We compared two of the larger global Forex brokers OANDA and IG to see who wins out head-to-head. Both brokers have no commission trading with spreads from 0.8 pips and a good range of trading platforms and products.
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After testing and comparing OANDA and IG, we believe that IG is the better choice for forex traders. IG has more products for trade, good trading platforms and better education. OANDA’s spreads are generally lower and they have better automation and social trading integrations. Neither broker can be faulted for broker safety. We gave IG a score of 81 and OANDA a score of 70.
Both brokers serve the US market, and if you are in this region, we recommended OANDA since IG doesn’t offer the same features clients outside the US receive.
Our head-to-head OANDA vs IG broker comparison is all about simplifying the process, breaking down some of the key metrics to identify the broker that has the best combination of trading tools, costs and fees for your needs.
Both brokers have a large global presence and are one of the best Forex brokers for the UK, Australia and also the US where not many brokers accept clients from.
Trading profits depend on a number of key variables such as account and commission fees, as well as less obvious costs such as inactivity fees, minimum deposits and swaps. Here’s what you need to know.
In our testing we found OANDA’s fee structure to be more favourable for traders who want to keep their trading costs low and predictable.
Both brokers utilise a market maker pricing model, acting as counterparties to trades while encouraging traders to use their no-commission trading accounts. We found spreads for these accounts start from 0.6 pips for major pairs like EUR/USD, with higher spreads for minors and exotics.
Ross Collins, one of our staff at CompareForexBrokers tested spreads for standard accounts of 20 brokers. He found OANDA’s average spread for EUR/USD to be 1.06 pips (placing them 7th across all brokers) and 1 pip for AUD/USD (placing 3rd). While IG wasn’t tested as part of that process, OANDA’s overall performance indicates that it’s a strong choice for traders in this category.
As traders, we like to minimise our trading costs using the STP/ECN/RAW methodology wherever possible, despite commission fees. OANDA’s core spread ECN account, available only in Singapore, Australia, Singapore, and the US, charges $7.00 per lot round turn.
IGA’s DMA account, also only available in select countries, uses Direct Market Access (DMA) to enable approved professional traders to pay a tiered commission, meaning the more you trade, the lower your commission will cost.
We found it difficult to pick between inactivity fees, while OANDA is lower, it begins after 12 months, unlike iG which begins after 24 months. OANDA did however get points for having no minimum deposit. One plus with both brokers is that neither has funding fees.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| Spread (EUR/USD) | Standard - Min 0.6 pips (avg 1.06 pips) Core Pricing (outside UK, Canada and EU) 0 Min. 0.1 pips |
Standard Account - min 0.6 pips (avg n/.a) DMA Account (selected countries) Min. 0.1 pips |
| Commission per 100,000 Round-turn |
Core Pricing - AUD 7, USD 7, SGD 7 | DMA Account (selected countries and pro traders only) 1 to 100mil - 60 USD/million 1 to 500mil- 30USD/million 500 to 1500mil - 20 USD/million 1500mil+ - 10 USD million |
| Inactivity fees | Yes $10 per month after 12 months |
Yes. $12/£12/€14 per month after 24 months of inactivity. |
| Active Trader Discount | N/A | N/A |
| Minimum deposit | None | AUD 450 GBP 250 USD 300 |
| Deposit or Withdrawal fees | Only International bank transfer | Only International bank transfer |
| Our Cost Score | 5 | 7 |
We are slightly biased toward OANDA given we have actually tested the spreads for their trading account. In time we will also do IG as well. Despite this IG scored 6.15 and OANDA a 4.18 for costs.
Trading experience, as we rate it, covers factors such as trading speed, ease of account opening and the types of trading available (e.g.standard vs ECN accounts)
Our research revealed that OANDA claims a median execution speed of 12 ms, utilising their low-latency proprietary trading engine, “V20”. IG, on the other hand, has a published execution speed of 15 ms with a 97.93% fill rate, executing 100% of trades in under a second.
We conducted our own tests to verify these speeds. Although we didn’t test OANDA in this cohort, Ross Collins assessed 20 brokers and discovered IG’s average execution speed was 174 ms for limit orders and 141 ms for market orders. This slower speed may increase the risk of slippage, making IG’s guaranteed stop loss a beneficial feature.
We also evaluated account opening ease, with our CompareForexBrokers team comparing how easily we could open accounts with a set of 20 comparable brokers.
OANDA and IG are neck and neck here, featuring similarly straightforward workflows to open and activate accounts. Justin Grossbard when he opened accounts appreciated how frictionless it was to open an account with IG on the spot, but didn’t like the lack of a dedicated account manager. He was also disappointed to find that he needed to add an MT4 account separately. Justin gave IG an overall score of 9 out of 15.
Justin also found the OANDA account opening process to be more complex, stumbling across a few errors and poorly-communicated instructions. OANDA did however provide a dedicated account manager, which kept the ranking evenly matched in this category, scoring 9 out of 15 also.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| Execution Type | Market Maker (with Market Execution) | Market Maker (with Market Execution) |
| Demo Account | Yes | Yes |
| Standard Account | Standard | CFD |
| Commission Account | Core Pricing (not in Canada, UK, Canada, Europe) | DMA Account (Pro traders only and in selected countries) |
| Fixed-spread Account | No | No |
| Swap-free Account | On request | No |
| # of Base Currencies | 5 | 8 |
| Maximum Forex Leverage | 1:30 to 1:500 | 1:30 or 1:500 |
| Execution Speed | N/A | Limit Order 174 Market Order 141 |
| Our Ease Of Account Opening Score (out of 15) | 9 | 9 |
| FINAL SCORE | 5 | 6 |
Overall, we awarded IG a score of 5.20 and OANDA a score of 6.30 for trading experience. IG lost points for their poor execution speed and to be fair, we haven’t tested OANDA for speed at this time so we gave them 50% of the possible score for the criteria.
Traders need to have ready access to a range of markets to find opportunities and offset risk. The wider that range, the better our options as forex traders.
When we compared the asset class offerings of OANDA and IG Markets our research team found that IG provides a much wider range of assets.
While forex may be the main focus of OANDA (and their range of FOrex pairs is extensive), IG still manages to have more forex assets, far more cryptocurrencies and CFDs. IG even provides additional features like options trading, interest rates and sectors. In Australia, you can buy and sell physical shares with IG as well.
Our testers found OANDA lacking here, they don’t offer shares which is unusual for such a large broker and their range of cryptocurrencies is small.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| Forex trading | 68 | 110 |
| Cryptocurrency trading | 4 | 13,000+ |
| Share CFD trading | 0 | 13 plus Crypto10 Index |
| Commodities CFD trading | 3 Metals (Gold and Silver x 10 other currencies) 3 Energies 4 Softs |
11 Metals 7 Energies 23 Softs |
| ETF CFD trading | 0 | 2000+ |
| Indices CFD trading | 15 | 130 |
| Bonds/Treasuries CFD trading | 5 | 14 |
| Real Stocks | No | In selected markets (i.a Australia, UK) |
| Other Products | Spread Betting Options Trading Futures Trading Binary Trading Interest Rates Sectors |
|
| Our Products Score | 6 | 9 |
We have to recommend IG when it comes to the range of trading products available for trade. Admittedly, a large range doesn’t mean much if you only intend to trade Forex but it’s good to know you can trade other products should you wish. We couldn’t fault IG for their range so we gave them a 10, Oanda gets a 6 – their score is held back by the lack of shares and small range of cryptos.
A good trading platform makes trading more enjoyable and the right tools can help you find the right trades.
Testing both platforms, we learned that OANDA provides more comprehensive and customisable market data and analysis, including charting tools and market news. IG Markets, on the other hand, has a distinct range of educational materials, including webinars, trading guides, and a trading academy.
So our experimentation tends to suggest OANDA is more favourable for traders who prioritise complex market analysis and data, while IG Markets provides some unique educational resources and learning pathways that lower the barrier to entry for new traders.
Both brokers encourage you to use their own proprietary trading platforms – IG Trading Platform and OANDA Trade. We liked that a guaranteed stop loss is available with these platforms but not that using these platforms locks you into the brokers eco-system and limits your ability to integrate 3rd part tools. Though OANDA does provide some tools you can use with their platforms such as TradingView for greater charting and the ability to automate trading.
We are more familiar with MetaTrader 4 so we like that both brokers offer this platform, especially since you can automate with EAs and social trading using MT4 Signals. IG also has ProRealTime for better charting and even automation but there will be costs while OANDA has MultiCharts for automation.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader 4 | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 | No | No |
| cTrader | No | No |
| TradingView | Yes | No |
| Desktop | Yes | Yes |
| Web app | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Other trading plarforms | OANDA Web MultiCharts |
ProRealTime IG Trading Platform L2 Dealer (DMA trading) |
| Social trading | MetaTrader Signals with MT4 | MetaTrader Signals with MT4 |
| Copy trading | MetaTrader Signals with MT4 | MetaTrader Signals with MT4 |
| Automated trading | Expert Advisors with MT4, OANDA Web MultiCharts |
Expert Advisors with MT4, ProRealTime |
| Our Trading Platform Score | 7 | 6 |
Overall we gave IG a score of 6 and OANDA 7 for their range of trading platforms and trading tools. Oanda scored better just cause they have extra automation and 3rd party integration tools.
When trading online it’s important to know what kind of safety net is in place to protect your funds and shield your private data.
One quirk is that both IG and OANDA are regulated in the US, making them one of the very few global brokers offering trading services (albeit spot not CFDs) in the US. We actually consider OANDA to be the best Forex broker in the US, since IG offering is more limited compared to what they offer clients in other countries.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 regulators* | NFA/CFTC IIROC FCA ASIC |
ASIC, FCA, BaFIN, FINMA, NFA/CFTC/NADEX |
| Tier 2 regulators* | MAS (Singapore) KNF (Poland) |
DFSA, CySEC, FMA, MAS |
| Tier 3 regulators* | JFSA (Japan) FSC (BVI) |
JFSA BMA FSCA |
| Negative Balance Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Guaranteed Stop Loss | With OANDA Trade | With IG Trading Platform |
| Trust Score | 8 | 10 |
We like that both brokers focus on using top-tier regulators. This shows the brokers prioritise their reputation and trust when it comes to their relationship with you as a client. Both brokers are regulated to Australia (ASIC), the UK (FCA), and Europe (IG with CySEC, OANDA with KNF in Poland). Interestingly both the brokers are also regulated in Singapore, Canada and even the US, countries not many forex brokers operate out of.
IG wins in this category with a trust score of 10 due to its tighter regulation and strong historical record but OANDA still fared very well with a very acceptable 8.
IG Markets ReviewVisit IG Markets
Sometimes you just need some help getting started, finding things, or using your tools optimally. It helps if the broker has a knowledgeable support team ready to help you when you need it in a timely fashion.
| OANDA | IG | |
|---|---|---|
| Education and research tools provided | Yes - (9 out 10) | Yes - (7 out 10) |
| Customer Support - Live chat (bot, human) | Bot or Human | Bot or Human |
| Funding methods | Credit/Debit Card BPay Online Banking Bank Wire Transfer |
Credit/Debit Card PayPal BPAY EFT payments |
| Customer Support hours | 24/5 | 24/5 |
| Customer Service Score (out of 10) | 7 | 7 |
| Funding methods (out of 10) | 5 | 7 |
In our evaluation of live chat support, we found OANDA’s feature less accessible, hidden within the support section of their website. Upon accessing the live chat, users are initially greeted by a bot, with human assistance available by typing “Agent.” Conversely, IG’s live chat is more prominent, appearing on every page of their website, and also offers human help after engaging with the bot.
Both brokers provide 24/5 customer support which we tested at different times of day, and a variety of educational tools that we were suitably impressed by. OANDA’s offering is superior here due to their comprehensive trading course and regular webinars.
As for funding options, both brokers have limited e-wallet choices, but accept standard methods such as credit and debit cards.
We recommend OANDA as the better broker for beginner traders due to its lower minimum deposit requirement, user-friendly trading platform, and educational resources.
We determine IG Markets to be the best broker for experienced traders due to its range of account types, advanced trading tools, and professional account option.
Both brokers offer a wide range of forex trading products, and the best choice will depend on individual trading needs and preferences. However, IG edges out the competition in this head to head comparison with lower costs on forex.
First, it’s important to note that CFD trading carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all traders. That said, OANDA and IG Markets are both highly rated CFD brokers, and the decision between them will depend on a very precise set of individual trading needs and preferences. Because it scores highly in other related areas, we’ll give this to OANDA again, but only by a duck’s nose.
Headquarters: New York (USA)
Global Offices: Toronto (Canada), Singapore (Australia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Krakow (Poland), Gzira (Maltra)
Year founded: 1996
Headquarters: London
Global Offices: 10 offices including London, Sydney, Chicago, Krakow, Frankfurt, Paris, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo
Year founded: 1974
Having conducted a thorough assessment and comparison of OANDA and IG Markets, our research team agree that IG is our preferred choice for the average Australian forex trader.
With a primary focus on forex trading, OANDA has some nice features tailored to the forex workflow, but IG still manages to boast a broader range of asset classes compared to OANDA.
In terms of trading costs, IG offers a more cost-effective solution overall. IG offers higher leverage options, and a more attractive fee structure.
This round goes to IG.
