Roboforex vs IC Markets

The deposit. $10 at RoboForex against $200 at IC Markets. For a lot of people, that settles it on the spot.

Which account you use. This one surprises people. IC Markets is cheaper if you trade commission-free, which is where every beginner starts. RoboForex is cheaper on raw accounts, which is where you end up if you start trading often. So the cheaper broker changes as you improve.

Who is watching. IC Markets holds a strict Australian licence. RoboForex holds no strict licence anywhere, though it has paid for private compensation cover to make up for it, which puts it ahead of most offshore brokers.

Two things you should ignore: RoboForex’s 12,000 markets, which mostly are not there on MetaTrader, and its 1:2000 leverage, which is a hazard sold as a feature.

Comparison Table

Which Broker Is Safer?

IC Markets, and the reason matters more than the verdict.

IC Markets is watched by ASIC in Australia and CySEC in Cyprus. Both are strict. They check the books, set the rules, and can force a broker to answer for itself or stop trading. IC Markets has run since 2007, keeps client money in a separate account, and holds a 4.8 rating on Trustpilot from more than 54,000 reviews. That is a lot of people to keep happy for a long time.

RoboForex is registered with the FSC in Belize, a light-touch offshore regulator. No strict authority watches it anywhere.

Now give RoboForex its due, because it earns it.

It joined the Financial Commission voluntarily. That is an independent body which can order a broker to compensate a client, with cover up to €20,000 per verified claim. It also carries €2.5 million in civil liability insurance. Belize demanded neither of those. RoboForex chose to pay for them, which is exactly what you want to see from a broker that nobody is forcing to do anything. It keeps client money separate, offers negative balance protection, and has run under one name for sixteen years without a legal cloud.

That makes RoboForex better than most offshore brokers by a wide margin. It does not make it equal to IC Markets.

A €20,000 private compensation scheme is a good thing. It is still not a national regulator with the power to investigate, fine and close a business down. If RoboForex mistreated you, you would be writing to a private body it chose to join. If IC Markets mistreated an Australian client, ASIC would be involved.

One honest wrinkle. IC Markets only puts you under ASIC if you are in Australia, and under CySEC if you are in Europe. Everyone else goes to an offshore arm in the Seychelles or the Bahamas. So if you are outside those regions, the strict licence you have been reading about may not be the one covering your account. Find out which company holds your money before you deposit, not after.

Even so, IC Markets holds strict licences and answers to them somewhere. RoboForex holds none, anywhere.

[Your own test: screenshot which company each broker signs you up to from your country. That single fact decides more than any rating.]

Trading Costs

This splits, and where you land depends on how much you trade.

Commission-free, IC Markets is cheaper. About 1.10 pips on EUR/USD against RoboForex’s 1.3. That is the account you will start on, so for a beginner, IC Markets costs less per trade despite being the more expensive broker to join.

On raw accounts, RoboForex is cheaper, and by a lot. Both drop the gap to almost nothing. RoboForex then charges around $2 a lot, with its Prime account lower still. IC Markets charges $3.50 per side, so $7 to open and close. For someone trading heavily, that is a real saving.

So there is no single cheaper broker. There is a cheaper broker for the stage you are at. New and trading commission-free, IC Markets. Trading often enough to earn a raw account, RoboForex.

One thing beginners get wrong: a raw account is not automatically cheaper. You have to trade enough for the tighter gap to make up for the fee. Start commission-free, and move only when your volume justifies it.

Neither charges you for going quiet, and both give VPS hosting free. That is unusually decent from both.

The $200 Question

This is the only reason RoboForex is still in the running, so let us be honest about it.

IC Markets wants $200. RoboForex wants $10. If you have $50 to your name and you want to start trading this week, IC Markets is not an option and no amount of praise for ASIC changes that.

But think about what $200 buys. It buys a broker watched by a strict regulator, a slightly tighter spread on every trade you place, hundreds more markets on the software you will use, and a business with an enormous, long, clean record. It is not a fee. It is the price of admission, and you keep the money. It sits in your account and you trade with it.

So the real question is not whether IC Markets is worth $200. It is whether you can wait and save the difference.

If you can, wait. Three or four weeks of setting money aside gets you a materially better broker for the entire time you trade. That is a good trade and it is the honest advice, even though it is not what anyone wants to hear.

If you cannot, RoboForex is a reasonable place to begin. It is the best-protected offshore broker you are likely to find, and starting small at a decent broker beats not starting.

What You Can Trade

RoboForex advertises over 12,000 markets. Read the catch.

Nearly all of them live inside R StocksTrader, its own platform, which is where the real shares and funds sit. Stay on MT4 or MT5 and you get roughly a hundred markets.

IC Markets offers hundreds of markets on MetaTrader itself, plus access to shares on international exchanges, with no separate platform required.

So the headline reverses once you look. If you plan to use MetaTrader, IC Markets gives you considerably more to trade than RoboForex does, not less. RoboForex only wins this if you are willing to move to its own software.

Platforms and Copy Trading

Both give you MT4 and MT5, and both give VPS hosting free.

IC Markets adds cTrader and TradingView charts. RoboForex adds R StocksTrader and its own web and mobile apps. If you want cTrader, only IC Markets has it.

On copy trading, RoboForex has the edge. CopyFX is free, built in, and central to the platform. IC Markets offers copy trading through third-party services, which works but is not what the broker is built around.

The same warning applies at both. Copying someone does not remove risk, it moves it. You can lose money following another trader as fast as trading yourself, and the huge returns on some profiles are advertising, not a promise.

Leverage

RoboForex offers up to 1:2000. IC Markets caps at 1:500, and at 1:30 under its Australian or European arm.

RoboForex’s bigger number is not a win. Leverage grows your losses exactly as fast as your wins, and heavy leverage is the quickest way a beginner empties an account. IC Markets caps lower because strict regulators make it, and that cap is a seatbelt.

The pattern repeats across this whole industry: the broker without a strict regulator offers four times the leverage. Those two facts are connected, and not in RoboForex’s favour.

Final Verdict

Take IC Markets if you can find $200. It is cheaper on the account you will start with, it gives you far more to trade on the software you will use, a strict Australian regulator watches it, and tens of thousands of customers rate it highly after nearly twenty years. The lower leverage cap protects you from the mistake that ends most beginners. On nearly every measure that matters to a new trader, it wins.

Take RoboForex if $200 is genuinely out of reach, or if you already trade enough to live on a raw account, where $2 a lot beats $7 per round turn comfortably. It deserves real credit: it is the offshore broker that paid for protection when nobody made it, and it has behaved well for sixteen years.

But do not choose it for the 12,000 markets, which mostly are not there on MetaTrader, or the 1:2000 leverage, which is a hazard sold as a feature. Choose it because you need to start with $10, or because you trade enough to make its raw pricing pay.

And if the only thing standing between you and IC Markets is a few weeks of saving, save the money.

FAQ

Which is cheaper, RoboForex or IC Markets? It depends on your account. Commission-free, IC Markets is cheaper at about 1.10 pips against 1.3. On a raw account, RoboForex is much cheaper at about $2 a lot against $7 per round turn.

Which is safer? IC Markets. A strict Australian regulator watches it. RoboForex has no strict licence anywhere, though it has voluntarily bought €20,000 compensation cover and €2.5m of insurance, which makes it better protected than most offshore brokers.

Does RoboForex really offer 12,000 markets? Only on its own R StocksTrader platform. On MT4 and MT5 you get about a hundred, which is fewer than IC Markets offers.

Is $200 worth it to open an account? The $200 is not a fee, it stays in your account and you trade with it. If you can wait a few weeks to save it, you get a better regulated broker with tighter spreads for as long as you trade.

Is 1:2000 leverage better than 1:500? No, especially not for a beginner. It grows losses as fast as wins. RoboForex can offer it partly because no strict regulator stops it.

Which has better copy trading? RoboForex. CopyFX is free and built in. IC Markets offers it through third parties.

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