IC Markets vs Tickmill 2025

2. Better Trading Platform: IC Markets

IC Markets allows you to trade on the MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and cTrader trading platforms. Tickmill only offers the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. All these trading platforms are available on desktop (PC or Mac) and mobile trading devices (iOS or Android). The trading apps come with a range of features for easy-to-use functionality.

MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 is the first and most popular trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software. MetaTrader 4 is ideal for traders of any level of experience, from beginner to intermediate to experienced scalping traders. Fit with a customisable interface and sophisticated order management functionality, MetaTrader 4 offers over 50 fundamental and technical indicators with fast order execution on a range of CFDs. This trading platform provides access to a range of Expert Advisors, allowing you to use algorithmic and automatic trading functionality.

• Fast execution of trades (reduced lag time and slippage)
• Expert Advisors and trading robots (EAs are programs that allow for automated monitoring and trading according to a set of chosen parameters)
• Autochartist compatibility (saving you on screen time by identifying and notifying you of chart patterns and key price levels)
• MyFxBook Copy Trading (providing tools to find and follow profitable traders on a social trading network)

The MetaTrader 4 trading platform remains the most popular trading platform because of the customisable charting, trading automation facilities, and easy-to-use interface. Both IC Markets and Tickmill provide the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

MetaTrader WebTrader

MetaTrader WebTrader is an extension to the trading app that allows you to access and trade online directly through your modern web browser. WebTrader is equipped with the same functionality and features as the MetaTrader trading platform but requires no downloads or installations. WebTrader has enhanced security using trade history and encrypted data transmission.

MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 is the new multi-asset platform from MetaQuotes Software. The MetaTrader 5 version comes with a built-in market for trading robots for  algo trading and provides access to the MQL5 community. MetaTrader 5 maximises trade execution speeds using forex VPS. This upgraded trading platform is equipped with more indicators, timeframes, and order types, as well as enhanced charting features and backtesting for EAs than the previous MetaTrader 4. MetaTrader 5 also allows you to trade share CFDs along with forex currencies, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. Only IC Markets offers MetaTrader 5. Currently, you cannot access this trading platform with Tickmill.

cTrader

cTrader is a widely used trading platform and a close competitor to MetaTrader. With a personalised interface and charting options, cTrader is an easy-to-use trading platform. If you prefer to trade with cTrader, you can access algorithmic trading systems with the system liquidity pools, as well as back-testing facilities based on past market data. cTrader is a popular trading platform because of the enhanced modification options, advanced order placement features, and compatibility with desktop and mobile trading devices or apps. You can trade with cTrader through IC Markets but not with Tickmill.

Verdict

IC Markets is the clear winner over Tickmill due to the diversity of trading platforms available. Although Tickmill offers the most widely used trading platform MetaTrader 4, the broker does not offer MetaTrader 5 or cTrader as IC Markets does.

IC Markets also offers a range of advanced tools that you can integrate with your chosen trading platform. These include:

• Alarm Manager, Correlation Matrix, Correlation Trader
• Trade Terminal, Market Manager, Sentiment Trader
• Session Map, Smart Lines
• Stealth Orders, Tick Chart Trader

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3. Superior Accounts And Features: IC Markets

IC Markets Account Types

There are three main account types you can open with IC Markets, including the Standard Account, Raw Spread Account, and cTrader Raw Account.

Standard Account

The Standard Account from IC Markets is a commission-free account with a standard pricing model. This account type is ideal for beginner forex traders because trading costs are easier to calculate. You can trade with a Standard Account on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms. This account has wider spreads than the Raw Spread Account, starting from 1.0 pips.

Raw Spread Account

The Raw Spread Account has IC Market’s lowest spreads starting from 0.0 pips on the EUR/USD currency pair, and commission fees of only $3.50 per lot. The Raw Spread Account is also available on the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and allows you to use the MQL4 programming language. The Raw Spread Account is the most popular choice from IC Markets because of the lower overall trading costs compared to the Standard Account.

cTrader Raw Account

The cTrader Raw Account is available on the cTrader trading platform using the C# programming language. With this account type, you can access low ECN broker spreads on a variety of forex pairs and trade with commission fees of only $3.00 per lot.

Tickmill Account Types

Three account types are available with Tickmill. These include the Pro Account, Classic Account, and VIP Account.

Pro Account

The Pro Account uses ECN-style pricing to offer retail trading spreads from 0.0 pips on the EUR/USD currency pair. Commission charges for the broker are only $2.00 per lot, making the Pro Account a popular choice among Tickmill clients.

Classic Account

The Tickmill Classic Account is the same as a standard account that many brokers offer. This account type is commission-free as costs are part of the spread, which starts from 1.6 pips. A standard or classic account is best suited for beginners with little experience in forex trading, as no commissions mean a simpler fee structure.

VIP Account

The VIP Account is available to traders with a trading account equity balance of $50,000 or greater. With this account type, you receive a discount on commissions with fees starting from $1.00.

Islamic Accounts

Both IC Markets and Tickmill offer the option to convert the standard or ECN account types into an Islamic Account for traders of the Muslim faith. The Islamic Account offers the same features, spreads and commission charges as the corresponding account types. However, there are no charges for swaps in compliance with Sharia law.

Verdict

The account types offered by both IC Markets and Tickmill will suit a range of traders with different levels of experience. Although the commission structure of Tickmill is appealing, the wider spreads make the overall trading cost relatively high. IC Markets has a more competitive pricing model with tighter spreads and low commission fees. With fast trade execution speed and low trading costs, the Raw Spread Account from IC Markets outperforms the other account types.

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4. Best Trading Experience And Ease: IC Markets

When it comes to trading, the experience and ease of use are paramount. We’ve spent countless hours testing both IC Markets and Tickmill and here’s what we’ve found:

• IC Markets offers the best MT5 trading experience, making it a top choice for traders who prefer this platform.
• Tickmill, on the other hand, didn’t stand out in our tests for any specific trading platform.
• IC Markets also shines with its standard account, which we found to be one of the best in the industry.
• Execution speed is crucial, and while neither broker took the top spot in our tests, both offer reliable and fast trade executions.

Verdict: IC Markets edges out Tickmill in terms of overall trading experience and ease of use.

5. Stronger Trust And Regulation: Tie

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IC Markets has a licence with three main regulators.

• International Capital Markets Pty Ltd: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) AFSL 335692
• IC Markets (EU) Ltd: Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) Licence No. 362/18
• Raw Trading Ltd: Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA) Licence No. SD018

With two Tier 1 and one Tier 2 regulation bodies, IC Markets is considered a safe and trustworthy forex broker.

Tickmill Global Regulation

Tickmill has a licence with five main regulators.

• Tickmill UK Ltd: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Licence No. 717270
• Tickmill Ltd: Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA) Licence No. SD008
• Tickmill Europe Ltd: Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) Licence No. 278/15
• Tickmill Asia Ltd: Financial Services Authority of Labuan (LFSA) Licence No. MB/18/0028
• Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd: Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) Licence No. FSP 49464

Under extensive regulation, Tickmill is also considered a safe and reliable forex broker. Traders outside FCA, CySEC, LFSA, and FSCA will trade under FSA regulation, and as such, this should be taken into consideration as an offshore regulator. Furthermore, if you are trading from Australia or Dubai, Tickmill does not have ASIC or DFSA regulations.

Verdict

The choice of broker will depend on the country you are trading from. Trading with an offshore regulator can sometimes impose challenges regarding communication, protection, or policy adherence. Although Tickmill has several more regulatory entities, IC Markets have higher tier regulation in more popular countries.

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6. Top Product Range And CFD Markets: IC Markets

Forex

The forex market is the world’s largest and most popular financial market because of the price action volatility and 24/5 availability for trading. As the most liquid market with over $5 trillion traded daily, the forex market allows you to simultaneously buy and sell currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP, CHF, JPY, and NZD for profit.

• IC Markets offers over 65 currency pairs
• Tickmill offers over 60 currency pairs

Indices

Indices allow you to trade a group of stocks as an amassed average. An index will track the average value of a group of stocks, allowing you to speculate on the changing average price across sectors, industries, or even countries. Similarly, trading oil can allow you to speculate on the average pricing of oil across several exchanges.

• IC Markets allows access to 17 of the largest global indices
• Tickmill allows access to 14 stock indices and variations of oil

Commodities

Commodities include agriculture, precious metals, and energy. These assets are often considered safe-haven assets, as they are relatively uniform across the globe during market volatility.

• IC Markets provides 19 mainstream commodities you can trade against the USD as both spot and futures CFDs
• Tickmill allows you to trade precious metals like gold and silver against the USD but does not offer soft commodities such as copper, palladium, and platinum

Stocks

Trading stocks is only available on the MetaTrader 5 trading platform, meaning you can only access stocks with IC Markets but not with Tickmill. Trading stocks as CFDs means you are not owning the underlying assets but merely speculating on the price movements.

• IC Markets has over 120 stocks to be traded as CFDs across the NYSE, NASDAQ, and ASX
• Tickmill does not allow stock trading

Bonds

Bonds are agreements for over-the-counter exchanges between borrowers and lenders. These bonds are futures (cash) contracts and have no central exchange.

• IC Markets offers 6 core bonds, including the UK, Japan, USA, and Europe
• Tickmill offers 4 main types of government bonds (otherwise known as treasury CFDs), all of which are German bonds

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency that is becoming more popular as regularly traded financial assets. The cryptocurrency market is popular because of its high volatility nature of the market and large price movements. It is important to note that trading cryptocurrency CFDs is high risk; therefore, the allowable leverage is usually less than other financial products.

• IC Markets allows you to trade major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple (because of the high risk of these assets, you can integrate social trading features such as ZuluTrade and MyFxBook to leverage off more experienced traders)
• Tickmill does not currently offer cryptocurrencies for trading as CFDs

Futures

Futures are contracts that allow you to speculate on the direction of financial assets, providing you with the opportunity to buy or sell at a predetermined price and time.

• IC Markets offers 4 global futures to trade, including the ICE Dollar Index and CBOE VIX Index
• Tickmill does not offer future CFDs

Verdict

IC Markets offers a far greater variety of financial products to trade as CFDs than Tickmill. If you are only looking to trade the common forex pairs, either broker would suit you. However, diversification is an important factor to consider, and if you want to expand your investing scope with more complex instruments, IC Markets has a wider range of tradeable instruments than Tickmill.

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7. Superior Educational Resources: IC Markets

Both brokers provide a range of useful tools and resources for clients, some of which are available to download, and others require account registration.

IC Markets features:

• Blogs for fundamental and technical analysis
• Trading Central and other 3rd party content providers
• Economic calendar and MyFxBook news headlines
• ZuluTrade social copy trading compatibility
• FX Blue LLP advanced trading tools

Tickmill features:

• eBooks with a range of trading topics
• Videos and video tutorials for trading, analysis, and strategies
• Webinars and seminars with forex experts
• Infographics to visualise trading data, charts, and statistics

Verdict: There are more resources offered by IC Markets.

8. Superior Customer Service: IC Markets

IC Markets has a local support office based in Sydney, Australia. The customer service area can be contacted 24/5 and usually responds within 15 minutes. Complex issues may be resolved in a day through email, Skype, and phone. IC Markets also provides a live chat feature and a dedicated education centre for more information on general trading issues.

Tickmill has a head office in London, UK. The client support number is available Monday to Friday during the hours of 7:00 and 16:00 GMT. The response time is typically within 24 hours of the inquiry through the client support number or email. The broker also provides an inquiry submission section on the website and a live chat tool.

Verdict

IC Markets has more availability for contact than Tickmill, and given the nature of forex trading, communication with the broker is vital.

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9. Better Funding Options: Tie

IC Markets Funding

IC Markets has a range of options for account deposits and withdrawals, including:

• Debit or credit card
• PayPal
• Neteller and Neteller VIP
• Wire Transfer
• Bpay
• FasaPay
• Skrill
• UnionPay
• Broker to Broker
• POLi
• Thai Internet Banking
• RapidPay
• Klarna
• Vietnamese Internet Banking

There are no deposit or withdrawal fees charged by IC Markets. Most transfer methods will complete transactions either instantly or within days. It is important to note that the withdrawal method must be the same as the deposit method.

Tickmill Funding

There are no costs associated with deposits or withdrawals with a Tickmill account because of the Zero Fees policy. If you use a wire transfer and deposit more than $5,000, Tickmill will refund any fees up to $100. The range of funding methods includes:

• Bank Transfer
• Visa and MasterCard
• Skrill
• Neteller
• DotPay
• PaySafeCard
• Sofort
• Rapid Transfer
• PayPal

Tickmill does not explicitly charge inactivity fees but reserves the right to charge such fees if the broker believes an account is not being actively used.

Verdict

The funding method you choose will depend on what is available and what suits you best. IC Markets and Tickmill both offer a competitive range of options when looking to fund your trading account. By covering all the popular methods, either broker would be a suitable choice. It is slightly cheaper to start with a Tickmill account than it is for IC Markets. However, the difference is negligible, and IC Markets offers a far greater range of funding methods than Tickmill.

10. Lower Minimum Deposit: IC Markets

The minimum deposit requirement for IC Markets is $0, and there is no minimum withdrawal amount.

For Tickmill, the minimum deposit requirement is $100, and a minimum of $25 is required for withdrawal from your account. To access the VIP Account with Tickmill, you need to have a minimum of $50,000 in your account to qualify.

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Our Final Verdict On Which Broker Is The Best: Tickmill or IC Markets?

Based on the comprehensive analysis and comparison of the two brokers, IC Markets is the winner because it consistently outperforms Tickmill in several key areas, including trading platforms, account types, and overall trading experience. The table below summarises the key information leading to this verdict:

Best For Beginner Traders

IC Markets is the ideal choice for beginner traders due to its user-friendly platforms, comprehensive educational resources, and competitive pricing.

Best For Experienced Traders

For seasoned traders, IC Markets stands out with its advanced trading platforms, diverse product range, and superior trading conditions.