trading company that offers a diverse range of financial instruments and account options. Its extensive regulatory coverage, competitive trading conditions, and user-friendly platform make it an attractive choice for traders and investors globally.

ActivTrades is a reputable, UK-based broker founded in 2001 that has evolved into a multi-asset platform serving traders worldwide. Known for its transparent pricing and competitive spreads, the broker provides access to a diverse range of markets—including Forex, CFDs on shares, indices, commodities, bonds, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies—catering to both retail and institutional investors. Clients can choose from a variety of account types, such as Standard, Professional, Corporate, Islamic (swap-free), Betting, and Demo accounts, each designed to meet different trading needs and levels of experience. The account opening process is fully digital and streamlined, ensuring that new clients can quickly verify their identity and fund their accounts.

ActivTrades stands out for its robust regulatory framework, being licensed by top-tier authorities such as the FCA in the UK, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB), both BACEN and CVM in Brazil, the CMVM in Portugal, and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius. This extensive regulatory oversight is complemented by additional investor protection measures, including FSCS membership and private insurance from Lloyd’s of London providing up to £1 million in extra protection (subjected to specific terms and conditions). The broker also offers a comprehensive suite of trading platforms—including its proprietary ActivTrader, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and TradingView—along with 24/5 multi-channel support available globally. Combined with a clear fee structure that emphasizes transparency, ActivTrades is positioned as a reliable and innovative broker in the competitive global trading landscape.

AvaTrade was founded in 2006 and has grown into a global broker. The unified account and fee structure as well as the wide range of learning materials make AvaTrade ideal for beginners. Cryptotraders are also in good hands with AvaTrade due to 24/7 trading. However, since AvaTrade does not offer an ECN or STP account and the selection is somewhat limited when it comes to 700 trading instruments, advanced traders should rather prefer other brokers.

All in all, our AvaTrade experience was rather positive.