Plus500 vs eToro — which broker is better?

Pros

• The mobile app is the best in this comparison set — fast, clear, well-designed, and consistently among the top-rated trading apps in both stores, backed by a Trustpilot average around 4.2 from nearly 20,000 reviews
• Zero commission on every CFD instrument: no per-trade charge, no deposit fee and no withdrawal fee from Plus500's side
• Licensed by FCA (FRN 509909), ASIC (AFSL 417727), MAS (CMS100648-1), CIRO in Canada and CFTC/NFA in the US, with Plus500 Ltd listed on the London Stock Exchange and publishing audited accounts
• Account opening genuinely takes 10–30 minutes with electronic ID verification, and the USD 100 minimum makes it accessible
• Widest funding menu of the three brokers here — cards, SEPA and bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Swap-free accounts available for Sharia-compliant trading, priced transparently at USD 2–30 per day scaled by position size
• Free guaranteed stop orders on many instruments, charged only through a wider spread rather than a separate premium

Cons

• The inactivity fee of up to USD 10 per month triggers after just three months of not logging in — not three months without trading. Three months of dormancy is normal, healthy behaviour, and charging for it is indefensible
• No MetaTrader 4 or 5, no cTrader, no TradingView integration and no API, so algorithmic traders, EA users and anyone with an existing charting workflow are locked out entirely
• Plus500 publishes no spread table. Costs are visible only inside the platform, which makes independent cost comparison against IG or CMC effectively impossible before you fund an account
• Research is close to non-existent — an economic calendar, basic sentiment data and price alerts, with no analyst coverage, no screeners and no third-party news feed of substance
• Around 2,800 CFD instruments against 12,029 at CMC and 17,000 at IG, with no bonds, no funds, no spread betting and no exchange-traded options for CFD clients
• Disclosed regulatory history: a 2012 FCA fine of GBP 205,128 for inaccurate transaction reporting, a 2015 FCA-ordered freeze of UK accounts pending AML review, and a EUR 550,000 settlement with Belgium's FSMA in 2017

Pros

• 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.
• Licensed by the FCA (583263), CySEC (109/10), ASIC (491139), MAS (CMS101824) and the SEC (8-70212) - a genuinely multi-jurisdictional stack rather than a single offshore licence.
• 300+ ETFs with zero eToro commission and fractional investing from USD 10, so small monthly contributions are not swallowed by minimum ticket sizes.
• The inactivity fee was removed in 2026; dormant accounts now cost nothing to hold.
• 150+ cryptoassets held as real coins on the investing account rather than only as CFDs, with coins transferable out to the eToro Money wallet for a 2% fee.
• The demo account carries all 11,000+ instruments and every platform feature, which makes it a usable rehearsal rather than a stripped-down toy.

Cons

• 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.
• Stock orders cost USD 1-2 in most countries. On a EUR 200 monthly savings order that is a 0.5-1.0% drag before any conversion cost, which is expensive against Trading 212 or XTB at zero.
• Crypto costs 1.00% per position for Bronze, Silver and Gold members - charged on the way in and again on the way out. Only Platinum and above see meaningful discounts.
• No exchange-traded options or futures outside the US entity, no individual bonds and no mutual funds. The range is wide across asset classes but shallow within them.
• Withdrawals from a USD account cost USD 5 with a USD 30 minimum; only local-currency accounts (EUR, GBP, DKK) escape the charge.
• Support is chat and ticket only, with no general retail phone line, and priority routing is tied to Club tier - so the smallest accounts get the slowest service.