While FOREX.com has more Forex pairs (91 vs 63) and serves Canada and USA markets, Pepperstone has lower spreads with lower minimum deposits making them cheaper for retail traders. See out Pepperstone vs FOREX.com comparison
Our forex comparisons and broker reviews are reader supported and we may receive payment when you click on a link to a partner site.
In this article, we compare FOREX.com vs Pepperstone to help you decide on your next forex broker.
Pepperstone is one of the largest forex CFD brokers in the world and processes an impressive $9.2 billion USD worth of transactions per day. Having been founded in Australia in 2010, the broker’s rapid growth is a testament to the strength of its products. Pepperstone accepts clients from nearly all countries across the globe but does not accept clients in Canada and the United States.
FOREX.com (along with sister broker City Index) became part of the StoneX group following their purchase of the Gain Capital brand. This broker serves all markets except Australia, Singapore and UAE where users in these countries will be directed to the local City Index website.
Both brokers specialise in Contract for Difference (CFD) derivative products such as Forex, stocks, indices and commodities. Clients from the United States with FOREX.com however can only spot trade, not trade CFDs.
When trading, the main trading fees to take note of when choosing a broker are spread costs and commissions. When choosing a trading account, you should take note of how the account applied these fees.
Other fees to take note of are funding fees, swap fees (overnight/rolling costs) and currency conversion charges.
As a standard account is commission-free, the main trading cost to pay attention to is the spread. The smaller (or ‘tighter’) this spread is, the cheaper it will be for you to trade. Spreads with a Standard account are wider than commission-based accounts as this is how the broker makes their profits.
|
Standard Account Spreads
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1.10 | 1.20 | 1.40 | 1.40 | 1.40 |
|
1.20 | 1.80 | 1.60 | 1.70 | 1.60 |
|
1.13 | 1.01 | 1.71 | 1.66 | 1.12 |
|
1.20 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
|
|
1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.60 | 1.50 |
|
1.10 | 1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.20 |
|
1.10 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 |
|
1.20 | 1.80 | 1.90 | 1.90 | 1.60 |
|
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 Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone
From the standard account spreads module, you can see the average spreads of top forex brokers, including Pepperstone and FOREX.com. Overall, Pepperstone has much tighter spreads than FOREX.com and is a very solid choice when choosing a forex broker.
Peppertone’s standard account has a minimum spread of 1.0 pips, on all major pairs excluding the EUR/GBP. For other minor and exotic currency pairs like the GBP/CAD, you can also expect spreads to have a minimum of 1 pip.
If you are using the FOREX.com trading platform then commission-free trading will be with the broker’s Standard account. FOREX.com also have commission-free trading with a MetaTrader 4 account for traders outside Europe. European traders have the option of a MetaTrader 5 account.
On FOREX.com’s standard account, the minimum spread you will get is 0.8 pips (1 pip if you trade in the USA). However, this only applies to the EUR/USD and AUD/USD. For other forex pairs, you face higher minimum spreads, for example, at 1.8 pips for the EUR/JPY.
Note that for the rest of this article, we’ll be talking about FOREX.com’s non-USA offering unless otherwise stated.
While standard accounts only come with spread fees, commission-based accounts have a slightly more complex fee structure. These ‘raw’ accounts have market-priced spreads plus a volume-based commission on trades.
We have assembled a spread matrix below for your convenience, enabling a swift juxtaposition of average spreads for the STP-style accounts from various brokerages, inclusive of Pepperstone’s Razor Account.
|
ECN Broker Spreads
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
0.47 | 0.50 | 0.12 | 0.40 | 0.22 |
|
|
0.20 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 0.30 | 0.20 |
|
0.20 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.40 | 0.20 |
|
0.30 | N/A | 0.30 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
|
|
0.24 | N/A | 0.17 | 0.54 | 0.30 |
|
0.30 | 0.70 | 0.20 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
|
0.30 | 1.10 | 0.10 | 0.60 | 0.50 |
|
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
From the above spread analysis, it is evident that Pepperstone’s spreads fluctuate between 0.1 and 0.3 pip for the EUR/USD on their Razor Account. However, spreads can plummet to as low as 0.0 pips.
The commission charges on the Razor Account are highly competitive when stacked against other brokers, standing at $7 AUD/USD per standard lot (100k units) round-trip. The comparison graphic below details the commission for other currencies. If your base currency isn’t displayed, your commission is converted from the USD rate.
Although FOREX.com does not provide typical spreads for their commission-based accounts, you will face a minimum spread of 0.2 pips on popular pairs like the EUR/USD.
Commission costs and structures with FOREX.com vary depending on the country you join with the broker from. Strangely. FOREX.com does not offer a commission account to traders in the European Union.
In the US and countries outside the UK, Europe, Australia and Singapore FOREX.com have a ‘commission account’. This account has a flat commission of $10 round-turn per lot. This account is best for average traders or retail traders.
If you are a high-volume trader then you may prefer one of the broker’s tiered commission accounts. These accounts offer reduced commissions if you trade above certain volumes the previous month.
FOREX.com call this account the DMA account for all countries outside the US (where it is called the STP account.) Commissions start at $120 ($140 in Canada and US) per USD million traded round-turn but can be as low as $40 ($60 in Canada and US) per million if you trade $1bn of volume in the previous month.
One of the most important steps before trading is funding your account.
For Pepperstone, you are not required to deposit a minimum amount, although they do recommend you trade with at least $200 to meet margin requirements.
The funding methods available will depend on the country you are trading from and except for international bank transfers, don’t have funding fees.
Visa and MasterCard are available as credit and debit cards to all traders in all countries except the UAE. Here retail traders can only use debit cards while professional traders can also use credit cards.
It is also interesting to note that except for PayPal with Pepperstone UK and Kenya, eWallets are not available in the UK, Kenya, Europe and UAE. Traders in other countries such as Australia however can make deposits with eWallets such as Skrill, Neteller, BPAY, POLi and Union Pay.
FOREX.com accounts have a minimum deposit of $100 in your base currency of choice however Wire Transfer is free. PayPal is available in the UK while Skrill and Neteller are available in Europe and outside the UK, Canada and USA. All countries allow credit and debit cards with the USA also accepting Automatic Collection House.
Overall, we found that Pepperstone has much lower spreads on both account types.
For the most part, Pepperstone commission costs are lower than Forex. The exception is if you trade more than $250M a month which leads to a commission of $7.00 per lot which only matches Pepperstone commission costs. Savings on commission costs with FOREX.com only really occur if you trade $500M a month or more.
Note: While commission costs in the USA and Canada are slightly higher comparisons with Pepperstone don’t apply as Pepperstone doesn’t accept clients from these markets.
View Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone
One of the best ways to stay safe when forex trading is using a broker that is regulated in the country you are trading from.
Pepperstone is regulated by 5 top-tier and one second-tier regulator meanwhile, FOREX.com has their own five top-tier regulators and one third-tier one.
Traders in the UAE, Australia and Singapore wanting a FOREX.com environment can consider trading with City Index. Both brokers were previously owned by Gain Capital Group and have since been bought by the StoneX Group.
Both brokers are using top-tier regulators – the most important factor when choosing a broker is that the broker is regulated in your home country.
Both Pepperstone and FOREX.com offer a fair few platforms and trading tools for you to use.
Pepperstone offers a robust assortment of platforms including MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 (MT4/MT5), Capitalise.ai, TradingView, and cTrader.
FOREX.com offers both MT4 and TradingView, along with NinjaTrader and their proprietary platform.
On top of the wide range of trading platforms, there are quite a few trading tools available for you to use when trading with Pepperstone. These include MetaTrader Signals, which gives you trading ideas, to Myfxbook, DupliTrade, and Pelican Trader, which are copy-trading tools.
In comparison, FOREX.com only provides TradingCentral alongside its proprietary tools. TradingCentral is a research tool that you can use to find good trading ideas and the proprietary tools offered include the aforementioned performance analytics tool, plus the advanced charting tools.
For both platforms and tools, our winner is Pepperstone. With a wider range of both, you have all the tools necessary for success at your fingertips. Whether you are looking for social trading tools or charting analytics, Pepperstone will likely have what you are looking for.
The financial instruments offered by the two brokers are contracts-for-differences, CFDs These are a form of derivative, with underlying assets ranging from forex pairs to shares/ETFs/indices, commodities, and even cryptocurrencies.
The exception is in the USA with FOREX.com where spot, not CFD products are offered.
Pepperstone provides you with 62 different currency pairs, and over 1,000 share CFDs. Maximum leverage is set at the maximum allowed by regulation, which is 30:1 on major forex pairs if you are a retail trader, and 500:1 if you are a pro trader. In Kenya, leverage is 400:1, and in regions outside the major trading hubs, you get 200:1 leverage.
FOREX.com offers more forex pairs, at 82 in the US, and 91 outside of the US. They also have over 3,000 share CFDs, much more than Pepperstone. Leverage is also slightly different, at 50:1 in the US and 33:1 in Canada, and for other regions, at 200:1. For pro traders, leverage is maxed at 400:1.
Our products winner is FOREX.com, on account of their wider variety of forex pairs, and other CFD options.
Broker popularity measured by website visits is a simple way to see which brokers other traders are using.
Pepperstone is an extremely popular broker, receiving 2.1 million visits in August 2022. While FOREX.com is also pretty popular, they pale in comparison, with half as many visits in the same period- 1.1 million.
Therefore, Pepperstone is the more popular broker with traders compared to FOREX.com.
Our top broker choice is Pepperstone. With very low trading fees, a solid range of CFD products, and great platforms and tools to trade with, we find that Pepperstone has a better forex offering than FOREX.com.
