IC Markets vs Axi — which broker is better?

Pros

• All-in EUR/USD cost of roughly 0.6 to 0.8 pips on Raw Spread - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
• Raw Pro at USD 1.50 per lot from a USD 5,000 balance and Raw Pro+ at USD 1.00 per lot from USD 100,000 - a real volume ladder rather than a marketing tier
• No withdrawal fee of IC Markets' own across roughly nineteen funding methods, and at Raw Trading Ltd (ic.com) no inactivity fee and no minimum deposit on the Standard, Raw Spread and cTrader Raw accounts; EU clients deposit at least EUR 200 and can be charged an inactivity fee after six months without a trade
• Four execution front-ends on one account: MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView, with New York and London server hosting and FIX API for qualifying volume
• Genuinely 24/7 multilingual support - live chat responses are consistently measured in minutes, not hours
• 2,250 plus instruments including 2,100 stock CFDs, 94 crypto CFDs, 25 indices, 9 bond CFDs and 5 futures CFDs
• Accounts in EUR, USD or GBP at the EU entity, so deposits and withdrawals in those currencies need no conversion; Raw Trading Ltd (ic.com) offers ten base currencies including CHF

Cons

• Most non-EU, non-Australian clients contract with Raw Trading Ltd under Seychelles licence SD018 - an offshore regulator with no investor compensation scheme behind it
• Leverage advertised up to 1:5000 through that entity is a genuine hazard, not a feature; at that ratio a 2 pip move against a full-size position wipes the account
• International bank wires can still arrive short: IC Markets deducts nothing, but intermediary and beneficiary banks take their own cut, which no fee table here can predict
• No proprietary trading platform or flagship mobile app - the experience is whatever MetaTrader and cTrader give you, and ForexBrokers.com marks IC Markets down for exactly this
• Research is thin: daily commentary and a podcast rather than a staffed analyst desk, and education has no structured progression
• No ETFs, no options, no funds and no share ownership - stock exposure is CFD-only, so no voting rights and no transferable holdings

Pros

• Pro account at USD 4.50 round turn per standard lot on 0.0-pip spreads, available from a USD 100 minimum rather than a five-figure balance
• Proprietary Axi Trading Platform covers 650+ markets with TradingView charting built in and true web-to-mobile position sync
• Three distinct crypto routes — CFDs to 200:1, perpetual futures on around 150 coins, and spot crypto you actually own
• Eleven account base currencies including CHF, PLN, HKD, JPY and SGD, which removes a conversion step for non-euro clients
• 24/7 support in 17 languages across live chat, phone, email and WhatsApp — better coverage than most brokers this size
• Axi Select funded-trader programme is free to join, with six stages from USD 5,000 to USD 1,000,000 and profit splits rising to 80%
• Long operating history since 2007 with tier-1 ASIC and FCA licences alongside a DFSA licence in the DIFC
• Copy trading via a dedicated app where copiers control their own sizing and risk rather than buying into a managed pool

Cons

• Most international clients are booked with AxiTrader LLC in St Vincent and the Grenadines — no prudential supervision, no compensation scheme, and The Financial Commission rather than a regulator as escalation
• We found no EEA-licensed Axi entity in its published legal documentation, so EU residents are contracting offshore by default
• An inactivity fee applies after 12 months of dormancy but the amount is disclosed only in the Product Schedule, never on the public fees page
• Leverage up to 1000:1 on the offshore entity, and 200:1 on crypto CFDs, is a retail-harm profile rather than a genuine benefit
• No real shares, no ETF units you can own, no bonds, no funds and no listed options — the equity and ETF range is CFD-only
• No German Abgeltungsteuer or Austrian KESt withholding, and Axi's own UK disclosures show 66–72% of retail accounts losing money