The Best Stock Trading Platforms Reviewed & Compared
Looking for the best stock trading platforms? Then you've come to the right place! After thorough testing, reviewing and in-depth comparisons, our team of experts has selected the top choices on the market and we're going to share them with you.
By offering excellent service, low fees and the smoothest & safest investment experiences on the market, they blow the competition out of the water and stand out as the very best stock trading platforms you can get.
Whether you’re interested in trading stocks, forex, crypto or any other trading instrument and regardless of your country or state, we’ll find the perfect stock trading platform for you. Now without further ado, let's take a look!
All platforms shown have been thoroughly tested and reviewed not only by our team but by millions of other users all over the world.
With a responsive interface and smart design, all the platforms listed are fully mobile compatible, allowing you to trade anywhere at anytime.
All platforms and services selected use unparalleled levels of security to ensure all of your data and transactions are always safe.
Out of all the excellent stock trading platforms available on the market, the ones we've selected are a step above the fierce competition by delivering truly high-quality service in all facets. From smart design and smooth interfaces to fast & safe trading, advanced features, unbeatably low fees and superb reliability, they're the closest you'll get to a flawless investment experience.
All of the platforms selected are also officially licensed, practice the highest degree of safety standards in all transactions and are also highly respected by the trading community, ensuring that you, your data and your investments are always safe and secure.
Finally, since in today's world we're more mobile than ever, our selected stock trading platforms also offer incredibly slick, fast and well-designed mobile apps so that you can be connected to your investments anywhere at anytime with ease. Whether you're an Android or iOS user, they've got you covered with responsive apps that give you the full desktop experience - including advanced charting tools, intricate orders and in-depth data - on the go.
Without further ado, let’s see how the best stock trading platforms compare to each other in terms of features, fees, region availability, bonuses and other essential information that you need in order to find the perfect one for you. Let's begin!
All of the best stock trading platforms, thoroughly reviewed for you
Let’s take an in-depth look at each of the best stock trading platforms featured previously. This will let you know exactly what they have to offer - from their key features to unique qualities and more - making it easy to find the perfect one for you.
Plus500
Ever since its release in 2008, the Plus500 platform has rocketed in popularity due to its versatility, great selection of features, nearly worldwide coverage, attractive sign-up bonuses and extra-low fees.
They're ranked as one of the best and most highly trusted CFD traders in the world not only due to their rock-solid financial backing but also due to their top-tier security, fast support and wide range of markets & instruments that include classic stocks, forex, commodities and more recently also cryptocurrencies.
As a global brand, the service is freely available in more than 60 countries and 32 languages, ensuring that it adapts perfectly to your current location and preferred language. The platform, both on PC and on mobile, is straightforward but also powerful, managing to smoothly combine both essential features for beginners and more advanced ones for experts. The result is a simple, clean and fast interface that's easy and enjoyable to use while also offering advanced charting and other features like automatic stop orders & much more. You also have real-time updates that give you accurate data upfront which not only keeps things exciting but also ensures you don't have to use other sources to get your information. On top of this, the Plus500 platform offers a great leverage system of up to 30x - it's instant, easy to use and gives you a huge amount of buying power, even if you have invest small amounts, which is especially helpful for experienced traders.
Couple all of this with superb customer support, a wide variety of payment options (for both deposits and withdrawals) and X and you've got a truly top-notch stock trading platform. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced trader, Plus500 is easily one of the very best stock trading platforms you can use.
Other information: 80.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Plus500UK Ltd authorised & regulated by the FCA (#509909).
One of the oldest, most respected and well-established brokers in the world, IG - also known as IG Markets or Investor's Gold - is a truly excellent choice if you're looking to get the best stock trading platform.
Founded in 1974 and constantly improving ever since, they've become a renowned worldwide service and stepped into the modern days with a superb stock trading platform on both desktop and mobile. It's beautifully well-designed, responsive, feature-rich and since IG is a CFD provider, it lets you participate in a wide variety of markets and instruments - from stocks and forex to cryptos and more - allowing you to choose your favorites and focus on your specialty. On top of this, they also have one of the lowest fees on the market, super fast trading capabilities and truly fantastic service.
To open an account with IG, you just need an initial deposit of $250 and since there's a bonus available right from the start, you'll instantly have more buying power to use on your investments. Their service is incredibly professional all-around, everything from the stock trading platform itself to their instructional video guides, swift customer support and security measures are beyond excellent and show the level of experience that IG has acquired over the decades.
Using IG's stock trading platform is enjoyable, responsive and easy plus it also offers a whole array of advanced features and charting capabilities, ensuring that experts have everything they need to excel as well. Buying and selling stocks is extremely fast and smooth, ensuring you never lose an opportunity to either buy in or sell out and make a profit all while the low fees make it possible for you to trade often without worrying. Both the deposits and withdrawals are fast and available to be performed in a large amount of options, from bank transfers to credit cards and more.
Finally, they're also licensed and regulated globally - including in the United States of America - which further solidifies is as one of the very best stock trading platforms, especially for US investors.
Bursting into the investment world in 2013 full of new ideas and innovative strategies, IQ Option revolutionized not only the binary options market but the whole online investment playing field as well.
By offering access to a wide variety of markets and investment instruments on their slick, highly responsive interface coupled with an ultra-modern design and highly advanced real time charting capabilities (available on both mobile and desktop), they blew the competition out of the water in terms of sheer design quality. Ever since their strong debut they've constantly expanded and improved their service - moving on from just options to CFDs (with 20 x leverage available), Forex, stocks commodities, cryptocurrencies and more - quickly becoming one of the very best stock trading platforms in the world.
While the competition was laying back, IQ Option decided to not only offer a great service overall but also to focus on an often overlook aspect of trading - the visual experience. By putting in some serious work on the visuals of their platform, they created a beautiful, exciting and highly attractive interface that's not only super informative and responsive in real time but also extremely enjoyable to use and watch for both newcomers and experts alike - especially due to the dozens upon dozens of charting tools available. Trading is fast, safe and incredibly smooth plus their swift customer support team along with their detailed instructional video guides and educational articles all work together to make sure that you have the best experience possible. As a bonus, they also send you important alerts (optional, of course) to keep you up to date on events and the platform itself is constantly updated as well with strong improvements.
Finally, the IQOption platform also gives you access to the community which lets you see how they feel about a certain stock or trade, see the top traders and automatically follow their trades (you can automatically copy their buys and sells) and even participate in contests where you can win fantastic prizes without risking your own money (paper-money simulations to see who's the best trader)!
All of these are reasons behind IQ Option’s skyrocketing popularity and as soon as you give it a try you’ll know exactly what all the hype is about.
AVA Trade has been a pillar of the trading community for years and is widely regarded as one of the most global and solidly backed services in the industry. Ever since their foundation in 2006, they've not only continuously improved their service but also officially expanded it to over 5 continents - receiving licensing and regulation in all of them - turning AVA Trade into a truly global brand and making their service available world-wide.
Taking a more versatile approach to its interface and service, AVA Trade not only offers their own unique stock trading platform but also allows you to use your account with any other of your favorite stand-alone platforms such as MetaTrader, DupliTrade and more - this is especially attractive for hardened veterans that have used those platforms for years. Their own platform is a solid option too and perfect for beginners due to its effective controls, ease of use and good looking design one you choose, they're all smooth, highly responsive and always perfectly in sync with AVA Trade's service. A special mention goes to the AVATradeGO mobile app that's slick, fast, incredibly well designed and offers one of the best mobile stock trading experiences of all time (available on both Android and iOS).
With AVATrade, you have access to a wide variety of markets and instruments. From CFD stocks and Forex to cryptocurrencies, you're free to choose your favorites and focus on your specialty while the beautifully low fees allow you to trade freely without worries. To get started you only need a $100 minimum deposit and if you need to sharpen up your skills, you also have a large selection of educational videos and articles about every face of trading. If you ever need to clear any doubts or simply want to talk, their customer service is also fast, friendly and always helpful.
Finally, on top of all these wonderful qualities, they also offer quick and highly secure transactions, keep your data safe at all times and even have automated trading capabilities which I'm sure a whole lot of traders will like. AVA Trade is a great choice all around and definitely worth a spot on our list of the best stock trading platforms of all time.
Taking the crypto world by storm and quickly turning into one of the biggest and most highly respected cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Binance is a force to be reckoned with and an excellent choice for crypto fans.
From its smooth, well-designed and highly responsive interface to the super low fees (0.1% flat fee), extremely high level of security and a wide catalog of altcoins, Binance is without a doubt one of the best crypto trading platforms on the market. Plus, it's run by a team of highly respected crypto veterans that have a proven track record of innovation and excellence on the field.
Signing-up is a quick and easy process - only your e-mail is required and after that you're instantly ready to start trading. You can use either a credit card to make a deposit or your very own crypto wallet if you have altcoins already. When it's time to trade, the Binance platform really starts to shine - the user interface is beyond excellent, giving you every bit of information needed and all the tools you could ever want while also being straightforward to use and easy to read, plus, it's also available in a wide range of languages, perfectly adapting to your preferred one.
Coupled with all of this you have a massive amount of altcoins to choose from and the list is not only constantly growing but also tightly moderated and controlled, ensuring that only high quality coins get in. One of the best parts of Binance's massive user base is that you'll never have a problem with liquidity plus their customer support is second to none, clearing any doubts you might have in minutes and ensuring that your trading experience is as smooth and safe as possible.
You can access Binance on PC and on mobile and the usability is fantastic on both. It's highly responsive and beautifully well designed, as we've mentioned previously, which ensures you always have an enjoyable and smooth trading experience, anywhere at anytime. Furthermore, the Binance team is constantly updating both the service and the platform itself to introduce improvements and exciting new trading possibilities (like having their own Binance altcoin, for example). Overall, Binance has become a market leader for a good reason - it's just that good. Easily one of the best stock trading platforms for crypto of all time.
A hardened veteran of the crypto exchange market, CEX.IO is one of the more well established options on the field. Even though it's fairly antiquated in its approach - sticking only with the safest coins and not innovating a lot - it still delivers a very solid service all-around, including fantastic customer support, top-notch security and a very reliable platform.
To get started, you can buy coins with either a credit card or a bank wire (which is a very rare feature in crypto exchanges) and even access margin trading which is a highly appreciated feature - especially for experts. Signing-up is fairly straightforward but it requires that you give more information that most other crypto exchanges - you need to share a picture of your government ID to access any of the 3 account levels above the 'basic' one, all of which give you progressively higher trading limits per day and per month.
The user interface on desktop is simple but effective, offering you all the essentials coupled with in-depth charting tools, limit orders and other advanced features. On mobile it's even better, giving you a carefully designed experience that's both responsive and and perfectly tailored for any phone or tablet.
When it comes to the altcoin selection, it's slim but effective, giving you access to all the major pairs (9 so far) and even though it's rare, they do add new pairs from time to time. The platform's volume is high though, ensuring you always have good liquidity on all pairs.
Now for one of the drawbacks of CEX.IO - the fees can be quite high, especially when you compare them to the extremely low fees that the competition is currently offering. If you use CEX.IO only as a broker, you will suffer from a high 8% fee but there's a light at the end of the tunnel - if you use them as a trading platform, the fee drops down to just 0.2%. The 0.2% fee is still considerably higher than the competition, nearly double in fact, but it's a huge reduction from the 8% mentioned previously.
When you consider all of the pros and cons of the CEX.IO platform, the verdict is that it's a solid choice all around and it's especially good for newcomers due to its more traditional take on the whole service. It's safe, reliable and it has been active for a very long time, which brings bonus such as great customer support and other quality of life features that only experience in the industry can give.
Changelly, in short, is a dream come true for crypto traders. With an incredibly gorgeous interface coupled with an ultra-slick design, super wide range of altcoins and the lowest fees in the world (yes, they really are the lowest), Changelly has rocketed to fame and has become one of the most beloved services in the industry.
Not only does it offer more than 140 altcoins and INSTANT exchange but it does all that at an unmatched, incredibly low 0.5% fee. Ever since its debut in 2013 it has completely revolutionized the crypto field and it keeps getting better year after year. It was created and is currently run by a highly respected team of veterans that even the competition praises as fantastic professionals, and that's one of the many reasons why Changelly has over 2 million users that truly love the service.
Creating an account is extremely simple - you just need to use an e-mail and set up 2 factor authentication for added security. This protects your data at all times while the cutting-edge transaction security that Changelly practices ensures that all of your trades and movements are safe (they use the best security methods available).
As mentioned above, Changelly has put a lot of focus and effort into the visual aspect of their platform (both on PC and on mobile) and it shows. The quality and beauty of the design is jaw-dropping, giving you a stunningly beautiful experience that's also fast, responsive and highly entertaining.
You can start trading quickly and with ease - you either buy a cryptocurrency with a credit card and trade or you can simply start trading right away with your own crypto wallet if you already own altcoins. To top it all off, you also get to enjoy the platform's extremely high exchange limits, lightning-fast transactions and its famous 24/7 live chat support that's both friendly and effective. Even though the competition is fierce, Changelly just might be the very best stock trading platform for crypto on the market.
Delivering a high-quality, professional service coupled with superb design and the lowest fees on the market, these are the best stock trading platforms you can use. If you're new to the stock market, make sure to study the essentials before diving in and always use the demo accounts first as they give you invaluable hands-on experience.
Thanks for reading and be sure to leave a comment below if you've got any questions or simply want to chat - we're here to help!
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2 comments
Tom Woods February 10, 2020
Great guide, the comparison tables are super helpful and for some reason not a lot of websites use them. Thanks for sharing this, I was having a hard time finding a good platform but as an American I've got to go with IG. Keep up the good work!
2 comments
Tom Woods February 10, 2020
Great guide, the comparison tables are super helpful and for some reason not a lot of websites use them. Thanks for sharing this, I was having a hard time finding a good platform but as an American I've got to go with IG. Keep up the good work!
BSTP February 11, 2020
Hey Tom - we're very glad we could help, IG is an excellent platform so we're sure you'll love it. Thanks for the kind words and have a great day!