Avatrade vs Roboforex

Who is watching. AvaTrade holds licences across around nine jurisdictions, anchored by Ireland’s central bank and including Australia and Japan. That is one of the widest regulatory footprints in retail trading. RoboForex is registered in Belize, a light-touch regulator, though it voluntarily bought €20,000 compensation cover and €2.5m of insurance, which puts it ahead of most offshore brokers.

The idle fee. AvaTrade charges $50 every three months once you stop trading, then adds about $100 a year after twelve months. RoboForex charges nothing, ever.

Your account type. AvaTrade is cheaper commission-free, at about 0.9 pips against RoboForex’s 1.3. But AvaTrade has no raw account at all, so that is as cheap as it gets. RoboForex’s raw account runs about $2 a lot, which beats anything AvaTrade offers.

Ignore RoboForex’s 12,000 markets. Nearly all live inside its own platform. On MetaTrader you get about a hundred.

Quick Answer

Comparison Table

Check these on each broker’s own site before you trust them. RoboForex quotes its raw commission differently across sources, and gaps move through the day.

The Idle Fee

This deserves attention because it is unusually harsh and beginners never check it.

AvaTrade charges $50 every three months once your account goes inactive. After twelve months it adds an administration fee of about $100 a year on top. So take six months off and AvaTrade has taken $100 from a balance you were not using. Take a year off and it is worse.

RoboForex charges nothing. Leave your account for two years and it is untouched.

Think about who this hurts. It is not the professional trading daily. It is the beginner who funds an account, trades for a month, gets busy, and comes back in the summer. That is most new traders, and AvaTrade bills them for it.

If you know you will trade steadily, ignore this section. If you suspect you will trade in bursts, it may be the deciding factor on this page.

Trading Costs

This splits by account type, so read carefully.

Commission-free, AvaTrade is cheaper. About 0.9 pips on EUR/USD against RoboForex’s 1.3. AvaTrade also offers fixed spreads on some instruments, so your cost stays the same even when markets get choppy. RoboForex has nothing like that.

But AvaTrade has no raw account. None. It is a market maker, so every cost sits inside the spread and 0.9 pips is the floor. RoboForex’s raw accounts drop the gap to almost nothing for about $2 a lot, and its Prime account goes lower.

So AvaTrade wins today and RoboForex wins later. If you stay a casual trader, AvaTrade costs you less. If you improve and start trading often, AvaTrade has no cheaper tier to move to, and RoboForex does.

That ceiling is worth knowing before you commit.

Which Broker Is Safer?

AvaTrade, and by a distance.

AvaTrade holds licences across around nine jurisdictions, anchored by the Central Bank of Ireland and including ASIC in Australia and Japan’s FSA, which is notably strict. That breadth is uncommon at retail level. It has run since 2006, keeps client money separate, and offers negative balance protection.

RoboForex is registered with the FSC in Belize. No strict authority watches it anywhere.

Give RoboForex its due, though, because it earns some. It voluntarily joined the Financial Commission, an independent body that can order it to compensate a client up to €20,000 per verified claim, and carries €2.5 million in civil liability insurance. Belize required neither. RoboForex chose to pay for them, and has kept the same name since 2009 with no legal cloud.

That makes it the best-protected offshore broker you are likely to find. It still is not the same as nine regulators, one of which can investigate, fine and shut you down.

Neither is watched by Britain’s FCA, so UK traders miss out at both.

[Your own test: screenshot which company each broker signs you up to from your country. Both run several entities, and the one covering you matters more than the strongest licence they advertise.]

What You Can Trade

RoboForex advertises over 12,000 markets. AvaTrade offers about 1,250. Read the catch before that impresses you.

Nearly all of RoboForex’s range lives inside R StocksTrader, its own platform. Stay on MT4 or MT5 and you get roughly a hundred markets, which is far fewer than AvaTrade gives you.

So the headline reverses. If you use MetaTrader, AvaTrade offers more, not less.

AvaTrade also has something RoboForex cannot match: vanilla options through AvaOptions, which lets you build defined-risk strategies that plain CFD brokers do not offer. It also has AvaProtect, a paid feature that refunds losses on a position within a set window.

RoboForex counters with free VPS hosting for automated strategies, which AvaTrade does not give away.

Leverage

RoboForex offers up to 1:2000. AvaTrade caps at 1:400, and at 1:30 under its European or Australian arms.

RoboForex’s number is five times bigger and five times more dangerous. Leverage grows your losses exactly as fast as your wins, and heavy leverage is the quickest way a beginner empties an account.

Notice the pattern. AvaTrade caps lowest because around nine regulators make it. RoboForex offers the most because nobody strict stops it. Those facts are connected.

Final Verdict

Take AvaTrade if you will trade steadily and you want serious oversight. Around nine regulators watch it, it is cheaper on the account you will start with, it offers fixed spreads and options that RoboForex has no answer to, and its low leverage cap protects you. For a first account with regular activity, it is the better home.

Take RoboForex if you trade in bursts, if $100 is out of reach and $10 is not, or if you already trade enough to want a raw account. It charges nothing for going quiet, hands you VPS and copy trading free, and its raw pricing at about $2 a lot is genuinely cheap. It is also the offshore broker that paid for protection when nobody required it.

The honest summary: AvaTrade is better watched and cheaper today. RoboForex is cheaper later and does not punish you for taking a break. Work out which of those describes you.

FAQ

Which is cheaper, AvaTrade or RoboForex?

AvaTrade on the commission-free account, at about 0.9 pips against 1.3. RoboForex once you move to a raw account, at about $2 a lot, which AvaTrade cannot match because it has no raw account.

Which is safer?

AvaTrade, clearly. Around nine regulators watch it. RoboForex has no strict licence, though it voluntarily bought €20,000 compensation cover and €2.5m of insurance.

Does AvaTrade charge a fee if I stop trading?

Yes, and it is harsh: $50 every three months once idle, plus about $100 a year after twelve months. RoboForex charges nothing.

Can I get raw spreads at AvaTrade?

No. AvaTrade is a market maker with no raw or ECN account, so its spread is the floor.

Does RoboForex really offer 12,000 markets?

Only on its own R StocksTrader platform. On MT4 and MT5 you get about a hundred, fewer than AvaTrade.

Which is better for a complete beginner?

AvaTrade if you can afford $100 and will trade regularly. RoboForex if you have $10, or if you know you will trade in bursts and want to avoid the idle fee.

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