I wrote the first version of this article back in 2016 when the options for European investors were genuinely limited. DEGIRO had just launched and was disrupting the market. eToro was mostly known for forex and copy trading. That was it for most of us.
Ten years later, the landscape looks completely different. European retail investors now have access to institutional-grade platforms, commission-free brokers, and automated ETF savings plans that didn’t exist at a retail level a decade ago. The problem isn’t lack of choice — it’s figuring out which broker actually fits how you invest.
This is my 2026 update. I’ll cover the brokers I actually use or would consider using, explain what each one is best for, and give you my honest take on the tradeoffs. I’ve been investing through European brokers for over a decade, primarily in buy-and-hold ETFs with some individual stocks and crypto on the side.
If you’re based in Spain specifically, I have a separate article on the best brokers for Spain that covers the local tax reporting requirements in more detail.
How I Evaluate Brokers
Before getting into the individual brokers, here’s what I actually care about when choosing a platform:
- Fees — Commission per trade, annual custody fees, currency conversion costs. These compound against you over decades of investing.
- Asset coverage — Can you access the ETFs and stocks you want? Are they UCITS-compliant for European investors? US-listed ETFs like SPY and QQQ are effectively off-limits for EU retail investors (thanks to PRIIPs), so you need a broker with good UCITS equivalents.
- Regulation — Is the broker regulated by a serious authority? For Europe, that means MiFID II compliance and regulation under BaFin, CBI, AFM, or equivalent. This matters for investor protection.
- Tax reporting — Does the broker generate usable annual tax statements? This varies wildly and can be a significant administrative burden if your broker doesn’t help.
- Platform quality — Can you actually use the thing without wanting to throw your laptop out a window?
Interactive Brokers — Best for Serious Investors
Interactive Brokers is the professional’s choice, and it shows. If you’ve ever tried to access a specific international market, trade options, or get institutional-grade data through a retail broker, you’ve probably hit a wall. IBKR doesn’t have that wall.
European clients are served through Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The platform gives you access to 150+ markets across 33 countries — stocks, ETFs, bonds, options, futures, forex, and more. For a European investor who wants to go beyond vanilla ETFs, nothing else comes close.
Fees
Stock trades on Western European exchanges cost around €3 per trade for typical order sizes, or 0.05% for orders over €6,000. Currency conversion is extremely competitive at roughly 0.002%, which matters a lot if you’re holding USD-denominated assets. There are no hidden platform fees on the standard account.
One thing worth knowing: the account minimum is $0, but IBKR charges a monthly activity fee of $10 (credited back against commissions) for accounts under $100,000. If you’re trading actively, this is a non-issue. If you’re a passive buy-and-hold investor making a couple of trades a year on a smaller portfolio, it adds up.
Who It’s For
Investors with larger portfolios (€50,000+), anyone who needs access to non-European markets, options traders, and anyone who wants the most complete, professionally built platform available to European retail investors. The interface is not beginner-friendly — it’s genuinely complex. But if you’re willing to learn it, you won’t find a more capable platform.
IBKR also offers a Stock Yield Enhancement Program (for accounts above $50,000) that shares 50% of stock lending revenue with you. That’s a small but real passive return on top of your holdings.
Open an Interactive Brokers Account
DEGIRO — Best for Buy-and-Hold Simplicity
DEGIRO is my main broker and has been for years. It’s Dutch, now part of the flatexDEGIRO group, regulated by AFM and DNB, and available in most European countries. The core value proposition is simple: very low fees and no fuss.
I use it for the bulk of my ETF and stock holdings. The interface is clean and functional without being cluttered with features I don’t need. Account setup is straightforward. And the fees genuinely are low — which is the whole point.
Fees
DEGIRO’s ETF Core Selection is where the real value is. For ETFs on the Core Selection list, you pay just €1 per transaction (handling fee) when trading on Tradegate. If you go outside the Core Selection or choose a different exchange, fees jump to €2 per order plus the handling fee. There’s also an annual connectivity fee of €2.50 per exchange, though your domestic exchange and the ETF Core Selection are exempt.
For US stocks, you’re looking at around €0.50 + 0.004 USD per share, which works out very cheap for most trades. These are some of the lowest commission rates available to European retail investors.
What’s Missing
DEGIRO doesn’t offer crypto (if that matters to you), has no automated savings plan feature, and the research tools are minimal. It’s a no-frills execution platform. That’s by design. There’s also no interest paid on uninvested cash.
For a full breakdown of the platform, features, and my experience, see my DEGIRO review.
Who It’s For
Long-term investors across Europe who want cheap, straightforward access to stocks and ETFs without paying for features they’ll never use. If your strategy is buy a diversified ETF portfolio and leave it alone, DEGIRO is hard to beat on cost.
Scalable Capital — Best for Automated ETF Investing
Scalable Capital is a German broker regulated by BaFin, and it has become one of the go-to options for passive investors in Europe — particularly those who want to automate their ETF contributions. The platform is available in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and France.
The feature that sets Scalable Capital apart is the ETF savings plan (Sparplan). You set a monthly amount, pick your ETFs, and the platform invests automatically on a schedule. Over 2,700 ETFs are available for savings plans, starting from just €1 per month. For someone who wants a set-it-and-forget-it approach to index investing, this is genuinely excellent.
Fees
Scalable Capital has two main tiers:
- Free Broker — All savings plan executions are €0. Individual trades on European Investor Exchange (EIX) or gettex are €0.99 per order. Trades in PRIME partner ETFs (Amundi, iShares, DWS Xtrackers) above €250 are also free.
- PRIME+ Broker (€4.99/month) — Unlimited commission-free trading above €250 order size. Includes all savings plans free. Better value if you’re trading more actively or making larger individual purchases.
For a passive investor making monthly automated contributions, the Free Broker tier is unbeatable — €0 on every savings plan execution means the only cost you’re paying is the ETF’s TER.
Who It’s For
Passive investors who want to automate their ETF investing with monthly contributions. Also good for beginners who want a clean, modern app without the complexity of Interactive Brokers. If your strategy is “invest €500 per month into a world index ETF and don’t think about it,” Scalable Capital makes that trivially easy.
Open a Scalable Capital Account
eToro — Best for Beginners and Social Trading
eToro is the platform everyone’s heard of, and for good reason — it has over 30 million users worldwide and was genuinely one of the first platforms to push commission-free stock trading into the mainstream for European investors.
The social and copy trading features are eToro’s most distinctive offering. You can browse other investors’ portfolios, see their returns and risk scores, and copy their trades automatically. For someone who’s new to investing and wants to learn by following experienced investors, this is a real differentiator. No other major broker does this well.
Fees
eToro advertises zero-commission stock and ETF trading, and that’s technically accurate — they make money on the spread instead. For most straightforward stock trades this is fine, but it’s worth understanding. The bigger cost consideration for European investors is currency conversion: eToro operates in USD, so if you’re depositing in EUR, there’s a conversion fee built into your deposits and withdrawals (around 150 pips, or roughly 1.5%). For frequent traders this is a meaningful cost.
ETF trading is genuinely free with no spread markup. eToro also offers crypto, which is natively integrated into the same platform — useful if you want exposure to Bitcoin or Ethereum without opening a separate account.
What to Watch
eToro has come a long way on regulation — it holds licences across multiple jurisdictions including CySEC for EU clients. But the spread-based model and USD conversion costs mean it’s not the cheapest option for pure long-term ETF investing. For someone investing €1,000/month into index funds year after year, those costs add up noticeably versus DEGIRO or Scalable Capital.
Where eToro shines is as a gateway: it’s easy to use, has a good mobile app, covers stocks, ETFs, and crypto in one place, and the social features make it more engaging for investors who are still building their knowledge. See my full eToro review for a deeper breakdown.
Who It’s For
Beginners who want an accessible, all-in-one platform. Investors who want to explore social and copy trading. Anyone who wants stocks, ETFs, and crypto under one roof without managing multiple accounts.
Trading 212 — Worth Knowing About
Trading 212 doesn’t have an affiliate relationship on this site, so I’ll keep this brief — but it deserves a mention because it’s genuinely popular and has real strengths.
Trading 212 is commission-free across stocks and ETFs with no platform fee and no inactivity fee. The fractional shares feature is excellent — you can invest in any stock from as little as €1, which makes it accessible if you’re starting with small amounts. The AutoInvest / Pies feature lets you build a portfolio and auto-invest contributions proportionally — similar to Scalable Capital’s savings plan concept but more flexible in how you structure your portfolio.
They also pay interest on uninvested cash, which DEGIRO doesn’t. The FX fee is 0.15% on currency conversions, which is very reasonable.
Available across most of Europe. Regulated by the FCA (UK) and CySEC (EU). If you’re based in the UK it’s particularly compelling given the ISA account option. Worth looking at if none of the brokers above feel like the right fit.
Key Considerations for European Investors
Choosing a broker isn’t just about trading fees. There are a few European-specific factors that will affect every investor here.
MiFID II and UCITS ETFs
Under EU regulations (specifically PRIIPs), European retail investors cannot buy US-domiciled ETFs like SPY, QQQ, or VTI. You need UCITS-compliant equivalents — funds domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg. The good news is that UCITS equivalents exist for virtually everything worth owning: IWDA (iShares Core MSCI World), VWCE (Vanguard FTSE All-World), CSPX (iShares Core S&P 500), and so on. All brokers on this list give you access to these.
Withholding Tax on Dividends
Where an ETF is domiciled affects the withholding tax on dividends. Ireland-domiciled funds benefit from the US-Ireland tax treaty (15% withholding on US dividends vs. 30% for Luxembourg-domiciled funds). This is why most serious European ETF investors prefer Ireland-domiciled funds. Check your ETF’s ISIN — IE-prefixed means Ireland-domiciled.
The W-8BEN Form
If you’re investing in US stocks directly, your broker should ask you to complete a W-8BEN form. This certifies you’re a non-US person and reduces US withholding tax on dividends from 30% to 15% (for most EU countries with a tax treaty). Make sure your broker handles this — DEGIRO and Interactive Brokers both do.
Currency Conversion Costs
Many European investors overlook this. If you’re investing in USD-denominated assets and your account is in EUR, every trade triggers a currency conversion. IBKR’s 0.002% rate is best-in-class. eToro’s ~1.5% conversion cost on deposits is at the expensive end. For a long-term investor making regular contributions, this difference is significant over time.
Annual Tax Statements
Every European country handles investment taxation differently. What they have in common is that you need accurate records of dividends received, trades executed, and — in some countries — unrealized gains. IBKR produces detailed and usable annual reports. DEGIRO provides annual statements that are serviceable for most tax purposes. eToro’s tax reporting has improved but can still be a pain for high-volume traders.
My Setup and Recommendation
Here’s how I actually do it: DEGIRO is my primary broker for buy-and-hold ETF investing. Most of my portfolio sits there — core UCITS ETF positions that I add to over time and rarely touch. The fees are low, the platform does what I need, and I’ve never had a problem with it.
If I were starting fresh today with a larger portfolio or more complex needs, I’d take a serious look at Interactive Brokers. The platform complexity is real, but so is the cost efficiency at scale and the depth of market access. For serious long-term investors, IBKR is the grown-up choice.
For someone brand new to investing who wants to start small and automate contributions, Scalable Capital’s savings plan feature makes the whole process nearly frictionless. Pick a world ETF, set a monthly amount, and let it run.
eToro is fine for beginners who want an accessible entry point, and it’s particularly useful if you want stocks, ETFs, and crypto in one place without juggling multiple accounts.
The honest answer is that there’s no single best broker for every European investor. It depends on your portfolio size, how actively you invest, which asset classes you want, and how much you care about platform sophistication versus simplicity. But any of the four main brokers on this list is a serious, regulated option — far better than what was available when I started investing in Europe.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 complete years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision. Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. Cryptoasset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Related
Thanks for the post Jean, A comment on eToro – this platform is great for small retail investors but if you are thinking of investing more than 10k then be warned. Their compliance resources do appear to be struggling to cope – or the quality of resources employed is not up to par – or a bit of both. Malta being greylisted doesn’t help either presumably.
And what about directa sim? It’s quite famous in Italy, active in the online trading business since the early ’90s
What is the best way to buy vanguard ETFs from Malta if you plan to invest some money every month? Thanks
You can use Interactive Brokers, Saxo Bank or a local broker like CC Trader.
Hi Jean!
I have two comments:
1. Interactive Brokers does not have 10 euro / month for maintenance costs IF you open the account using Tradestation Global as an introducing broker.
2. Degiro is having two accounts : basic and custody. Only for Basic account they could loan your stocks. For the Custody account they cannot, but the fees are a little bigger especially for dividends.
Thank you!
Bogdan
Hi Bogdan,
Thank you, those are two good points.
Do you have any experience with trading212?
Hi Jasper, I have an in-depth review of Trading212 in the works, should be published soon.
cheers both; looking forward to the review then Jean.
Hi Jean, great, interesting site you built!
I would like to point out to everyone to check the insured sum of the investing platform should the company go belly up!
Most repurable US based trading site are insured for hundreds of thousands of USD. CCtrader is covered up to €20k through MFSA so think about that when investing long term, and this does not apply to cash sitting in the account, it includes also securities, stocks, etc
….just my two cents on the subject hoping to help someone.
Hi Jean, Great website, keep it up 🙂 . Do you know whether CC trader have an inactivity fee and/or withdrawal or deposit fees? Also when they say 10 euros per trade [flat fee minimum] and rate of 0.1%, what does that actually mean? I am a beginner investor. Thanks in advance
Hi Jean, very informative. Do CC trader have an inactiviy fee and/or withdrawl or deposit fees? Also what does CCtrader’s 0.1% rate mean (versus flat fee min as per ETFs) in reference to Ben’s request? Thanks in advance,
I am interested in investing in ETF such as Vanguard to buy and hold (interested in around 2 or 3 of them) and not interested in active trading (yet). What would you say is the best? CCtrader seems to be the best for Maltese however they charge 10 euro per trade or 0.1%, whichever is the highest. this would mean that technically it only makes sense to invest EUR 10,001 for it to be “worthwhile” but what do you think?!
Have also looked into eToro but its Israeli origins and mostly involved in CFD trading which is too risky i chose not to use.
Interactive brokers, whislt being the most professional, is probably not worth it for beginning investor as myself investing say once a year in ETF.
What do you think?
Ben, check out Trading212 (they also have an app)
What would you say is the best for just investing in ETF (buy and hold long term) and not be an active trader? CCtrader is probably the best for Maltese, but they have large fees of 10 euro per trade or 0.1%, whichever is the highest. This means it technically would only make sense for investments of above 10,000 to hit the 0.1%.
Have also looked into eToro which is mostly involved in CFD trading which is riskier due to leveraging and plus since its origins is in Israel can raise a few questions. Therfore, I am not really inclined to use this.
Even though interactive brokers is probably the most professional, i am not sure it is suitable for a beginning investor who just wants to invest in ETF and maybe increase it year by year.
What do you think?
I would say try DeGiro or Saxo Bank.
Degiro is unavailable in Malta unfortunately.
Saxo bank, as you explained, has fees on non activity and considering I would be passively investing in these ETF, it doesn’t make sense to use it
Think until revolut release ETF (which in July 2019 they said they will) I will just have to use CCtrader
In that case CCtrader would be a good solution. I’ve used them and they’re decent enough.
U can access degiro even from malta, however u need to have an account abroad to deposit. Revolut is not accepted.
Hi Jean,
Thank you for your great post!
I think of investing in either eToro or DeGiro (mainly stocks but potentially Indiceds and ETFs).
From what I have checked so far in eToro platform, I was not able to find some stocks (listed in Nasdaq and a few in NYSE, mainly related with the fintech and biotech fields), while I will do the same for DeGiro in the coming days.
Do you might know, from your personal experience, if eToro has included all of the stocks listed in Nasdaq and NYSE or if there is a limitation on that?
Thank you!
Hi Nikolas, I haven’t run into this problem myself and unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for you. It’s probably best to contact eToro support and ask them about the specific stocks you’re looking for. I’d be interested to know what they tell you.
Degiro don’t answer emails to open an account, you’re placed in a queue of hundreds of people, their customer service is pretty much unresponsive
And Robinhood is not available for people residing in Europe
I think all brokers are experiencing issues at the moment, Saxo bank had 6 weeks lead time for new accounts last time I checked last week.
Is DEGIRO available in malta? I went on the website and didn’t see Malta on the list
No it is not unfortunately. I’m not sure why.
Great post Indeed!
I would like to know how realiable is finmarket.com
Looks pretty legit to me, but I personally recommend DeGiro.
The hyperlink for degiro links to a Honda (degiro) website.
My mistake, fixed.