Trading can be expensive with commissions, spread costs, and license fees for trading platforms. Those looking for a free environment can either open an account with a prop trading firm or open a free forex platform listed below. We’ve separated each section into trading platforms and the best forex brokers that offer them.

Best Free Forex Trading Platforms

Some Forex Trading Platforms Can Be Costly. These Are The Best Free Platforms:

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
98 SCB, ASIC
FCA, CySEC
1.10 1.40 1.20 0.10 0.40 0.20 $3.50 77ms $0 62+ 12+ 30:1 500:1 Visit Site
85 ASIC, FSA-S
CySEC
0.62 0.83 0.77 0.02 0.23 0.17 $3.50 134ms $0 61+ 18+ 30:1 500:1 Visit Site
72 FMA, FSA 1.20 1.4 1.7 0.23 0.72 0.65 $3.00 72ms $0 64+ 11+ 500:1 500:1 Visit Site
61 FCA, FSCA
CySEC, SCB, FSCM
1.32 1.7 1.95 0.32 0.37 0.51 $3.50 151ms $0 69+ 30+ 30:1 200:1 Visit Site
43 ASIC, CySEC, MFSA
FCA, FSA, FINRA
GFSC
1.0 2.0 1.0 - - - - 130ms $200 (Australia), $50-$100 (EU) 49+ 46+ 30:1 400:1 Visit Site
69 ASIC, MAS, FCA
CIRO, FMA, BaFin
1.12 1.30 1.64 0.5 0.9 0.6 $2.50 138ms $0 338+ 19+ 30:1 500:1 Visit Site
71 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 Visit Site
81 FCA, CIRO, ASIC
MAS, JFSA, FSC-BVI
KNF, NFA/CFTC, MFSA
0.6 0.9 0.7 - - - - - $0 70+ 4+ Visit Site
 

What Are The Best Free Forex Trading Platforms?

We listed the best forex trading brokers, but most require a paid account. Traders looking for a free environment can either open an account with aprop trading firm> or open a free forex platform named below.

1. Pepperstone The Best MetaTrader 4 Experience

Pepperstone

Forex Panel Score

98

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 0.1
GBP/USD = 0.4
AUD/USD = 0.2

Trading Platforms

MT4, MT5, cTrader,
TradingView, Capitalise.ai

Minimum Deposit

$0

Why We Recommend Pepperstone

We recommend Pepperstone as the all-around best free forex trading platform based on its MetaTrader 4 offering. In our experience, Pepperstone goes the extra mile for MT4 forex traders.

With the addition of the Smart Trader Tools package, you’ll have access to 28 additional apps and indicators to enhance your technical analysis. You will also get Autochartist for advanced charting, Captialise.ai for no code automation along with Myfxbook and DupliTrade for copy trading.

Pros & Cons

  • 4 Top trading platforms
  • Fast execution speed
  • Multi-regulated
  • Good 3rd party software tools
  • Education could be improved
  • No fixed spreads
  • Islamic account not in all countries

Broker Details

Pepperstone Trading Platforms

Pepperstone has 4 trading forms that are free to use – MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView (but subscription needed for advanced features) and cTrader. Of those, MetaTrader 4 is the most popular.

We opened a Pepperstone RAW trading account to test the MetaTrader 4 platform and see why it’s the most popular. We first noticed how easy it was to customise our platform; with a simple right click, we could change its properties to fit our liking.

You can customise the Market Watch only to show the markets you wish to trade, which can also declutter your platform. We did this below by hiding all markets except the forex majors – allowing you to focus on the markets that matter.

While exploring the MetaTrader 4 platform, we found that it had 30+ indicators, three chart types, and nine timeframes. It’s not the most extensive range of tools built compared to TradingView, but you can customise your indicators or download new ones from the MetaQuotes marketplace.

If you want to automate your trades, we like that MetaTrader 4 allows you to do this with its Expert Advisors.

We also thought that the platform providing the Strategy Tester feature is worth noting, as you can use this to backtest your strategies. It even includes an optimisation tool to help find the optimal trade sizes, stop loss, or take profit levels.

As for the broker, we think Pepperstone is best suited for the MetaTrader 4 platform thanks to its low spreads, which is perfect for various trading styles from scalping to day trading.

Pepperstone Has 0 pips spreads

The spreads on the standard account average 1.12 pips on EUR/USD with no commission, but their RAW account averages 0.1 pips with a small commission of $3.50 per lot traded.

While executing our trades, we noticed that our RAW account spreads were zero-pips, so we asked our analyst Ross Collins to see how often Pepperstone offered them this low.

Ross told us that Pepperstone provided their RAW account spreads at 0.0 pips 100% of the time on the major pairs during the test. Impressively beating other popular brokers like IC Markets, who offered them 97.38% of the time.

Zero Spread Testing
Broker Time At Minimum Spread
Pepperstone 100%
City Index 100%
Fusion Markets 98.55%
ThinkMarkets 97.93%
IC Markets 97.83%
TMGM 97.83%
FP Markets 97.83%
Eightcap 97.83%
Admirals 95.60%
Blueberry Markets 94.20%
GO Markets 87.68%
BlackBull Markets 86.96%
GO Markets 87.68%
Axi 82.61%
CMC Markets 81.88%

pepperstone accounts and products international

View Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone

Broker Screenshots

2. IC Markets Our Top Low Spread MT5 Broker

IC Markets

Forex Panel Score

85

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 0.62
GBP/USD = 0.83
AUD/USD = 0.77

Trading Platforms

MT4, MT5, cTrader

Minimum Deposit

$200

Why We Recommend IC Markets

We recommend IC Markets for its exceptionally tight spreads – among the lowest we tested. This broker averaged 0.32 pips for the EUR/USD pair on its Raw Spread account and 1.03 pips on its standard account, placing second overall for tight spreads among the brokers we tested.

We also appreciate the comprehensive MT5 offering, which incorporates top trading tools into a user-friendly interface with access to more financial markets than its predecessor.

Pros & Cons

  • Winner for low spreads for RAW and Standard Accounts
  • Fast account opening
  • Free deposit and withdrawal
  • Live chat is slow
  • Not regulated by FCA

Broker Details

Testing MetaTrader 5 With IC Markets

While IC Markets also has MetaTrader 4, cTrader and TradingView, we recommend MetaTrader 5.

During our test of MetaTrader 5, we found that the platform now includes 35+ indicators and 21 timeframes, but the biggest additions are the Depth of Market and native economic calendar tools.

We were impressed with the addition of the economic calendar that is now natively installed with MetaTrader 5, something TradingView has had for a while now. We like that it highlights the times when there is an announcement and then colours it red or blue depending on the results.

You can filter the announcements only to include high-impact announcements, which we think would be better than the default setup and prevent cluttering your chart with unimportant events.

With more brokers offering ECN-style services, more traders can take advantage of MT5’s depth of market tool, providing you with Level II pricing. We like this because you see all the open orders for each price level on the liquidity provider’s order books, giving you raw insights into where other traders are placing their money.

Spreads With IC Markets

Speaking of ECN brokers, we feel that IC Markets is a solid choice for MetaTrader 5 thanks to its low average spreads.

The RAW account spreads are impressive, with EUR/USD averaging 0.06 pips, significantly lower than the industry average of 0.22 pips. Our live fee testing found their major crosses low; we compared the average spreads with 40 other brokers.

From this comparison, IC Markets impressively had the joint lowest average RAW spreads across the major pairs, averaging 0.16 pips and beating the industry average of 0.44 pips. Only Tickmill matched IC Market’s spreads, as shown in the table below.

Tested Raw Spreads
Broker Major Pair
Average Spread

IC Markets 0.16
Fusion Markets 0.17
ThinkMarkets 0.20
FP Markets 0.22
FXTM 0.22
TMGM 0.26
HYCM 0.26
Tested Average 0.44

ic markets account types and products

Broker Screenshots

3. BlackBull Markets Great TradingView Broker

BlackBull Markets

Forex Panel Score

72

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.2
GBP/USD = 1.4
AUD/USD = 1.7

Trading Platforms

MT4, MT5, TradingView,
BlackBull Trade

Minimum Deposit

$0

Why We Recommend BlackBull Markets

We recommend BlackBull Markets to any forex trader who prefers the TradingView platform due to the broker’s commitment to alternative tools and its excellent trading conditions.

With 13 million charts (and counting), this platform caters to experienced traders needing sophisticated charting features, such as specialised drawing tools and numerous timeframes. Combine this powerful platform with BlackBull’s competitive costs and chart-topping execution speeds and you’ve got a great TradingView broker,

Pros & Cons

  • Winner for fast execution
  • Competitive spreads
  • 1:500 Leverage
  • Top range of trading platforms
  • Spreads could be better
  • $2000 minimum deposit for ECN account
  • Not regulated in Australia, UK or Europe

Broker Details

BlackBull Markets TradingView

We opened up a BlackBull Markets account to test out the TradingView platform, and the first thing we tested was its charting package, which is popular with many traders. We found that TradingView offers 100+ indicators, 15+ chart types (like Kagi and Renko), and 25+ drawing tools to help with your technical analysis, including Fibonacci retracement and linear regression tools.

What stood out for us is that we noticed that TradingView updates and adds new indicators to their charts frequently, which MetaTrader 4&5 and cTrader do not do.

For us, BlackBull Markets is the best choice for TradingView with its fast execution speeds and free access to TradingView premium subscriptions. This allows you to maximise TradingView’s capabilities with more technical indicators on the chart. Plus, there are 20 more price alert slots, which is useful if you like to wait for a reaction from the market, like breakout trading.

Other trading platforms with BlackBull Markets include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. You can also automate using Capitalise.ai with your MT4 account and social trade with BlackBull Social, Myfxbook and ZuluTrade.

We asked Ross Collins, our analyst, to test the average execution speed of BlackBull Markets and compare them with 14 other brokers. Ross tested the brokers for limit order and market speeds to help give us a clear indicator of which broker is the fastest overall.

Based on his findings, we were impressed that they achieved a limit order speed of 72ms and a market order speed of 90ms, achieving faster than the industry average speeds.

Placing BlackBull Markets in the number one spot, followed by Fusion Markets and Pepperstone.

Broker Overall Limit Order Speed Limit Order Rank Market Order Speed Market Order Rank
BlackBull Markets 1 72 1 90 2
Fusion Markets 2 79 3 77 1
Pepperstone 3 77 2 100 5
HugosWay 4 104 7 94 3
TMGM 5 94 5 129 7
FXCM 6 108 8 123 6
City Index 6 95 6 131 8
Axi 8 90 4 164 16
Eightcap 9 143 12 139 10

What also stood out for BlackBull Markets was that it allowed up to 1:500 leverage on its products, which is normally reserved for elective professional traders. This is made available because BlackBull Markets is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA).

blackbull markets account types and products nz

Broker Screenshots

4. FXPRO Our Best cTrader Broker

FXPRO

Forex Panel Score

61

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.32
GBP/USD = 1.7
AUD/USD = 1.95

Trading Platforms

MT4, MT5, cTrader,
FxPro Trading Platform

Minimum Deposit

$100

Why We Recommend FxPro

We recommend FxPro to fans of the cTrader platform using the broker’s Pro account. cTrader is a popular alternative to MetaTrader 4 since it has Depth of Market, 26 timeframes (17 more than MT4), a better user interface and an economic calendar. We particularly appreciate the drag-and-drop stop loss and limit order setup and the one-click trading from charts.

Pros & Cons

  • Wide choice of trading platforms
  • Fixed spreads available
  • Instant execution option
  • Good customer service
  • Spreads can be high
  • Not regulated in Australia
  • Range of markets slightly limited

Broker Details

Our first impression of the cTrader platform was how modern it looked compared to reviewing MetaTrader 4 & 5. We like that it is aesthetically pleasing with its bold block colours and round edges, which help make the charts clearer.

We think cTrader is a decent alternative to MetaTrader 4&5, offering 70+ technicals, 11 chart types, and depth of market access. The desktop version also offers automated trading through cBots and custom indicators, although the marketplace isn’t as popular as MetaTrader’s.

What stood out for us was the cTrader Proxy Cloud, which aims to reduce your latency connection to the platform, ensuring you get the fastest execution from the platform regardless of the broker location. We think this is a good idea, especially if you automate your trades via cTrader Automate or scalp the markets.

At the time of review, we were connected to a London proxy, which cTrader believed would give us the best connection to the platform.

To utilise cTrader’s suite of impressive features, you need a broker that offers Straight-Through Processing with low spreads (averaging 0.32 pips EUR/USD), and we think FxPro matches this.

While reviewing FxPro’s cTrader account, we found that the broker has a solid choice of markets, including 69 currency pairs, 2031 shares, 19 indices, 11 commodities, and 30 crypto markets.

We also like that FxPro provides Trading Central, which plugs natively into cTrader, helping you find new trading ideas daily through automated chart pattern signals.

Broker Screenshots

5. eToro The Broker With the Largest Social Trading Community

eToro

Forex Panel Score

43

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.0
GBP/USD = 2.0
AUD/USD = 1.0

Trading Platforms

eToro Trading Platform

Minimum Deposit

$50

Why We Recommend eToro

We recommend eToro to any forex traders curious about social trading or copy trading who like to crowdsource their trading knowledge. We especially like the SmartPortfolios and CopyTrader features, which allow you to engage with unfamiliar financial markets and trading strategies without time-consuming research or backtesting. eToro also stands out for its cryptocurrency trading products: more than any other broker we reviewed.

Pros & Cons

  • Largest social trading community
  • Impressive range of markets to trade
  • UNique social trading tools
  • Currency conversion fees
  • No live chat
  • Withdrawal fees

Broker Details

best social trading platform

eToro has CopyTrader, one of the best copy trading platforms available, with a community of 30,000,000 traders using it. It’s designed for beginners, so we wanted to test its features to see how easy it is to find and copy a trader.

Firstly, we like that the CopyTrader platform is web-based, which made it easier to access and took us less than 6 seconds to load up the CopyTrader tool. It also means we can easily access the platform on our mobile without downloading an app, which is handy if you want to get a quick update on the go.

You get recommendations from current copy traders performing well, which is a nice touch but doesn’t necessarily meet your personal trading requirements – we found some of the recommendations to be too high risk for us. Instead, you can use the “Advanced filter” to select criteria based on performances and narrow down your choice of copy traders.

In our test, the platform returned a list of traders that meet our preferences, which narrowed our search from 2,000,000 to 3.

On top of this, the eToro covers a range of markets to choose from in the filter; these markets include 49 forex pairs, 2961 stocks, 13 indices, 41 indices, 263 ETFs, and 41 crypto markets.

We think being able to choose traders to copy who specialise in different markets is a top feature, allowing you to pick the best of the best for each market and copy their trades.

etoro brief account types and products

Broker Screenshots

6. CMC Markets The Top Free Proprietary Platform

CMC Markets

Forex Panel Score

69

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.12
GBP/USD = 1.3
AUD/USD = 1.64

Trading Platforms

MT4, CMC NGEN

Minimum Deposit

$0

Why We Recommend CMC Markets

We recommend CMC Markets based on its in-house Next Generation platform, which the broker developed with both beginner and experienced traders in mind. This platform offers a sleek, modern design with an easy-access advanced order panel, 115 indicators, 70 chart patterns and a guaranteed stop loss. We also like that CMC Markets allows scalping and offers an impressive 338 forex pairs plus 12,000 other instruments.

Pros & Cons

  • 30 currency pairs
  • 12,000 markets to trade
  • Competitive pricing
  • Next Generation platform is good
  • No 3rd party tools for copy and social trading
  • MT4 product range is smaller than with Next Generation
  • Some funding costs

Broker Details

The NGEN platform is CMC Market’s proprietary platform, offering various trading tools and features that compete with MetaTrader and TradingView.

While using the platform, we found the default interface cluttered with market news widgets and tools that most traders wouldn’t use. The good news is you can customise this by removing those widgets, which is a positive for the platform.

You’ll find that the charting is decent; we like that you can add up to 30 indicators on a chart at once from its selection of 80+ indicators.

What impressed us is that 60+ special pattern indicators scan the markets for different chart & candlestick formations and highlight them on your chart. It will even give you entry levels and take profit targets if you hover over them, which is an excellent feature.

In our live trading cost tests, we found the broker offers competitive spreads averaging 1.12 pips on EUR/USD, below the industry average of 1.24 pips.

If you specialise in trading forex, we think the FX Active account is best as this is a low commission and tight spread account on six currency pairs. You can get spreads as low as 0.0 pips with the FX Active account. However, in our live testing, we found them to average 0.44 pips on EUR/USD, which was above the industry average.

Based on our research, they only charge $2.50 per lot traded, much lower than the industry average of $3.48.

Broker USD
FXTM $2.00
Fusion Markets $2.25
CMC Markets $2.50
City Index $2.50
Blackbull Markets $3.00
FP Markets $3.00
Pepperstone $3.50
EightCap $3.50
IC Markets $3.50
FxPro $3.50

cmc brief account types and products

Broker Screenshots

7. IG Group Offers Good Trading Tools

IG Group

Forex Panel Score

71

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.13
GBP/USD = 1.66
AUD/USD = 1.01

Trading Platforms

MT4, IG Trading Platform,
L2 Dealer, ProRealTime

Minimum Deposit

$0

Why We Recommend IG

We recommend IG Group to anyone looking for a top-tier trading platform with excellent trading tools. Available as both a web trader and a mobile trading app, IG Group’s in-house platform includes 28 indicators, 19 drawing tools and signals for chart recognition. This broker also stands out for the number of tradable assets available – 17,000 markets which is more than any other broker.

Pros & Cons

  • 17,000 markets to trade
  • IG Platform has guaranteed stop loss
  • Regulated in 13 jurisdictions
  • High trust
  • No 3rd party social and copy trading tools
  • IG WebTrader has layout limitations
  • No MT5

Broker Details

While reviewing IG Group, we found that their platform offered a solid range of integrated trading tools. These included trading signals generated by AutoChartist and PIA First, two regulated signal services, and guaranteed stop-loss orders, both helpful tools if you are starting to trade.

On the IG Group Trading Platform, we experienced the Signals Centre, where you can find all the technical analyses provided by AutoChartist and PIA First. We like how direct the information is published, giving us the market, source of the signal, buy/sell signal, and the duration of the signal.

This information expands to a full analyst commentary and a chart with the analysis so you can review the signal in more detail. We think adding the “Copy to Order” feature is a nice touch, allowing you to act on the signal quickly.

On top of the excellent trading tools, we found that the platform had plenty of customisation, offering 28+ indicators, 19+ drawing tools, eight chart types, and 15 timeframes.

A small quality-of-life feature we like is that your chart settings and technical indicators are automatically applied to each asset you switch to, a feature missing in other platforms like MetaTrader 4.

What stands out about IG Group is its extensive range of 17,000+ financial instruments, the largest we’ve reviewed. These markets cover 100 currency pairs, 12,000 share CFDs, 130 indices, 41 commodities, 6,000+ fixed-income markets, and 7,000+ options markets.

We also found the spreads fairly competitive, averaging 1.13 pips on EUR/USD with no commission. This puts it in line with CMC Market’s standard account spreads and below the 1.24 pips industry average.

Broker Total Range of CFD Markets
IG Group 17,000+
CMC Markets 13,000+
eToro 3,500+
BlackBull Markets 2,000+
FxPro 2,000+
IC Markets 1,700+
Pepperstone 1,200+
OANDA 100+

ig markets account and platforms aus

Broker Screenshots

8. OANDA OANDA Trade Has Good Charting

OANDA

Forex Panel Score

81

Average Spread

EUR/USD = 1.4
GBP/USD = 2
AUD/USD = 1.4

Trading Platforms

MT4, TradingView, OANDA Trade (fx Trade)

Minimum Deposit

$0

Why We Recommend OANDA

We recommend OANDA’s proprietary platform for its excellent charting capabilities. OANDA Trade includes advanced charts from TradingView, 11 customisable chart types, 65+ indicators and Autochartist.

We gave OANDA 100/100 for trust and reputation since they are regulated in 7 regions. Most retail traders will use OANDA’s Spread Pricing account which has an average spread of 0.6 pips for EUR/USD which is very low.

Pros & Cons

  • Our most trusted broker
  • OANDA Trade, TradingView, MT4
  • Top research tools
  • Algorithmic options
  • No CFD shares
  • Limited CFD cryptos
  • Education tools needs refresh

Broker Details

After opening our account with OANDA, we noticed the OANDA Trade platform leverages TradingView’s charting, which is a bonus as we think TradingView’s charts are the best for technical analysis.

We found you get access to 80+ indicators, including MACD, Ichimoku, and Bollinger Bands; however, we did notice there was less choice compared to TradingView’s full 100+ indicators.

What stood out for us was the ability to set default trade settings, which can help you execute your orders quicker while preventing mistakes. For example, we set our trade default to ensure we always placed a lot size of 0.5, with a default take profit of 20 pips and a stop loss of 10 pips.

When we executed the trades to test this, the deal ticket was automatically populated, which we think is an excellent feature, although not many platforms include it by default.

While testing the platform, we noticed that OANDA’s spreads were low, averaging 0.6 pips on EUR/USD with no commission. This is lower than most brokers we’ve tested and 50% lower than the industry average of 1.24 pips.

To get a better picture of OANDA’s spreads, we captured the average spreads of its major pairs to see how expensive it is to trade compared to 40 other brokers. We found that OANDA offered the lowest average spreads across the majors, with an average of 0.7 pips, placing it at the top of our test.

Top 5 Most Traded Average Spread
Broker Major Pair
Average Spread

OANDA 0.70
IC Markets 0.76
Fusion Markets 0.99
Admirals 1.04
Eightcap 1.06
Go Markets 1.08
OctaFX 1.10
TMGM 1.16
FIBO Group 1.18
Trading212 1.22
ThinkMarkets 1.22
Axi 1.24
City Index 1.24
HYCM 1.24
Industry Average 1.52

oanda account types products usa

Broker Screenshots