How We Review & Rank
Forex Brokers

Our Editorial Team

Our editorial team has 50+ years of combined experience in forex trading and financial journalism. Our analysts have traded professionally at hedge funds, worked as compliance officers at FCA-regulated firms, and written for leading financial publications. Every review is authored by a subject-matter expert and independently verified by a second reviewer.

We verify each broker's regulatory licences directly with FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus), DFSA (Dubai), NFA/CFTC (US), and other tier-1 authorities. We check licence numbers, client fund segregation policies, and FSCS/CIPF coverage. Brokers operating without regulation from a recognised authority receive a 0 score in this category and are excluded from our rankings.

We measure actual spreads on EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, gold (XAU/USD), and crude oil across three times of day: London open (08:00 GMT), New York open (13:30 GMT), and low-liquidity (22:00 GMT). We also calculate the total cost of a round-trip trade including commissions, swap rates, and any platform fees.

We open real demo accounts and test every platform feature on desktop (Windows and macOS), iOS, and Android. We assess charting tools, order types, indicator libraries, one-click trading, and API access. Execution quality is measured by placing 50+ test orders and recording slippage and fill rates.

We assess the depth, quality, and accessibility of educational content. This includes beginner guides, video courses, webinars, market analysis, economic calendars, and trading calculators. We particularly credit brokers that offer structured learning paths from beginner to advanced.

We contact each broker's support team via live chat, email, and phone at least three times, measuring response times and assessing quality of answers. We also review Trustpilot ratings and complaint history with regulatory bodies. Support available in more languages scores higher.

Update Frequency

We fully re-test and re-score all brokers every quarter (January, April, July, October). We also conduct immediate re-reviews when a significant event occurs — such as a regulatory change, ownership change, or major fee restructure.

Each review page shows its “Last Updated” date. If a page is more than 4 months old, treat it as pending refresh and check the broker's official website for the latest fee schedule.

Affiliate Disclosure

We earn affiliate commissions when users sign up with brokers through our links. This is how we fund our editorial operations and keep the site free.

However, our rankings are entirely algorithm-based. The five scoring criteria and their weights are fixed. A broker cannot pay us to rank higher, and commission rates do not factor into our scoring formula in any way. Exness appears in our top rankings because it scores highly across regulation, spreads, and platform quality — not because of any commercial arrangement. We disclose affiliate relationships where they exist.

If a broker stops offering an affiliate programme, we continue to list and review them (see: OANDA, IC Markets). Our methodology section is updated when our scoring criteria change.

• ✓Regulatory body tier (Tier 1/2/3)
• ✓Number of active licenses
• ✓Client fund segregation
• ✓Negative balance protection
• ✓Compensation scheme coverage

• ✓EUR/USD raw spread (live)
• ✓EUR/USD all-in spread
• ✓Commission per lot
• ✓Overnight swap rates
• ✓Currency conversion fee
• ✓Inactivity fee structure

• ✓Desktop platform quality
• ✓Mobile app (iOS/Android)
• ✓Charting & indicators
• ✓Order execution speed
• ✓API / algo trading support

• ✓Account types available
• ✓Minimum deposit requirement
• ✓Maximum leverage offered
• ✓Islamic (swap-free) account
• ✓Demo account quality

• ✓Deposit methods & fees
• ✓Withdrawal speed (tested)
• ✓Withdrawal fees & limits
• ✓Currency support
• ✓Crypto deposit support

• ✓Live chat response time
• ✓Email support quality
• ✓Phone support availability
• ✓Educational resources quality