- 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
Fantastic institutional quality platform delivered to private investors
Great platform, aggregated loan to value very useful. Would give 5 stars if they had UK tax reporting.
Great for Options
Can take some time getting use to the platform but its worth the effort.
Huge range of products and great for Options
Sophisticated and Flexible System
Excellent customer service.
My preferred Broker
I have used 2 other brokers one in the UK and one in Singapore.
Interactive Broker is my preferred choice and I have been with them for some time.
Interactive Brokers review
I have used for around 4 years now, I have found to be very reliable, very detailed data, platform able to be changed to suit the individual, support is good
Excellent low fees. Easy to trade
Wonderful platform. Very easy to use.
Low fees. Cannot get easier
Terrible
Poor customer service. Unprofessional, unattractive staff.
Good service
Direct acsess.
I haveca margin account pro.
5 stars 🌟
A well established company
the whole universe of deriavtives at your finger tips
Customer support is always there to help you max in hal a days time,, very swift executions..customer oriented ffedback algos in the platfoem always guding you to a more efficient way of trading and execution of trades,
Brilliant platform and company
Extremely poor customer service
I have never managed to get resolution when things have gone wrong. The new rule on withdrawal restrictions is confusing and even the IBKR team don’t seem to understand it.
Great
Very Helpful stuff
Significant Flaws with Interactive Brokers Options Account
Options account with IB.
I do not like the way you never know what commissions you are going to be charged on a trade in advance and the commissions you are subsequently shown on the live account balance screen do not always agree with what is charged for commissions in the overnight daily report.
Also I do not like being charged for live options feeds and for being charged a significant minimum fee on a monthly basis. Other brokers do not charge for options fees nor have minimum monthly fees.
Extremely comprehensive platform with excellent products
I have an IBKR Pro account. Very good option chain and reasonable fees. Great FX flexibility.
Reliable institution with a great, modern App
I'm very happy with my Interactive Brokers experience over the last 7 years. They have a very reliable trading platform with access to .... pretty much every instrument out there (USA, EU, UK, etc..). I use it as my primary retail investment platform and the only place where I manage my personal active investment portfolio.
Also, they have a great app and it's by far the easiest way to place and monitor your orders. You don't even need the desktop application. Just automate all your portfolio reporting to be delivered to you by email and run your optimizaiton mondels on your own computer.
Charting is a weak point.
I like everything about the platform, including competitive fees and a large selection of trading assets and instruments. The only weak point is charting, which is cumbersome and inflexible.
Best broker for an amateur trader like me
Apart from the ux and the user features the overall experience and flexibility of IB has made me move all my portfolios to them.
Beat Broker
Good value for money. Low fees, great trading platform.
Great service and platform
Amazing service and great trading platform with a lot features aswell as a reliable and trusted brokerage!
Very reliable
A little daunting at first sight but it’s easy to pick up and intuitive once you’re familiar.
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.
