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Alison Heyerdahl is the Head of Content at FxScouts, a Chartered Market Technician (CMT), and an experienced trader, as well as a financial writer with extensive expertise in Forex trading, broker analysis, and market research. She has reviewed 100+ brokers, publishes weekly YouTube trading videos, and co-hosts the “Let’s Talk Forex” podcast.
In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. Interactive Brokers and Saxo are two popular options, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. This comparison will dive into the key features of both platforms, helping you decide which one best suits your trading style and goals.
The radar chart above illustrates the comparison between Interactive Brokers and Saxo across several key metrics, with the highest possible score being 100 in each category.
At FxScouts, our mission is to assist traders in finding the broker that best suits their needs. Comparing brokers side-by-side is an effective method to achieve this goal. We evaluated Interactive Brokers and Saxo, using our standard criteria: trust and regulation, trading platforms, costs and trading conditions, and educational and market analysis resources.
Trust and regulation are crucial when selecting a Forex broker. A broker’s credibility is largely built on its regulatory status. We spend considerable time verifying the safety of each broker by examining their regulatory licenses. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, Interactive Brokers earned a higher trust rating than Saxo.
When comparing brokers, trading costs are a significant factor. We consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and ongoing costs, including spreads and commissions. We measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit, including both the spread and any commission charged.
We found that Interactive Brokers has overall lower trading costs than Saxo.
Trading Platforms Offered Traders prefer brokers that offer a variety of trading platforms. We rate brokers higher if they support multiple platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, and proprietary platforms.
Copy trading is beneficial for beginner traders or those unable to trade full-time. In this case both Interactive Brokers and Saxo offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. Saxo offers a greater variety of instruments compared to Interactive Brokers:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, Saxo offers 9 cryptocurrencies, while Interactive Brokers offers 4 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, Saxo is the better choice for cryptocurrency trading.
Traders prefer brokers with quick and cost-effective deposit and withdrawal processes. We favor brokers that process withdrawals within 24 hours using multiple methods without charging fees.We found that Interactive Brokers charges a withdrawal fee and Saxo does not. Overall, Saxo has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Interactive Brokers.
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.
Interactive Brokers and Saxo both have very good educational support. Both Interactive Brokers and Saxo offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that Interactive Brokers offers better research analysis than Saxo and that both Interactive Brokers and Saxo offer frequent webinars.
Founded in 1977 and listed on the NASDAQ, Interactive Brokers is one of the best-regulated brokers in the industry. Ideal for sophisticated, active traders, Interactive Brokers is in a league of its own with the astounding number of assets on its books and its feature-rich platforms. However, its website and complicated account structure may leave less experienced British traders reeling.
Interactive Brokers’ world-class research, trading tools, and education will leave traders of all experience levels satisfied, and consistent with its excellent reputation, Interactive Brokers’ trading costs are some of the lowest in the industry. Spreads start at 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) in exchange for a round turn commission of 4.4 USD.
One complaint traders may have is that it does not offer third-party platforms like MT4 and MT5, and traders can only fund their accounts by bank transfer.
An excellent all-round broker, Saxo Bank is a well-regulated investment bank and brokerage with two top-end trading platforms and an outstanding selection of financial instruments.
Geared towards more experienced traders, Saxo Bank’s ongoing trading fees are lower than average across all three account options, with spreads that average between 0.4 pips and 0.8 pips (EUR/USD), but it has a high minimum deposit of 500 GBP on its entry-level account and a whopping 1,000,000 GBP on its VIP Account. Experienced traders will also be satisfied with the number of financial instruments on offer, which includes no less than 190 Forex pairs.
Saxo Bank’s platforms are some of the best in the industry, and although MT4 and MT5 are not available, it supports algorithmic trading. We were also impressed at the quality and frequency of market research available at the brokerage, which is on par with some of the biggest players in the industry.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of Interactive Brokers and Saxo.
Select another broker to another broker to compare features, fees, and platforms side by side.
Alison and Chris cover a range of topics, including how to choose a Forex broker, safety and regulation, how to reduce your risk, trading psychology, trading platforms, and trading strategies, among others.
The FxScouts podcast helps beginner Forex traders get the best start to their trading careers.
