Interactive Brokers Vs. Forex.com - Compare and Choose the Right One

Interactive Brokers is a global brokerage founded in 1978 that holds 11+ high tier financial licenses and provides discounted electronic trading services in nearly all the globe with access to more than 100,000+ financial instruments.

Forex.com is a global broker headquartered in the U.S and part of StoneX (publicly traded company on NASDAQ) that specialises in offering CFDs based on commodities, currencies, indices, stocks, ETFs, shares, bonds and cryptocurrencies.

• Seasoned investors looking for a one-stop shop to cover a variety of needs
• Global investors who seek the most reliable discount service available
• Traders from intermediate to advanced level

• Traders of all levels (beginner to advanced) looking for competitive pricing
• Trades of all levels looking for a great platform variety
• High volume traders looking for ECN or DMA accounts offering deep liquidity for large trades

• High regulation
• Exceptional number of investment instruments (Above 100,000+)
• Competitive discount fees

• Great platform offering (Proprietary, TradingView, MetaTrader 4 & 5)
• Excellent asset offering (more than 5,000+ instruments)
• Competitive spreads in some of their assets

• Complicated account opening process
• Platforms are not beginner friendly
• Narrow choice of deposit options (Mostly bank transfer)

• Despite presenting a great customisable platform, it still feels messy and not intuitive to use
• Commissions are expensive when compared to similar competitors 

• Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc)
• Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills)

All documents must be under the account holder's name.

• Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc)
• Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills)

All documents must be under the account holder's name.

Interactive brokers provides real assets (equities) from more than 100+ markets (exchanges) across the world and also provides CFDs (in allowed regions).

All of Forex.com’s assets are CFDs.

From 1 share - except for exchanges that allow fractional trading (US stock exchanges)

No minimum, but minimum fee is $1.75 per order

Yes, $15 monthly after 1 year of inactivity.

One free withdrawal per month, subsequent are $10 per withdrawal or equivalent

Commissions depend on market and residency:

• US residents are eligible for zero commission US stock trading. Else, for US stocks it is $0.005/share with a minimum $1 and maximum 1% of the trade value.
• European stocks have €3 minimum and 0.05% trade value.
• Forex commissions are volume based starting at 0.20 basis points of trade value or $2 minimum per trade, and going low as 0.08 basis points and $1.
• Options start at $0.25 per contract and go as low as $0.15 per contract.
• Futures start at $0.85 per contract and go as low as $0.25 per contract

Yes depending on account type.

• Standard account has no commissions
• “Commission Account” and “DMA Account” have a flat $5 fee commission per lot round turn