Best Forex cTrader Brokers

It’s a known fact the currencies market is the largest in the world. Of course, to trade forex requires one to sign up with a broker offering a platform. There are several brands in this regard, but cTrader is among the most well-known and revered.

Because there are a finite number of cTrader brokers, this guide will cover the five top options based on several crucial factors like regulation, fees, conditions, and more. 

You will also learn why the cTrader platform is one of the best for trading forex. So, let’s get started.

5 Best cTrader Brokers 2022

Broker	Founded	HQ	Regulations	Platforms	Markets	Deposit from	Leverage up to	Website
	2006	UK	FCA, CySEC, FSCA, SCB	MT4, MT5, cTrader, FxPro	Forex, Indices, Futures, Options, Stocks, Metals, Energies	$100	1:200	visit
	2007	Australia	ASIC, FCA, CySEC	MT4, MT5, cTrader	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, Bonds, Futures, Crypto	$250	1:500	visit
	2010	Australia	ASIC, FCA, DFSA	MT4, MT5, cTrader	Forex, Commodities, CFDs, Crypto	$200	1:500	visit
	2009	Belize	IFSC	MT4, MT5, cTrader, R Trader	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, ETFs, Metals, Energies	$300	1:300	visit
	2016	Cyprus	FCA, CySEC, FSA	MT4, cTrader, Skilling Trader, cCopy	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Shares, Crypto	€100	1:200	visit

What is the cTrader platform?

cTrader is one of the most popular online derivatives trading platforms. It is a product created by Spotware Systems, a Cyprus-based software developing corporation. The company started in 2010 and released the cTrader platform a year later.

Since then, the software has received multiple awards and garnered a favorable reception among millions of traders and tens of securities brokers for its safety and advanced technical capabilities. 

cTrader was created using C# programming, the same language used by traders to develop custom expert advisors and indicators. 

Spotware has partnered with only a handful of cTrader brokers. However, the company is neutral and will continuously welcome any new firms wishing to offer a premium trading experience to their clients. 

The cTrader platform is primarily desktop-based (Windows 7,8, and 10), but versions of the software are available on the web and Android/iOS devices.

What makes the cTrader platform excellent?

cTrader is all about providing a sleek, minimalistic yet competently advanced and highly responsive trading platform. The front end is as sophisticated as the back end, providing lightning-quick execution, institutional-grade direct market access pricing.

One of cTrader’s outstanding features is level 2 pricing or depth of market. Here, traders can observe the full range of real executed orders from the clients of the particular broker connected to the platform.

Spotware has historically only integrated NDD (no dealing desk) brokers to the cTrader platform. Consequently, a market sentiment indicator comes built-in where traders can view the ratio of long and short orders.

Best of all, it’s all free, provided you’re signed up to any cTrader broker with a demo or live account. Let’s list the main features to expect from the cTrader platform:

• Level 2 pricing
• Pre-installed market sentiment tool
• Asynchronous order pricing
• Advanced charting techniques
• Email alerts
• cTrader Copy (for copy trading)
• cTrader Automate (for creating trading robots)
• cTrader Open API (for creating applications)
• 2 stop-out types
• 9 chart types
• 9 order types
• 26 time frames
• 50 saved templates
• +70 pre-installed indicators
• Detachable charts
• Screenshots 

cTrader vs MT4

Over the years, traders have frequently cited comparisons between cTrader and MT4, being that these are the most popular forex trading platforms. MetaTrader 4 has become somewhat of the de facto standard, with at least 9/10 brokers offering their accounts through it.

The platform’s dominance is understandable, given it has existed since 2005 while cTrader was only launched in 2011. If one could articulate the one underlying distinction between the two, it’d be that MT4 is more dated while cTrader is modern.

MetaTrader 4 is simplistic, compatible with most brokers, allows for the simple creation of indicators and expert advisors. Conversely, cTrader is just sophisticated overall and offers more technical features and capabilities.

cTrader’s user interface is aesthetically pleasing and neater while not being overloaded with features like other platforms in the industry. 

Another significant difference between the two software packages is Spotware only partners with ECN/STP (Electronic Communications Network/Straight Through Processing), while MetaQuotes doesn’t. 

However, this distinction has been argued over the years. According to Spotware, the developers designed the cTrader platform to facilitate transparent execution and restrict any price manipulation. 

However, unlike MT4, cTrader provides level 2 pricing (depth of market) where traders can see the number of orders at particular prices from the broker in question. This information is beneficial, especially for those using order flow analysis.

Overall, features-wise, cTrader is objectively better. Below is a table breakdown of the technical differences between the two.

	MT4	cTrader
Year released	2005	2011
Developer	MetaQuotes	Spotware
Cost	Free	Free
Minimum RAM	512MB	2GB
Minimum operating system	Windows 2000	Windows 7
Minimum internet connection speed	56kb per second	100kb per second
Expert advisor programming language	MQL4	C#
Demo accounts	Yes	Yes
Web trading	Yes	Yes
Mobile app	Yes	Yes
Level 2 / depth of market	No	Yes
One-click trading	Yes	Yes
Market sentiment indicator	No	Yes
Screenshots	No	Yes
Hedging/netting	Yes/No	Yes/Yes
Economic calendar	No	Yes
Order types	4	9
Built-in indicators	30	70+
Time frames	9	26

Factors to consider when choosing a cTrader broker

Here are the main things to study when opting for a cTrader broker:

Look for trusted and regulated brokers

As the currencies market is non-exchange-traded and decentralized, proper regulation becomes all the more critical. As financial services providers, brokers would be regulated by one primary regulator covering a particular country or region. 

The bodies vary in power and respect. The consensus is regulators from so-called offshore countries (Seychelles, Bahamas, Bermuda, Mauritius, Cayman Islands, Vanuatu, Belize, etc.) aren’t held in as much respect as those from most North American, European, and Asian countries. 

It isn’t to say any broker with licenses from the former nations is less reputable. However, it’s better if the broker has regulatory status from the latter as well. Typically, cTrader brokers would be regulated by the following:

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission (covers the United States)
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC – covers much of the EU additionally)
• Financial Conduct Authority (covers the United Kingdom)

Consider the broker’s trading costs

Like any financial service provider, cTrader brokers have costs. The main trading-related ones to observe are spreads/commissions, deposit/withdrawal fees, and conversion fees.

Some may feature inactivity fees in the picture, though these are simple to avoid. Of course, traders will want the lowest costs possible to maximize their bottom line.

• Spreads/commissions: Luckily, traders generally don’t need to bother in 

comparing spreads since they are pretty similar overall with insignificantly minor differences.

However, if you’re trading exotic markets, it would be beneficial to compare against several cTrader brokers because the contrasts can be noticeable. For commissions, this only applies on fixed or zero spread accounts which brokerages charge for every order using a certain per lot fee.

In this regard, it would help to weigh up across many cTrader brokers to find the best deal, as you may notice some considerable discrepancies.

• Deposit/withdrawal costs: These are the easiest to minimize, despite that

most cTrader brokers don’t apply any. Clients should prioritize funding with their VISA/Mastercard bank cards or e-wallet services like Neteller, Skrill, etc. (although the former is much cheaper).

One should generally avoid depositing through a bank transfer as these usually incur a high cost from cTrader brokers and are slow in transaction confirmation.

• Conversion fees: These may apply if the currency you’re funding with is  

different from your account currency. Hence, traders will benefit from using a broker with several base currencies to avoid such fees.

Observe the minimum deposit requirement

What is the minimum deposit; $10, $100, $500, or more? Most cTrader brokers have reasonable starting amounts. However, you’ll want to consider this aspect and ensure it fits your budget while allowing you to trade as many markets as possible.

Explore the broker’s range of markets

All brokers should at least provide the standard 28 pairs, combinations of all the major currencies (AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, NZD, USD). More experienced speculators will trade exotics additionally, meaning they’d need a broker providing more options in this niche.

What about if you also wanted to trade commodities, equities, cryptocurrencies, or indices? Ultimately, the more, the merrier; clients would wish their broker to have all their desired markets under one roof for convenience.

Find out the customer support options available

Only a few things are more inconvenient for traders than not having a simple query fixed with a broker. Consequently, a live chat function is a must-have since it solves many issues without any verbal contact.

Of course, this isn’t to take away the importance of other support channels such as telephone, email, and even messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber.

Which are the best forex cTrader brokers in 2021?

Now let’s cover the best five cTrader brokers with a brief review of their main services.

FxPro: Best cTrader Forex Broker Overall

FXPro was made for pros, by pros. Proudly asserting itself as the ‘world’s #1 FX broker,’ FXPro equally excels in providing innovative trading services in six other asset classes since 2006.

With a $100 minimum deposit, you can trade currencies, futures, stocks, indices, metals, energies, and cryptocurrencies. Over 1.8 million clients from 173 countries use FXPro for top-tier liquidity, competitive trading costs, millisecond-quick execution, and no dealing desk intervention.

Their highly competitive and trusted efforts have been recognized with more than 80 international awards and official partnerships with the McLaren F1 team and Yacht Club de Monaco.

As one of Spotware longest-serving clients, FXPro is the crème de la crème for experiencing cTrader.

FxPro Review

IC Markets: Best cTrader Broker For Low Spreads

Many might not know that, as of March 2021, IC Markets processes the largest daily trading volume (at least $19 billion) among forex brokers globally. The ‘IC’ stands for ‘international capital,’ a testament to the broker’s size and dominance. 

IC Markets was founded in 2007 in Australia (where it still has an office) but now has its headquarters in Seychelles and regional offices in Cyprus and the Bahamas. The broker offers some of the cheapest spreads. 

As if this wasn’t enough, IC Markets provides a zero spread account as a cTrader broker with a minimum commission of $3 per traded lot. 

Clients can trade 61 forex pairs, 25 indices, 22 commodities, 11 bonds, 13 digital currencies, and 1659 stocks on AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, NZD, SGD, and USD accounts.

Ultimately, IC Markets is one of the premium forex brokers to enjoy the full suite of cTrader’s products.

IC Markets Review

Pepperstone: Best cTrader Broker Providing Numerous Base Currencies

Pepperstone is licensed by numerous supervisory bodies, namely ASIC (Australia), FCA (United Kingdom), CySEC (Cyprus), DFSA (Dubai), CMA (Kenya), and BaFin (Germany). The broker processes an average of $9.2 billion daily in trading volume, among the highest for any forex broker globally.

As a globally recognized broker with hundreds of thousands of clients, Pepperstone allows traders to fund their accounts in several base currencies (10), namely USD, JPY, GBP, AUD, EUR, CAD, NZD, CHF, HKD, and SGD.

One can access over 1200 instruments from FX, digital currencies, shares, commodities, and more. Reasonable trading costs, speedy execution, wide market selection, global recognition, plus integration with cTrader? Not many brokers can match this deal.

Roboforex: Best cTrader Broker For Beginners

Established in 2010, Roboforex is a prominent Belize-based securities broker with an additional Cyprus office. The broker provides CFD trading services for forex, commodities, equities, metals, ETFs, and indices.

What makes Roboforex suitable for beginners is the broker’s low $/€10/ ¥10 minimum deposit for most accounts. If you don’t feel like contacting Roboforex via the phone, email, or live chat, you can also (contact) the broker via instant messaging platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.

Moreover, new clients can receive a $30 no deposit welcome bonus to try the broker’s live trading conditions risk-free.

Skilling: Best cTrader Broker With Wide Range Of Payment Methods

Skilling is a relatively new derivatives broker founded in 2016 by several Scandanavian fintech magnates. The brokerage’s offices are based in Malta, Spain, Seychelles, Cyprus, with regulatory licenses from the latter two nations and the FCA (United Kingdom).

Skilling integrated with the cTrader platform in 2020, further spreading their no-fuss, intuitive approach to trading by offering transparent, accessible, and cost-effective solutions. 

Traders can access over 800 instruments consisting of forex, cryptocurrencies, shares, indices, and commodities. As an already global player, the broker offers 19 different methods for funding and getting paid (country-dependent), ensuring anyone from any part of the globe trades with them.

FAQs about the top cTrader brokers

Is cTrader better than MT4?

Yes, due to the number of technical features and its modern, sleek user interface.

How much does cTrader cost?

There is no cost in using cTrader. However, you will need to fund an account through a broker connecting to the platform for live trading. You will have to note any spreads and commissions associated with using cTrader using the broker in question.

What is cTrader used for?

Depending on what is offered by the connected broker, you can trade a wide range of CFD products like forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, futures, bonds, commodities, energies, and metals. The cTrader platform has copy trading and signal providing services and allows traders to create robots and custom indicators.