Top Forex Brokers
Last list update: 23 September 2026. This page collects the 122 forex and CFD broker reviews we have published, each one checked against the broker’s own pricing pages, legal documents and regulator entries rather than its marketing.
A broker is not “best” in the abstract. The one that suits a scalper trading 20 lots a day is rarely the one that suits somebody funding a £500 account and holding positions for weeks. So the two things worth settling before you look at any ranking are what your trading actually costs at that broker, and which legal entity will hold your money. The two sections below cover both, and every broker page in this category answers them for that firm.
Use the cards to compare, then read the full review before you fund anything. Our scores move when the facts move: pricing changes, a licence lapses, or a review platform flags a profile, and the page gets rewritten the same day we find it.
What a forex broker actually costs you
Spread is only the visible part. Add it up in the order the money leaves your account.
Spread. On EUR/USD one standard lot is 100,000 units, so each pip is worth about $10. A 1.0 pip spread therefore costs roughly $10 every time you open and close that lot. A commission-free account is not a free account — the cost is simply inside the quote.
Commission. Raw-spread accounts advertise spreads from 0.0 pips and charge separately, typically around $3 to $3.50 per lot per side, so $6 to $7 for a round turn. On EUR/USD that beats a 1.0 pip standard account; on a pair that only quotes at 1.8 pips raw it does not. Compare like for like: raw spread plus commission against the standard spread, on the pairs you actually trade, at the hour you actually trade them.
Swap. Hold overnight and you pay or receive the financing on the position. Swap is quoted per lot per night and triples on the rollover day (usually Wednesday) to cover the weekend. For a position held a fortnight, swap can easily exceed the spread you worried about.
Everything that is not a trade. Inactivity fees after a few dormant months, withdrawal fees, and the currency conversion charged when your account currency differs from the instrument’s. Those are in the fee schedule, not the homepage.
Execution. A tight quote you cannot get filled at is not a tight quote. Look at how the broker describes slippage and requotes, whether it publishes execution statistics, and what happens to your stop during a news release.
How to check a broker before you deposit
Check the entity, not the brand. Most large brokers run several companies under one website. The client agreement names the one you are actually contracting with, and that name is what you search on the regulator’s register — the FCA Financial Services Register in the UK, ASIC Connect in Australia, the CySEC register in Cyprus. If the entity on your agreement is registered in an offshore jurisdiction, the protections below do not apply to you, whatever the group’s UK or EU licence says.
What a UK-regulated entity has to give retail clients. Since 1 August 2019 the FCA caps leverage on contracts for difference: margin of at least 3.33% on major currency pairs and relevant sovereign debt (30:1), 5% on major stock indices, minor currency pairs and gold (20:1), 10% on minor indices and other commodities (10:1) and 20% on individual shares and other reference values (5:1). Positions must be closed out when account funds fall to 50% of the margin needed to keep them open, and negative balance protection means you cannot lose more than the money in the account. Crypto derivatives cannot be sold to UK retail clients at all.
Australia is close to the same. ASIC’s product intervention order took effect on 29 March 2021 with leverage limits between 30:1 and 2:1, standardised margin close-out and negative balance protection. It has been extended to 23 May 2027.
What happens if the firm fails. A UK-regulated firm is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which pays eligible claims up to £85,000 per person per firm for failures after 1 April 2019. That is a backstop for the firm collapsing, not for losing trades. Offshore entities usually have no equivalent.
Read the warning on the broker’s own homepage. UK and EU brokers must publish the share of their retail accounts that lose money. It is commonly in the seventy to eighty per cent range, and it is the broker’s own figure for its own clients. Whatever else you compare, start there.
Frequently asked questions
Answers checked on 23 September 2026 against the FCA Handbook and Financial Services Register, ASIC’s product intervention order, the FSCS, and the brokers’ own pricing and legal pages. Where a figure depends on which company you sign with, we say so rather than quoting the headline number.