Every MT4 Broker Runs the Same Platform
That sounds obvious, but it is the single most useful thing to understand before choosing one. MetaTrader 4 is made by MetaQuotes, not by your broker. The charting, the order tickets, the indicators, the Expert Advisor engine and the MQL4 language are identical no matter whose logo is in the title bar. Nobody has a better version of MT4.
So a question like "which broker has the best MT4" is really asking something else, and the useful version of it is this: the platform is a constant, and the broker is the variable. What changes between one MT4 broker and the next is what happens after you press the button — the spread you pay, the commission on top, the regulator standing behind the account, the leverage you are allowed and the amount you must deposit to start.
This page compares the MT4 brokers we hold verified data on. It is not a survey of every MT4 broker in existence, and it does not pretend to be one.
What Actually Differs Between MT4 Brokers
Four things, in roughly the order they will affect you:
- Cost per trade. Spread plus commission. A raw-spread account with a commission is usually cheaper than a zero-commission account with a wider spread once you trade any real volume, but not always — you have to add both.
- Who regulates the entity you sign with. Not who regulates the group. A broker can hold six licences and still onboard you to an offshore entity with none of the protections you assumed you were getting.
- Your leverage cap. This is decided by your regulator, not by your broker's marketing. In the EEA and the UK, retail forex leverage is capped at 30:1 on major pairs.
- The minimum deposit. Ranges across our set from nothing at all to two thousand dollars.
The MT4 Brokers We Hold Verified Data On
Eleven of the fifteen brokers on file offer MT4. The spread column is the advertised typical EUR/USD figure, not something we measured — treat it as the broker's claim about itself, which is exactly how a spread number in any comparison table should be read.
| Broker | Min deposit | EUR/USD spread (advertised) | Retail leverage cap, EEA/UK | Regulators on file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone | $10 | 0.1 pips | 30:1 | FCA, ASIC, CySEC, BaFin, DFSA, CMA, SCB |
| IC Markets | $200 | 0.1 pips | 30:1 | ASIC, CySEC, FSA |
| Eightcap | $100 | 0.1 pips | 30:1 | ASIC, FCA, CySEC, SCB, FSA |
| XTB | None | 0.8 pips | 30:1 | FCA, KNF, CySEC, IFSC |
| CMC Markets | None | 0.7 pips | 30:1 | FCA, ASIC, MAS, IIROC |
| OANDA | None | 1.1 pips | 30:1 | FCA, NFA/CFTC, ASIC, MAS, IIROC |
| Admirals | $100 | 0.6 pips | 30:1 | FCA, CySEC, EFSA, ASIC |
| Saxo | $2,000 | 0.4 pips | 30:1 | Danish FSA, FCA, ASIC, MAS, SFC |
| IG | $250 | 0.8 pips | 30:1 | FCA, ASIC, BaFin, FINMA, MAS |
| Vantage | $50 | 0.1 pips | No EEA entity | ASIC, FCA, CIMA, VFSC, FSCA |
| EBC | $100 | Not published | No EEA entity | CIMA, FCA (professional only), ASIC |
Two entries in that table are deliberately not filled in. EBC does not publish a EUR/USD spread we could verify, so the cell says so rather than carrying a guess. And the leverage column for Vantage and EBC is not a number, because of something worth its own section.
The two with no EEA entity
Vantage and EBC hold no EU or CySEC licence. Their group footprints look substantial — Vantage carries ASIC, FCA, CIMA, VFSC and FSCA registrations; EBC carries CIMA, FCA and ASIC — but neither is passportable into the EEA. A reader in the EEA who signs up is onboarded to an offshore entity (Vanuatu or Cayman), which sits outside ESMA and MiFID retail protections. EBC's FCA registration is for professional and eligible counterparty clients only, never retail.
That is not a reason to strike them off. It is a reason to know which entity you are actually signing with, which is a different question from which logos appear on the website. For readers outside the EEA and UK the offshore entity may be exactly what they want, including much higher leverage. For readers inside, it means giving up negative balance protection and the 30:1 cap without necessarily realising it.
This is the check that matters more than any spread comparison, and it is the one almost nobody performs. Our guide to verifying a broker is regulated walks through reading a licence number back to the regulator's own register rather than trusting a footer badge.
If Cost Is What You Care About
Three brokers in the set advertise 0.1 pips on EUR/USD: Pepperstone, IC Markets and Eightcap. All three are raw-spread models, which means a commission sits on top — Pepperstone publishes $3.50 per lot on its Razor account and $0 on its Standard account, where the cost is folded into a wider spread instead.
Comparing a raw account against a standard account on spread alone will therefore always flatter the raw account, and the comparison is meaningless. Add the commission first. We cover how the two pricing models actually compare in spread versus commission.
The other thing an advertised spread will not tell you is what you get when it matters. A typical figure quoted on a quiet Tuesday is not the figure you will see thirty seconds after a rate decision.
If Regulation Is What You Care About
Pepperstone carries the broadest footprint in this set at seven regulators, including the FCA, ASIC, CySEC and BaFin. IG, Saxo, CMC Markets and OANDA are all long-established, multi-regulated names with tier-one licences.
OANDA is the only broker in this set registered with the NFA and CFTC, which is the registration a United States resident needs. If you are trading from the US, that single row narrows the table for you more than any spread figure does.
Admirals is a fully regulated FCA, CySEC, EFSA and ASIC broker, but we deliberately publish no retail-loss percentage for it: its own sites returned errors to every automated read we attempted, and we will not carry a statistic we could not verify at source. That is a gap in our data, not a mark against the broker.
If You Are Starting Small
XTB, CMC Markets and OANDA set no minimum deposit at all. Pepperstone asks $10, Vantage $50, and Eightcap, Admirals and EBC $100. At the other end, Saxo asks $2,000, which is a deliberate positioning choice rather than an obstacle.
A minimum deposit is close to meaningless on its own, though. What decides whether a small account is viable is the minimum position size and the cost per trade, because a 0.01-lot minimum on a $100 account is a very different proposition from a 0.1-lot minimum on the same balance.
What the 30:1 Cap Means
Every EEA and UK entity in this table is capped at 30:1 on major currency pairs. That is not the broker being cautious; it is ESMA's product intervention, made permanent by national regulators, and it applies to all of them equally. It comes bundled with negative balance protection and a margin close-out rule.
If you have seen a broker advertising 500:1 and wondered how that squares with the table above, the answer is that the number belongs to a different entity in a different jurisdiction. Pepperstone's 500:1 is real, and it is not available to a retail client in Frankfurt or Manchester. We cover the detail, and what the cap applies to instrument by instrument, in the ESMA rules explained.
How to Check Any of This Yourself
Everything above is checkable, and the point of listing it this way is that you should check it:
- Read the footer of the entity you are actually signing with, not the group homepage. The regulated entity name and licence number are legally required to be there.
- Look the licence number up on the regulator's own register. A badge on a website is a picture; a register entry is a fact.
- Open a demo and compare the spread you actually see against the advertised figure, at the times you intend to trade.
- Check the minimum lot size, not just the minimum deposit.
If you are still deciding between MT4 and its successor rather than between brokers, that is a different question and we answer it separately in MetaTrader 4 versus MetaTrader 5.
Sources: every figure in the comparison table is from this site's own broker dataset, which records the source and date for each field on the record itself — regulator lists and minimum deposits were read from each broker's own disclosures, and advertised spreads are the brokers' published typical figures. Where a broker does not publish a figure, the table says so instead of estimating.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which broker has the best MT4?
None of them, in the sense the question implies. MetaTrader 4 is built by MetaQuotes and is identical whichever broker supplies it - the charting, order types, indicators and Expert Advisor engine do not change. What changes is the spread, the commission, the regulator behind your account, your leverage cap and the minimum deposit. Compare those, not the platform.
What is the minimum deposit for an MT4 account?
It depends entirely on the broker, not on MT4. Across the eleven MT4 brokers in our dataset it ranges from nothing at all (XTB, CMC Markets, OANDA) through $10 (Pepperstone), $50 (Vantage) and $100 (Eightcap, Admirals, EBC) up to $2,000 (Saxo). Check the minimum position size too - it decides whether a small balance is actually tradeable.
Can I use MT4 with a US broker?
OANDA is the only broker in our dataset registered with the NFA and CFTC, which is the registration a US resident needs. US retail forex is regulated differently from the EEA and UK, with its own leverage and order-handling rules, so confirm the current terms with the broker directly before opening an account.
Why is my leverage capped at 30:1 when the broker advertises 500:1?
Because the two numbers belong to different regulated entities. ESMA's product intervention, made permanent by national regulators, caps retail forex leverage at 30:1 on major pairs across the EEA, and the FCA applies the same cap in the UK. A broker's 500:1 offer is real but belongs to a non-EEA entity, and a retail client in the EEA or UK cannot be onboarded to it.
Are Vantage and EBC regulated in Europe?
No. Neither holds an EU or CySEC licence, so neither is passportable into the EEA. An EEA client is onboarded to an offshore entity - Vanuatu for Vantage, Cayman for EBC - which sits outside ESMA and MiFID retail protections, including negative balance protection and the 30:1 cap. EBC's FCA registration covers professional and eligible counterparty clients only, never retail.
