BoursoBank vs Questrade — which broker is better?

Pros

• Four Euronext tariffs, from Découverte at EUR 1.99 per order up to EUR 500 to Ultimate Trader at EUR 9.90 up to EUR 10,000 for 30 or more orders a month
• Brokerage on a PEA, PEA 18-25 or PEA-PME is capped at 0.5% of the order, so a EUR 100 PEA order on Découverte costs EUR 0.50
• More than 275 Boursomarkets ETFs with no commission on purchase (75 of them PEA-eligible), plus partner funds and leverage products without brokerage
• No custody fee, free account opening and closing, and no monthly charge on the Découverte tariff
• Boursorama SA is a French bank authorised by the ACPR, supervised by the ACPR and the AMF, and part of the ECB-supervised Société Générale group, listed on Euronext Paris as GLE
• Acts as French paying agent: annual IFU, social contributions and the advance tax deducted on dividends, and the TTF collected on purchases
• A large free information service: real-time Euronext streaming, daily market briefings, partner analyses and the Bourso Campus video course

Cons

• Built for French tax residents: the app route expects a French tax address, a French phone number and possibly a French IBAN, foreign tax residents get in only 'under certain conditions' through a separate route, and they may not trade US markets
• We found no listed options, futures or CFDs in BoursoBank's product list or price brochure, and direct crypto is not offered (crypto only via ETNs); we found no fractional shares and no demo trading account beyond virtual portfolios
• Outside a PEA, Découverte charges 0.60% above EUR 500, and Classic and Trader cost EUR 5.95 in any month without an executed order
• Other European markets start at EUR 11.95 per order, and currency is converted at the next-day rate plus 0.0025 points
• We found service only in French (the general terms make French the sole binding language): phone Monday to Friday 08:00–20:00 and Saturday 08:45–16:30, otherwise the Bourso.IA chatbot (24/7) and written requests through the client area

Pros

• CAD 0 commission on every Canadian and US stock and ETF trade, on both the buy and the sell side, with no ECN fees at all on Canadian orders
• CAD 0 contract fee on US-listed equity options and free assignment — one of only two Canadian brokers offering this
• Questrade Pro is free to all clients and includes Level 2 depth, time and sales, chart trading, hot keys and a multi-leg options strategy builder
• No inactivity fee, no annual account fee and no minimum balance on any registered or non-registered account
• Dual-currency registered accounts let you hold USD inside a TFSA or RRSP, removing forced conversion on every US dividend and sale
• Fractional shares, pre-IPO access, private credit, bonds, GICs, mutual funds and a separate FX & CFD account under one brand
• CIRO-regulated with CIPF coverage of CAD 1,000,000 per account category, and a record as Canada's largest independent broker going back to 1999

Cons

• The 1.5% CAD/USD conversion charge is high and unavoidable unless you deliberately manage currency; on a CAD 20,000 US-stock purchase it costs CAD 300, dwarfing any commission saving
• Cash earns effectively 0% below a CAD 250,000 balance — the published formula is prime minus 8.50%, floored at zero — while Wealthsimple pays 1.25% or more on chequing balances
• CAD 150 to transfer an account out, full or partial, and CAD 9.95 per journalling request unless you pay CAD 19.99 a month for Questrade Plus
• The 'margin rates as low as prime minus 2.5%' headline applies only to USD borrowing for clients trading 5,001+ US options contracts a month; the standard CAD non-registered rate is prime plus 4.25%, and registered accounts pay prime plus 8.10%
• No spot crypto, no exchange-traded futures, and no meaningful international equity access — non-US foreign shares cost 1% of trade value with a USD 195 minimum per side
• Questrade advertises no practice or paper-trading account for self-directed clients, so there is nowhere to learn Questrade Pro without real money at risk