justTRADE vs flatex — which broker is better?

Pros

• Three competing exchange venues (LS Exchange, Quotrix, Tradegate BSX) with a quote-request order that executes at exactly the price you confirmed - no market orders, no execution surprises
• EUR 1.00 per stock or ETF order at LS Exchange and Tradegate BSX, with no minimum order value: you can buy a single share
• No custody fee, no account fee, no inactivity fee, no charge for dividends, corporate actions or transfers out
• Savings plans on ETFs, ETCs, commodities, crypto and wikifolios cost EUR 0 order commission from EUR 25 a month
• Real spot crypto in the same account - 65+ coins held by BaFin-supervised Tangany GmbH in Germany, tradable 24/7 from EUR 25 at 0.125%
• Sutor Bank (founded 1921) holds the banking licence, so cash falls under the statutory EUR 100,000 guarantee plus the private banks' voluntary fund
• Full German tax agency: Abgeltungsteuer and church tax withheld automatically, FIFO cost basis, free annual tax certificate and loss certificate
• About 1.75 million certificates and warrants from seven issuers, with EUR 0 commission at the four Gold partners

Cons

• Account opening requires German citizenship AND German tax residence - a residence permit is explicitly not sufficient, which excludes a large share of German residents
• You cannot transfer an existing securities portfolio into justTRADE. Incoming Depotuebertraege are not supported at all, so switching means selling and realising tax
• The public marketing still says 'ab 0 EUR Orderprovision' while the 08.06.2026 price list charges EUR 2.90 as standard and EUR 1.00 at two venues - the cheapest German neobrokers are now cheaper on the same order
• Support is email only: no telephone hotline, no live chat, German only
• No individual bonds, no mutual funds, and French, Italian, Spanish and Greek shares (plus their ADRs) are untradable because of local financial transaction taxes
• Uninvested cash pays 0.00% p.a. while a tolerated overdraft costs 9.00% p.a.; the broker's answer is to sell you money-market ETFs instead

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, held inside the regulated German bank 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
• Real-time quotes are metered: 25 free per month plus 10 per executed order, then EUR 0.01 per query, and 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