Questrade vs Scalable Capital — which broker is better?

Pros

• CAD 0 commission on every Canadian and US stock and ETF trade, on both the buy and the sell side, with no ECN fees at all on Canadian orders
• CAD 0 contract fee on US-listed equity options and free assignment — one of only two Canadian brokers offering this
• Questrade Pro is free to all clients and includes Level 2 depth, time and sales, chart trading, hot keys and a multi-leg options strategy builder
• No inactivity fee, no annual account fee and no minimum balance on any registered or non-registered account
• Dual-currency registered accounts let you hold USD inside a TFSA or RRSP, removing forced conversion on every US dividend and sale
• Fractional shares, pre-IPO access, private credit, bonds, GICs, mutual funds and a separate FX & CFD account under one brand
• CIRO-regulated with CIPF coverage of CAD 1,000,000 per account category, and a record as Canada's largest independent broker going back to 1999

Cons

• The 1.5% CAD/USD conversion charge is high and unavoidable unless you deliberately manage currency; on a CAD 20,000 US-stock purchase it costs CAD 300, dwarfing any commission saving
• Cash earns effectively 0% below a CAD 250,000 balance — the published formula is prime minus 8.50%, floored at zero — while Wealthsimple pays 1.25% or more on chequing balances
• CAD 150 to transfer an account out, full or partial, and CAD 9.95 per journalling request unless you pay CAD 19.99 a month for Questrade Plus
• The 'margin rates as low as prime minus 2.5%' headline applies only to USD borrowing for clients trading 5,001+ US options contracts a month; the standard CAD non-registered rate is prime plus 4.25%, and registered accounts pay prime plus 8.10%
• No spot crypto, no exchange-traded futures, and no meaningful international equity access — non-US foreign shares cost 1% of trade value with a USD 195 minimum per side
• Questrade advertises no practice or paper-trading account for self-directed clients, so there is nowhere to learn Questrade Pro without real money at risk

Pros

• Free savings-plan executions from EUR 1 with fractional amounts, across more than 2,700 ETFs, 4,500 shares and 3,800 funds - the deepest catalogue in Europe.
• PRIME+ at EUR 4.99 a month makes trading a fixed cost rather than a variable one; commission-free orders from EUR 250 on EIX break even at roughly five trades a month. Purchases of PRIME ETFs (Amundi, iShares, Vanguard, Xtrackers) from EUR 250 on EIX are free on the FREE Broker as well, so they do not count towards that.
• Holds its own full ECB banking licence since September 2025 and custodies client securities itself, with cash covered to EUR 100,000 and PRIME+ balances spread across partner banks for wider statutory coverage.
• 2.60% p.a. on the Scalable Overnight cash account, paid monthly - on unlimited cash, with or without PRIME+.
• More than 3,800 mutual funds tradable without the front-end load, which is unusual at a flat-fee broker and useful for anyone holding legacy fund positions.
• German residents get Abgeltungsteuer, solidarity surcharge and church tax withheld and remitted automatically, with annual tax certificates issued.
• Broker, cash account, robo-advisor (Scalable Wealth) and a securities-backed credit line all sit behind one login, which is a genuine consolidation argument.

Cons

• Since 1 September 2026 gettex orders cost up to EUR 1.99 on every plan, up from EUR 0.99, which wiped out the PRIME+ commission-free advantage that made the subscription compelling on that venue.
• Only three trading venues - EIX, gettex and Xetra - with no direct access to US or other foreign exchanges, so you buy foreign shares through a German quote rather than on their home market.
• On EIX, Scalable is the single market maker on the venue it routes you to by default, which is the same broker-as-counterparty conflict the post-PFOF industry inherited.
• Euro-only accounts with no multi-currency balances and no itemised FX charge, so the true cost of a foreign share purchase is not visible on the contract note.
• No telephone support: chat and email only, with slow replies and delayed tax documents the most common complaint in user reviews.
• Fractional trading works in savings plans but not in ordinary lump-sum orders, and there is no demo account.