CFDs, currencies, and cryptocurrencies are complex financial instruments that are inherently risky. That aside, choosing the wrong broker can cost you more in form of high charges, fees, and an unfavorable market environment, especially for beginners. eToro has distinguished itself as an easy-to-use copy-trading platform. In other words, beginners can copy trades from experienced investors and receive related advantages. The platform offers a comprehensive trading experience that covers more than 3000 tradable symbols, including securities, forex, and CFDs.
eToro alternatives
Despite its many advantages, eToro is not the absolute best trading and investment platform. The best alternatives to eToro are comparable to eToro in all areas and exceed all comparability. In this article, we will look at a few of them.
Why eToro is a popular choice
eToro was established in 2007, and it has more than 17 million users. As a result, it is arguably one of the largest trading communities that offer securities trading to customers in major parts of the world. The most popular feature of the platform is its copy-trading.
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs, only real Crypto assets available.
Fees
eToro charges a reasonable fee on transactions. The only price you will pay is the bid and ask market spread. It charges 0% commission on stocks, and there are no management fees, including when you copy trades. Also, there are no ticket fees, rollover fees, and additional fees on ETFs and stocks. You will pay 1% for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and between 1-2 pips on commodities.
Licensing and security
Clients can trade cryptocurrencies, stocks, indices, commodities, currencies, and ETFs on eToro. Also, the platform offers negative balance protection. As a publicly-traded company on Nasdaq, eToro complies with related standards and follows FCA, ASIC, and CySEc rules. It is also licensed by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority and regulated by the Cyprus Security and Exchange Commission.
Other benefits
eToro only offers a proprietary trading platform. All retail traders also have the same accounts with slight variations in the regulatory environment, protection, and restrictions. You can enjoy a $100,000 demo account with no time limit and 24/5 customer support and live chats. You can also reach out to the company via email or phone number.
How to pick an alternative
Did you wonder why we went to a great length to state the advantages of eToro? It is because we needed to lay a foundation for comparison. To pick alternatives to eToro, we must ensure that the platforms have the same offerings and more, not less. In other words:
- The alternatives must offer the same or almost the same products, i.e., CFDs, stocks, crypto, etc.
- The alternatives must target the same clients.
- The alternatives must offer similar fee structures.
- They must be backed by similar methodology, etc.
If you want to switch from this broker completely, don't forget to delete your eToro account. Otherwise, you'll end up paying inactivity fees.
Best eToro alternative
Now that you know the basis of comparison, below are the best eToro alternatives you can’t go wrong with.
Trading 212
Trading 212 is a CFD broker regulated by the Bulgarian FSC, UK FCA, and CySEC. It has more than 1.5 million clients and 3 billion euros in client assets.
Security
Trading 212 keeps all client funds in separate segregated bank accounts covered by the provisions of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. What this means is that, in the unlikely event of the company failing to safeguard your assets, the scheme protects your assets to a maximum of 85,000 euros.
Trading 212 uses a 24/7 security operations center that analyses and monitors traffic to your account. It also generates real-time alerts to ensure your data protection. Apart from this, the platform uses US-based security metrics to conduct scans of applications and infrastructures and regular penetration tests. Unlike eToro, you can enjoy dedicated customer service regardless of the time of the week.
Trading instruments and fees
You can trade stocks, indices, commodities, and more than 150 Forex pairs on Trading 212. The fee structure is as follows:
- Minimum deposit: USD 10, EUR 10
- Deposit fee: no fee
- Minimum withdrawal: USD 10, EUR 10
- Withdrawal fee: no fee
- Commission charge: no charge
Trading 212 charges 0.5% on currency conversation. You will also incur an interest swap on your account if you leave open positions until the next day.
The margin requirement varies depending on the instrument you want to trade. However, the common ones are below:
- Commodities: Gold 5%, other commodities 10%
- Forex: Major currency pairs 3.33%, non-major pairs 5%
- Stocks: 20%
- Indices: Based indices 5%, non-major indices 10%
Trading 212 service is at the same level as eToro. The deposit and withdrawal process are the same, and there is just a slight variation in the fee structure. However, Trading 212 offers higher customer service.
XTB
XTB is another worthy eToro Alternative. You can trade over 2.100 global markets in a single place and enjoy superior execution speed and a fully customizable dashboard. The company has been around for more than 20 years and has offices in over 13 countries, including Poland, Germany, Chile, the UK, and France.
XTB has won the following awards and recognition:
- Best Mobile App for Investing – RANKIA Awards 2019
- Best Mobile App for Investing – RANKIA Awards 2020
- Best NDD Forex Broker – Online Personal Wealth Awards 2021
- Best Forex Broker for Low Cost – Investopedia 2021
- The Best Execution Broker – Technical Analysis Exhibition 2019
Security
The XTB group is regulated worldwide. Client deposit and funds are also insured by LLOYDS in case of bankruptcy. The insurance is available for users whose account balance is between 20,000 and 1 million USD. Plus, the company’s results are reviewed and audited annually by a member of the Big 4. For transparency, the company switches its auditing company every two years.
Trading instruments and fees
- Forex: you can trade 48 currency pairs with low spreads from 0.1 pips. Micro lot is also available, and customers can trade 24 hours/5 days a week. There is no minimum deposit, and the withdrawal process is fast.
- Indices: you can go short or long with over 20 indices from all over the world. You can also use leverage up to 500:1, and transparent rollovers are visible directly on the chart.
- Commodities: like with indices, you can use leverage up to 500:1 trading commodities on XTB. The market is available throughout the day, and you can monitor your trades on smartphones, tablets, and PC.
- CFD: XTB does not charge commission on stock and ETF CFDs. You can also leverage up to 1:10, and there are more than 2.100 equities and 60 ETF CFDs you can choose from.
- Crypto: Clients can trade cryptocurrencies every day, including on weekends, and enjoy low trading costs and spreads starting from 0.22%.
Again, XTB and eToro are on par regarding their overall offering. XTB offers outstanding customer service, education, and a wide variety of assets. Also, its xStation 5 trading platform is innovative, and it offers MetaTrader 4, which eToro does not.
Conclusion
There are many eToro alternatives, even in UK, you can use to invest and earn money. However, not all of them will give you the satisfaction and peace that eToro will. If you can’t use eToro because of any constraint, try out any of the three we have listed above. Alternatively, you could check our trading app comparison tool. Still, eToro is a great broker. If you don't believe us, read our eToro review and convince yourself.
Disclaimer
eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs.
Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Past performance is not an indication of future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 complete years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision.
Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
Cryptoasset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro.
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