Best Trading Platforms 2025

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Trading platforms let you speculate with leverage on the price of stocks, commodities, indices, fixed income and foreign exchange by going long or short via futures, options, CFDs or spread betting.

Good Money Guide has extensively tested, ranked and reviewed the market and shortlisted these as the best UK online trading platforms.

Methodology: How did we choose the top online trading platforms for you? The Good Money Guide team took into account:

  • Our annual awards which had more than 30,000 votes and reviews
  • Our reviewer’s experiences and thoughts after testing with real money
  • Good Money Guide’s exclusive interviews with the trading platform’s senior management and CEO
  • Comparing each online trading platform against the alternatives to bring to life the strengths and weaknesses of each one
  • You can discover more about how we review providers in our How We Rate page.

What Is An Online Trading Platform?

Trading platforms are operated by stockbrokers, CFD, spread betting and forex brokers and act as a platform for buying and selling underlying securities or OTC (over-the-counter) products.

All trading platforms are different and specialise in certain things. For example, City Index has some of the best trading signals and post-trade analysis for traders that want a bit of stimulus and to improve their execution strategy. Meanwhile, IG can have better liquidity than the underlying exchanges so is excellent for larger traders.

Here are the main things to consider when choosing an online trading platform:

  • Market access – How many stocks, commodities, indices and forex pairs can you trade?
  • Account types – Does a trading platform offer spread betting (tax-free profits), CFDs, spot FX and futures & options?
  • Trading experience – Is the platform better for beginners or experienced traders?
  • Regulation – All online trading platforms need to be regulated (by the FCA in the UK)
  • Costs & fees – Which brokers are cheapest for your type of trading?
  • Added value – Is it just a trading platform or do they offer added value trading tools, analysis and education?
  • Voice brokerage – Can you work complex orders over the phone?

Is Using A Trading Platform A Good Idea?

Trading is a high-risk form of investing and not for everyone, and, even though FCA-regulated trading platforms are safe, there is a risk to your capital. Here we highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of online trading platforms.

Pros

  • Margin – Trade on margin to leverage your risk capital
  • Tax efficient – Profits can be tax-free through financial spread betting
  • Low cost – No stamp duty for short-term speculation

Cons

  • Risky – Trading is a very high-risk form of investment
  • Complex – Trading order types can be hard to understand
  • Short-term – Expensive for long-term investing

Industry experts told us...

"A broker's trading platform is the gateway to the financial markets. Most traders only use a small percentage of a platform capability so it's work exploring what added value (like trading signals and post-trade analytics are on offer before assigning risk capital."

What Is The Best Trading Platform For Beginners?

For beginners, City Index, is a great choice as they provide some good trading signals through SMARTSignals and Trading Central. 

IG and CMC Markets are easy to use, offer lots of educational material, trading signals, and seminars and are well established. eToro is also a good choice as they offer lower-risk investment accounts as well as the ability to reduce your leverage. This is particularly helpful for beginners as one reason most new traders lose money is from taking on too much risk with excessive leverage. 

You can use the below comparison table to see which UK trading platforms offer the most features that are good for beginner traders.

Beginner Features:Trading
Signals
Educational
Webinars
Client
Sentiment
Leverage
Control
Low-Risk
Products
Investment
Account
City Index✔️✔️
Interactive Brokers✔️✔️✔️✔️
Plus500✔️
CMC Markets✔️✔️
Pepperstone✔️✔️
Spreadex✔️✔️
Saxo✔️✔️✔️✔️
IG✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
XTB✔️✔️✔️
eToro✔️✔️✔️✔️

Why choose a broker that is right for your level of trading experience?

When private clients trade online, they are split into two different categories – Retail or Professional.

The different ways to trade tend to revolve around how much experience you have, and it’s vital that you choose a broker that offers the right type of trading and markets for how experienced you are. If you are a beginner, you should consider starting with low-risk investments through a stockbroker to gain experience before moving on to riskier asset classes like leveraged trading.

What Is The Best Trading Platform For Professional Traders?

Sophisticated trading platforms like Saxo Markets or Interactive Brokers are best for experienced traders as they also offer on-exchange futures and options and have very advanced order execution functionality and DMA (direct market access). 

Using our comparison table of trading platform features that are helpful for professional and advanced traders, Saxo Markets comes out on top as they tick all the boxes.

Advanced Features:Voice
Brokerage
Corporate
Accounts
Level-2
& DMA
Algo/API
Trading
Prime
Brokerage
City Index✔️✔️
Interactive Brokers✔️✔️✔️✔️
Plus500
CMC Markets✔️✔️✔️
Pepperstone✔️
Spreadex✔️✔️✔️
Saxo✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
IG✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
XTB✔️

Whenever you open a trading account to trade derivatives products like CFDs (Contracts For Difference) or financial spread betting, you will be asked by your broker to take an ‘appropriateness test’ during the account application process. This is to make sure you understand the risks of trading on margin before you can have an account. It is required by the regulator and designed to stop clients without enough experience speculating with too much risk.

Which Trading Platform Offers The Most Account Types?

IG offers the most account types. The trading platform started with just spread betting in 1974 but now offers CFD trading, DMA access, and investment accounts including stocks & shares ISAs.

Some brokers will only offer one of these types of trading with discounted rates, while others may offer all of them but be slightly more expensive.

Each different type of trading has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the main advantage of financial spread betting is that profits are free of capital gains tax. The disadvantage, however, is unlike futures trading platforms and physical investing, you cannot work orders inside the bid or offer, so strategies such as scalping are not as effective and net costs can seem a little higher.

Account Types:CFD TradingSpread BettingDMAPro AccountsInvestmentsFutures & Options
City Index✔️✔️✔️
Interactive Brokers✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
CMC Markets✔️✔️✔️
Pepperstone✔️✔️✔️
Spreadex✔️✔️
Saxo✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
IG✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
XTB✔️✔️✔️

Which Trading Platform Offers The Best Market Access?

IG offers access to the most markets with over 17,000 assets available to trade via their online trading platform as a spread bet or CFD.

Market Access:Total MarketsForex PairsCommoditiesIndicesUK StocksUS StocksETFs
City Index1200084252135001000n/a
IG17000513834392563522000
CMC Markets110003381248274549681084
Pepperstone1200623228192880107
Saxo9000182192950002000675
Interactive Brokers5233100201350035001100
Spreadex1000054201715752110160
XTB2,1005722252301080138

Why choosing a broker that offers all the markets you want to trade is important.

When choosing an online broker, you first need to think about what you want to trade and how you want to trade it. If you only want to trade the most popular forex pairs, you will have a larger choice of brokers than if you want to trade stocks as well. However, online brokers that only offer a small selection of markets mean you may miss opportunities to trade other assets such as international stocks, minor forex pairs, fledgling indices, and ETFs.

What Trading Platform Has The Cheapest Commission & Fees?

CMC Markets is often the cheapest broker for trading the major markets as their platform is heavily geared towards more active and frequent traders.

Trading CostsFTSE 100DAX 30DJIANASDAQS&P 500EURUSDGBPUSDUSDJPYGoldCrude OilUK Stocks
City Index11.23.510.40.50.90.60.80.30.008
IG11.22.410.40.60.90.70.30.280.001
CMC Markets11210.50.70.90.70.330.001
Pepperstone10.92.410.40.090.280.140.0520.001
Saxo11310.50.60.70.60.60.50.0005
Interactive Brokers0.01%0.01%0.01%0.01%0.01%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.02%
Spreadex11.2420.60.60.90.70.430.002
XTB21310.50.91.41.40.3530.0008

Why choosing a broker that transparently explains the costs of their online trading platform is important

Comparing the costs and fees of brokers for online trading is not as easy as you’d think. Neither is it simply about just finding the cheapest broker. Brokers charge in different ways, so it makes direct cost comparison difficult.

Even if cost comparison were simple, choosing the cheapest broker may mean you don’t get the best broker for your needs. For instance, one CFD broker may charge commission by widening the spread around market prices, whereas another may give you the underlying price, but charge a commission on top.

Minimum deposit levels and account inactivity fees are all costs you may have to face too, so finding these out in advance can help you realise which brokers offer the cheapest trading for you over time. The actual rate you are charged can be hard to calculate if the spread is being widened, but it makes calculating your P&L easier. However, with DMA CFD brokers, you can trade at better prices but will have to include commission costs as a separate line on your trading P&L.

The most common types of fees that online trading platforms charge are:

  • Widening the bid/offer spread
  • Commission charged post-trade
  • Financing on overnight positions

You also need to be aware that if you are trading an OTC (Over The Counter) product like CFDs, FOREX, or spread betting, brokers may not hedge your trades in the underlying market. This basically means that they think your trades will be losers, so they accept your trade more like a bookie than a broker.

This is called the B-Book. There is a big debate about whether brokers hedging positions or not via the B-Book is a good or bad thing. In some cases, it is good because it reduces the need for brokers to widen the bid/offer spread, meaning that clients get better prices. However, some argue that it is bad because there is a clear conflict of interests as these brokers make money when clients lose.

Ultimately, whether clients make money or lose money, trading the market has little to do with how different brokers hedge their exposure, but rather more to do with the decisions that traders themselves make.

FCA Regulation – Your Peace Of Mind

Good Money Guide takes the financial safety and protection of our visitors seriously. That’s why on this page you’ll only find online trading platforms that are regulated by the FCA, and where your funds are protected by the FSCS.

The FCA is the Financial Conduct Authority. They make sure trading platforms treat customers fairly, have excellent compliance systems and are properly capitalised.

The FSCS is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and they protect customers if a financial company fails.

What Trading Platform Offers The Most Added Value?

IG offers some of the most added value as they tick all the boxes in our comparison table, including trading ideas, client sentiment indicators, post-trade analytics as well as news and analysis.

Added Value:Trading
Ideas
Client
Sentiment
Post-Trade
Analytics
News &
Analysis
Web-Based
Platform
City Index✔️✔️✔️✔️
Interactive Brokers✔️✔️✔️
CMC Markets✔️✔️✔️✔️
Pepperstone✔️
Spreadex✔️✔️
Saxo✔️✔️✔️
IG✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
XTB✔️✔️
eToro✔️✔️

Why choosing a broker that gives you added value and trading ideas is important.

If you are looking for a broker to help with trading ideas, you need to be very careful. Whether or not you use the suggestions made by your broker, a broker’s recommendations should depend significantly on how much of an experienced trader you are.

Online platforms that offer trading to retail customers are not allowed to provide trading ideas, advice or anything that can be considered implied advice. We’ve covered in detail why you shouldn’t use advisory CFD brokers and why most trading educational courses are a waste of time.

You should not rely on others to help you make decisions in high-risk trading products like futures, options, CFDs and spread betting. Advice from wealth managers structuring your investments in a tax-effective manner through SIPPs and ISAs is one thing, but if you are a retail trader and a broker is phoning to pitch trading ideas, you should report them to the FCA.

Professional and institutional clients are allowed to discuss the markets and get advice from their brokers. This is because they have been appropriately classified as traders that fully understand the risks involved in the markets and leveraged products. Caveat emptor is a phrase that still applies to this, as trading is a self-directed form of speculation.

Which Trading Platform Has The Best Margin Rates & Most Leverage?

The FCA regulates online trading platforms in the UK for retail traders so margin rates are set and standard across most trading platforms.

Margin rates in the UK are capped at: 

  • Indices: 20%
  • Major Forex pairs: 3.33%
  • Commodities: 10%
  • UK & US shares: 20%

Getting the best margin rate from an online trading platform

These margin figures represent the deposit you have to put down when opening new positions and are in place to protect brokers as well as clients. The percentage is set based on what a big percentage move would be in the market to ensure that clients and brokers can fund a position.

However, if you are an experienced trader you can opt for a professional account, and get better margin rates. These differ from broker to broker. You can see the current professional margin rates in our professional trading account comparison.

Margin enables traders to leverage their risk capital and get more exposure to the market. For example, if you are trading the FTSE 100 you can trade £100,000 worth of FTSE with only £5,000 in your account if your broker is offering 5% margin. The advantage of this is that you get more exposure to the market and can diversify positions. However, the disadvantage is that your losses are multiplied and if you can lose your entire account balance with small percentages moves.

Which Trading Platforms Are Best For Voice Brokerage?

Saxo Markets, City Index and IG are three large online trading platforms that offer voice brokerage.

Choosing a broker that offers telephone trading as well as an online trading platform

Whilst most traders will choose a broker based on their ability to trade online, having an experienced dealer who can execute trades for you whilst you are not in front of a computer can be very important.

Some traders still prefer to trade over the phone, and those that do may form very close relationships with their dealers. Some traders talk to their brokers more than anyone else, so making sure that any broker you choose has a good desk of experienced dealers is vital.

Dealing over the phone is also handy if things go wrong and an error needs sorting out or if you have a particularly complicated strategy to execute that requires cross margin calculations that cannot be done online.

Voice brokerage is usually more common at prime brokers for professional and institutional traders, where hedge funds want to reduce the risk of trading errors by getting their traders to give orders over the phone or messaging systems rather than do it themselves. If you ask a dealer to execute a trade for you and they do it wrong, they will have to make good on what you asked for. Whereas if you are trading yourself online on a dealing platform and press buy instead of sell, you only have yourself to blame.

Online Trading Platform FAQs:

As long as you are classified as a retail trader and use an FCA-regulated broker for online trading, your money is protected up to a certain amount by the FSCS.

Publically traded online trading platforms like IG, CMC Markets, City Index (owned by StoneX) and Interactive Brokers are generally safer as they must report their financial status to the stock exchange and investors more frequently than private companies. By keeping an eye on a company’s share price you can see how healthy its balance sheet is.

There is no guarantee that any trading platform will not go bankrupt, but there are ways to keep an eye on the health of the company behind it.

Funds up to £85k are predicted by the FSCS if a broker defaults, but not above that amount, unless insurance is in place.

All trading platforms have demo accounts and it is one of the easiest ways to compare trading platforms is to open a demo account before you apply for a full account.

Testing a broker’s trading platform with a demo account

Most demo accounts will give you a good idea of the look and feel of a broker’s trading platform and usually come with some virtual funds to trade with. Demo accounts allow you to test order tickets, layouts and the trading tools that are available on the real platform.

Comparing demo accounts for trading is quick and easy to do as most provide almost instant access after confirming your details via email. Be aware that brokers use demo accounts as a lead generation tool to convert prospects into real traders. However, most salespeople at respectable brokers are very knowledgeable about the technology on their platform and are more than willing to talk to prospective clients on the phone, via email or in-person about the features on offer. One point to note though is that if a salesman is too pushy, that should be a warning signal that they are best avoided.

Brokers such as IGSaxo Markets and Interactive Brokers that provide DMA or hedge client positions allow scalping where traders buy and sell positions quickly in order to take small profits and losses.

Yes, it is possible to make money trading online. However, online trading is a very high-risk form of investment, and only around 20% of online retail customers make money trading online.

Margin rates are the amount of leverage you get when you trade. For example, a margin rate of 10% in share trading means that you can buy £1,000 worth of shares with a £100 deposit, the equivalent of 10 times leverage.

A level-2 trading platform shows the market depth as well as the bid-offer prices. They are useful for getting better pricing, placing big orders, and seeing liquidity on the order book.

MT5 is the successor to MT4, one of the most popular trading platforms across the global. Brokers without their won trading platforms are able to use branded versions on MT5 to give their clients access to the markets.

It is no longer possible to trade cryptocurrencies through spread betting and CFDs as the FCA has banned crypto trading. However, you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies without leverage through a cryptocurrency exchange. Be careful though as cryptocurrencies are an unproven and unregulated asset class and extremely high risk.

However, you can read our analysis on some of the best accounts for buying cryptocurrency here.

This article contains affiliate links which may earn us some form of income if you go on to open an account. However, if you would rather visit the trading platforms via a non-affiliate link, you can view the product pages directly here:

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