Fortuneo vs flatex — which broker is better?

Pros

• Starter makes the first Euronext order of up to EUR 500 each month free and charges 0.35% on every other order (the price list sets no minimum); Progress charges EUR 4.90 up to EUR 3,000 and Trader Pro EUR 9.50 up to EUR 10,000
• No opening, account-keeping or custody fee on the PEA, PEA-PME-ETI or compte-titres
• Arkéa Direct Bank holds a French banking licence from the ACPR, and the ECB lists it among the entities of the significant Crédit Mutuel group
• FGDR protection of EUR 100,000 on cash and EUR 70,000 on securities per investor and institution
• PEA and PEA-PME-ETI with IFU tax reporting; inside the plans the legal cap of 0.5% per online order limits brokerage on small orders
• Broad range: about 30,000 shares, more than 12,000 ETFs, 49,000 funds and 7,500 bonds, plus about 42,800 turbos, warrants and certificates
• Currency conversion at the next-day rate plus 0.12%, and a free Live Trader desktop platform with real-time Euronext prices
• Phone support six days a week (Monday to Friday 08:00–20:00, Saturday 09:00–18:00), plus chat and e-mail in the app and client area

Cons

• Effectively for residents of France: the PEA needs French tax residence, and from abroad only French nationals can open the compte-titres
• Expensive outside Euronext and the US: German, UK and Swiss orders cost 0.20% with a EUR 20 minimum plus EUR 30 of foreign-broker fees on every tariff
• One tariff per account and EUR 60 to switch; on Starter a US order also costs at least EUR 50
• We found no options, futures, CFDs, crypto, fractional shares or automatic ETF savings plan in the published offer
• Live Trader needs Java 8 or later and does not run on phones or tablets; site, app and support are in French only
• Closing a PEA or PEA-PME costs EUR 85, and moving securities out costs EUR 15 per line (capped at EUR 150 for a PEA)

Pros

• EUR 5.90 flat commission on German, US, Canadian and other foreign orders with no percentage component up to EUR 40,000 — a EUR 10,000 trade costs the same as a EUR 1,000 trade
• All ETF and fund savings plans execute at EUR 0.00 commission with over 5,000 plans available and no cap on the savings rate
• No custody fee, no account fee, no inactivity fee, and free incoming and outgoing depot transfers
• Genuine spot crypto in around 25 coins at 0.6%–0.7% all-in, traded through the regulated German bank and held by the BaFin-authorised custodian Tangany rather than as an ETN wrapper
• Full German banking licence under BaFin and Bundesbank supervision, with an MDAX-listed parent (flatexDEGIRO SE, ticker FTK) publishing audited accounts and over EUR 100 billion in customer securities under custody
• Tax-simple in both markets it serves: automatic German Abgeltungsteuer withholding and automatic Austrian KESt settlement at 27.5% on flatex.at
• Free foreign-currency sub-accounts, so USD or CHF proceeds can be held rather than converted back at a spread every time
• Fast onboarding — flatex advertises a five-minute fully digital account opening, and no minimum deposit applies

Cons

• 0.00% p.a. credit interest on cash balances. Competitors pay 1%–1.75% on the settlement or call account, so an investor holding EUR 20,000 in cash gives up EUR 200–350 a year that never shows up in any fee table
• Currency conversion costs an absolute margin of USD 0.0040 per euro — roughly 0.35% — which is worse than Consorsbank's published USD 0.0030 and far worse than a multi-currency specialist
• No Eurex or US options and futures trading at all. Certificates, knock-outs and Société Générale CFDs are the only leveraged instruments on offer
• The price list still meters real-time quotes — 25 free per month plus 10 per executed order, then EUR 0.01 per query — although flatex currently advertises Xetra real-time quotes as free until further notice; the professional flatex trader 2.0 platform costs EUR 15–39 a month on top
• The EUR 5.90 floor makes flatex expensive for small orders — a EUR 300 purchase pays about 2% in commission before venue costs, where a EUR 1 neobroker charges 0.3%
• Direct foreign market access is narrow: US, Canada, Euronext, Vienna, Zurich and Milan (sell only). There is no direct London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Nordic access, and stock savings plans cost 1.00% of the rate