IC Markets has STP trading with 60+ forex pairs, Markets.com is a market maker with 50+ currency pairs. Both brokers have MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. See which broker is best in this IC Markets vs Markets.com review
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If you are looking for a new forex broker, IC Markets and Markets.com are two contrasting options to consider. On this page, we compare IC Markets vs Markets.com using critical factors one should look at when selecting a broker. Examples of this include account types, trading platforms and a range of markets for trade.
Founded in 2007, IC Markets has grown from a new Australian broker to the largest forex broker in the world if measured by trading volume. IC Markets processes over 18.9 billion transactions a day, or an impressive 218 thousand transactions every single second.
Markets.com was founded in 2008, and although they have also grown to become a significant global broker, they are still much smaller in comparison to IC Markets.
Markets.com is a market maker or b-book broker meaning the broker is the counterparty of your trades. IC Markets use STP to connect you with liquidity providers who will be the counterparty to your trades.
The two primary forms of trading fees you can expect to incur when trading is the spread and commission. Spreads are measured in pips, and the smaller the spread, the cheaper it will be to trade. Depending on your account type, you may also have commission fees when you open and close trades.
Most standard accounts are commission-free, making the main trading cost the spread. However, be aware that there may still be other trading costs, like currency conversion fees.
To allow you to compare the typical spreads that you can expect on a standard account, we’ve created a spreads module below. Markets.com does not provide typical spreads, so they don’t feature in the module below.
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Standard Account Spreads
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0.62 | 0.77 | 1.27 | 0.83 | 0.74 |
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1.10 | 1.20 | 1.40 | 1.40 | 1.40 |
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1.13 | 1.01 | 1.71 | 1.66 | 1.12 |
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1.20 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
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1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.60 | 1.50 |
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1.10 | 1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.20 |
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1.10 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 |
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1.20 | 1.80 | 1.90 | 1.90 | 1.60 |
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1.32 | 1.95 | 1.37 | 1.70 | 1.40 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
View IC Markets ReviewVisit IC Markets
As the module shows, you can see that IC Markets is the broker with the lowest typical spreads. You can expect to pay between a 0.6 – 0.65 pip spread for the EUR/USD, much lower than any other broker. The minimum is 0.6 pips, available for all major currency pairs. Minor and exotic currency pairs come with a minimum spread of 1 pip.
While the typical spread for Markets.com is not known, they also have a minimum spread of 0.6 pips, although this is only available for the EUR/USD and AUD/USD currency pairs. Other pairs have slightly higher minimum spreads.
An STP-style account has a fee structure consisting of both a spread cost and commission fees to open and close trades. However, as spreads are executed via straight-through-processing, you will get lower spreads in comparison to the standard accounts of brokers.
In this category, we will only be looking at IC Markets’ STP-style account, the Raw Spread account (MT4/MT5), as Markets.com does not offer a commission-based account type. As above, we have a typical spreads module available.
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ECN Broker Spreads
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0.14 | 0.25 | 0.02 | 0.27 | 0.17 |
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0.20 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 0.30 | 0.20 |
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0.47 | 0.50 | 0.12 | 0.40 | 0.22 |
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0.20 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.40 | 0.20 |
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0.30 | N/A | 0.30 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
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0.24 | N/A | 0.17 | 0.54 | 0.30 |
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0.30 | 0.70 | 0.20 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
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0.30 | 1.10 | 0.10 | 0.60 | 0.50 |
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0.77 | 1.41 | 0.44 | 1.13 | 1.23 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
View Markets.com ReviewVisit Markets.com
As the module shows, you can expect a spread of around 0 – 0.05 pips on IC Markets for the EUR/USD. The minimum is at 0 pips for all major pairs with this quote available 95% of the time.
If using MetaTrader, you will pay $7 AUD or USD per standard lot round-turn (to open and close trades). In other base currencies, the commission is at £5.0 GBP, €5.5 EUR, or $9 SGD. For non-base currencies like CAD, JPY or CHF, your commission will be converted from USD rates at the spot forex rate.
cTrader is USD $6 converted to your account currency for every $100,000 you trade.
The biggest step you need to take before trading is depositing some money into your trading account to start trading.
There is no minimum deposit to open an account with IC Markets, however, $200 is recommended as there are margin requirements to open a trade.
Alongside traditional funding methods like bank transfers, Visa/Mastercard credit card and debit cards, you can deposit funds via eWallets like BPAY, POLi, PayPal, and Klarna. However, EU traders will have slightly fewer eWallets available.
Markets.com does have a minimum deposit, set at $100 in AUD, USD, or EUR. Alongside Visa/Mastercard, the eWallets available are Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, Sofort, and iDeal.
IC Markets is our winner for both types of trading accounts. For the standard account, you can expect much lower spreads, plus, the lack of a minimum deposit makes IC Markets a bit more accessible for beginners. Meanwhile, IC Markets wins the STP-style account category by default, as Markets.com does not have a commission account available for traders to use.
View IC Markets ReviewVisit IC Markets
The best way to stay safe when trading is to use a broker that is regulated in the country you are trading from. We will compare the regulators of IC Markets and Markets.com so you can easily check if you have top-tier regulation.
IC Markets are regulated by:
It is interesting to note that IC Markets is not regulated in the UK. This means IC Markets clients will be directed to their Seychelles subsidiary.
Markets.com shares ASIC and CySEC regulations. They are also regulated by:
Markets.com is slightly more regulated than IC Markets, meaning that if you are trading from the UK or South Africa, you will get maximum regulatory protection with Markets.com. However, all IC Markets traders will still have a base level of protection thanks to the FSA. IC Market clients in the UK would be better to consider a different broker since IC Markets does not have a licence to offer trading services in the UK.
IC Markets and Markets.com each have three platforms for you to choose from.
On IC Markets, you can trade on MetaTrader 4 & MetaTrader 5 (MT4/MT5) and cTrader.
Markets.com also offers both MetaTrader platforms, on top of their proprietary trading platform.
This Markets.com WebTrader platform comes with a range of unique fundamental, technical and sentimental tools to help you make trading decisions.
IC Markets gives you access to a very strong set of social trading tools. MetaTrader Signals, Myfxbook, and ZuluTrade allow you to copy trade with just one click, copying the portfolios of experienced and highly successful traders.
In comparison, Markets.com does not offer any extra trading tools to help you when trading.
IC Markets is a clear winner, with a stronger third platform and the opportunity to utilise copy trading tools, IC Markets gives you more flexibility to trade how you want in comparison to Markets.com.
Both brokers only offer CFD products however Markets.com does have spread betting available with its products.
Contract assets available for trade include forex, shares/indices or ETFs, commodities, and also cryptocurrencies.
IC Markets has a very strong range of products on offer, including over 61 different currency pairs, 1,600+ shares and over 18 different cryptos like Bitcoin or Ethereum. You can trade these at a leverage of 30:1 as a retail trader, or 500:1 if you are a pro trader or not trading from Australia or the EU.
Markets.com similarly has several products to choose between. These range from 52 forex pairs to over 2000 stocks. Retail traders can get up to 30:1 leverage, and pro traders get up to almost 300:1 leverage.
This category is a draw, and we would have to be splitting hairs to decide between IC Markets and Markets.com’s product offerings. However, we note that IC Markets has more forex pairs available for you to trade.
To measure how much their users rate them, we compare Trustpilot user reviews for IC Markets and Markets.com.
IC Markets recorded an incredible 4.9/5-star score over almost 25 thousand users. Users were happy with almost every facet of IC Markets’ offerings, ranging from trading experience to customer support.
While Markets.com received a commendable 4.7 stars from just under 700 reviews, it simply does not match up against the extraordinary reviews IC Markets get.
As a result, IC Markets is our winner in this category, with users extremely happy with the IC Markets offering.
IC Markets is our winner in this VS comparison article. The lower trading fees, wider product range, and extremely positive user reviews make them an excellent broker to trade with, and an overall better option compared to Markets.com.
