Best Online Brokers in Germany + Pros & Cons [2024] - Live In Germany

If you have recently moved to Germany and are in the stage of navigating your way into saving your money, you would need all the help you could get. We all know that having a savings account is not a viable option in long term. Therefore, the best way you can save money is by investing it through a broker. Getting in to stock market will never not be a bad idea, but in order to do so – and that too in a country so foreign, it’s always a great risk. But in times like today, when every basic amenity is shifting towards online, it has become an extremely easy process to find yourself a good enough broker and start investing.

Why Should You Start Investing in Germany?

With the interest rates as low as now, there is never a better time to invest your money. As inflation rises in the country, it is becoming more and more necessary to restore the purchasing power of your money. If you start investing now, you will have better financial security when you retire in the future than the public retirement insurance plan Germany offers. Moreover, investing money in stocks is a good way to grow your wealth in the present.

We understand how tough it must be to find a reliable trading platform in a foreign country. You will find pages and pages of redundant information about stock markets and trading platforms on the internet. To save you a handful of time, we have researched it all for you in this article and presented you with a clear cut information about the stuff that really matters. To make things easier, we have prepared a list of the best online brokers you will find in Germany.

Therefore, if you are living in Germany and looking to amplify your wealth, seeking an income stream to sustain your lifestyle, looking to trade and profit full-time or past-time, this post is it for you.

Quick Comparison Between Best Online Brokers in Germany

What Metrics Should You Consider Before Choosing the Online Broker in Germany?

If you are considering opening an account with an online broker in Germany, there are several factors that you need to consider before making your final decision. It is always a good idea to pay attention to your requirements before you make your pick.

Fees

Fees is a variable aspect among the top online brokers in Germany. It is quite common for brokers to charge a fee on every order. If you are trading frequently, these fees can add up quite quickly. Along with the fees with each order, there are regular management fees, deposit fees, inactivity fees, and withdrawal fees that you should look out for.

Easy-to-Use Trading Platform

This one is a crucial factor to consider before choosing a trading platform for yourself. It may not matter so much while everything is going slow and steady, but at times when you are in the heat of trade with thousands of dollars rolling on the line, you will regret not spending a good amount of time in picking the right platform. An ideal trading platform is intuitive with friendly interfaces with a combination of robust back-ends that can harbor enough pressure to handle the transactions.

Authenticity

The broker you pick for your trading does not necessarily need to be based in Germany. However, it is extremely important that your broker is regulated from a Tier 1 reputable company. If you are choosing to work with the broker that’s based in Germany, make sure that it is regulated by Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). If you start trading a broker that is not registered, it might risk your place in the stock market.

Compatibility

One thing your trading platforms would really need is to work well with the existing infrastructure of Germany. From accepting the most common German funding methods, to offering customer support in the appropriate time zones, these are a few prerequisite of a good broker.

Educational Resources

There are some of the best online trading platforms that offer free educational resources to do a thorough research on market, and analyze risk management tools, stock charts while you are trading. These resources are not only useful for beginners or less experienced traders, but also prove helpful for traders of all levels.

Customer Service

Once you start trading, it is very important to keep in touch with your broker to get and give the necessary updates. Your broker’s customer service should be competent enough to respond timely and get you through every inconvenience that might risk slowing you down. A telephone access and a live chat feature on the trading platform is an ideal way of communicating with your broker.

Deposit and Withdrawal of Money

Before you make your final pick, you should consider that your broker account should be easy to operate and provide their services for either free or at cheap rates. You should be able to deposit and withdraw the amount anytime and anywhere, without so much of a hustle. You should also be able to transfer funds via your checking bank account, along with other payment methods i.e., debit/credit cards or PayPal.

Products You Can Trade With Your Online Broker in Germany

A lot of options can feel exhausting at times. And when you are researching for a reliable broker online, you will come across a lot of them. Every trading platform has their own benefits and drawbacks. Each of them deals with different products and their services may vary according to their prices. You might some of the brokers that only offer orders at a few exchanges on relatively competitive prices, while the others might offer both domestic and international trading with numerous investment types.

Some of the financial products that you will find the online brokers dealing in are:

• ETFs
• Derivatives
• CFDs
• Forex currencies
• Cryptocurrencie
• Stocks

How To Start Trading Using Online Brokers in Germany?

The first step to start trading in Germany using online brokerage is to choose yourself a reliable broker. Make sure to do a thorough research before making your final decision. After you are done selecting the broker you want to invest your money with, the next step is to open a securities account (also called Depot) at your broker. This way, the broker can ensure that you are qualified in the field of stock-market and contain substantial experience in trading. The broker will also recommend you trading products according to your expertise.

For security reasons, you will also have to prove your identity before you start trading. You can either do it digitally via your laptop or phone or you can go to your nearby post office and show your passport to confirm your identity. Having a securities account is not enough, you will also need to have enough money in your account before you start trading. After that, you can finally use your online broker and place your first order.

Best Online Brokers in Germany:

In this section, we will take you through the top-ranked Online Brokers in Germany that are chosen on the above mentioned creterion

eToro

if you are looking to trade in forex or CFD, eToro serves as another viable option where you can swiftly trade over 2000 of your assets including, cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks, and ETFs. It also provides copy trading services. It has an extremely easy sign-up process and would take maximum of ten minutes for you to complete it. eToro also allows you to keep an eye on other professional traders in the market with its social-media like  dashboard.

This trading platform charges no fees for opening an account, neither does it have any management or ticketing fees. However, if you are inactive on the application for longer than 12 months, you will have to pay the inactivity fees. Moreover, it is a relatively safe option, as it caters to its international clients through regulated by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). It also provides dozen of educational resources in different platforms.

The biggest limitation of eToro is that the platform only operates in USD, and you will be charged extra fees for conversion in Euro or other currencies. 

Pros

✅  Trading platform tutorial

✅  Low trading fees

✅  Free stock and ETF trading

✅  Intuitive application

✅  Easy login process

✅  Good search function

Cons

⛔️ Unsafe login

⛔️ Inactivity fees

⛔️ $5 withdrawal fee

⛔️ Low quality educational resources

Trade Republic

Founded in 2015, Trade Republic has quickly gained its reputation as one of the safest online brokerage platforms by acquiring its own BaFin license. In 2019, Trade Republic launched its mobile-only trading application, thus revolutionized the trading industry by making it more accessible. Both its website and application are available in English.

Trade Republic is a great platform to do commission-free trading with their securities account and fixed monthly plans entirely free of charge. Along with the trade of stocks, ETFs, saving plans, and derivatives, Trade Republic has also begun purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies with only 1 euro of external fees. They also provide ease in the deposition of money via bank transfer as well as credit/debit card. It is one of the cheapest online trading platforms, with the pricing of only 1 euro per trade.

The trading experience of Trade Republic is quite convenient. With this platform, you can invest more than 8500 stocks and ETFs. However, one of the drawbacks of this brokerage has to be that it does not provide many educational resources to get financial insight from.

Pros

✅  Trading application available in English and German

✅  Cheap trading fee i.e., 1 euro per trade

✅  Easy and fast sign-up process

✅  Account funding possible via different options

✅  Cryptocurrency trading

✅  Free saving plans

✅  No minimum initial deposit necessary

✅  No account management, withdrawal, or inactivity fees

Cons

⛔️ No chat or phone customer support

⛔️ Not available for US nationals

⛔️ No demo account available

Scalable Capital

This revolutionary brokerage platform offers trading in both automated and manual form. It is a full-scale trading platform that can accessed through website or mobile application. The registration process on website is only available in German, so for services in English, you would have to install the application. Scalable Capital is safe in a way that it has acquired its own BaFin license.

The broker services of this trading platform includes three different plans: Prime Broker and Prime Broker Flex come with a price of 2,99 and 4,99 euros, while Free Broker is an exceptional option for the EFT investors and beginners. Scalable Capital offers investment of cryptocurrencies, EFTs, stocks, and derivatives. No matter which plan you choose, you can open your broker account for free in this platform and also get a free savings plan with each.

Trading fees start at 0.99 euros per trade. You can transfer funds into your trading account via your checking bank account or wire transfer. Scalable Capital does not allow fund transfer via credit/debit cards or Apple or Google pay.

Pros

✅  Intuitive User Interface

✅  Web and app available in English and German

✅  Free savings plan

✅  Easy account opening process

✅  Great customer service

✅  Crypto investment

✅  Only 0,99 euros trading fee per trade

✅  1 euro minimum initial deposit

✅  No account management, withdrawal, or inactivity fee

Cons

⛔️ Web registration only available in German

⛔️ No money deposit via credit/debit card

⛔️ No money deposit via Apple/Google pay

⛔️ Not available for US nationals

Smartbroker

This trading platform has recently been launched i.e., in 2019 by a company called wallstreet:online. Smartbroker has quickly become popular, by courtesy of its low trading fee, free saving plans, and a big selection of stocks and EFTs. It is also regulated and licensed by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

Smartbroker allows you to easily trade stocks, EFTs, certificates, bonds, and warrants – all of them starting at 0 euro per order. There is no restriction on trading all German stock exchanges. It is a convenient choice if you want to trade cheaply.

One of the major drawbacks of this trading platform is its pricing structure that is a bit complicated to understand. For example, trading with Smartbroker is only free if you are trading for more than 500 euros and use the Gettex trading system. Otherwise, if you use any other trading system such as Lang \& Schwarz or Xetra, you will be bound to pay up to 4 euros on each trade.

Pros

✅  Unlimited trading of stocks and EFTs

✅  Very low trading fees

✅  Free savings plan for almost 300 EFTs

✅  Easy account opening process

✅  Good customer service

Cons

⛔️ Trading only via website

⛔️ No mobile application

⛔️ Trading website is only available in German

⛔️ Complex pricing structure

⛔️ 0.5% deposit fee

⛔️ No demo account

⛔️ Fund transfer via bank only

Capital.com

After a lot of thorough research and analysis, we ended up crowning Capital.com as the best online trading platform you can find in Germany. When selecting the best of the best, the primary aspect to look for is that the platform must not only have numerous benefits, but also have marginal drawbacks. Capital.com is an easy-to-use website and AI based mobile interface, its funding process goes a long way at zero rates along with free withdrawal options and intraday trading. And yes, it is a friendly option for beginners.

This platform was founded in 2016 and has its services spread across Cyprus, London, and Belarus. Since 2016, it has continued to succeed and become one of the largest investor-centered fintech companies in the world. On this day, Capital.com caters to more than 300,000 clients having experience of all levels, who deal in millions of financial products, including stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies through CFDs aka contracts-for-difference. It also offers negative balance protection to make sure that you do not lose more than the deposited amount,

Pros

✅  Zero Services Fees

✅  Available in English Language

✅  User-friendly mobile application

✅  Easy sign up process

✅  Robust web trading platform

✅  Competitive swap rates

✅  Risk management tools

✅  Educational courses for traders

✅  Free Financial webinars

✅  Comprehensive trading guide

✅  Great Customer service

Cons

⛔️ Only CFD available

⛔️ Smaller account currencies not available

⛔️ No price alert on web platform

⛔️ Overnight fees

Interactive Brokers

It is a U.S based international trading platform that carry out stock orders for the German market through its U.K. subsidiary. It has a simplified trading interface of both phone application and website that is tailored to accommodate both experienced and new traders.

Interactive Brokers require a minimum of $10,000 deposit to open an account therefore it is mostly preferred by the traders that have adequate experience in the field. It is considered to be a safe option as it has acquired licenses from multiple regulators. Over the years, it has launched several new apps that you can use for investing on different places.

Interactive Brokers charge relatively low fees for its services and has a Lite plan that provide free stock and ETF trading for US clients. It is considered to be one of the best trading platforms in the country, however, the mobile application is inconvenient to operate. It has gained its reputation over the other by offering currencies on various account bases.

Pros

✅  No deposit fee

✅  Several account base currencies

✅  Free first withdrawal every month

✅  Low margin rates

✅  Wide range of products

✅  Several research tools

Cons

⛔️ Complex website interface

⛔️ Inconvenient mobile application interface

⛔️ Technical glitches

⛔️ Credit/Debit card not available

Conclusion

In this age, opening a broker account and starting to trade is not as difficult as before. You only need a handful of resources, and you are ready to roll. If you are looking for a broker online, make sure that the broker that you choose is regulated by the authority. All the brokers that we have listed in this article are safe and regulated and offer a large selection of tradable assets at reasonable trading fees. However, before you make a final decision, it is recommended that you take necessary investment advice from a professional.

If you think that you would need more knowledge to enter the trading world, you can check out many useful online educational videos to help you take the first step. There are many money management techniques that you need to employ in order to keep your investment risk low. Many educational resources would help you learn those techniques and also get familiar with different trading and investment plans.