Estably vs LYNX — which broker is better?

Pros

• Self-directed Xetra orders at 0.14% with a EUR 3.90 minimum and a EUR 99.00 cap — the lowest per-order minimum among the German-market Interactive Brokers intermediaries
• Eurex options and futures at EUR 2.00 per contract, Mini-DAX futures at EUR 1.00 and CME Micro E-minis at USD 1.25, with EUR 1.80 / USD 3.00 option pricing available through partner sign-ups
• FMA-licensed Liechtenstein asset manager, audited annually by Grant Thornton, participant in the EAS investor compensation system and a member of the VUVL association of independent asset managers
• Managed portfolios can be custodied at Baader Bank, Liechtensteinische Landesbank or St. Galler Kantonalbank — and the Baader route withholds German tax automatically, with a Verlustverrechnungstopf
• Access to more than 150 exchanges in 33 countries and over 1.2 million instruments through Interactive Brokers, with no custody or account fee on the self-directed side
• Unusually deep German-language options material — an options guide, the wheel strategy for beginners, margin requirement explainers and a full TWS/Client Portal handbook
• Personal adviser model with a Liechtenstein phone line and a 4.6 Trustpilot rating from more than 420 reviews

Cons

• The self-directed account withholds no Abgeltungsteuer — German clients must declare everything themselves through their annual tax return, exactly as at any Interactive Brokers intermediary
• EUR 5,000 minimum deposit on the brokerage account and EUR 20,000 on a managed mandate; the margin account additionally requires a minimum age of 21
• Discretionary management costs 1.19% per year plus 0.30% bank charges plus a performance fee whose percentage is not disclosed on the cost page — an odd gap on a page titled 'Transparente Kosten'
• Above roughly EUR 2,860 of order value CapTrader's 0.10% schedule beats Estably's 0.14%: a EUR 10,000 Xetra order costs EUR 14.00 here against EUR 10.00 there
• No Estably-branded trading app — the mobile experience is Interactive Brokers' Mobile Trader, and there is no proprietary web platform equivalent to LYNX+
• Residents of the US, Canada, Australia and Iran cannot open the self-directed account, and Estably's own research output is marketing-led rather than an independent analysis desk

Pros

• LYNX+ is a genuinely good browser platform, and having it alongside full Trader Workstation access means you can start simple and grow into the terminal
• No minimum deposit and no custody or account fee for individual and joint accounts
• Eurex options at EUR 2.00 per contract, Micro-DAX futures at EUR 0.99 and CME Micro E-minis at USD 2.50 — the derivatives schedule is competitive
• Börse LYNX is one of the strongest free German-language education and analysis libraries any broker publishes, with a substantial webinar programme
• German-language service desk on a free number Monday to Thursday until 20:00, rated 4.8 on Trustpilot from over 760 reviews
• Trading since 2006 through a Dutch AFM-authorised entity with a BaFin-supervised German branch, and access to 100-plus exchanges in over 30 countries
• Free outbound transfers if you leave, which is rarer in Germany than it should be

Cons

• The most expensive of the German Interactive Brokers introducing brokers on equities: 0.14% with a EUR 5.80 Xetra minimum and a USD 5.00 minimum on US shares, against CapTrader's EUR 4.00 and USD 2.00
• Currency conversion costs 0.005% with a EUR 5.00 minimum — two and a half times Interactive Brokers' own rate, and a permanent drag on any multi-currency portfolio
• No Abgeltungsteuer is withheld, so German investors must declare everything through Anlage KAP; and a German withholding-tax certificate costs EUR 30.00 per line on top
• Investor compensation is the Irish scheme's 90% of EUR 20,000 for EEA clients — thin next to the EUR 100,000 German deposit guarantee investors expect
• Business accounts pay a EUR 15.00 monthly minimum activity fee whenever commissions fall short of that amount
• The Stock Yield Enhancement Program hands LYNX a quarter of your securities-lending revenue, and there is no spot crypto despite the crypto-broker marketing