Risk warning: CFDs and leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly. Investments can fall in value. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

Ranking

Best brokers with a demo account 2026

A demo account is only as useful as it is realistic. Check whether it expires, whether it uses live or delayed data, and whether slippage and commissions are simulated. A demo without cost and slippage modelling produces results that will not reproduce with real money.

Investor's country

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brokers rated: 40
Data as of: 30 Aug 2026

Demo account

The top 3 in detail

Why these three lead — derived from the criteria this category weights most heavily.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Charles Schwab

The full-service US giant that also happens to own the best retail trading platform in the business.

Ahead on Education (4.6) and Trading platform (4.8) — together those two carry 56% of this category's weighting.

USD 0 commission on every online listed US stock and ETF order, with no share cap and no proprietary-fund restrictions
thinkorswim desktop, web and mobile are included free — full options chains, thinkScript, backtesting and paperMoney simulation
Options at USD 0.65 per contract, with the fee waived on buy-to-close orders at USD 0.05 or less
Around 7,700 no-transaction-fee mutual funds in Mutual Fund OneSource, plus USD 0 new-issue Treasuries at auction

Group index 93/100Protection depends on your legal entity

SECFINRAFDIC

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForexBondsFundsCommodities+1

4,6

Category score

Overall score: 4.6 / 5

Strengths in this category

Education30%

4,6

Trading platform26%

4,8

Fees16%

4,6

Mobile app16%

4,4

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 1 %

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

IG

The most complete leveraged-trading operation in Europe — and it prices like it knows that.

4,5

Ahead on Education (4.5) and Safety & regulation (4.9) — together those two carry 42% of this category's weighting.

Around 17,000 tradable markets in a single account — shares, indices, FX, commodities, bonds, ETFs, turbo warrants and crypto CFDs, subject to regional restrictions
Six top-tier licences — FCA (FRN 195355), BaFin, FINMA, ASIC (AFSL 515106), MAS and JFSA — plus a mid-tier DFSA licence in Dubai; the FINMA licence among those six is a full Swiss banking licence at IG Bank S.A., which puts Swiss cash under esisuisse protection
Zero commission on UK and international shares, and the GBP 24 quarterly custody fee was scrapped outright in January 2026 rather than merely waived for active traders

Group index 100/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCABaFin+5

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+8

Strengths in this category

Education30%

4,5

Trading platform26%

4,7

Fees16%

4,0

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

CMC Markets

The best charting package in retail CFD trading, wrapped around a narrower product range than the market count suggests.

4,4

Ahead on Trading platform (4.8) and Education (4.2) — together those two carry 56% of this category's weighting.

Next Generation is the strongest charting suite bundled with a retail CFD account — 115+ indicators, 70 chart patterns, 12 chart types and pattern-recognition scanners, at no extra cost
0% commission on UK and European share CFDs (Greece the sole exception at 0.45%), against IG's spread-plus-conversion model
EUR/USD averages around 0.7 pips on the standard account, and FX Active delivers from 0.0 pips for USD/GBP 2.50 per side per 100,000 notional

Group index 94/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAFCA+4

StocksETFsOptionsForexCFDs+5

Strengths in this category

Education30%

4,2

Trading platform26%

4,8

Fees16%

4,3

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Also worth a look

Rank 4 and below, ordered by category score.

Saxo

A Danish bank that trades like a professional platform — broad, polished, and no longer expensive.

4,4

Multi-asset portfoliosBond investorsOptions and futures traders

Tiered — Improved pricing at higher account tiers

Stocks (per order): 0.08 %
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

Full Danish banking licence (Finanstilsynet licence 1149) and SIFI designation — a stronger structural safeguard than a broker-only permission
US stocks and ETFs at 0.08% with a USD 1 minimum on the entry-level Classic tier, and 0.05%/0.03% at higher tiers
Currency conversion costs 0.25% over mid-market for EU and Swiss clients, and up to 0.60% at the UK entity's Classic tier — the single largest hidden cost for cross-currency investors

Group index 96/100Protection depends on your legal entity

DFSAFCA+3

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+6

Visit broker Read review

Capital.com

The best-executed retail CFD platform in Europe, provided you accept that CFDs are the whole product.

4,3

Active CFD tradersForex day tradingMobile-first traders

Stocks (per order): in the spread
Minimum deposit: US$20
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

No commission on any CFD and no inactivity fee whatsoever — unusual in the CySEC/FCA CFD segment
EUR/USD averages roughly 0.7 pips all-in, with spreads advertised from 0.6 pips
0.7% currency conversion markup on every trade settled outside your base currency — the single largest hidden cost here

Group index 77/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAASIC+2

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+3

Visit broker Read review

XTB

The best trading platform in the commission-free bracket - xStation 5 is a professional workspace attached to a zero-commission share account.

4,3

Serious charting on a budgetCommission-free European stocksForex and index CFDs

0% — 0% commission on stocks and ETFs up to the monthly volume cap

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

xStation 5 is the best platform in the commission-free bracket - a real screener, market heat map, sentiment data, economic calendar and news in one workspace, on web, desktop and mobile with near-identical features.
Commission-free real stocks and ETFs up to EUR 100,000 of turnover per calendar month; above that only the excess is charged at 0.2% with a EUR 10 minimum.
The 0.5% currency conversion charge (0.8% at weekends and on public holidays) applies whenever the instrument currency differs from your account currency. For a EUR investor buying US stocks it is charged on the way in and again on the way out, and it dwarfs the commission it replaces.

Group index 72/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAKNF+5

StocksETFsOptionsForexCFDs+3

Visit broker Read review

moomoo

The most data-rich free trading platform on the market — if you happen to live in one of the seven countries it serves.

4,3

Data-driven active tradersUS options tradersAsia-Pacific investors

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
5,000 order: €0

Free Nasdaq TotalView Level 2 depth on the US platform — Webull charges USD 3.99 per month for comparable data
USD 0 commission and USD 0 contract fee on US stocks, ETFs and equity options for US residents
Available to residents of only seven countries — the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand — with no EU, UK or DACH entity

Group index 86/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FINRAMAS+3

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesCrypto+2

Visit broker Read review

Pepperstone

Raw spreads and five platforms for traders who care about execution cost, not about owning the asset.

4,4

Active FX tradersScalping and day tradingMetaTrader and cTrader users

From 0.0 pips — Raw spreads from 0.0 pips with commission

Stocks (per order): 0.1 %
Minimum deposit: US$10
EUR/USD spread: 0.8 pips

Razor all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
No inactivity fee, no account-keeping fee and no account closure fee, confirmed on Pepperstone's own costs page
Everything is a CFD. You never own the share or ETF, so there are no voting rights, no transferable holdings and no dividend tax reclaim

Group index 82/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAASIC+5

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+4

Visit broker Read review

CapTrader

Interactive Brokers' market access wrapped in German regulation, German support and a German phone number.

4,2

German-speaking options and futures tradersActive traders who want IBKR pricing with German supportMulti-currency and global stock investors

Stocks (per order): 0.1 %
Minimum deposit: €2,000
FX conversion: 0 %

BaFin-supervised German investment firm (institution number 10156708) with a Düsseldorf address, German contract law and a free German hotline until 20:00
Eurex options and futures at EUR 2.00 per contract, Mini-DAX futures at EUR 1.00 and CME Micro E-minis at USD 1.25 — competitive with anything available to German retail traders
No Abgeltungsteuer is withheld. German investors gain a compounding advantage but must declare everything themselves via Anlage KAP, and a Freistellungsauftrag is not possible — for many people that alone rules CapTrader out

Group index 81/100Protection depends on your legal entity

BaFinCBI+1

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+6

Visit broker Read review

Admirals (Admiral Markets)

The rare CFD broker that also settles real shares — broad, well-priced and unusually forgiving about dormant accounts.

4,1

Real share investingMetaTrader usersLow-commission FX

Stocks (per order): US$0.02/share
Minimum deposit: €100
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

Real share and ETF ownership through Invest.MT5 — roughly 4,800 listed companies and 200-plus ETFs from USD 0.02 per share with a USD 1.00 minimum, with no custody or platform fee.
Zero.MT5 prices FX from 0.0 pips plus commission starting at USD 3.00 per lot per side (USD 6.00 round turn), falling towards USD 1.80 per side at high volume.
Support is weekday office hours only, with no weekend desk — a genuine gap for anyone holding crypto CFDs over a Saturday.

Group index 72/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAASIC+5

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+3

Visit broker Read review

LYNX

The friendliest front door to Interactive Brokers in the German-speaking market — and the most expensive one.

4,1

German-speaking investors who want IBKR access without TWSOptions and futures tradersInvestors who value education and analysis

Stocks (per order): 0.14 %
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0.01 %

LYNX+ is a genuinely good browser platform, and having it alongside full Trader Workstation access means you can start simple and grow into the terminal
No minimum deposit and no custody or account fee for individual and joint accounts
The most expensive of the German Interactive Brokers introducing brokers on equities: 0.14% with a EUR 5.80 Xetra minimum and a USD 5.00 minimum on US shares, against CapTrader's EUR 4.00 and USD 2.00

Group index 80/100Protection depends on your legal entity

AFMBaFin+2

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+6

Visit broker Read review

Webull

A desktop-grade trading terminal wrapped in a zero-commission app — with a support desk that lags badly behind the software.

4,1

US options tradersChart-driven active tradersMobile-first investors

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
5,000 order: €0

USD 0 commission on US-listed stocks, ETFs and equity options, with no per-contract fee — index options are the only equity-derivative exception at USD 0.50 per contract
A real desktop terminal for Windows, macOS and Linux, with multi-monitor layouts, depth-of-market and a script editor — rare at this price point
Customer support is the standing complaint: Trustpilot sits at roughly 1.3–1.4 out of 5, with transfers and account access the most common themes

Group index 86/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FINRACFTC/NFA+4

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesCrypto+4

Visit broker Read review

eToro

The most complete copy-trading product in Europe, wrapped in the simplest broker app - and paid for through conversion charges rather than commissions.

4,0

Copy tradingCrypto plus stocks in one accountFirst-time investors

USD 100,000 virtual — Demo account with USD 100,000 in virtual funds

Stocks (per order): US$1
Minimum deposit: US$50
FX conversion: 0.75 %

CopyTrader is the most mature copy-trading product in Europe: no separate fee on top of normal trading costs, a USD 200 minimum per copied trader, and up to 100 traders copied at once.
Nasdaq-listed since May 2025 under ETOR, which forces quarterly audited disclosure that most retail brokers never publish.
Currency conversion costs 0.75% each way between a European local-currency account and USD, before Club discounts whose size eToro's own pages state differently - for a broker whose core product is USD-denominated, that is the one number you most need.

Group index 91/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAASIC+6

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+3

Visit broker Read review

IC Markets

One of the cheapest routes to raw institutional FX pricing - as long as you check which entity you are signing with.

4,2

Algorithmic and EA tradersScalping and high-frequency FXcTrader users

Stocks (per order): 0.1 %
Minimum deposit: €200
EUR/USD spread: 0.8 pips

All-in EUR/USD cost of roughly 0.6 to 0.8 pips on Raw Spread - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
Raw Pro at USD 1.50 per lot from a USD 5,000 balance and Raw Pro+ at USD 1.00 per lot from USD 100,000 - a real volume ladder rather than a marketing tier
Most non-EU, non-Australian clients contract with Raw Trading Ltd under Seychelles licence SD018 - an offshore regulator with no investor compensation scheme behind it

Group index 70/100Protection depends on your legal entity

ASICCySEC+4

StocksFuturesForexCFDsCrypto+4

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OANDA

Thirty years, six top-tier licences and the best mobile app in FX - attached to spreads you have to work around.

4,1

BeginnersMobile-first tradersUS and Canadian residents

Stocks (per order): 0.06 %
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 1.7 pips

Regulated by six tier-1 authorities - CFTC/NFA, FCA (542574), CIRO, ASIC (AFSL 412981), MAS and the JFSA - a licence footprint almost nobody in retail FX matches
Trading since 1996, with client money segregated and FSCS cover up to GBP 85,000 for UK clients and CIPF cover up to CAD 1,000,000 in Canada
The default spread-only account is expensive: EUR/USD has been measured at 1.4 to 1.7 pips against roughly 0.8 pips all-in at raw-spread competitors

Group index 89/100Protection depends on your legal entity

CFTC/NFAFCA+6

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+5

Visit broker Read review

Quick comparison

The numbers that decide this category, side by side. Scroll right on narrow screens for every column.

Best brokers with a demo account — Quick comparison
Broker	Category	Overall	Education30 %	Trading platform26 %	Fees16 %	Stocks (per order)	Minimum deposit	Regulation	Action
1Charles Schwab	4,6	4.6	4.6	4.8	4.6	Free	None	SECFINRA+1	Visit broker
2IG	4,5	4.5	4.5	4.7	4.0	Free	None	FCABaFin+5	Visit broker
3CMC Markets	4,4	4.4	4.2	4.8	4.3	Free	None	FCAFCA+4	Visit broker
4Saxo	4,4	4.4	4.0	4.7	4.2	0.08 %	None	DFSAFCA+3	Visit broker
5Capital.com	4,4	4.3	4.6	4.3	4.4	in the spread	US$20	FCAASIC+2	Visit broker
6XTB	4,4	4.3	4.4	4.6	4.2	Free	None	FCAKNF+5	Visit broker
7moomoo	4,3	4.3	4.0	4.6	4.5	Free	None	FINRAMAS+3	Visit broker
8Pepperstone	4,2	4.4	3.4	4.6	4.6	0.1 %	US$10	FCAASIC+5	Visit broker

Our methodology

How we build this ranking

No editorial gut feeling — a published calculation. This category shifts the weights of our rating model towards what its audience actually needs.

Weighting in this category

40 brokers rated

The pale tick marks the weight in the general Brokaro model.

Category weight
Base model

The formula

The category score is 70% the category-specific weighting and 30% the general overall score. A strong all-rounder therefore does not drop out simply because it fails to lead one single criterion.

Category score = 0.7 × Σ(w_i × s_i) + 0.3 × Overall score

Full methodology