Plus500 vs Skilling — which broker is better?

Pros

• The mobile app is fast, clear and well designed, and consistently among the top-rated trading apps in both stores, backed by a Trustpilot average around 4.2 from nearly 20,000 reviews
• Zero commission on every CFD instrument: no per-trade charge, no deposit fee and no withdrawal fee from Plus500's side
• Licensed by FCA (FRN 509909), ASIC (AFSL 417727), MAS (CMS100648-1), CIRO in Canada and CFTC/NFA in the US, with Plus500 Ltd listed on the London Stock Exchange and publishing audited accounts
• Account opening genuinely takes 10–30 minutes with electronic ID verification, and the USD 100 minimum makes it accessible
• Widest funding menu of the three brokers here — cards, SEPA and bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Swap-free status on request under the Plus500Gulf and Plus500SEY agreements, with a daily administration fee shown per instrument after a seven-day grace period
• Free guaranteed stop orders on many instruments, charged only through a wider spread rather than a separate premium

Cons

• The inactivity fee of up to USD 10 per month triggers after just three months of not logging in — not three months without trading. Three months of dormancy is normal, healthy behaviour, and charging for it is indefensible
• No MetaTrader 4 or 5, no cTrader, no TradingView integration and no API, so algorithmic traders, EA users and anyone with an existing charting workflow are locked out entirely
• Plus500 publishes no spread table. Costs are visible only inside the platform, which makes independent cost comparison against IG or CMC effectively impossible before you fund an account
• Research is close to non-existent — an economic calendar, basic sentiment data and price alerts, with no analyst coverage, no screeners and no third-party news feed of substance
• Around 2,800 CFD instruments against 12,029 at CMC and 17,000 at IG, with no bonds, no funds, no spread betting and no exchange-traded options for CFD clients
• Disclosed regulatory history: a 2012 FCA fine of GBP 205,128 for inaccurate transaction reporting, a 2015 FCA-ordered freeze of UK accounts pending AML review, and a EUR 550,000 settlement with Belgium's FSMA in 2017

Pros

• Three platforms on one account: the beginner-friendly Skilling Trader, full cTrader with depth of market and cTrader Automate, and MetaTrader 4
• EUR 100 minimum on the Standard account with commission-free pricing across forex, indices, equities, ETFs, commodities and crypto
• Premium pairs EUR/USD spreads from 0.1 pips with commission of USD 35 per USD 1 million traded, which prices at or below the commission-free tier once volume builds
• CySEC licence 357/18 brings ESMA retail leverage caps and Investor Compensation Fund cover of 90% up to EUR 20,000 for EEA clients
• 800+ instruments on cTrader and Skilling Trader, including a crypto list broader than most FX-first brokers carry
• Account registration takes under a minute and the demo account has no time limit, so testing costs nothing
• Negative balance protection applies, and MAM/PAMM structures are supported for portfolio managers
• cTrader Copy provides copy trading without a separate app or a managed-fund wrapper

Cons

• Premium commission is quoted per USD 1 million of traded volume without saying whether it applies per side or per round turn, so a standard-lot round turn costs anywhere from USD 4.50 to USD 8.00 all-in — and the tier is gated by a reported EUR 5,000 minimum
• 0.70% currency conversion is expensive: converting EUR 10,000 costs about EUR 70, where the cheapest brokers charge a fraction of that, and a 2.9% charge applies to Skrill and Neteller funding
• Support runs Monday to Friday 04:00–22:00 only, with no weekend cover, while crypto CFDs trade through the weekend
• Essentially no in-house research — no analyst desk, no screener worth using, no structured market coverage; you supply your own analysis
• MetaTrader 4 is a restricted build with roughly 200 instruments and no third-party add-on support, and MetaTrader 5 is not offered at all
• CFD-only with no real ownership, and no Abgeltungsteuer or KESt withholding for German and Austrian clients