Admirals (Admiral Markets) vs XTB — which broker is better?

Pros

• 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.
• Inactivity is only EUR 10 a month and only after 24 months without activity, and only while the balance is positive — among the most forgiving dormancy terms in CFD broking.
• Four meaningful licences: FCA 595450 (FSCS to GBP 85,000), CySEC 201/13, ASIC 410681 and FSCA FSP 51311, plus regional entities in Jordan (JSC 1/3/01970/21), Kenya (CMA 178) and the Seychelles (FSA SD073).
• MetaTrader Supreme Edition is free and genuinely useful — mini terminal, correlation matrix, sentiment data and Trading Central analysis grafted onto standard MT4 and MT5.
• Research is above its weight: Dow Jones news, Trading Central technical analysis and Acuity sentiment indicators, plus a Zero to Hero course and a deep webinar programme.
• Nine base currencies including EUR, GBP, CHF, PLN, HUF and CZK, with one free withdrawal per payment method every calendar month.

Cons

• Support is weekday office hours only, with no weekend desk — a genuine gap for anyone holding crypto CFDs over a Saturday.
• The Estonian investment firm licence was withdrawn in April 2026 during a restructuring, moving EEA clients to the Cyprus entity where compensation is capped at EUR 20,000 rather than the UK's GBP 85,000.
• A 0.3% currency conversion charge applies whenever the instrument currency differs from your account currency, which quietly adds up on a US share portfolio funded in euros.
• Only the first withdrawal per payment method each calendar month is free; the charge on subsequent withdrawals varies by method and is not published as a single figure.
• The experience is MetaTrader-shaped. If you find MT5 dated, the proprietary Admirals Platform is a lighter companion rather than a genuine alternative.
• No options, no bonds, no mutual funds and no exchange-listed futures — the catalogue is broad within CFDs and equities but stops there.

Pros

• 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.
• No minimum deposit at all, plus fractional shares, so a monthly savings plan can start at almost any amount.
• Listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2016 under XTB, with audited financials and a KNF licence held continuously since 2005.
• EUR/USD spreads averaging around 0.9 pips on the Standard account with no separate forex commission - competitive for a spread-only model.
• Support is genuinely multi-channel including a phone line, with local-language desks across its main European markets - a real differentiator against the chat-only app brokers.
• The mobile app keeps the analysis tools rather than stripping them out, so charting and screening actually work away from a desk.

Cons

• 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.
• A EUR 10 monthly inactivity fee kicks in after 365 days without a trade and 90 days without a deposit - a charge Trading 212 and eToro have both abolished.
• Four disclosed regulatory actions since 2018: a PLN 9.9m KNF fine for asymmetric slippage (2018), a EUR 300,000 AMF fine for compliance failures and misleading advertising (2021), a Brazilian CVM stop order (2023) and a PLN 20m KNF fine over MiFID II CFD sales breaches (2026).
• No exchange-traded futures, no individual bonds and no mutual funds. Options exist but only around 140 contracts on US stocks and ETFs, with no headline per-contract price published.
• At the Cyprus entity, withdrawals below EUR 100 cost EUR 10 - a 10% haircut on a EUR 99 withdrawal, which penalises exactly the small accounts the no-minimum-deposit policy attracts. The Polish entity, which books most EEA clients, charges nothing.
• The Belize entity (XTB International Limited, FSC licence 000302/438) is a tier-3 offshore licence with materially weaker recourse than the Polish or UK entities. Check which entity you are onboarded to.