DEGIRO vs Trading 212 vs Trade Republic vs Plus500: Which Broker Is Best?

Editorial analysis by The Strategic Newb, not a customer testimonial. The supplied source reviews assess Dutch accounts or pricing where stated. Availability, legal entities and terms may differ by country; check the provider’s terms for your country.

DEGIRO, Trading 212, Trade Republic and Plus500 serve very different investors. We compare their costs, products, cards, automation, protection and suitability for long-term investing or active trading.

Information checked on 24 September 2026. No affiliate tracking.

DEGIRO, Trading 212, Trade Republic and Plus500 are frequently presented as interchangeable low-cost brokers. They are not.

Trade Republic is built around automated investing, interest-bearing cash and everyday banking features. Trading 212 combines commission-free fractional investing with automation and a payment card. DEGIRO offers broader access to traditional exchanges and specialist instruments, alongside a Dutch pension account. Plus500 is primarily a leveraged CFD platform intended for active traders rather than ordinary long-term investors.

That difference matters more than a headline claiming “zero commission”. The best broker depends on whether you want to build an ETF portfolio, invest small amounts automatically, trade options or speculate on short-term price movements.

Information and fees in this comparison were checked on 24 September 2026. Product availability, promotional rates and investor protection can vary by country and legal entity.

Key takeaways

• Trade Republic is the strongest all-round choice for many European long-term investors, particularly those who want free savings plans, fractional investing, cash interest and a payment card in one app.
• Trading 212 is often the cheapest and most flexible option for small investors, thanks to commission-free stocks and ETFs, fractional shares and its Pies and AutoInvest system.
• DEGIRO is better suited to self-directed and more experienced investors who need access to numerous exchanges, bonds, options, futures or a Dutch pension-investing account.
• Plus500 is the specialist choice for short-term CFD trading, but its leverage, spreads and overnight financing make it a poor substitute for a conventional long-term investment account.
• A broker card lets you spend available cash, not unrealised investment gains. Shares normally need to be sold and settled before their proceeds can be spent.

Quick verdict: which broker is best for whom?

Our overall assessment is that Trade Republic offers the most balanced package for the average European investor, while Trading 212 can be the cheaper and more flexible choice for small portfolios. DEGIRO wins when product range and pension investing matter more than automation or banking features.

Plus500 belongs in a different category. It can serve an experienced short-term trader, but it should not be treated as a direct replacement for a long-term stock and ETF broker.

DEGIRO vs Trading 212 vs Trade Republic vs Plus500 at a glance

Products can differ between countries. Investors should verify the applicable legal entity and local product list before opening an account.

Which broker is cheapest?

There is no universal cheapest broker. The answer changes with the investment, transaction size, currency and trading frequency.

Trading 212 is usually cheapest for small investments

Trading 212’s Invest account charges no dealing commission on stocks and ETFs. Its principal platform fee is a 0.15% foreign-exchange charge when a currency conversion is required. Fractional shares and AutoInvest make the platform particularly efficient for small monthly contributions.

That does not mean every trade is literally free. Investors still encounter:

• Bid-ask spreads
• ETF management expenses
• Currency-conversion costs
• Applicable taxes or exchange charges
• A deposit fee after exceeding Trading 212’s cumulative free allowance for card and certain instant-payment deposits

Trading 212 says card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and similar deposits are free until a cumulative €2,000 has been deposited, after which a 0.7% fee applies. Bank transfers remain the more economical funding method for larger amounts.

Trade Republic is exceptionally competitive for savings plans

Trade Republic charges no broker execution fee for its recurring Savings Plans. A normal one-off transaction generally carries a €1 external settlement charge, in addition to the market spread and any product-specific third-party costs. Fractional investments are available in selected shares, ETFs and bonds from €1.

This makes Trade Republic attractive for investors who automate a monthly ETF purchase. However, a €1 fee is relatively expensive on very small manual trades:

• €1 on a €50 order equals 2%
• €1 on a €100 order equals 1%
• €1 on a €5,000 order equals 0.02%

The fee is therefore minor for large orders but material for investors manually purchasing small amounts.

DEGIRO can be inexpensive, but its fee structure requires more attention

DEGIRO’s ETF Core Selection includes more than 1,000 products on Tradegate at €1 per transaction. Other ETFs generally cost €2 commission plus a €1 handling fee. Dutch shares are priced at €2 plus €1 handling, while US shares cost €1 plus €1 handling.

Other possible DEGIRO expenses include:

• A 0.25% automatic currency-conversion charge
• Exchange connectivity charges outside the investor’s home market
• Product expenses and spreads
• €0.75 per contract for listed options and futures
• Additional charges for manual currency conversion or certain services

DEGIRO has no custody, inactivity, deposit or withdrawal fee under its standard tariff. Its costs remain competitive for larger self-directed orders, but Trading 212 and Trade Republic’s savings plans are generally more economical for small recurring contributions.

Plus500’s lack of commission does not make it cheapest

Plus500 normally incorporates its compensation into the bid-ask spread rather than charging a conventional dealing commission. Traders may also pay:

• Overnight funding
• Currency-conversion charges of up to 0.7% on realised net profit and loss
• Wider spreads when using a guaranteed stop
• An inactivity fee of up to $10 per month after three months without logging in

The broker normally does not levy a standard deposit or withdrawal fee, although payment providers may impose their own charges.

For an intraday position that is opened and closed quickly, the spread may be the principal cost. For a position retained for weeks or months, repeated overnight financing can make Plus500 substantially more expensive than holding a directly owned share or ETF.

Illustrative cost comparison

The table below excludes market spreads, taxes and ETF management expenses because these vary by security and execution venue.

On pure transaction price, Trading 212 is frequently the cheapest. For an automated long-term plan, Trade Republic can be equally competitive. DEGIRO becomes more attractive when the investor values access to specific exchanges and instruments rather than the absolute lowest cost.

Trade Republic: best all-round broker for many European investors

Trade Republic combines three functions that were traditionally separate:

1. A securities account
2. An automated investment platform
3. A cash account with a payment card

Investors can create recurring Savings Plans in shares and ETFs without a broker execution fee. Fractional investing allows a fixed euro amount to be invested even when a whole share is expensive.

Its strongest advantage is convenience. Money that is not invested can earn a variable rate under the applicable conditions, while available cash can be used with the Trade Republic card. The card also offers 1% Saveback, capped at €15 per month, when the customer meets the relevant conditions, including maintaining at least €50 in monthly Savings Plans. Card and promotional terms can change.

The virtual card has no issuance fee. Trade Republic currently charges a one-off fee for physical card variants, including €5 for the Classic card and €50 for the Mirror card. Cash withdrawals of at least €100 are generally free from Trade Republic’s side.

Trade Republic advantages

• Free recurring Savings Plans
• Fractional investing from small amounts
• Integrated payment card
• Saveback automatically directed into an investment plan
• Variable interest on eligible cash
• Simple mobile experience
• €1 charge for ordinary one-off transactions
• Banking licence and European regulatory framework

Trade Republic disadvantages

• Less suitable for investors needing many specialist exchanges
• Research and charting are fairly basic
• No Dutch pension-investing account
• No conventional listed-options or futures platform
• Very small manual trades are inefficient because of the €1 charge
• Some fractional orders use a limited execution route
• Cash may be distributed between partner banks and, for higher balances or certain arrangements, money-market funds

Trade Republic states that bank deposits held with partner banks are generally protected up to €100,000 per customer and institution. Money allocated to qualifying money-market funds is segregated fund property but is not covered by a bank deposit-guarantee scheme.

For Dutch customers, Trade Republic Bank GmbH operates through a registered branch. DNB notes that the German home-state framework applies to deposit protection rather than the Dutch deposit-guarantee scheme.

Trading 212: best for beginners, fractional shares and small portfolios

Trading 212 is the most compelling option for an investor who wants to invest €25, €50 or €100 at a time across several companies or ETFs.

Its Pies feature lets users divide a portfolio between selected investments. AutoInvest can then allocate new contributions according to those percentages. Fractional shares mean the investor does not need enough money to buy a complete share.

Trading 212 offers more than 13,000 shares and ETFs, although the precise catalogue varies by entity and country. It also provides a separate CFD service, but long-term investors should use the Invest account and understand which account they have selected.

Trading 212 advantages

• No dealing commission on Invest stocks and ETFs
• Low 0.15% currency-conversion fee
• Fractional shares
• Pies and AutoInvest
• Dividend reinvestment through portfolio automation
• Payment card in supported European countries, including the Netherlands
• No monthly card subscription
• Interest on uninvested cash when the feature is enabled
• Free practice account

Trading 212 disadvantages

• Smaller professional product range than DEGIRO
• No Dutch pension wrapper
• No exchange-listed options or futures
• Deposit fees can apply after the free instant-deposit allowance
• Cash earning interest may be held partly in qualifying money-market funds
• Support is primarily designed around the app and online help
• “Commission-free” does not remove spreads, taxes or fund expenses

Trading 212 EU GmbH is supervised by Germany’s BaFin. Under the applicable German investor-compensation arrangement, eligible claims may be covered for 90% of the obligation up to €20,000. Client securities are held separately, while bank cash may receive deposit protection of up to €100,000 per depositor and partner bank. Money placed in a qualifying money-market fund is treated differently from a bank deposit.

Can the Trading 212 or Trade Republic card spend investment profits?

Not directly.

The cards spend available cash, not shares, ETFs or unrealised gains. If an investment increases from €1,000 to €1,300, that €300 gain remains part of the investment until the asset is sold. A sale may also create tax and reporting consequences.

Once sale proceeds have settled and are available as cash, they can generally be moved to or accessed through the platform’s spending function, subject to its current rules.

Cash dividends work similarly. After a dividend has been paid into the account, the investor can normally:

• Reinvest it
• Leave it as cash
• Withdraw it
• Spend available cash using the platform’s card

This is more convenient than DEGIRO, where cash must normally be withdrawn to the linked bank account before it can be spent.

Convenience is not automatically a financial advantage. Spending dividends or sale proceeds means that money is no longer compounding inside the portfolio. The card is useful for liquidity, but investors should decide deliberately whether they want income for current spending or long-term reinvestment.

Trading 212’s current European card cashback is conditional. Its published terms show a base rate of 0%, rising to 1.5% when Invest Cashback is activated and an eligible recurring subscription is detected. Cashback is invested into a selected Pie rather than paid as freely spendable cash.

DEGIRO: best for market access, specialist products and Dutch pensions

DEGIRO is a more traditional execution broker. It lacks the banking-style features of Trade Republic and Trading 212, but offers considerably more depth for investors who want to choose exchanges, trade listed derivatives or hold less common securities.

Its product range can include:

• Shares
• ETFs
• Bonds
• Investment funds
• Listed options
• Futures
• Structured products
• Crypto and commodity exchange-traded products

DEGIRO provides access to ETFs on approximately 19 major exchanges and charges €1 per transaction for more than 1,000 products in its Tradegate Core Selection.

DEGIRO advantages

• Broad access to international exchanges
• Listed options and futures
• Bonds, funds and structured products
• Competitive costs for larger self-directed transactions
• More than 1,000 ETFs in its €1 Core Selection
• Dedicated Dutch pension-investing account
• No custody or inactivity fee
• Human customer support
• Better fit for investors who want more control over individual orders

DEGIRO disadvantages

• No payment card
• No fractional shares
• No equivalent to Trading 212 Pies or Trade Republic Savings Plans
• Currency-conversion and exchange-connectivity charges
• Small monthly purchases can be relatively expensive
• No general interest proposition comparable with Trade Republic
• No new corporate accounts
• Less convenient for investors wanting an all-in-one banking and investing app

DEGIRO does not support fractional stock trading: investors must generally buy whole shares.

DEGIRO is the only one here with a Dutch pension account

DEGIRO’s pension account is designed for Dutch investors who want to build a tax-advantaged supplementary pension within their available jaarruimte or reserveringsruimte.

The account currently costs 0.20% per year, charged as 0.0166% per month. Eligible transaction costs can be offset against this account charge under DEGIRO’s current tariff.

The tax advantage comes with restrictions. Pension capital is not freely accessible in the same way as an ordinary investment account. Contributions, withdrawals and eventual pension payments are governed by Dutch tax and pension rules.

That makes the account potentially valuable for someone with a demonstrable pension shortfall, but unsuitable for money that may be needed before retirement.

Does DEGIRO offer “Box 2 investing”?

“Box 2 investing” is not a dedicated DEGIRO product.

In the Netherlands, Box 2 generally concerns income from a substantial interest in a company. Someone investing through a personal holding company or other Dutch BV needs a securities account legally held in that company’s name.

DEGIRO stopped accepting new corporate clients in 2018 and says it can no longer offer new business or corporate accounts because of increased customer-due-diligence requirements. A business bank account also cannot be linked to an ordinary personal DEGIRO account.

DEGIRO is therefore a genuine option for Dutch pension investing, but should not currently be presented as an accessible new solution for investing through a BV. Existing legacy corporate accounts may be treated differently, and company owners should obtain professional tax advice before choosing a structure.

Plus500: better for a CFD day trader than a long-term investor

Plus500 is the outlier in this comparison. Its European service centres on contracts for difference.

A CFD allows a trader to speculate on a rising or falling price without owning the underlying share, ETF, commodity, cryptocurrency or index. Leverage means a relatively small deposit controls a larger market exposure.

That can be useful for short-term tactical trading, but it magnifies losses as well as gains.

European retail leverage limits generally range from 30:1 on major currency pairs to 5:1 on individual equities and 2:1 on cryptocurrencies. Mandatory margin close-out and negative-balance protection reduce certain risks, but they do not make leveraged trading safe.

Plus500 advantages

• Platform designed specifically for active CFD trading
• Exposure to thousands of markets
• Ability to speculate on rising and falling prices
• Leverage within regulatory limits
• Stop-loss, trailing-stop and guaranteed-stop tools
• Price alerts and economic information
• Unlimited demo account
• No conventional dealing commission

Plus500 disadvantages

• The investor normally does not own the underlying asset
• A large majority of retail CFD accounts lose money
• Overnight funding penalises long holding periods
• Spreads can widen during volatile or illiquid markets
• No conventional ETF savings plan
• No pension account
• No broker-linked payment card
• No interest-bearing long-term cash account
• Limited suitability for passive investing or dividend compounding

Plus500 may be the best of these four for an experienced trader specifically seeking a straightforward CFD interface. DEGIRO, however, is likely the more appropriate choice for someone who wants exchange-listed options or futures rather than over-the-counter CFDs.

For most readers building wealth over several years, Plus500 is the weakest fit. Its structure encourages short-duration trading, while financing costs work against long-term holding. The platform’s risk disclosure should always be checked before trading because the displayed loss percentage changes over time and can vary by legal entity.

Regulation and investor protection compared

Regulation cannot prevent market losses. It governs how the provider operates, holds client assets and responds if the firm cannot return money or investments.

DEGIRO confirms that flatexDEGIRO Bank SE is primarily supervised by BaFin, while its Dutch branch is registered with DNB and supervised by AFM and DNB.

Customers should verify the exact legal entity shown in their account agreement. The brand name alone does not determine which compensation scheme, cash arrangement or product rules apply.

Which broker offers the best platform?

Best for simplicity: Trade Republic

Trade Republic’s interface is intentionally minimal. It works well for checking a portfolio, establishing an ETF plan and managing cash. Advanced traders may find its research and order controls restrictive.

Best for portfolio automation: Trading 212

Pies, fractional shares and AutoInvest make Trading 212 the strongest portfolio-building interface of the four. It suits people who think in percentages and monthly contributions rather than individual whole-share orders.

Best for market choice: DEGIRO

DEGIRO demands more involvement from the investor, but rewards that effort with access to more exchanges and traditional instruments. It is the better fit for someone who understands order types and wants to select a particular listing or derivative.

Best for CFD execution tools: Plus500

Plus500’s platform is clean, responsive and focused on leveraged positions. Its demo account is useful for learning how the interface works, although success with virtual money does not demonstrate that a trader can profit under real financial and emotional pressure.

Main advantages and disadvantages

Which is the best broker for a European investor?

For the average European investor building a diversified portfolio over many years, Trade Republic is our overall winner.

Its free Savings Plans, fractional investing, cash interest and card create an unusually complete package. It is particularly attractive for investors who want to automate contributions and keep saving, investing and spending within one application.

However, that verdict changes by user:

• Choose Trading 212 if the lowest transaction costs, fractional diversification and portfolio automation matter most.
• Choose DEGIRO if you want broader exchange access, bonds, listed options, futures or Dutch pension investing.
• Choose Trade Republic if you want the best balance between long-term investing, automation, cash management and everyday convenience.
• Consider Plus500 only if you understand CFDs and deliberately want short-term leveraged trading.

Investors should also consider tax reporting, account portability, customer service and whether the broker supports their preferred exchange and security. A slightly cheaper broker is not better if it cannot provide the products or account structure the investor actually needs.

The Strategic Newb verdict

These four platforms represent three different models.

Trading 212 is the low-cost portfolio builder. Trade Republic is the European investing-and-banking hybrid. DEGIRO is the broader self-directed brokerage platform. Plus500 is a leveraged trading venue.

For most European buy-and-hold investors, the real decision is therefore between Trade Republic, Trading 212 and DEGIRO. Trade Republic offers the strongest all-round convenience, Trading 212 delivers exceptional value for small and fractional investments, and DEGIRO remains the better specialist platform.

Plus500 can be appropriate for a knowledgeable CFD day trader, but its financing model, leverage and lack of direct ownership make it fundamentally different from the other three. It should complement a carefully considered trading strategy, not replace a long-term investment account.

Frequently asked questions

Is Trade Republic better than DEGIRO?

Trade Republic is generally better for automated ETF investing, fractional shares, cash interest and card functionality. DEGIRO is better for investors who need more exchanges, bonds, listed options, futures or a Dutch pension account.

Is Trading 212 cheaper than Trade Republic?

Trading 212 does not charge dealing commission on Invest-account stocks and ETFs, while Trade Republic generally charges €1 for a manual trade. Trade Republic Savings Plans have no broker execution fee, making both platforms highly competitive for automated investing. Currency costs, spreads and product expenses must still be considered.

Can I spend dividends with the Trading 212 or Trade Republic card?

You can spend dividends after they have been credited as available cash, subject to the platform’s account and card rules. You cannot spend unrealised gains directly. Investments must first be sold and the proceeds settled before they become spendable cash.

Which broker is best for pension investing in the Netherlands?

Of these four, DEGIRO is the only provider with a dedicated Dutch pension-investing account. It can offer tax advantages when contributions fall within the investor’s eligible pension allowance, but the money is subject to pension-account restrictions.

Is Plus500 suitable for long-term investing?

Generally not. Plus500’s principal European product is the leveraged CFD, which does not provide conventional ownership of the underlying investment and can incur recurring overnight financing. A direct stock or ETF broker is usually better suited to long-term investing.

Financial disclaimer: Nothing in this article constitutes personalised financial advice. Investments can rise or fall in value, and you may receive back less than you invest. Fees, products and investor protections can vary by country. Always verify current conditions with the provider and relevant regulator.

Link disclosure: This comparison contains direct source and review links without affiliate tracking.