Best forex brokers 2026, ranked on regulation and published costs
IG ranks first at 8.3 out of 10, ahead of CMC Markets at 8.2 and Saxo Bank and Interactive Brokers at 8.1. Seven brokers clear our Trusted band of 7.5. Ranking is on regulation, fund safety and published cost, checked at each regulator’s own register rather than taken from the broker’s marketing.
| # | Broker | Score | Contracting entity | Regulator and licence | Compensation | All-in cost | Minimum deposit | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IG Trusted | 8.3 | IG Markets Limited (CFDs) and IG Index Limited (spread betting), both UK | FCA 195355 (IG Markets) and 114059 (IG Index); BaFin 148759; FINMA bank and securities dealer; MAS CMS licence; AFSL 515106; FSCA FSP 41393 plus ODP approved; NFA 0509630 (tastyfx); BMA investment business and digital assets 54814 | FSCS, GBP 85,000 | EUR/USD from 0.6 pips, no forex commission | Not published | 30:1 on major pairs for UK and EU retail clients |
| 2 | CMC Markets Trusted | 8.2 | CMC Markets UK plc | FCA 173730 (CMC Markets UK plc), 948126 (CMC Markets Investments), 170627 (CMC Spreadbet, applied to cancel 5 Feb 2026); BaFin, EdW member 139; AFSL 238054 and 246381; MAS Capital Markets Services licence; CIRO Investment Dealer | FSCS, GBP 85,000 | EUR/USD 0.50, EUR/GBP 0.70, USD/JPY 0.70, GBP/USD 0.90 | Not published | 30:1 on major FX pairs for UK and EU retail clients; tier-1 margin 3.34% on the majors |
| 3 | Saxo Trusted | 8.1 | Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd (UK), Saxo Bank A/S (Denmark) | FCA 551422; Finanstilsynet-supervised Danish bank, designated SIFI 25 June 2026; FINMA-supervised Swiss bank on the esisuisse list; MAS Capital Markets Services licence | FSCS GBP 85,000 in the UK; Garantiformuen EUR 100,000 deposits and EUR 20,000 securities in Denmark | EUR/USD 0.7, GBP/USD 0.8, USD/JPY 0.9 | Not published | 30:1 on major FX pairs for UK retail clients. Saxo requires 4% margin on GBPUSD and USDJPY, more than the 3.33% the FCA demands |
| 4 | Interactive Brokers Trusted | 8.1 | Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited, with accounts cleared and carried by Interactive Brokers LLC in the United States | FCA 208159; Central Bank of Ireland C423427 (MiFID firm and MiCAR crypto-asset service provider); SEC 8-47257 and FINRA CRD 36418; MAS CMS100917; ASIC AFSL 453554 | SIPC in the United States; IBKR states FSCS applies in limited circumstances only | Commission, not spread: 0.20 basis points of trade value, minimum 2.00 dollars per order | Not published | 30:1 on major FX pairs for UK retail clients. Retail minimum initial margin on index CFDs is 20%. Margin loans from benchmark plus 1.5%, published as 4.990% on the first GBP 80,000 |
| 5 | Capital.com Trusted | 8.0 | Capital Com (UK) Limited | CySEC 463/25; also CySEC 319/17, FCA 793714, ASIC AFSL 513393, SCB Bahamas SIA-F245, and FSCA ODP approval for Capital.com South Africa (Pty) Ltd | FSCS, GBP 85,000 | EUR/USD 0.6 pips | €20, or €50 by wire transfer | 30:1 on major FX pairs for EU retail clients |
| 6 | FOREX.com Trusted | 7.9 | StoneX Financial Ltd | FCA 446717; NFA 0339826; CySEC 400/21; CIRO Investment Dealer; Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) 291; AFSL 345646; MAS Capital Markets Services licence; CIMA 25033 | FSCS, GBP 85,000 | 1.2 pips spread-only, or 0.1 pips plus 7 dollars per 100,000 traded on RAW | $100 per transaction by bank transfer or debit card (US); firm recommends $2,500 | Set by the regulator of the contracting entity; 30:1 majors for UK retail clients, 50:1 majors under CFTC rules |
| 7 | eToro Trusted | 7.5 | eToro (UK) Ltd, with eToro (Seychelles) Ltd as the rest-of-world default | FCA 583263; CySEC 109/10; ASIC AFSL 491139 | FSCS GBP 85,000 for UK clients; no scheme on the Seychelles entity | 0.005 per cent of trade value on EUR/USD, quoted as a percentage rather than in pips | $10 to $10,000 on the first deposit, depending on country | 30:1 on major FX pairs for UK and EU retail clients |
What this list is ranked on, and what it ignores
Most best-broker pages are ordered by who pays the most per signup. This one is ordered by a score we publish in full: regulation 30 per cent, fund safety 25 per cent, cost 15 per cent, transparency 15 per cent, complaints 10 per cent, platform 5 per cent. Two thirds of it is about whether your money comes back.
Every entity in the table below was checked on its regulator’s own register, not on the broker’s about page. That distinction matters more than it sounds. A broker group can hold a genuine FCA licence and still hand you a contract with an offshore company that the licence does not cover, which is the single most common way a regulated brand delivers an unregulated service. Where a firm does that, the table names the company you would actually be contracting with.
The cut-off is the verdict band, not a round number
Seven brokers are ranked here because seven score 7.5 or above, which is our Trusted band. Nothing is ranked because it fits a target list length. Two brokers we rate Neutral are named further down with the reason, and every broker we rate High Risk or Scam is absent from this page by construction: the templates do not print an outbound link on one, so a downgrade removes the commercial link on its own.
The one number you should not compare directly
Four of the seven quote a spread in pips. eToro quotes a percentage of trade value, and Interactive Brokers charges a commission on spot forex instead of widening the spread. We have left all three in the units the broker publishes rather than converting them, because whether eToro’s 0.005 per cent is charged per side or per round turn changes the answer by a factor of two and its own fee page does not say. A converted figure that looks comparable and is not would be worse than an awkward one that is honest.
FOREX.com has the same problem in a different shape: 1.2 pips on spread-only pricing, or 0.1 pips plus 7 dollars per 100,000 traded on its RAW account. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your size, so both are printed.
Why each one is on the list
1. IG Trusted 8.3 out of 10
The highest score on the site, and it earns it on the least glamorous pillar. Twelve companies, one of them a Swiss bank, and we found no fine on any register we checked. IG publishes a minimum spread on EUR/USD of 0.6 and takes no forex commission, and the UK client money sits with an FCA entity permitted to hold and control it. The spread is not the tightest here. The structure is the cleanest.
2. CMC Markets Trusted 8.2 out of 10
The cheapest of the seven on the majors, and tighter than IG on two pairs while never being wider. Its published holding rates check out against its own instrument pages, which is how we were able to state the annualised cost as confirmed rather than inferred. The criticism that remains is presentational: the trading-costs page that claims to carry the tables does not render them, and you have to go to each instrument page to find figures the broker does publish.
3. Saxo Trusted 8.1 out of 10
A designated systemically important financial institution in Denmark, named in Finanstilsynet’s annual list on 25 June 2026, with two banking licences behind it. It also has the shortest previous-names history of any broker we have reviewed: one cosmetic change, against forty for IG Markets Limited. Two marks against it. The advertised from 0.6 pips is not met by any of the three majors Saxo itself lists, and its Australian business is gone, so every comparison still calling Saxo ASIC-regulated is out of date.
4. Interactive Brokers Trusted 8.1 out of 10
Five verified companies and a NASDAQ-listed parent, and on cost it is the cheapest here for anyone trading size, because 0.20 basis points on a 100,000 unit trade is 2 dollars against a spread cost several times that. The reason it does not rank higher is the carrying arrangement: a UK account is cleared and carried by the US broker-dealer, and IBKR’s own wording is that FSCS cover applies in limited circumstances. Read that sentence before you assume UK protection.
5. Capital.com Trusted 8.0 out of 10
Matches IG on EUR/USD and undercuts everyone on the entry barrier at 20 euros, or 50 by wire. capital.com is a declared trading name on the FCA record from 4 December 2018, which is the check that separates a brand attached to a licence from one merely advertised alongside it. It also holds an approved FSCA OTC Derivative Provider authorisation in South Africa, which most of this list does not. Widely reported as a Seychelles broker, which is wrong: the rest-of-world entity is Bahamian.
Visit Capital.com Paid link. It cannot change the rating.
6. FOREX.com Trusted 7.9 out of 10
The parent is a listed US institution and the UK entity is FCA authorised, which is why it sits in the Trusted band at all. The cost picture is the weakest part: 1.2 pips on the standard account is double IG and more than double CMC on EUR/USD, and the RAW account only beats them above a certain size. The 100 dollar minimum by bank transfer is also the highest entry point of the seven.
7. eToro Trusted 7.5 out of 10
Ranked last of the seven and the one to read the entity table on before opening an account. UK clients contract with the FCA entity and get FSCS cover. Clients outside the UK, EU and Australia get eToro (Seychelles) Ltd, which has no compensation scheme at all, and the same brand and the same app sit in front of both. The cost is quoted as a percentage of trade value, so it is not directly comparable with the pip figures above, and its own fee page does not say whether that is per side or per round turn.
Visit eToro Paid link. It cannot change the rating.
Who we left off, and why
Every comparison page on the internet publishes its winners. Almost none publishes the brokers it considered and rejected, which is the half that tells you whether the list was assembled or sold.
| Broker | Our verdict | Why it is not ranked |
|---|---|---|
| XTB | Neutral 6.8 | Scores 6.8, which puts it in our Neutral band rather than Trusted, so it is not ranked. This is not a cost objection: XTB publishes EUR/USD at 0.8 pips with no forex commission, and XTB Limited is an FCA entity permitted to hold and control client money. The score is held back by the group structure, including an XTB International entity in Belize. The review sets out the detail. |
| AvaTrade | Neutral 6.0 | Fails the rule the template enforces in code: a broker cannot hold a ranked position unless we hold published cost data for it, and AvaTrade requires a login before it will show a per-instrument spread. It also has no UK FCA entity and uses a British Virgin Islands company as its rest-of-world default. A reader cannot compare a cost that is only visible after registering. |
How this list was ordered
Ranked on the published six-pillar score, which weights regulation at 30 per cent and fund safety at 25 per cent. Nothing on this page is ordered by commission, and a broker cannot hold a ranked position unless we hold published cost data for it. The full weighting is in our methodology.
Every entry re-checked at source on 27 September 2026.
Some links on this page are partner links and we may be paid a commission if you open an account through one. They appear only on brokers we rate Trusted or Neutral, they are never on a broker we rate High Risk or Scam, and they cannot change a rating or a position on this list.