There are moments in broker development when they can offer special services or products few can imitate. FOREX.com and IG are brokers who have been offering us such services. But, it seems once a broker becomes a powerhouse, these offers become unlikeable to most. Or are these just louder voices of unhappy traders? We compare the unique capabilities of these two mega brokers.

How to choose a broker, Forex.com or IG. Read our comparison of the best services.

Introduction

One of the best ways to use your saved funds is to invest to make more funds. Growing your private capital in practice for common people is rarely taught at school. Luckily, retail brokers enabled easy investing and evolved trading to new highs. Now, is the retail brokerage business thriving because most traders lose or because of the increasing need for personal finance? Whatever the answer is since brokers provide you with a gateway into managing your capital in so many ways, it is great we now can do much more with our money than before.

Brokers should act like agents that let us in and do what banks and funds do on capital markets. They make money providing us with this service. But charge it with various “fee packages” like percentages, commissions, spreads, and other fees. Brokers that charge commission but offer tight spreads are the ones that are usually connected to ECN, called No Dealing Desk brokers. Other brokers like to have their made pool of market participants and deal your trades with others. These brokers are Dealing Desk brokers, sometimes called Market Makers. Market Makers are brokers who can make more varied services in our opinion, while ECNs mostly focus on good trading conditions. Also, there are great combinations of the two. IG and Forex.com aim to combine. 

FOREX.com Vs IG

IG claims to be the biggest player in the industry by revenue. Well, a firm can have a big revenue but a negative P/L. Anyways, it is not hard to use some stats for promotion but we haven’t seen a lot of brokers who are proud of a low percentage of losing traders, that would be a great stat in our opinion.

It is interesting how big brokers like GAIN (Forex.com) and IG Group shape their offers to avoid the same looks of identical services. Both brokers are highly regulated and IG is one old broker brand in business since 1974. But having a well-known brand does not mean much in this industry since technology keeps the making of new assets, trading, and analysis. Can brokers adapt to new-age traders and stay competitive or will a new type of broker emerge who provides a much better personal finance service? Here is what these powerhouses have to offer today.

Platforms

FOREX.com focuses on proprietary platforms that can present and execute broker services in a nicely organized window. Still, FOREX.com does not want to abandon those traders adapted to MetaTrader platforms. MetaTrader 4 is also available but only Forex.com has MT5, however, the broker goes the extra mile and provides useful add-on packages that enhance these platforms. We like that there are a bunch of EAs for Chart-in-Chart, Candle Countdown, freehand drawing, Highs and Lows, Magnifier, Sentiment indicator, and more. Now, these are EAs who just enhance MetaTrader trading, they are not automated trading scripts and Forex.com does not guarantee they are accurate. 

Forex.com platforms are available for mobiles and regular computers and as a web version. We consider the main advantage of these proprietary platforms to be the integration of analysis, news, and additional information about the assets. Forex.com platforms are a great compilation of these plus a very good range of indicators, customization features, and account management. The performance is fluid, and we like Forex.com platforms are similar to TradingView.

Now when we are mentioning TradinView, Forex.com supports connectivity with this popular platform. What is more, the broker also has REST API connectivity. This means there are no limits on how you can trade with Forex.com. According to the broker, API users are supported with access to the, sample codes, tools, and forum. 

IG is the kind of broker that has it all and does it all. But when compared to Forex.com, IG offers the proprietary L2 platform for DMA method trading. Direct Market Access is, shortly, capital markets how big players see it. Traders have access to order books, auctions, sentiment, volume, and generally more advanced trading than on other platforms. Interestingly, IG claims they have better execution than using DMA trading. That execution method is explained in detail, however, there are brokers with even better conditions. Certainly, for the US market, IG’s market execution method delivers competitive trading conditions. 

IG, of course, has more platforms. Like Forex.com, MetaTrader 4 is available, with all the add-ons, the same ones MT4 traders can have with Forex.com. MetaTrader 5 is missing, but mobile apps and online proprietary solutions are well-made. But we have noticed non-standard, above-normal minimum trading sizes. We also didn’t like these sizes were missing in the MT4 platform. The problem was we were trading the Mini instrument by default. Be sure to change to a “normal” instrument to avoid confusion. We urge you to pay attention to your instrument specifications when trading with IG. Also, note the MT4 platform is limited to a great degree on what markets you can trade. You will see only Forex, Index, Metals, and Crypto categories. 

There is one special platform we find interesting, it is the ProRealTime. This platform claims to have the mobile automated trading capability. The statement is true and we have even found a supporting forum called prorealcode(.com) featuring a few hundred strategies, indicators, and other goodies for this platform. 

API is also available on IG, but we have noticed a significant difference. IG does not support TradingView. Note that the availability of IG offers will depend on your residency, so you might have a completely different value from this broker.

Instruments Range

Both brokers are extreme in terms of the instruments they offer. But be ready for surprises, the instruments range will vary on your registration country. Additionally, not all instruments are listed on the MetaTrader 4 or other platforms. The mix you will receive, your regulator, platform, and other services are not easily calculated so the trader would need to try the demo account. Forex.com will limit the demo to 30 days.

Generally, in ideal conditions, Forex.com offers over 5500 instruments and IG over 16,000.

Forex.com has Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, ETFs, and Crypto on their proprietary platforms. IG has all of these categories, just more extended. What caught our eye on IG is the so-called Knock Outs category. This looks like a binary options instrument but with smaller differences.

Now, if you are a MetaTrader platform trader, Forex.com has much better instrument coverage on both MT platforms. 

Trading Costs

If you are trading from the US, we can say IG has competitive spreads and general trading conditions. What we like about IG is good transparency and a nice list of all fees across different accounts and platforms. Also, the spread overview has the least and average value(2020 results). DMA trading has even lower spreads that are competitive with other, established ECN brokers. Interestingly, IG even mentions Forex.com when comparing their spreads on the US webpage. 

A conversion fee exists on IG and it is 0.3%. Also, an inactivity fee of $18 is charged if you do not trade for 2 years. DMA traders do not have fees unless they trade certain stocks or Forex pairs that have a $10 commission per 1M volume. 

Using the IG special ProRealTime app is free if you place 4 or more trades per month, which is easily done unless trading on really long terms. 

If you use IG’s special guaranteed Stop service, the fee of 0.3% is charged only if the stop is triggered. 

Knock-Outs instruments have a premium and these vary for each trading instrument they are on. 

Forex.com, when compared to IG is a more expensive broker. The spreads this broker has are above average in the industry and might even be higher for certain instruments. Now, the spread factor can be minor for slower-paced strategies, but certainly spread are a major cost for scalpers. 

The currency conversion fee is also higher with Forex.com at 0.5%. Also, the broker charges $5 per lot for a Commission account, an inactivity fee of $15 if not active for 1 year, and no funding fees.

To most traders, Forex.com’s high fees are good enough reason to choose IG, especially if you are an US trader. 

Regulation and Reputation

Forex.com brand belongs to GAIN Capital, a company with many affiliates, marketing, and operation connections. Originating from Israel, GAIN expanded and became a globally known and regulated broker. However, there are a few blemishes around this name. recently, to penetrate the US market, GAIN became a part of StoneX. Soon enough the NFA dined both companies for “violating compliance rules by improperly adjusting customer accounts and for improper treatment of customers..”. Unfortunately, the brand seems to keep the “reviews” rating high enough on some more commercial portals but has a very low average rating of 2/5 on independent ones made by their clients. Major complaints are about Stop Loss hunting, withdrawals, and price manipulation.

Regulators of the Forex.com brand are CIMA (Cayman Island), FCA UK, Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Japan, CFTC (member) and NFA (member) in the US, IIROC, and ASIC. 

IG is an old broker and is operating in the US market better than Forex.com. It is one of the most regulated brokers in the world. IG holds BMA (tier 3 Bermuda regulator for international clients), ASIC, JFSA (Japan), MAS (Singapore), FINMA (Switzerland), FCA, and FMA (New Zealand), member of the NFA and CTFC license in the US. Interestingly, IG is not available to Ohio residents.

When compared to Forex.com, IG does not have a better rating on the independent review portal. Actually, it is even lower than Forex.com with a score of 1.7/5. The major client concern is Stop Loss hunting and withdrawal problems under the BMA regulation.

In 2018, the IG Group had to pay a half million fine to AMF. France’s regulator found misleading information about CFDs and binary options, unclear recommendations sources, and presenting unqualified employees as financial analysts. Of course, the fine had little effect on the IG Group’s finances.

Customer Support 

We haven’t found any problems with IG support agents. The chat had a bot but live agents are available 24/7 without delay. We had questions about TradingView support and the IG agent had to consult with other staff. After a few minutes, we received an inconclusive answer but the support was good around other topics. 

Forex.com support is also very responsive. Our questions about basic trading had a quick answer however, more advanced questions required additional clarification and a small waiting time for the answer.  

Conclusion and Summary

IG and Forex.com are very experienced Market Makers that also operate as DMA. Still, DMA accounts require larger accounts to fit DMA trade sizes. Most of the clients would choose other accounts, IG has a clear advantage here. The main reason is trading costs and TradingView support. However, if you want more trading instruments on MT4 and MT5, Forex.com might be a better choice. Remember that the availability of services and instruments will depend on your country. 

As a general guidance, reading independent client reviews sources is a good measure of how good a broker is. When we take a look at big brokers such as Forex.com and IG, few have above-average client ratings. A lot of people put regulation first, but in practice, brokers can be unethical and well-regulated. Also, be aware a lot of reviews, ratings, and similar websites can be affiliated with or completely owned by a certain broker group. If in doubt about IG or Forex.com, take a look at our other reviews for a better broker choice.