- Good Money Guide experts commend Interactive Brokers for its low trading fees, advanced platforms, and exceptional global market access, highlighting that it allows trading on over 90 international exchanges with $0 commissions on US-listed stocks. However, they note that the platform may be complex for beginners and that customer support can be limited for smaller clients.
- Across 1375 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 4.6/5, customers frequently praise the platform's low costs, extensive market access, and advanced trading tools. Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface and efficient execution of trades, while some express concerns about the complexity of the platform and the responsiveness of customer support.
Interactive Brokers US Stock Trading Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.Our experts have rated Interactive Brokers US Stock Trading across five key areas of our review framework.
- Pricing5.0
- Market Access5.0
- App & Platform5.0
- Customer Service4.0
- Research & Analysis5.0
Pros
- Low trading fees
- Advanced platforms
- Global market access
Cons
- Potentially complex for beginners
- High cash balance requirement
- Limited customer support
See full expert review
Our verdict
Amazing technology, and always first to market with innovative trading tools. Interactive Brokers lets you trade stock on 90+ international exchanges, with $0 commission and some of the lowest financing rates in the industry.
Is Interactive Brokers a good stock broker?
Yes, IBKR is an excellent US stock broker, low costs, excellent market access and superb apps and platforms.
Pricing: Interactive Brokers is very cheap for trading stocks, especially in the IBKR Lite account, where commissions are $0 on US-listed stocks and fractional stocks. For more advanced traders, IBKR Pro commissions are USD 0.0005 to USD 0.0035 per share, but you get significant price improvements from IB SmartRouting.
If you are trading stocks on margin, Interactive Brokers have some of the lowest margin loan financing rates in the industry from USD 4.83% to USD 5.83%.
You can also actually get IBKR to pay you by letting them borrow your fully paid up stocks and letting them lend them out to short sellers, through their stock yield enhancement program.
Market Access: IBKR probably has the best market access of all the stock brokers we compare. You can trade a huge range of international stocks and IBKR has local access to over 90 stock exchanges. There are very few stocks you cannot trade on IBKR.
Apps & Platforms: Interactive Brokers' stock trading apps and platforms are seriously good. When I traded on the desktop workstation platform, I was able to pair trade two stocks against each other.
IBKR is one of the few platforms that allows you to do this. Probably because when I interviewed IBKR founder Thomas Peterffy before testing the platforms, he told me that he thinks the most successful stock traders are ones that trade one company against another.
Customer Service: Because Interactive Brokers is one of the largest stock brokers in the world, customer service is largely automated and they were even using automated chatbots before the AI revolution took over.
This is a good example of how they are at the forefront of stock trading technology. However, it can be a bit of a pain trying to get through to someone on the phone if you are not a large customer with a personal stock broker.
Research & Analysis: You get lots of research and analysis from Interactive Brokers, including the IBKR Campus, for beginners to improve their stock trading. For longer-term investors, there is fundamental data on 30,000 companies and over 5,000 analyst ratings to give you an indication of whether a stock is a buy or a sell.
Customer reviews for Interactive Brokers
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 1,375 reviews
- Excellent74%
- Very good14%
- Basic7%
- Poor2%
- Bad2%
What customers like
- Low fees and competitive pricing
- User-friendly platform
- Fast execution and reliability
What customers dislike
- Poor customer service
- Confusing account management
- Slow response times
Read customer reviews
Excellent broker
Excellent broker with good interfaces.
GFIS Datafeed quality is questionable in recent years. IBKR were unresponsive when queried
Review of IB
easy to use with strong functionality
Great trading platform
Very good for beginner and professional investors as well. Wide range of trading opportunities with low fees also available.
Sipp at IB
Excellent value trading for a SIPP account. Highly recommended. I also have a normal account with IB
Great trading platform
Interactive Brokers provides a terrific and flexible trading platform to individual investors that can be tailored to your needs. The trading fees are so much lower than other platforms. If you have problems setting it up, their customer service will guide you and help you in setting it up.
Interactive Brokers is an exceptional brokerage for active traders
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) stands out as one of the most powerful and versatile brokerage platforms available today. Catering to both professional traders and sophisticated retail investors, IBKR offers a robust trading infrastructure, low fees, and access to global markets.
Professional and Cost-effective
I’ve been using IB for 15 years and over that time the quality and breadth of offering has continued to expand. I appreciate the costeffectiveness, sophistication and professionalism of the platform.
Excelent trading platforms
Have had an account a few years. Costs of trading are minimal and the share prices obtained by the system are really good. Quick to places orders and they offer a variety of available investments modes on several stock exchanges. Research offered is also good.
Only slight weakness is it is sometimes difficult to get personal help when a technical problem arises. However very few problems crop up.
Great Trading and Investment Platform
IB is a very flexible platform, user friendly, includes many financial instruments and very low fees, efficient and trustworthy
Private Client Trader
A great and super functional platform for trading futures and FX. Instant execution and live mark to mark pricing and account margin valuations. Transparent and very competitive pricing are hard to beat.
Unilateral termination
Closed my account without explanation after three years. Most likely because I’m Russian.
A platform for the serious investor.
I have a share dealing account with IBKR. The free research information available is comprehensive, and the margin facility very useful.
Way better than Hargreaves Lansdown
I have used HL for years but opened an account at IBKR about 7 years ago. I rate Interactive Brokers on multiple counts:
- dealing costs
- customer service
- foreign exchange charges
- ability to hold forex AND earn interest
- breadth of available investments including options, futures, bonds etc.
- superb, easy to use mobile app
- ISA friendly
- overall way more sophisticated offering than the competition
Professional low-cost platform
I have held a joint account with Interactive Brokers for over 10 years. Having worked for stock exchanges, I can verify that IB knows the eccentricities of individual markets and offers excellent interfaces at a low-cost. They offer a great range of asset classes across all global markets that anyone could want to trade on.
Solid Broker
Been with them for over 15 years, never really had any issues. Support can be good and you can trade almost anything.
the best broker there is
top broker, low fees, tremendous power at one's hand, i really cannot fault IBKR, i look forward to the future with this broker.
Comprehensive user function and reasonable charge
The foreign currency exchange charge is very competitive. The types of stock, etf and crypto to trade are very comprehensive.
Good for experienced investors
I use IB for US listed securities, futures and options. Contract notes are available immediately after a deal; spreads are tight; money transfer is efficient.
best value for money for advanced traders
I have accounts with 4 brokers. IBKR has by far the most advanced platform of the four with the greatest range of tools All provided with the most competitive charges.
Does everything I need
As a retired trader I feared losing touch with the market but IBs functionality and breadth has pleasantly surprised me and made it my main platform for actively managing my savings.
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
