We take a look at our top 6 DFSA-regulated Forex brokers making these brokers suitable if you are based and trading in the UAE. To select our brokers, we look at the spreads, user experience and trading platforms available.
Our forex comparisons and broker reviews are reader supported and we may receive payment when you click on a link to a partner site.
We rated the best DFSA regulated forex brokers as:
| Broker | Our Rating | Regulation | Standard EUR/USD Spread |
Standard GBP/USD Spread |
Standard AUD/USD Spread |
Raw EUR/USD Spread |
Raw GBP/USD Spread |
Raw AUD/USD Spread |
Commissions (USD Base) |
MetaTrader 4 | MetaTrader 5 | cTrader | Execution Speed | Minimum Deposit | Currency Pairs | Crypto CFDs | Retail Leverage | Prof. Leverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
9.33 |
ASIC,DFSA, FCA,CySEC BaFin,CMA,SCB |
1.12 | 1.69 | 1.22 | 0.17 | 0.59 | 0.24 | $3.50 |
|
|
|
77ms | $0 | 62+ | 12+ | 30:1 | 500:1 |
|
|
FCA, FSCA, CYSEC DFSA,CMA,FSA |
1.2 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | $3.00 |
|
|
|
$0 | 38+ | 19+ |
|
||||
|
8.33 |
ASIC, FSCA CBI, KNF, CIRO ADGM, FSC-BVI |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - |
|
|
|
160ms | $100 | 55+ | 15+ | 30:1 | 400:1 |
|
|
6.67 |
ASIC, FCA, BaFin FINMA, NFA/CFTC, MAS CySEC, DFSA, FMA JFSA, BMA, FSCA |
1.13 | 1.66 | 1.01 | 0.16 | 0.59 | 0.29 | $6.00 |
|
|
|
174ms | $450 | 100+ | 12+ | 30:1 | 200:1 |
|
|
4.83 |
DFSA, FCA ASIC, FMA |
1.2 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.44 | 0.85 | 0.42 | $3.50 |
|
|
|
90ms | $0 | 72+ | 11+ | 30:1 | 400:1 |
|
|
7.42 | FCA, CYSEC, DFSA, FSA-S, Labuan FSA, FSCA | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | $2.00 |
|
|
|
125ms | $100 | 60+ | - | 30:1 | 500:1 |
|
If you are based in the UAE and want to trade forex, choosing a broker that the Dubai Financial Service Authority (DFSA) regulates ensures regulatory protection for any trader should anything happen to the broker.
We’ve researched the best DFSA regulated brokers licensed and regulated to trade forex with and ranked them based on our testing criteria. We’ve highlighted the broker’s best features in each section so that you can find the right broker for your needs.
Pepperstone Offers The Best Trading Experience And Low Standard Account Spreads
Pepperstone is our top pick for the best forex broker in UAE and is our highest-rated forex broker based on the findings from our comprehensive broker analysis. Pepperstone scored an impressive 97/100 based on our testing methodology.
Key Strengths:
Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone
Pepperstone Has The Fastest Execution Speed
If you are a scalper, then you will appreciate how every millisecond counts when executing your trades. When you are trading with large volumes (especially if you are using leverage), any negative slippage can cost you. Regardless of whether you place a limit order or a market order, of the DFSA-regulated brokers we tested, Pepperstone has the best speeds of the brokers we tested.
We tested Pepperstone and 19 other brokers to see how fast they could execute on the MetaTrader 4 platform. We used a third-party script on a demo account to test the average execution speeds and found that Pepperstone finished 3rd overall (and 1st of the DFSA-regulated brokers) with an average limit-order execution speed of 77 ms, and a market order speed of 90 ms.
Our Test Show Pepperstone Has 0 Pips spreads 100% of the time during trading hours With Their Razor Account
We tested the 15 brokers as we wanted to find out just how often spreads are 0 pips and were surprised to discover that when you exclude the rollover period, you have a high chance of getting a 0 pip trade for some of the most popular currency pairs. In our tests, Pepperstone has the closes spreads to zero more of the time than any other with this being just about 100% of the time.
| Broker | Time at Minimum Spread | Minimum Spread |
|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone | 100.00% | 0.00 |
| City Index | 100.00% | 0.00 |
| Fusion Markets | 98.55% | 0.00 |
| TMGM | 97.83% | 0.00 |
| IC Markets | 97.83% | 0.00 |
| FP Markets | 97.83% | 0.00 |
| EightCap | 97.83% | 0.00 |
| Admiral Markets | 95.65% | 0.00 |
| ThinkMarkets | 94.93% | 0.00 |
| Blueberry Markets | 94.20% | 0.00 |
| Go Markets | 87.68% | 0.00 |
| Blackbull Markets | 86.96% | 0.10 |
| Tickmill | 86.23% | 0.00 |
| Axi | 82.61% | 0.10 |
| CMC Markets | 81.88% | 0.10 |
Low Fee Trading Accounts from Pepperstone
Pepperstone offers a standard trading account that is a spread-only trading account with spreads from one pip on the EURUSD and no commissions. The spread bundles all of the trading fees into one price, making it a simple method of payment which is ideal if you are a beginner forex trader.
The Razor trading account type is Pepperstone’s commission-based trading account, where you pay a low commission every time you execute a trade (both entry and exiting trades). The commission is only $3.5 per trade (or $7 per one-lot round-trade), and the benefit of the Razor account is that you get spreads from 0.0 pips. Based on our zero spread tests, we found that you could get the 0.0 pips advertised 100% of the time, making the Razer account cheaper by $3 per one-lot round-trade compared to the standard account. So, this account offers excellent value, especially if you trade frequently.
If you want to take advantage of the cTrader and TradingView platforms, you’ll also pay lower commissions, which is a flat $3 per trade ($6 per lot round-trade).
Pepperstone also offers an attractive discount if you are an active trader with a turnover of 100 lots in forex volume or more. Through this program, you could save up to 15% per lot traded, making Pepperstone’s already low commission even better. Although, we should note that the discount is only on forex trades.
Pepperstone Gives You a Choice of the Best Forex Trading Platforms
You can choose from four of the most popular forex trading platforms available with Pepperstone. These are:
MetaTrader 4 is the most popular choice for beginners thanks to its easy-to-use interface and customizability. Everything you need to trade is all on one chart, which makes trading forex simple. You can even streamline the ordering process by activating the one-click trading function.
We like this feature because you can pre-set your lot size, take profit and stop loss levels in pips, so you don’t have to manually fill the order form, which could lead to mistakes. Such as forgetting to add a stop loss or accidentally inputting a larger trade size than intended. Then once you have confirmed the one-click execution settings, all you have to do is click the buy or sell button on the chart, and it will execute your orders instantly.
You should choose the MetaTrader 5 platform if you want to automate your trades with its improved performance with the EAs. This will help your EAs run smoother and less likely to stall. The interface is the same as the MT4 platform, which is great if you upgrade for the added benefits. Unlike the MT4 forex trading platform, you can trade stocks with MT5. Pepperstone provides an MT5 premium plugin called Smart Trader Tools, which improves the platform with 28 expert advisors designed to help your day-to-day trading.
The cTrader platform is ideal if you are a scalper because it has an excellent ladder trading feature with Depth of Markets access. It has a better-looking interface and shares similar features as you’d find on MetaTrader 5, such as automated trading, one-click trading from charts, and customizable indicators.
Then there is TradingView which has a range of helpful trading tools and improved trading charts that will suit even the most demanding technical analyst. It has over 110+ technical indicators and drawing tools, the most extensive selection of the four platforms.
One feature we like is the forex market scanner that can find currency pairs that match specific technical indicators settings. For example, you can find all majors with an RSI above 70, which will return all forex pairs currently overbought according to the RSI. This is a top feature for helping you quickly find trades.
Trade Multiple Markets with Pepperstone
Pepperstone has over 1,100+ trading products across six different markets, which include:
The bulk of the trading products comprises share CFDs which Pepperstone offers over 1,000 shares. They have a good selection of currency markets with over 60+ forex pairs available. Interestingly, they also provide crypto CFDs, and Pepperstone has over 15+ cryptocurrencies available to trade.
Our Verdict On Pepperstone
We like Pepperstone as it is a broker that clearly provides a solid all-around service with its low spreads, a good choice of popular trading platforms, and a wide range of markets to trade. These contribute to the reasons why Pepperstone is our highest-rated DFSA regulated forex broker overall. Forex traders will find themselves well looked after by choosing Pepperstone.
Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone
HF Markets has the lowest Commissions
Another top forex broker that is DFSA regulated is HF Markets which offers one of the lowest commissions on this list. If you are an active trader, then a commission-based trading account will be ideal for you due to the benefits of having spreads from 0.0 pips and overall lower trading costs.
Key Strengths:
Competitive Commission-Based Trading Accounts with HF Markets
HF Markets offer two trading accounts that have two different pricing structures:
On the Zero account, you pay $3 per one-lot trade, or $6 per one-lot round trade, making it one of the best-value accounts in the UAE. The spreads on the Zero account are from 0.0 pips, so if you enter at the minimum spread, you’re essentially only paying $6 per lot to trade which is almost 50% of the price you’d be paying on the Premium account.
To give you a better idea about the commissions, if you trade a mini-lot (10,000 units), the commission will be $0.60, and if you trade a micro-lot (1,000 units), you will be paying $0.06 per trade.
We analyzed 18 brokers to find which brokers had the lowest commission trading accounts and found that HF Markets offers one of the lowest commissions for a DFSA-regulated broker. HF Markets can offer these low commissions with the Zero account because it is an ECN broker, which means that they stream the prices directly to you and only charge a commission to facilitate the execution of the trade.
The Premium account (which is their standard account) has spread from 1.4 pips on EUR/USD, and you pay no commission when executing a trade. The spread on this account is quite expensive compared to other DFSA forex brokers on this list, so if you want to choose HF Markets – you should go for the Zero account.
Low Spreads on Over 1200 Markets
HF Markets provides an extensive range of trading products where you can take advantage of CFD trading with low commissions. The main markets include:
In particular, HF markets also offer one of the widest ranges of currency pairs, with over 50+ pairs to trade with, including majors, minors, and exotics.
Our Verdict on HF Markets
With low trading commissions, HF Markets is an attractive option if you are a day trader that frequently trades throughout the day. You will save on your trading costs while benefiting from their MetaTrader platforms and superb range of third-party trading tools.
AvaTrade Affords Stability To Your Trades With Its Fixed Spread
Most DFSA-regulated forex brokers offer variable spreads, which means your trading costs tend to vary from time to time. However, f you prefer to have fixed costs, then AvaTrade is our top choice forex broker because they offer competitive fixed spreads. These spreads are ideal if you automate your trades so you can avoid price spikes during volatile trading times.
Key Strengths:
Simple Pricing Structure with Fixed Spread Trading
AvaTrade provides a standard account with fixed spreads from 0.9 pips on the EUR/USD with no commission. We tested the top brokers that offer fixed spreads and found that AvaTrade had the lowest fixed spreads available. Surprisingly, the spreads on the majors are competitive to brokers that provide variable spreads like HF Market’s Premium account discussed earlier, which was 1.4 pips. Fixed spreads are typically marked up at a higher price to negate the average daily financial market movements, so it is exceptional value for it to be as low as 0.9 pips.
If you are an algo trader running your EA all day, then you may benefit from fixed spreads because your trading costs will remain constant (and competitively low), especially if your EA scalps the markets.
For example, if your EA enters a trade during a major economic news event that has been released and caused a short spike in volatility, most brokers would widen the spread during the volatility. So your trading costs would be higher during this period, and your EA wouldn’t know the difference unless you programmed it to avoid trading in certain circumstances. Whereas fixed spreads will remain the same, allowing your EA to maintain trading throughout the day, taking trades at the same spread.
With AvaTrade being DFSA regulated, all the accounts have access to 1:50 leverage, which means you can use lower margins to trade the forex market. Using maximum leverage should only be used if you know what you are doing and have sound risk management. Even the smallest price movements could quickly turn a profit into a loss.
Our Verdict on AvaTrade
We are impressed that AvaTrade can offer its fixed spreads at a competitive rate compared to other variable spread brokers. This gives AvaTrade an advantage if you want to have the reassurance that you won’t face any price spikes while trading. You should choose AvaTrade if you are unsure about the impact of variable spreads on your trading costs.
IG Allows You to Open An Account with No Deposit
IG is a good broker overall, with a wide range of trading products, a beginner-friendly trading platform, and competitive spreads. IG is our recommendation if low minimum deposits are essential to you. Thanks to their sizeable financial presence and infrastructure, they can offer low minimum deposit limits without making you pay for it by absorbing the costs on their side.
Key Strengths:
IG has Low Minimum Deposits and an Easy Account Opening Process
When you are ready to make a deposit, there is no minimum when funding your account via a bank transfer. However, if you want to deposit with a debit card, then the minimum is $300. So if you want to deposit less than this, you should use the bank transfer process.
We tested IG for their account opening process to see how easy it is to set up and start trading. This is important to know because some brokers can take days to open an account; fortunately, this is not the case with IG. Based on our account opening test, we found that:
One advantage of using a large broker like IG is that onboarding is fast because they have a solid infrastructure to help with the verification details as you go along the application. Once you have processed your account, you can deposit your funds immediately to start trading.
Our Verdict on IG
We found that IG provided a smooth account opening experience, allowing us to open a live account within minutes. There was no “pressure” to make a deposit immediately, although the minimum deposits we low. If a low minimum deposit is important to you, then IG is a top choice, as you can open an account with no deposit.
Axi is a MetaTrader 4 specialist
MetaTrader 4 is the most popular trading platform in the market. While many brokers offer MT4, many offer a choice of other platforms, Axi is one of the few to only offer MT4, which allows them to focus on giving you the best user experience with MT4. This experience includes fast execution speed, scalping permitted and low spreads with 20+ top liquidity providers.
Key Strengths:
Faster Executions Means Better Pricing
They can achieve these speeds by using their own pricing engine, which allows them to directly connect to 20+ liquidity providers to provide the fastest executions with the best price (It also ensures a lower chance of slippage). This allows Axi to offer spreads from 0.0 pips on their pro accounts with a low $7 commission per lot round trip.
Our Verdict on Axi
Overall, Axi is a broker that has invested in its technology to improve the execution speeds for its traders. You can tell the investment has paid off as Axi provides one of the fastest execution services, as per our findings. If execution speed is important to you, then you should choose Axi or Pepperstone.
TickMill has tight spreads on their pro account.
TickMill is another popular DFSA regulated forex broker with an excellent range of trading platforms and tools. However, what stands out is that TickMill has some of the industry’s tightest spreads. If you are a high-frequency trader, then you’ll benefit from the tight spreads on TickMill.
Key Strengths:
Tight Spreads from 0.0 pips with TickMill
Many brokers can offer spreads from 0.0 pips, but on average, only a few maintain those spreads. We analyzed TickMill and 14 other brokers that offer ECN/RAW trading account with spreads from zero pips to find which brokers had the tightest spreads.
For the test, we took the total average of all the major currency pair spreads so that we could find the average spread overall for each broker. We found that, on average TickMill offered its RAW pricing spreads at 0.47 pips based on the six major pairs tested. In particular, we found that TickMill had the joint average tightest spreads on EUR/USD at 0.15 pips. So if you trade the Euro Dollar, then you’ll benefit the most from TickMill’s tight spreads.
Our Verdict on TickMill
TickMill is clearly a solid choice if you want tight spreads based on our findings, especially if you are a Euro Dollar trader. TickMill also provides an excellent overall trading service with a wide choice of trading platforms and tools to help with your trading.
There are four different regulatory bodies in the UAE these are:
These regulators cover a spectrum of financial services, but the important ones that focus on forex brokers are the DFSA and the SCA.
If a broker provides its business from within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), then the broker will be regulated by the DFSA. This is who regulates all of the brokers in this article. Whereas, if the forex broker provides business outside the DIFC, then the broker will be regulated by the SCA UAE, which promotes a regulatory framework like the DFSA.
The DFSA ensures the protection of every UAE trader by setting out the following frameworks:
So if you see that the DFSA regulates a UAE broker, you will know that they have a robust framework to ensure that they meet the DFSA’s regulatory requirements. We recommend traders in the UAE only compare forex brokers that are regulated.
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