Best Forex Demo Account

We liked how Pepperstone offered a genuine trading experience that stands head and shoulders above the rest. We’ve personally traded forex on their platform and can attest that their demo account makes it a breeze to simulate real trading conditions. The demo allows for easy replication of your go-to strategies and chart setups, offering a seamless transition to a live account when ready. If you’re after a demo account that truly prepares you for the live markets, Pepperstone should be your first port of call.

Founded in 2010, the Melbourne-based Pepperstone tops our list for its “so real you can taste it” demo account. As a trader, you are spoilt for choice with trading platforms to test: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradingView.

More than any other broker, Pepperstone offers prospective account holders a true ‘trading’ experience, complete with all the bells and whistles. The proof? I use Pepperstone myself for forex trading and had no trouble replicating my preferred strategies and charts with the demo account.

Key Strengths

• Fastest Execution Times (avg 30ms)
• Unlimited virtual funds
• Four trading platforms from which to choose
• Easy conversion to live account

We Tested Trading Experience With Pepperstone

Since I trade with Pepperstone myself, I asked Ross Collins, our resident Forex analytics expert, to open his own demo accounts and report back. Ross appreciated that Pepperstone allowed him to test with the Standard and Razor Account options simultaneously for a 360-degree view of the broker’s offering. He also liked that he did not need to provide any deposits (or personal banking details) and even upload verification details, which allowed him to start testing the demo account in quick time.

Ross also focused on testing the execution speed of the trading accounts. In his test, Ross found that Pepperstone ranked second for limit order speed with 77 ms and third for market orders with 100 ms, respectively; among the 20 brokers he tested, that’s nothing to sniff at.

Pepperstone Earns 10/10 for Trading Platforms

Ross and I agreed that the range of top trading platforms means Pepperstone deserves its high score of 8.5/10. Pepperstone allows you to trade with and also demo using MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, and TradingView.

We think MetaTrader 4 is the best choice of platform for a demo trading account, as it is considered the gold standard when it comes to trading platforms. This platform offers all the essential trading tools to familiarise yourself with trading, such as 30 indicators, 31 graphical tools, and 9 timeframes. You can even use Expert Advisors (EAs) to automate trading and create custom indicators or Signals to try social trading.

When it comes to demos, using MetaTrader 4 (and MetaTrader 5) is good for 90 days but longer if you convert to a live account.

Another feature that impressed us is that you can also demo with the broker’s automation, social, and copy trading tools. If you are using MetaTrader 4 or 5, you will get access to MetaTrader Signals. If you are using MetaTrader 4, you can test with MyFXbook for social trading, DupliTrade for copy trading, and Capitalise.ai for automated trading (or algo trading).

We observed two slight catches. First, you will need a live account to demo with this automation, social, and copy trading tools. Second, some of these tools only work with MT4 (Capitalise.ai, DupliTrade) and MT5 (MyFXbook). Unfortunately, you are out of luck when it comes to cTrader and TradingView as far as automation and social trading are concerned.

Pepperstone Demo And Trading Accounts?

You can demo using both Standard Account and Razor Account. The main difference to be aware of is that spreads with razor accounts have commissions. You can also trade with all the products Pepperstone offers. That is 62 forex pairs, plus commodities, stocks, cryptos ETFs, and indices.

If you get what you pay for, we believe that the Pepperstone experience justifies the slightly higher-than-average spreads.

Great Resources for Beginner Traders

Another big plus for Pepperstone? Demo account holders have access to a full range of tutorial videos, webinars, and ‘learn to trade’ pages designed to help new traders make the best use of their sandbox demo accounts. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine when brokers don’t offer much in the way of resources to new customers, many of whom are signing up to trade for the first time, so Pepperstone got high marks from me for opening their entire library as part of the demo account experience.

Even advanced traders can benefit. Ross, our most experienced team member, said he found the trading guides aimed at intermediate and advanced practitioners admirably comprehensive. I took a look at the forex-specific guide and was pleasantly surprised – no fluff, just straightforward pointers.

Overall, with all these features, we say Pepperstone is one of the best brokers for beginners.

Easy, Fast Account Opening and Funding

Demo accounts are, of course, a marketing tool. Brokers allow prospective customers to try on an account in hopes that the experience will lead them to sign up for a full account. There’s an incentive then to make things easy and straightforward in the demo space, and we confirmed this earlier in our review – but what changes when you move to a live account?

In the case of Pepperstone… not much. That’s not entirely surprising, given that the broker topped our list for ease of account opening. When I signed up with Pepperstone, I could sign up using my social media logins. Logins and some basic details were all I needed for a demo account, and I was given immediate access. But for a live account, I also needed to provide copies of ID documents and complete an appropriateness test, but the Pepperstone interface made this as seamless as possible. One feature that impressed me was that an account manager contacted me the next day, and he was able to answer all my questions. Overall, I found the account opening experience hard to fault, so gave it a score of 15 out of 15.

24 hours later, both accounts were live and ready to fund.

Verdict On Pepperstone’s Demo Account

Pepperstone earned high marks for providing a demo account trading experience virtually identical to a live account, access to a full suite of platforms and products and an easy transition to a live account.

View Pepperstone ReviewVisit Pepperstone

We liked how IC Markets brings to the table features akin to Pepperstone, particularly when it comes to quick spreads and ECN-style execution. One advantage that caught our eye was their excellent trading spreads, making it an ideal choice for traders looking to test their strategies under real market conditions. While they offer automation, social trading, and copy trading, these options are less extensive than those with Pepperstone. We’ve ranked IC Markets second for these reasons, but it’s still a strong option for those keen to test trades with great spreads.

Another Aussie broker earns high marks for flexibility and an authentic trading experience on its demo account.

With unlimited virtual funds and no expiration date, IC Markets believes that you’ll enjoy the trading experience so much that you won’t hesitate to move to a live account sooner rather than later.

Based on my experience, they have reason to feel that way. Similar to Pepperstone, IC Markets gives demo account traders full access to their entire trading offering: all the tradable products and all the platforms. This ASIC-regulated broker really stood out for its spreads. According to our testing, which included the demo account, IC Markets offers a standard average spread of just 1.03 pips.

Key Features

• Fast execution speeds
• Unlimited virtual cash
• A demo account is valid until 30 days of inactivity
• Up to 500:1 leverage offshore (FSA) and 30:1 in Australia, the UK, and Europe for retail traders
• 64 forex pairs, as well as a range of financial instruments such as commodities, metals, stocks, and bonds
• MT4, MT5, or cTrader trading platform
• Social Trading with ZuluTrade

We Tested IC Markets Standard Account Spreads And They Are The Lowest

Our Forex researcher, Ross Collins, found that IC Markets have the lowest spreads for a Standard Account. Ross captured the spreads for 6 major currency pairs over 24 hours in his test using 20 Forex brokers. Ross found that IC Markets had the tightest average spread when the results of the 6 currency pairs were combined. IC Markets’ average spreads were just 1.03 pips, trumping other notable brokers such as CMC Markets (1.11 pips), FP Markets (1.47 pips), and City Index (1.79 pips).

The tighter the spread is, the more you will save on costs for every lot you trade. If you are a high-volume trader, we think looking for a broker with tight spreads is even more essential.

IC Markets Is The Best Choice For MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is the successor to MetaTrader 4 (which is widely considered the gold standard for platforms). MetaTrader 5 offers more technical indicators, graphical tools, and faster processing than MT4. One notable difference is that MT5 is designed for centralised and exchange-traded CFDs such as stocks. In time, this platform should become as popular as MT4.

IC Markets offers 64 currency pairs and an ECN-like environment with fast execution speeds and high leverage. Traders have a choice of a standard account with no commissions and raw spreads account, which has commissions of $3.50.

Using this as a demo account means you will get unlimited virtual funds, and it can be maintained as long as the account is not inactive for 30 days.

Our Verdict on IC Markets

While we appreciated that IC Markets offered many of the same benefits as a Pepperstone demo account with faster spreads and ECN-style execution, they lost on some minor features.

Converting to a live account would’ve meant you would need to deposit USD 200 in minimum deposits. Automation, social, and copy trading options are not as extensive. These are available with MetaTrader Signals, cTrader Copy, and ZuluTrade. They are still good but not quite as good as Pepperstone, so we pushed IC Markets into second place.

View IC Markets ReviewVisit IC Markets

We liked BlackBull Markets for its remarkable execution speeds, easily making it our top demo choice for traders after lightning-fast transactions. The platform provides considerable leverage, all backed by negative balance protection, giving you a solid safety net. On top of that, there’s no minimum deposit for their ECN Standard account, which makes it easy to get started. While their ECN Prime has a $2,000 minimum deposit, which could be a hurdle for some, the speed and leverage may make it worthwhile. Despite a final grade of 58 out of 100, we still consider BlackBull Markets a compelling option for those prioritising execution speed in a demo account.

When I say the Kiwi broker’s execution speeds blew us away, that’s not an exaggeration. In every test we ran, whether for market or limit orders, BlackBull beat out larger and more established brokers to claim the first or second spot.

Key Strengths

• Execution speeds of less 75ms for market and limit orders
• Easy signup process
• Available demo platforms include MT4, MT5 and TradingView

Avoid Slippage With Fast Execution

Earlier, we talked about the impressive execution speed with Pepperstone, but another broker performed even better. In our execution speed testing, we found that BlackBull Markets had an average limit order speed of 72 ms (1st overall) and an average market order speed of 90 ms (2nd overall). So it is no surprise we consider them the fastest of all brokers and a significant factor in why we have given BlackBull Markets a score of 8/10 for trading experience.

Why are they the fastest? There are several reasons, but in addition to placing servers in data centres in New York and London (like most brokers do), they also utilise data centres in Hong Kong and Japan. This means that wherever you are trading from, you are likely to be close to a data centre, reducing your risk of slippage.

Demo Accounts With BlackBull

You can choose between the MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and TradingView trading platforms. With three major trading platforms to test with, we consider BlackBull Markets a solid choice for a demo account. These accounts will only expire after 30 days of inactivity, and you can keep topping up with virtual funds should you wish.

I found the signup process smooth and straightforward, with minimal pressure to convert to a live account. BlackBull doesn’t require a credit card and processes new demo account signups through a secure client portal to protect your data.

I also enjoyed playing with BlackBull’s high leverage across three solid platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and TradingView. Given that this is one of the broker’s main points of difference – retail account holders can trade on margin with 500:1 leverage – we’re glad it’s available to prospective customers. It’s one thing to lose virtual funds while building your risk tolerance and something else to part with actual money at such high rates.

Should you trade with high leverage using a live account, BlackBull Markets has a policy of limiting the maximum leverage you can trade. Should the equity in your trading account be above a certain size, then the maximum leverage you can trade with will be capped.

We also checked with BlackBull Markets customer support to see if they have negative balance protection. BlackBull Markets advised that most of the time, this will be applied, but you need to request this from the broker.

Our Verdict on BlackBull Markets

While BlackBull has a way to go before achieving the global status of cousins Pepperstone and IC Markets, we were blown away by the execution speeds. We liked that they have high leverage for all the clients, which is backed with negative balance protection.

When it comes to trading accounts, BlackBull Markets doesn’t require a minimum deposit with their ECN Standard account. However, their ECN Prime has a minimum $2000 deposit, which we think is too high. Overall, we gave BlackBull Markets a score of 58 out of 100.

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We liked Plus500’s focus on risk management, mainly when using their practice account. Their platform offers solid tools for traders keen to keep their risks medium to low, an aspect we found pretty beneficial. It’s a strong starting point for anyone with a casual interest in the forex market. Plus500 offers a demo account that shines in risk management, making it a good pick for traders aiming to hone that particular skill.

As one of the largest Tier-1 CFD brokers, Plus500 caught our attention with its unique, in-house trading platform. This isn’t just another white-label version of MT4 or MT5; it’s custom-built software specifically designed for CFD trading.

The range of CFDs this broker offers is beyond the norm, extending to an array of commodities, including lean hogs and cattle. If you’re keen on diversifying, you’ll also find 13 cryptocurrencies, options, stocks, and sector-specific indices like cannabis, lithium, and real estate.

Our less-experienced team members appreciated that the demo account comes equipped with stop-loss and take-profit orders—essential tools for anyone dipping their toes into the trading pool. However, those of us with more trading under our belts felt restricted by the lack of different account types and platform options.

Everyone agreed, however, that Plus500 nailed the transition process.

Key Strengths

• The demo account has 50,000 in virtual cash (resets when below 200)
• The demo account has no time limit (FREE unlimited account)
• Risk management, such as guaranteed stop-loss/take-profit
• Offers extensive CFD range, including unique sector indices and options

Our Verdict on Plus500

We’d recommend Plus500 to anyone with a casual interest in trading and a medium to low-risk tolerance. For anyone interested in growing their skills, however, the broker’s limited account type and platform offering make it a less-than-ideal fit.

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We liked OANDA’s demo account for its comprehensive feature set, making it our top recommendation for those keen to experiment with automated trading. In our experience, OANDA’s platform has shown itself to be a strong contender for traders eager to dive into automated strategies. This makes it a highly viable option for those who want to simulate realistic trading conditions while testing out bots.

We found that what OANDA’s demo account may lack in platform variety, it more than makes up for in integrations. Our team member Ross particularly valued having access to tools like Multicharts, excellent for backtesting and automation, and the Elliott Wave analysis app MotiveWave.

OANDA offers a choice between OandaTrade, their in-house platform, MetaTrader 4, and cTrader. Based on Ross’ evaluation, the latest iteration of OANDA’s trading platform delivers institutional-grade execution in less than 1 ms. Plus, they guarantee no requotes or rejections and allow trading directly from the charts.

Key Strengths

• Flexible leverage
• No expiration
• 70+ currency pairs including exotic currencies
• Trade directly from the Charts
• No requotes or rejections

Our Verdict on OANDA

Integrations aside, OANDA’s demo account stacks up well against other top brokers in the game. We’d recommend it to anyone interested in bots or high-level technical analysis.

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We liked Eightcap’s demo account as a great platform to test both FX and cryptocurrency trading. Being Melbourne-based, it offers a range of cryptocurrency options on its practice account, making it a solid choice for Aussies keen to get a handle on crypto trading alongside forex. It particularly shines as an alternative to eToro for those looking to delve deeply into technical analysis. The platform provides a user-friendly experience that aids in understanding both the forex and crypto markets.

Another Melbourne-based standout, Eightcap, caught our attention for the range of crypto products available to trade on a demo account.

What caught our eye was the absence of a cap on virtual funds. Let’s say, one among us—no names mentioned—managed to grow an AUD 3,000 virtual budget into an impressive AUD 1 million. Quite fitting, considering Eightcap’s significant focus on crypto offerings. The broker has over 100 currencies available, including unusual pairings with fiat currencies.

We also liked that the broker didn’t force a proprietary platform down our throats, but I was disappointed to learn that we could only practice trading on one of Eightcap’s four platforms. As a TradingView enthusiast, I’m always frustrated when brokers limit demo account options to their own software and MT4 or MT5. In this case, Eightcap doesn’t even support a genuine MetaTrader 5 experience – I could only see prices and specifications on the raw account.

Key Strengths

• Comprehensive crypto selection
• No limit on virtual funds
• Easy switch from demo to live account

Our Verdict on Eightcap

If you’re an Australian interested in learning technical analysis and trading crypto, Eightcap is a great alternative to eToro.

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We liked eToro’s social media-style interface, which makes it the go-to choice for traders interested in learning from others in a dynamic community setting. The platform simplifies the trading process by allowing you to follow and replicate the strategies of seasoned traders, which can be a real boon if you’re looking to bypass the intricacies of individual analysis and trade placements. It’s a one-stop shop for those wanting a social twist to their trading experience.

Known for its game-ified approach to retail investing and social-media style interface, eToro has cornered the social and copy trading market.

Rather than conducting your own analysis and placing each individual order, social-copy trading platforms allow you to follow and copy the strategies of successful traders with a wealth of experience.

While I can admit to being impressed with eToro’s slick interface and advanced social and copy trading tools, the demo account experience left something to be desired. Topping up my account with more virtual currency required an email to customer service, which sometimes took over 24 hours to respond. I also didn’t realise that the demo account would stop trading when the balance dropped below USD 2,000, which led to some confusion, especially since I couldn’t easily top it up manually.

On the plus side, the broker allows demo accounts access to over 3000 assets to trade in a live environment and the mobile trading platform. Still, I would’ve preferred a less limited experience that made actually trading less complex.

Key Strengths

• 100,000 eToro virtual cash with automatic refresh
• No time limitation
• No commission
• Social trading with CopyTrader and CopyPortfolio

Our Verdict on eToro

We’d only recommend eToro’s demo account if you’re already reasonably sure you’ll commit to this broker and must practice on its proprietary platform. The hassle of dealing with administrative issues doesn’t make for an ideal sandbox experience otherwise.

We liked IG Markets for its expansive range of trading instruments, easily making it our top pick for those seeking diversity in a demo account. The broker offers competitive spreads and top-notch customer service, which we found invaluable in our trading journey. Whether you’re looking to practice with forex, commodities, or other financial instruments, IG Markets offers a demo account that lets you spread your wings.

Founded in the UK as a spread betting platform, IG Markets has grown from a niche broker to a global force, with an award-winning proprietary platform and an impressive range of tradable products.

An interesting quirk of the IG Markets demo experience: your access to markets and virtual currency allowance varies based on the platform you choose to test. Ross opened a demo account with IG’s in-house platform and enjoyed access to over 17,000 tradable products and USD 20,000 in virtual currency. On the other hand, I had to make do with USD 10,000 and a measly 80 markets because I tested MetaTrader 4. If you’re an experienced MT4 user looking to change brokers, take this as a sign that IG has a marked preference for its own platform and read the fine print.

Another detail that caught our team’s attention: IG Markets openly states that trades made on a demo account aren’t subject to slippage, interest or dividend adjustments, or out-of-hours price movements. I, for one, appreciate the transparency. Still, it’s important to read between the lines: your demo account experience with IG Markets won’t mimic live trading conditions, which could lead to atypically positive results. New traders, proceed with caution.

On the plus side, I appreciate that, should I wish to try again six months from now, IG Markets will welcome me back with open arms. My demo account stays live for two years. I can also use that time to review the broker’s extensive library of trading manuals, webinars, and instructional videos in the demo account library.

Key Strengths

• Easy and fast account opening with no credit card required
• Two-year lifespan
• Access to ProRealTime

Our Verdict on IG Markets

Between the obvious preference for its own platform and the artificial trading conditions, we have a hard time recommending the IG Markets demo account unless you’re already sold on the broker.

View IG Markets ReviewVisit IG Markets