5 Best Discount Forex Brokers for 2025

How to Choose a Discount Forex Broker?

In this section, you will read about the most important things to consider when selecting a discount forex broker:

How to verify if a forex broker is regulated?

To verify that a discount forex broker is tightly regulated and thereby trustworthy involves a few key steps. Here’s how you can do it:

• Check the Broker’s Website: Start by looking at the broker’s official website. Regulated brokers typically display their licensing and regulation information, including license numbers and the names of the authorities that regulate them, often found in the footer of the website or on an ‘About Us’ or ‘Regulation’ page.
• Contact the Broker Directly: If you are still unsure, contact the broker directly and ask for their regulatory information. A legitimate broker should be willing and able to provide clear details about their regulatory status.

Explore our guide on the Best regulated forex brokers.

How to check a broker’s protection level?

To find a trustworthy partner, make sure that the broker’s entity you choose is tightly regulated and complies with most industry safety requirements.

I have broken down the most important safety mechanisms to look for in a broker below:

• Segregation of client funds. Brokers must keep their clients’ funds in separate bank accounts from the ones used for their corporate capital. This is crucial for mitigating the risk of accounting errors.
• Negative balance protection. Negative balance protection is a safety mechanism that ensures a trader’s losses cannot exceed their account balance. This protection is indispensable when trading high-risk instruments, such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs).
• Limited market exposure. Limiting market exposure protects traders against adverse price fluctuations. That is why most top-tier regulators cap the maximum retail leverage at 1:30. In comparison, less strict regulators can allow leverage as high as 1:2000.
• Compensation scheme. Depending on the jurisdiction where a broker is situated, a compensation scheme may also protect its clients against the broker’s credit risk and liabilities. For example, ESMA-compliant brokers are required to participate in the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF). In the unlikely event of the broker becoming insolvent, traders can be compensated by up to 20,000 EUR.

Check out our lists of Best CySEC-regulated forex brokers and Best FCA-regulated forex brokers.

How to assess if a broker’s trading fees are competitive?

A broker may have several account types, each with different pricing mechanisms. There are two primary types of trading accounts: spread-based accounts, which charge floating spreads with no commissions, and commission-based accounts, which apply commissions alongside raw spreads (typically starting from 0.1 pips). Here is how to evaluate the competitiveness of the trading fees with these account types.

Pick an instrument, say, the EURUSD. Suppose also that the spread on the pair is 0.9 pips on a broker’s STP account and 0.1 pips on its ECN account. There is also a $6 commission for trading a 1 lot (100,000 units) contract. If the EURUSD pip value is $10, you can do a simple calculation to determine the value of a hypothetical position on the EURUSD executed on both account types. The formula is the value of a trade = spread x pip value + commission. When we pop in the above values, this is what we discover about our hypothetical broker:

This is just a hypothetical example, but it illustrates how more can be less in trading. So it’s worthwhile evaluating the costs of a broker you consider opening an account with for yourself before doing so. And if you are still uncertain, you can always check out our database of reviews to sort out the most competitive brokers.

Read more about Best STP forex brokers and Best ECN forex brokers.

How to Choose a Trading Platform?

A trading platform serves as your gateway to the market, enabling you to observe price action and identify potential opportunities to place orders. Technical traders rely on a platform’s suite of indicators, drawing tools, and other features to analyze price patterns, volatility, and liquidity, helping them determine the best times to enter or exit trades.

The best platforms are versatile, offering a wide range of technical indicators—such as Fibonacci retracements, oscillators, and trend-based tools—as well as drawing features like trend lines, channels, and wedges. They also allow traders to easily zoom in and out on price action for more precise analysis.

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, the retail trading industry’s most popular platforms, have long been benchmarks for simplicity and reliability. They provide a solid range of indicators and tools for multi-timeframe analysis. However, their dated design is evident when compared to newer, more modern platforms. While MetaTrader is ideal for beginners, advanced traders may find it lacks the sophistication required for more complex strategies.

Check our guides on the Best MT4 brokers, Best MT5 brokers, and Best cTrader brokers.

To address this gap, some brokers have developed proprietary platforms, offering added convenience and features not available in MetaTrader. These platforms often include advanced search functionality by asset class, enhanced scaling for price action, and tools for executing complex box orders. Ultimately, the best platform for you depends on balancing simplicity with functionality to suit your trading needs.

Explore Best forex trading platforms in our dedicated guide.

What to Avoid When Choosing a Discount Forex Broker?

Here is a quick rundown of some of the most important things to avoid:

• Unregulated brokers: Trading with an unregulated broker exposes you to a higher risk of fraudulent activity and unethical business practices. Unregulated brokers are not mandated to comply with any regulatory standards. Additionally, they do not participate in any compensation schemes.
• Lack of client protection: Avoid brokers that cannot ensure more than two of the following: segregated funds, negative balance protection, compensation scheme, or a cap on the maximum retail leverage at 1:30.
• Low execution quality: Try to avoid brokers that cannot ensure more than two of the following: best execution policy, regular quality execution statements, or order execution speeds averaging under 100 milliseconds.
• High spreads and commissions: Sidestep brokers with floating spreads from 1.8 pips or above on STP accounts and with round-turn commissions above $7 on ECN accounts.

How to Avoid Forex and CFD Scams?

Scammers rely on the gullibility of traders. A common tactic fraudsters employ is to promise quick and easy profits at no risk to the trader. Often, scammers would use labels that closely resemble the brands of real and legitimate companies. That is why regulators like the FCA have registers where traders can read about such fraudulent companies pretending to be others.

The best and easiest way to protect yourself is to make sure you work with a trustworthy and transparent broker. You can find a comprehensive list of reliable brokers by jurisdiction here.

Another important consideration is online safety. Be cautious about where you leave your personal information. Registering your details on suspicious pop-ups that promise enormous profits could lead to your contact information landing on a scammer’s dialing list. Remember, no licensed broker would make unsolicited cold calls.

The next time you get contacted out of the blue with promises of becoming the next Warren Buffet, you must remember that you are most likely speaking to a scammer. I think that nowhere is the “if something sounds too good to be true…” saying more accurate than in the world of trading. That is why you should do your due diligence before opening an account with any broker.

Our Methodology

Here at FXEmpire, we have pioneered a unique methodology for evaluating Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives brokers worldwide. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive picture of a broker’s pros and cons so that our readers can make informed decisions. We understand their need to choose the best partner for their particular goals and needs.

Our team of dedicated professionals is working continuously to improve our system and keep it up-to-date with current market trends. We test each broker systematically by employing over 250 variables across nine categories:

• Trust
• Fees
• Account Types
• Tradable Instruments
• Platforms and Tools
• Deposits and Withdrawals
• Customer Support
• Research
• Education

We strive to be as objective as possible, which is why our rigorous examinations are devoid of any personal bias as much as possible. We review the licenses of all the subsidiaries of a broker and check the fine print in the Client Agreement. The reliability of a broker is further determined based on the regulation, fees, and general transparency of the website.

We collect essential information by opening a live account with a broker entity and testing its services in real time. We measure the spreads, swaps, and commissions on its most popular account type and compare our findings to the industry average.

We also test the functionality of the available platforms, the number and types of tradable instruments, the reliability of customer support, and the quality of the research and educational materials.

For this guide, we selected brokers with overall competitive costs. Our criteria included low spreads and commissions, no handling fees for deposits or withdrawals, and minimal or no inactivity fees. We also prioritized brokers with a low minimum deposit (under $200), the option of zero-spread accounts, robust regulatory oversight, and access to feature-rich trading platforms.

We abide by our strict guidelines for editorial integrity, which are based on the objective standards we have set for our reviews. You can read more about our review process here.

Meet Our Experts

The forex and CFD analysts and editors at FXEmpire bring a unique combination of expertise as both professional financial journalists and experienced traders. With a strong presence on leading platforms like Investopedia and Forbes, they leverage their dual skill set to deliver in-depth, insightful content rooted in real-world trading knowledge.

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