List of Top UK Forex Platforms
| Name | Score | Visit | Currency Pairs | Currency Conversion Fee | Currencies | Inactivity Fees | Disclaimer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 9.8 | Visitplus500.com | 70+ | 0.7% | 15 | £10 | CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 81% 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. Availability subject to regulations. FCA (FRN 509909). | |
 | 8.7 | Visitetoro.com | 40+ | 0.01% | 20 | £10 | Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. Your capital is at risk. 76% of retail CFD accounts lose money. | |
 | 3IG | 8.9 | Visitig.com | 80+ | 0.5% | 5 | £12 | Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. |
 | 8.8 | Visithome.saxo | 130+ | 0.3% | 20 | £25 | CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs, FX or any of our other products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Losses can exceed deposits on some products. | |
 | 9.0 | Visitpepperstone.com | 60+ | 10 | Between 74-89 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. | |||
 | 9.0 | Visitxtb.com | 70+ | 0.5% | 2 | £10 | CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. | |
 | 9.1 | Visitinteractivebrokers.com | 100+ | 0.25% | 24 | |||
 | 7.5 | Visitavatrade.com | 60+ | 7 | £50 | |||
 | 7.5 | Visitcmcmarkets.com | 300+ | 0.5% | 10 | £10 | Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting and/or trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. |
Plus500 disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 81% 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.
Best Forex Trading Brokers at a Glance
Overall best platform for forex trading - eToro
Best platform for trading CFDs in the forex market - Fineco Bank
Best platform for forex spread betting - IG
Best platform for trading forex options - Saxo Markets
Forex platform with the best user experience - Trading 212
Best platform for trading with a forex bot - Capital.com
Excellent tool for forex (CFD) high volume trading - Plus500
Best platform for forex scalping - Forex.com
Best forex trading platform for advanced investors - CMC Markets
Best forex trading platform for beginners - XTB
Top 10 Forex Trading Platforms Reviewed
In the list below you’ll find the leading forex for brokers in the UK. We have provided the best UK forex brokers for various use cases, so you can quickly find the ones that match your preferences.
eToro is our pick for the best overall trading platform in the UK in comparison to other investing platforms because it offers competitive fees, a revolutionary CopyTrade feature, an intuitive user interface, and a highly-rated mobile app. The platform excels in various categories, making it the best choice for most traders. Also, the fast onboarding process means new customers can start trading within a few minutes of landing on the homepage. It's also a trustworthy platform that is authorised by government-appointed organisations in the UK, Cyprus, and Australia.
Fineco Bank is an industry-leading forex CFDs trading platform due to its no-commission structure and tight spreads, ensuring competitive pricing while helping the traders maintain profitability. The FX broker offers interactive charts, advanced tools, and automatic orders and combines this with real-time quotes, bespoke alerts, and technical analysis tools to create a powerful software solution for managing CFDs in preferred forex markets.
The Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority regulate Fineco Bank. Also, the bank has a rating of 4.0 out of 5 on Trustpilot based on over 400 reviews, meaning that the platform ranks as fairly trustworthy both in terms of regulatory adherence and customer feedback.
IG has some of the lowest spreads, which is attractive for traders looking for a good deal. Also, IG is commonly ranked as one of the UK's top retail forex providers. The best forex broker allows you to quickly trade from the web platform and you can automate the forex trading experience with MT4. Those who wish to advance their trading knowledge can benefit from IG's far-reaching educational resources that are categorised based on their level of experience, and penned by leading financial experts.
Additionally, you can trade over 90 forex pairs with spreads from just 0.6 pips on EUR/USD, 0.7 pips on USD/JPY, and 0.9 pips on GBP/USD. IG is licensed by the FCA and has a Trustpilot score of 4.1 out of 5 based on around 6,000 reviews. Hence, it’s a reputable platform in the UK that you can trust.
Saxo Markets is the top pick for forex options trading because it provides 40+ vanilla options with maturities from one day to 12 months, hence giving the traders the advantage of multiple forex options and that too, at a competitive price. The expert service has been around for years and provides strong customer support around the clock. You can take advantage of the Advanced FX option suite, providing option analytics and robust risk-management tools.
The intuitive UI of the platform is top-notch irrespective and the user experience is seamless for all the viewports. Most importantly, Saxo Markets is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Both mobile and web platforms of Trading 212 offer unparalleled user experience with almost fully matching functionalities and intuitive design. The trading mechanism is fairly straightforward and its tools, including screeners, customisable watchlists, and charting features are neatly organised and easy to navigate around. While limited in its research capabilities, the platform integrates the industry-grade tool TradingView to outsource its charting function, which includes numerous indicators and drawing tools. Unlike many of its competitors, Trading 212 also allows access to TradingView through its mobile application.
Capital.com is our pick for the best forex bot trading platform because it offers exposure to MetaTrader 4, a powerful software solution that offers that comes with no additional cost. The automated trading bots can also be updated through a process of analysis. The platform also provides a competitive pricing policy compared with most UK forex brokers. The fees are primarily based on spread charges, so there is no commission. Traders also benefit from extra features like educational resources and real-time quotes to make your forex trading experience smoother.
Plus500 is a top-tier high-volume trading platform because it offers 60+ CFDs on forex pairs with leverage of up to 1:30. The advanced trading tools allow you to manage multiple trades simultaneously, including Stop Loss and Stop Limit features.
Furthermore, the platform offers real-time forex quotes, and you can set indicators to easily analyse charts. The platform also does a great job of onboarding users quickly, allowing them to trade shortly after landing on the homepage.
Plus500UK Ltd is authorised & regulated by the FCA (#509909).
Plus500 Risk Warning: 81% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Forex.com is the top forex scalping platform because it offers up to 80 FX trading pairs with advanced software to execute trades quickly. The platform won the London Trader Show 2020 Best Forex Provider of the Year and offers low spreads for popular forex pairs like EUR/USD.
The platform offers TradingView charts with over 80 indicators, behavioural science technology, Reuters news feeds, and more. The highly-rated app is also worth downloading to enjoy an efficient trading experience on the move.
XTB is the top pick for the best beginner-friendly forex trading platform in the UK with an impressive collection of 200 lessons included in the Trading Academy. The platform also features robust research and analysis section that includes tools for market sentiment analysis, an integrated live news feed, and a charting feature with up to 39 technical indicators. The advanced tools are easy to navigate and straightforward to use, making the best orex broker appealing for beginner forex traders who wish to study market behaviour. The outfit is fully regulated by the FCA and has a solid reputation among customers in the UK.
XTB is the top pick for the best beginner-friendly forex trading platform in the UK with an impressive collection of 200 lessons included in the Trading Academy. The platform also features robust research and analysis section that includes tools for market sentiment analysis, an integrated live news feed, and a charting feature with up to 39 technical indicators. The advanced tools are easy to navigate and straightforward to use, making the best orex broker appealing for beginner forex traders who wish to study market behaviour. The outfit is fully regulated by the FCA and has a solid reputation among customers in the UK.
What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading is the exchange of currencies between two parties, which can include individuals, businesses, and banks. It includes trading currencies for profit and is one of the more volatile money-making options.
Currencies are traded in pairs, and the price of the currency moves as they are bought and sold. They follow the supply and demand rules, so the prices of currencies that are sold go down because of higher availability, and currencies that are bought will increase in price. The currencies need to be bought or sold in large volumes to have a noticeable effect on the price.
Forex trading is not executed on centralised exchanges like stocks, but using over-the-counter (OTC) markets. It is also possible to trade forex 24 hours every day, but some forex trading platforms might limit the trading period to a shorter window – for example, 21-23 hours.
How to Compare Forex Brokers in the UK
Whilst curating our list, we accounted for the following considerations – which would help any trader shortlist forex brokers operating in the UK market.
Adherence to FCA Regulations
The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) is the UK’s leading financial regulatory body; any UK forex brokers need to receive the seal of approval from the FCA to legally offer public forex trading services.
The regulatory body requires that customer monies be held in segregated accounts, which means it’s separated from business funds. This ensures that customers have funds available to withdraw at any time without the broker running out of money. Furthermore, if there is suspicion of fraud by a UK forex broker, the FCA will launch a fraud investigation and if there is evidence of fraud, the FCA can prosecute or escalate the matter with the relevant organisation in the UK.
Number of Currency Pairs and Trading Volume
More currency pairs mean forex traders have a higher number of trading options, which is important for high-volume traders needing added flexibility. Professional traders that have vast resources may need the maximum number of FX trading pairs to ensure their strategies can be deployed.
Most UK forex brokers allow high-volume trading, including the ones on our list. Furthermore, you can take advantage of leverage to increase the trading volume beyond your currency resources. However, the amount of leverage provided by a UK forex broker varies.
Finally, high-volume trading forex is mostly suited for aggressive traders that jump on opportunities when they arise.
Customer Support
Customer support is an important part of any online service, but especially financial trading platforms where large amounts of money are at stake. Therefore, you should find a UK broker offering fast customer response support time through multiple channels, including live chat, phone, and email, and ideally test out these channels to assess the speed and level of knowledge the support exhibits.
Research and Analysis Tools
In this section, you’ll find the top research and analysis tools you should expect from your UK forex broker. Here are the top types of charts that are available:
Line Chart: Line chats are great for highlighting overall trends, which reduces market noise. It connects the closing prices of currency pairs over a specific time period.
Bar Chart: This popular forex chart has 4 main points, which are high and low prices, which is the vertical bar. The left-hand side of the horizontal bar is the opening price, and the closing price is the right-hand side of the bar.
Candlestick: This is a chart type that’s used for technical analysis. It displays the open/closing prices and low/high prices of an asset for a specific period.
Now let’s take a closer look at the analysis tools available to forex traders:
Forex Volatility Calculator calculates the historic volatility of major and exotic pairs over various periods. Most calculators use the daily percentage changes to calculate volatility.
Pivot Point Calculator is used to figure out the overall market trend for a currency pair. Pivot points are the average of the low and high, and the previous day’s closing price.
Position Sizing Calculator assists trades with making optimal trades for their budget size. It requires the trading account size and percentage of the account you’re willing to risk for each trade. After entering the details, the calculator shares the optimal position size for a trade.
Trading Fees
Understanding the trading fees and other costs associated with forex trading is important. This allows you to find a competitively priced UK forex trading platform, and set realistic expectations for profitability. Below is a list of common fees every forex trader should know about:
Commission: Some brokers might charge a commission for each trade, which is a percentage of the transaction amount. However, most UK forex brokers don't charge a commission and rely on the spread pricing model.
Fixed Spread: This is a beginner-friendly fee format as the fees remain consistent as volatile currency prices change.
Variable Spread: The variable spread model continuously updates as currency prices change, which makes calculating fees more tricky.
Other costs: you might be charged for using other features on a platform, including educational content and trading & analysis tools. Traders on a tight budget should evaluate the costs before registering an account with a UK forex broker.
Platform | FX trading fees |
|---|---|
eToro | 1% |
Saxo Markets | Varies, based on account |
Fineco Bank | Varies |
IG | Varies |
Capital.com | Varies |
Trading 212 | 0.15% FX fee |
Plus500 | Varies |
Forex.com | 0.5% of traded amount |
CMC Markets | 0.7-0.9 pips |
XTB | Varies, and starts at 0% |
Should You Trade Forex?
Trading forex with a reliable FCA-regulated broker with a good reputation and a clean track record is a must. Executing forex trades is simple because of well-optimised brokerage platforms. However, you have to do a lot of research to stand a chance of predicting the up and down price movements of currency pairs.
Overall, forex trading requires a lot of risk tolerance and high starting funds to make significant profits. While it is not advised for novice traders to try their chances with currency trading, it's possible to find forex brokers that are geared towards beginner traders.
