
Both of these brokers opened in 2005. Twenty years later they barely resemble each other, and that is the most useful thing to understand about them.
FP Markets went one way. It based itself in Sydney, got itself licensed by strict Australian and European regulators, and built tools for people who trade seriously, including direct access to real share markets. It cannot offer you a bonus, because its regulators will not allow it.
LiteFinance went the other. It opened offices across Asia and Africa, in the Philippines, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam and a dozen more, and built around getting people started with almost no money. A $10 account. Copy trading at the centre. Deposit bonuses up to 100%.
Quick Answer
| Best for | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Starting with almost nothing | LiteFinance | $10 Cent account, against $100 |
| Cost per trade | FP Markets | About 1.19 pips, against 1.8 |
| Being protected | FP Markets | Strict Australian licence. LiteFinance has none. |
| Copying other traders | LiteFinance | Built around it |
| Free credit | LiteFinance | Bonuses up to 100%. FP Markets cannot offer any. |
| Choice of markets | FP Markets | Thousands, if your country allows IRESS |
| Avoiding extra fees | FP Markets | No idle fee, no VPS charge |
Comparison Table
| LiteFinance | FP Markets | |
|---|---|---|
| Started | 2005, as LiteForex | 2005, in Sydney |
| Smallest deposit | $10 (Cent), $50 (Classic and ECN) | $100 (some sites say $50) |
| Commission-free gap (EUR/USD) | 1.8 pips (Classic), 3 pips (Cent) | About 1.19 pips |
| Raw account | 0.0 pips + commission (see below) | 0.0 pips + $3 per side ($6 round turn) |
| Strict regulator | None. CySEC for EU clients only | ASIC in Australia, plus CySEC |
| Where everyone else is sent | St Vincent, or Mauritius | Offshore arms |
| Bonuses | Up to 100%, plus spread rebates | None. Regulators forbid them. |
| Fee for leaving the account unused | About $10 a month once idle | None |
| VPS hosting | About $15 a month | Free |
| Copy trading | Core feature | Available |
| Things you can trade | A few hundred | Over 10,000 via IRESS, or about 144 without it |
| Software | MT4, MT5, cTrader, own social platform | MT4, MT5, cTrader, IRESS, TradingView |
| Max leverage | 1:1000 (some sites say 1:500) | 1:500 |
Check these on each broker’s own site before you trust them. FP Markets lists its smallest deposit as both $50 and $100 depending where you look. Gaps move through the day, so treat them as normal-hours figures.
Trading Costs
FP Markets is cheaper, on both account types, and it is not close.
On the commission-free account, FP Markets averages about 1.19 pips on EUR/USD. LiteFinance’s Classic account starts at 1.8 pips. Its $10 Cent account starts at 3 pips, which is more than double FP Markets.
On the raw account, FP Markets charges $3 per side, so $6 to open and close a trade. Simple, and quoted the same everywhere.
LiteFinance’s raw account cost is a genuine mystery, and you should know that before you sign up. Trusted review sites quote its ECN commission as $0.25, $0.50, $5, $10, and $30 per lot on minor pairs. That is a fortyfold range. Some of the gap is sites measuring different things, but the honest summary is that nobody outside the company seems certain, and several sites are copying each other rather than checking.
So do not trust any table on this, mine included. If the ECN account interests you, open LiteFinance’s own contract specifications and read the number for the pair you trade. If it lands near $10 a lot, it is far dearer than FP Markets. If it is $0.25, it is cheaper. You cannot plan around a number that vague.
Then there are the quiet costs. LiteFinance charges about $10 a month once your account goes idle, and about $15 a month for VPS hosting. FP Markets charges nothing for either and gives VPS free. If you trade in bursts, that idle fee bleeds you slowly.
[Your own test: screenshot LiteFinance’s live commission spec for EUR/USD. Given how badly the web contradicts itself, that image alone would beat every rival page.]
Which Broker Is Safer?
FP Markets, and this is the clearest difference between them.
FP Markets is watched by ASIC in Australia, which is strict, and by CySEC in Cyprus. It has run since 2005, keeps customer money in a separate account, and has a clean record. Rating firms score it among the more trusted brokers in the business.
LiteFinance holds no strict licence at all. No Australian regulator, no British one. Its European arm is watched by CySEC, and European clients get Investor Compensation Fund cover, which is real protection. But everyone else is signed up under LiteFinance Global in St Vincent and the Grenadines, or under Mauritius. St Vincent is among the weakest homes a broker can have, because its authority does not regulate forex at all. It simply registers companies.
Be fair about the nuance. FP Markets also sends non-European, non-Australian clients to offshore arms. So if you are outside those regions, neither protects you as well as the headline suggests, and you should find out which company will hold your account before you deposit anything.
But the gap is still real. FP Markets holds a strict Australian licence and answers to it. LiteFinance holds nothing of the kind anywhere.
One more thing worth knowing about LiteFinance: some traders report having profits cancelled over accusations of arbitrage trading. It usually involves exploiting pricing glitches, and it is not unique to this broker, but the complaint recurs often enough to mention.
Bonuses
Here the two brokers tell you exactly who they are.
LiteFinance offers deposit bonuses up to 100% and spread rebates of up to $7 a lot. FP Markets offers nothing at all.
That looks like a rout for LiteFinance. Look closer.
FP Markets cannot offer bonuses. Its regulators forbid them, because bonuses are known to push beginners into trading more than they should to unlock the money. Bonus cash almost always carries conditions: you must trade a certain amount before you can withdraw anything tied to it, and that amount is usually far larger than a newcomer expects.
So the pattern is worth learning, because it applies far beyond these two. The brokers that can shower you with free credit are generally the ones nobody strict is watching. The brokers that cannot are usually the ones being supervised. A generous bonus is not proof of a bad broker, but it does tell you something about who is minding it.
Copy Trading
This is LiteFinance’s genuine strength.
It built its business around social trading. You can browse experienced traders, check their records, and copy their trades automatically. It is the heart of the platform, not a bolt-on, and for someone who does not trust their own judgement yet, that has real appeal.
FP Markets offers copy trading too, but it is not what the broker is built around.
One caution for both. Copying someone does not remove risk, it moves it. You can lose money following another trader exactly as fast as trading yourself, and the enormous returns on some profiles are not a promise of anything.
What You Can Trade
FP Markets advertises over 10,000 markets. Read the catch before that decides anything.
Nearly all of that range lives inside IRESS, its share-trading platform, and IRESS is restricted by country and needs a much larger deposit. If you cannot get it where you live, FP Markets drops to roughly 144 markets on MT4 and MT5, which is modest.
LiteFinance offers a few hundred markets: currencies, some commodities, indices and share CFDs, plus crypto you can also use to fund your account.
So check whether IRESS is available to you. If it is, FP Markets is in another league. If it is not, the two are closer than the headline number suggests, and LiteFinance may even offer more.
Leverage
Leverage means borrowing from your broker so you can trade more than you have.
LiteFinance offers up to 1:1000. FP Markets caps at 1:500, and at 1:30 under its Australian or European arm, because strict regulators require it.
Notice the pattern again: the broker without a strict regulator offers the bigger number. Leverage grows your losses exactly as fast as your wins, and heavy leverage is the fastest way a beginner loses everything. FP Markets’ lower cap is protection, not a shortcoming.
Final Verdict
Take FP Markets if you can put together $100. It costs less on every trade, its pricing is knowable rather than guesswork, a strict Australian regulator watches it, it charges you nothing for going quiet, and it gives you VPS free. If IRESS is available where you live, you also get thousands of real shares to grow into. For a first account, it is the better broker on nearly every measure that matters.
Take LiteFinance if $100 is genuinely beyond you and $10 is not, or if copy trading is the reason you came. Its Cent account is a real way to learn with tiny sums, and its social trading beats FP Markets’. Just go in clear that you are paying more per trade for that, that the idle fee and VPS charge add up, that its raw pricing is anyone’s guess, and that no strict regulator is watching over your money.
Same age, opposite bets. FP Markets built for people who plan to stay. LiteFinance built for people who need to start today.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, LiteFinance or FP Markets? FP Markets, on both account types. About 1.19 pips against LiteFinance’s 1.8 commission-free, and $6 per round turn on its raw account against a LiteFinance commission nobody can pin down.
Which is safer? FP Markets. It holds a strict Australian licence. LiteFinance holds no strict licence anywhere, though its European arm is covered by CySEC with compensation cover. Outside Europe and Australia, both route you offshore, so check which company holds your account.
What does LiteFinance’s ECN account cost? Sources quote anything from $0.25 to $30 per lot. Check LiteFinance’s own contract specifications rather than any comparison table, including this one.
Why does FP Markets not offer bonuses? Its regulators forbid them. That is a sign it is being supervised, not a sign of meanness.
Which is better for copy trading? LiteFinance, clearly. It is built around social trading. Remember that copying someone can lose you money as fast as trading yourself.
Which is better for a complete beginner? FP Markets, if you can afford it. LiteFinance’s $10 Cent account is a fair way to learn with small sums, but its spreads are wide and nobody strict is watching it.
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