Best MT5 Brokers 2026: Only Six of Fifteen Actually Offer It

Fewer Brokers Offer MT5 Than You Would Expect

MetaTrader 5 has been out since 2010. It is the newer platform, it handles more asset classes, its strategy tester is better and its programming language is more capable. On paper it replaced MetaTrader 4 fifteen years ago.

It did not. And the clearest evidence sits in our own broker data: of the fifteen brokers on our file, eleven offer MT4 and only six offer MT5.

Those six are Pepperstone, IC Markets, Admirals, Eightcap, Vantage and EBC. The five that offer MT4 but not MT5 are IG, Saxo, XTB, CMC Markets and OANDA — which is to say, several of the largest and most heavily regulated names in the set. That is not an accident, and it changes how you should read any "best MT5 broker" list, including this one.

Why the Big Names Skipped It

Two reasons, and neither is about MT5 being bad software.

The first is that brokers with a serious proprietary platform had no reason to add a second MetaQuotes product. IG has its own platform plus ProRealTime. Saxo has SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTraderPRO. XTB has xStation 5. CMC has Next Generation. OANDA has fxTrade. They kept MT4 because clients demanded it, and they had no incentive to maintain a second MetaTrader stack alongside their own.

The second is that MT5 is not backwards compatible with MT4. MQL5 is a different language from MQL4, so an Expert Advisor written for MT4 does not run on MT5 without being rewritten. Indicators are the same story. Fifteen years of accumulated MT4 tooling does not transfer, and for a broker whose clients depend on that tooling, moving them is a cost with no obvious return.

If you are still deciding between the two platforms rather than between brokers, that comparison is a separate question and we answer it in MetaTrader 4 versus MetaTrader 5.

The MT5 Brokers We Hold Verified Data On

Spreads are the advertised typical EUR/USD figure, not something we measured. Read them as each broker's claim about itself.

Regulators on file, for the same six: Pepperstone holds FCA, ASIC, CySEC, BaFin, DFSA, CMA and SCB registrations; IC Markets holds ASIC, CySEC and FSA; Eightcap holds ASIC, FCA, CySEC, SCB and FSA; Admirals holds FCA, CySEC, EFSA and ASIC; Vantage holds ASIC, FCA, CIMA, VFSC and FSCA; EBC holds CIMA, FCA and ASIC.

EBC's cell says "Not published" rather than carrying an estimate, because EBC does not publish a EUR/USD figure we could verify. A comparison table that fills every cell is telling you something about the table, not about the brokers.

The two with no EEA entity

Vantage and EBC hold no EU or CySEC licence. Neither is passportable into the EEA, so a reader in the EEA who signs up is onboarded to an offshore entity — Vanuatu for Vantage, Cayman for EBC — sitting outside ESMA and MiFID retail protections. That means no 30:1 cap, but also no negative balance protection. EBC's FCA registration covers professional and eligible counterparty clients only, never retail.

For a reader outside the EEA and UK that offshore entity may be exactly what is wanted, including much higher leverage. For a reader inside it, the point is knowing which entity is actually on the account-opening form. Our walkthrough of verifying a broker is regulated covers reading a licence number back to the regulator's own register instead of trusting a badge.

If Cost Is the Deciding Factor

Four of the six advertise 0.1 pips on EUR/USD: Pepperstone, Eightcap, IC Markets and Vantage. All are raw-spread models, which means a commission on top — Pepperstone publishes $3.50 per lot on its Razor account and $0 on Standard, where the cost moves into the spread instead.

Comparing a raw spread against a commission-free spread tells you nothing until you add the commission to the raw one. We set out how the two pricing models actually compare in spread versus commission.

If You Are Starting Small

Pepperstone at $10 is the lowest entry in the MT5 set, then Vantage at $50, then Eightcap, Admirals and EBC at $100, with IC Markets at $200. Note what is missing: the three brokers on our file with no minimum deposit at all — XTB, CMC Markets and OANDA — do not offer MT5. Wanting both MT5 and a zero minimum rules out our whole set.

The minimum deposit matters less than the minimum position size in any case. A 0.01-lot minimum on a $100 balance is a workable account; a 0.1-lot minimum on the same money is not.

What MT5 Actually Gives You Over MT4

Worth being concrete, because "newer" is not a reason:

• More asset classes natively. MT5 was built for equities, futures and exchange-traded instruments as well as forex and CFDs. If you only trade currency pairs, this changes nothing for you.
• More timeframes and more order types, including a proper depth-of-market display.
• A faster, multi-threaded strategy tester that can test several instruments at once. If you develop automated strategies, this is the strongest single argument for MT5.
• MQL5, which is a more capable language than MQL4 — and, again, not compatible with it.

What it does not give you is a better broker. The platform is identical whoever supplies it: MetaQuotes builds it, not your broker. What varies is the spread, the commission, the regulator behind the entity you sign with and the leverage you are allowed. The same logic applies on the MT4 side, which we cover in the best MT4 brokers.

The Leverage Cap Applies Regardless of Platform

Every EEA and UK entity in the table is capped at 30:1 on major currency pairs. That is ESMA's product intervention, made permanent by national regulators, and it comes with negative balance protection and a margin close-out rule attached. It has nothing to do with which MetaTrader version you run.

If you have seen a broker advertise leverage far above that, the number belongs to a different entity in a different jurisdiction. We cover the caps instrument by instrument in the ESMA rules explained.

How to Check This Yourself

• Confirm MT5 specifically, not "MetaTrader". Several brokers advertise MetaTrader and mean MT4 only.
• Read the footer of the entity you are signing with, not the group homepage, and look the licence number up on the regulator's own register.
• Check your Expert Advisors will run. MQL4 code does not work on MT5. If your strategy depends on an existing EA, that alone may decide the platform for you.
• Open a demo and compare the spread you see against the advertised figure, at the hours you actually trade.

Already chosen a broker and just need MT5 running? Our walkthrough is how to set up MT5.

Sources: platform support, minimum deposits, advertised spreads and regulator lists are from this site's own broker dataset, which records the source and date for each field on the record itself. Where a broker publishes no figure, the table says so rather than estimating.