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- Compare spreads, fees, and platforms
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Trading platforms are applications offered by Forex brokers that allow traders to trade Forex and other instruments. They are usually free and also available as mobile apps. All trading platforms have an interface for viewing live market prices, placing trades, and managing trading accounts. Most platforms also have charting tools, research tools, indicators, educational materials, and options for automated trading or copy trading.
In this guide to the best Forex trading platforms, we discuss the important considerations when choosing one. These include regulation, security, trading costs, customer service, and education.
60-90% of retail traders lose money trading Forex and CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs and leveraged trading work and if you can afford the high risk of losing your money. We may receive compensation when you click on links to products we review. Please read our advertising disclosure. By using this website, you agree to our Terms of Service.
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Broker | Overall Rating | Official Site | MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | cTrader | Proprietary Platform | Min. Deposit | Max. Leverage (forex) | Regulated By | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | GBP 100 | 30:1 |        | |||
 | Yes | Yes | No | No | GBP 100 | 30:1 |     | |||
 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | GBP 5 | 30:1 |  | |||
 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GBP 0 | 30:1 | | |||
 | No | No | No | Yes | GBP 0 | 30:1 |  | |||
 | Yes | No | No | Yes | GBP 0 | 30:1 |   | |||
 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GBP 100 | 30:1 |  | |||
 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GBP 50 | 30:1 |   | |||
 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | GBP 100 | 30:1 |  |
Find Your Ideal Forex Broker
Beginners looking for risk management tools and those who want to copy expert traders and learn from their strategies.
We enjoy its user-friendly proprietary AvatradeGO app, available on both Android and iOS. It has an easy-to-use dashboard with trade management tools, clear charts, and a Market Trends feature to monitor trading trends within the AvaTrade community.
Web Trader, AvaTrade’s proprietary web-based desktop platform, is not customisable, and traders can’t change the size and position of the tabs. The platform also does not allow traders to set price alerts and notifications.
0.9 pips
GBP 9
GBP 100
With their award-winning mobile app, AvatradeGO, Avatrade stands out as our choice for the Most Innovative Forex Broker in 2023. In addition, Avatrade offers low trading costs, great trading tools, and a wide choice of trading platforms.
AvaTrade’s single retail account (Standard account) features some of the tightest spreads for a commission-free account with a 100 USD minimum deposit – as low as 0.9 pips on the EUR/USD. AvaTradeGO also features the AvaProtect tool, which provides loss protection for a limited time. Other app highlights include a market trend monitor, zoom function and seamless synchronisation with AvaTrade’s webtrader. MT4 and MT5 have a range of indicators and Expert Advisors and provide free access to the integrated Trading Central dashboard for both platforms.
Top-tier regulation and security with licenses from ASIC and CBI among others
Accessible trading with a low minimum deposit of 100 USD
Award-winning mobile trading with the AvaTradeGO app with social trading features
Wide range of assets including unique instruments like vanilla options
Educational material to support trader development and strategy enhancement
Market analysis could be more extensive
Avatrade is a Market Maker and operate a dealing desk which might not align with all trading preferences
Experienced traders looking for advanced trading tools on the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms.
We like that Tickmill offers an Advanced Trader Toolkit, which integrates into the supported platforms, providing advanced trading tools, user-configurable news and information, and trade analysis.
Tickmill’s MT4 platform is the standard version of MT4, and while numerous upgrades are available, most of them come at a price.
0.0 pips
GBP 6
GBP 100
Tickmill offers some of the most competitive Forex trading conditions available and has, therefore, earned the Award for Best Trading Conditions in 2023.
Tickmill offers a hybrid execution model with both market-making and straight-through processing. It guarantees an average execution time of 0.20 seconds of trades with no-requotes.
Tickmill has some of the lowest trading costs in the industry. Its commission-free Classic Account has a minimum deposit of 100 USD and spreads of 1.6 pips (EUR/USD), which is slightly above the industry average. But its Pro Account, also with a 100 USD minimum deposit, has spreads of 0 pips (EUR/USD) and a commission of 6 USD, which is low.
Tight spreads
Well regulated
Fast and free withdrawals
Limited base currencies
Beginner traders looking to connect with and copy expert traders.
We like that the broker matches MT4 and MT5 with various trading tools, including VPS services and a powerful copy trading platform. These features empower traders to make well-informed trading decisions.
Although XM has a user-friendly in-house mobile app, it only offers desktop and web trading on the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms.
0.6 pips
GBP 6
GBP 5
XM, one of our top all-around brokers, distinguishes itself with its exceptional and well-structured Forex education for traders of all experience leves and is the recipient of the Best Forex Education Award 2023.
XM was established in 2009, has a high trust rating, and is regulated by some of the world's most trusted financial authorities. Furthermore, its beginner-friendly trading app allows traders to open and close positions on the move. All of XM’s accounts have a minimum deposit of just 5 USD, making them highly accessible, especially to beginners. Spreads start at 1.6 pips on the EUR/USD on its two commission-free accounts. However, on its Zero Account, spreads come down to 0 pips in exchange for a commission of 7 USD (round turn).
Well regulated
Excellent education
Free deposits and withdrawals
Limited platform choice
The best Forex trading platform for you will depend on your trading experience and personal taste
MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), cTrader and TradingView are the most popular trading platforms. Many brokers also have their own proprietary trading platforms. Almost all trading platforms are also available as mobile trading apps.
The table below is an easy guide to the main differences between the four main platforms.
| Features | MetaTrader 4 | MetaTrader 5 | cTrader | TradingView |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timeframes | 9 | 21 | 26 | Unlimited – customised timeframes |
| Chart Types | Line, Bar, candlesticks | Line, Bar, candlesticks | Bar, Candlesticks, Line +4 more | Bar, Candlesticks, Line +9 more |
| EA Trading |  |
|
|
|
| Indicators | 31 | 38 | 55 | 100+ |
| Pending Order Types | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| Depth of Market |  |
|
|
|
| Integrated Economic Calendar | |
|
|
Available as a widget |
| One Click Trading | |
|
|
|
| Trailing Stop | (But from the terminal side) |
(But from the terminal side) |
|
|
| Sentiment Display | |
|
|
|
| Coding Language | MQL4 | MQL5 | C# | Pine Script |
Available at over 90% of Forex brokers, MT4 can run on any system, regardless of age, has extremely fast execution, and has the largest number of Expert Advisors.
Developed in 2005 by MetaQuotes, MT4 is the world’s most popular Forex trading platform. MT4 gives traders real-time access to the Forex market, enabling them to trade currencies, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. However, it does not natively allow trading on stock CFDs, ETFs, and bonds, which are available on MT5, cTrader, and TradingView.
The platform also has advanced charting tools and customisable trading layouts, but its interface is outdated. Other platforms, such as MT5, cTrader, and TradingView, have a much broader range of platform tools and more advanced functionality.
Because MT4 has such low resource requirements, it can run on both new and old devices and has been developed to initiate trades as quickly as a Forex broker can process them.
One of the main benefits of MT4 is automated trading with trading robots called Expert Advisors (EAs). Traders can build or purchase EAs, which will trade within the parameters of a pre-set algorithm. Before MT4, automated trading was only available to banks and hedge funds. There are also many more EAs available for MT4 than any other platform in the world.
Watch our MT4 tutorial
Read our MT4 user guide
Find out more about our favourite MT4 brokers.
A feature-rich and modern trading platform compared to MT4, MT5 is more powerful and efficient and offers trading on a broad range of tradable assets, including stocks, ETFs, and bonds.
Released in 2010, MT5 is considered a more advanced and versatile platform than MT4. One of the key differences is that MT5 has a built-in economic calendar and more advanced charting tools. MT5 also supports more order types than MT4 and, unlike MT4, allows native trading of assets like stocks, ETFs and bonds.
Another feature that sets MT5 apart from MT4 is its Depth of Market DOM feature. DOM measures the liquidity of an asset based on its supply and demand. It displays the number of open buy and sell orders for a given asset.
MT5 also has an improved programming language called MetaQuotes Language 5 (MQL5) that allows traders to create more complex EAs than is possible with MQL4, but there are far fewer pre-programmed EAs available for download on MT5.
Although MT5 has slowly gained popularity and is available at many more Forex brokers than cTrader and TradingView, it is not as user-friendly or easy to set up.
Watch our MT5 Tutorial
Find out more about our favourite MT5 brokers.
cTrader is a modern-looking and user-friendly platform with more advanced functionality than MT4 and MT5. cTrader users are also more profitable than their MetaTrader counterparts.
Developed by Spotware and released in 2011, cTrader is a trading platform popular among forex traders for its advanced features and user-friendly interface. cTrader advanced charting capabilities include 70+ technical indicators, 26 time frames, a range of chart types, and Depth of Market functionality. cTrader also has a built-in economic calendar and a wide range of advanced order types.
Like MT4 and MT5, cTrader supports automated trading through cTrader Automate, a feature for developing and backtesting trading robots called cBots. cTrader also has an integrated copy trading function called cTrader Copy, allowing traders to copy the trades of other traders.
cTrader is not as widely available as MetaTrader software programs, but according to Spotware’s internal calculations, 35% more cTrader users are profitable compared to the industry average. This statistic highlights why cTrader has been MetaTrader’s main competitor for over a decade.
Learn more about cTrader
Find out more about our favourite cTrader brokers
TradingView has the most advanced charting functionality and is the most customisable third-party trading platform. However, because it is relatively new, it is the least widely available platform.
TradingView is a charting platform and social network used by 50 million traders and investors worldwide to spot opportunities across global markets. TradingView also works with select brokers, allowing traders to trade directly from TradingView’s charting platform.
The TradingView platform offers a fully customisable experience, with 12 chart types, custom time intervals, 100,000+ community-built indicators, integrated financial analysis, and its own programming language, called PineScript, which allows traders to share their automated trading strategies.
Overall, TradingView is the most advanced, customisable, and feature-rich third-party platform available, but traders will have few brokers to choose from that offer its services.
Find out more about our favourite TradingView brokers
Proprietary trading platforms are trading platforms that belong to a single broker. Most of the larger brokers have proprietary platforms. They generally work in a web browser and are designed to be intuitive and easy for beginners to learn. However, they tend to be less advanced; many do not have automated trading, for example.
Be aware that by choosing a broker’s proprietary platform rather than MT4, MT5, cTrader or TradingView, you will not be able to take the platform with you if you decide to switch brokers. So, you will lose all your specific platform knowledge and will have to start all over again with your new broker.
Learn more about Proprietary trading platforms here
Mobile trading apps are trading platforms that work on mobile devices, like mobile phones and tablets. Most trading platforms are available on Android and iOS devices, though they lose some functionality in the switch to the smaller screen size and emphasis on touch-screen controls.
Answers to some common questions about trading platforms and how they work.
Forex trading involves exchanging one currency for another to profit from fluctuations in the exchange rate. Unlike stock markets, the forex market is a decentralised global marketplace, and currencies can be traded around the clock. Forex trading is a popular investment option due to its potential for high returns and liquidity and low transaction costs.
Learn more about how Forex trading works here
Forex trading platforms and Forex brokers are two different things, but they are closely related.
Forex trading platforms are applications – either on a phone or a computer – that traders use to place trades, while Forex brokers are companies that find buyers and sellers for your trades. Forex brokers also provide leverage and other services such as education, analysis tools and customer support. Forex brokers charge a fee for these services, usually in the form of a markup called the “spread”.
Other assets you can trade are stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, indices and government bonds. Which assets are available on your trading platform will depend on your broker, and some brokers offer many more types of assets. Some of the less common assets include interest rates, options and futures.
Technical indicators are used to identify trends, measure market volatility, and assess the strength and direction of current market conditions. They can be divided into two categories: trend-following and oscillators. Trend-following indicators identify the direction of a trend, while oscillators identify reversals in the trend.
Common technical indicators include moving averages, momentum indicators, relative strength index (RSI), Bollinger Bands, MACD (moving average convergence divergence), stochastics, Ichimoku clouds, Fibonacci retracements and more. Technical traders use indicators to determine potential entry and exit points for trades.
Trading tools are any technology or application traders use to help them make trading decisions, track trades, and manage their portfolios. These tools can range from basic charting software to complex AI-driven algorithms for high-frequency trading. Trading tools typically provide access to market data, news feeds, and real-time risk management tools.
Many trading tools also come with specialized features such as portfolio analysis, order execution, strategy backtesting, portfolio optimisation, and access to multiple exchanges in one place. In addition to these more practical applications, they may include educational resources such as videos and tutorials that help traders gain insight into the markets they trade.
Discover how Forex Trading works with our essential guide. Understand key terminology with examples and learn how to make your first successful trade.
Regulation is the most important consideration when choosing a broker. Learn how regulators protect traders and how the Forex market is regulated.
Learn the basics of Forex currency pairs. Understand the key differences between major and minor pairs and how to trade them.
60-90% of retail traders lose money trading Forex and CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs and leveraged trading work and if you can afford the high risk of losing your money. We may receive compensation when you click on links to products we review. Please read our advertising disclosure. By using this website, you agree to our Terms of Service.
Senior Financial Writer
Alison joined the team as a writer in 2021. She is the Senior Financial Writer for FxScouts. She has a medical degree with a focus on physiotherapy and a bachelor's in psychology. However, her interest in forex trading and her love for writing led her to switch careers. She has a passion for Forex trading and over a decade of editorial experience researching Forex and the financial services industry, producing high-quality content. She hosts a weekly podcast, "Let's Talk Forex", alongside Chris and has produced over 100 Forex educational videos for the FxScouts YouTube channel. She also writes weekly technical analyses and has tested and reviewed over 100 Forex brokers.
Head of Content
Head of Content at FxScouts since 2019, Chris Cammack ensures all content meets our high standards of quality and clarity, shaping editorial guidelines and overseeing broker reviews. Chris brought 10 years of experience in research, editorial, and design for political and financial publications, and has a deep knowledge of international financial markets and geo-politics. He co-hosts the "Let's Talk Forex" podcast with Alison and writes for the news section on a regular basis.
Financial Writer
Ida is a financial writer with a degree in Digital Marketing and a strong background in content writing and SEO. Her expertise extends beyond marketing and writing, with a keen interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Ida's passion for crypto trading sparked a deeper fascination with Forex technical analysis and price movement. She is continually expanding her knowledge in Forex trading, staying informed about the latest trends and identifying the best trading environments for new traders.
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