Scalable Capital vs Smartbroker+ — which broker is better?

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.

Pros

• EUR 0.00 order commission on gettex for shares, bonds, ETFs, ETPs and funds from EUR 500 of order value, and EUR 1.00 below that
• 29 exchange venues plus eight OTC issuer desks - all German exchanges and eighteen foreign ones, so most securities can be bought on their home market in the home currency
• Genuinely broad range: roughly 40,000 shares, 40,000 bonds, 2,500 ETFs, 18,000 funds at net asset value and 4.6 million derivatives
• More than 10,800 savings plans on shares, ETFs, ETCs, funds and crypto ETPs, all free, from EUR 1.00 up to EUR 5,000 per instalment, at monthly to half-yearly intervals
• Zinskonto pays 2.25% p.a. variable up to EUR 100,000 and 2.00% from EUR 100,000 to EUR 1m, indexed to the ECB deposit facility rate
• VIP tiers trigger automatically at 45, 1,500 and 6,000 trades a quarter, cutting Tradegate and L&S to EUR 1-2 and including the EUR 29.90-a-month trading API
• Baader Bank as custodian means the full German tax service: automatic Abgeltungsteuer and church tax, Freistellungsauftrag, loss offsetting, Vorabpauschale, US withholding relief and Swiss tax vouchers
• Free custody, free sub-accounts, free foreign-currency accounts, free deposits and withdrawals, no inactivity fee

Cons

• The zero-commission promise applies to exactly one venue above one order size; Xetra costs EUR 4 plus 0.01%, Nasdaq EUR 4 plus 0.02% with a USD 8 minimum, and a small foreign order can easily cost EUR 12-15
• Crypto at 0.90% of market value plus the venue mark-up is expensive against German rivals charging a fraction of that for equivalent spot exposure
• The October 2023 migration from DAB to Baader Bank produced weeks of malfunctions and unreachable support; Finanztip pulled its recommendation until October 2024 and legacy DAB accounts that never moved now pay about EUR 9 per German exchange order
• Support is German-language business hours only, and the published fee list includes some hostile line items - EUR 100 for a copy of a recorded call, EUR 100 an hour for an address trace
• Onboarding is app-only and requires iOS 16 or Android 10 or newer; there is no browser-only route in
• The published Konditionen page and the July 2026 price list disagree on at least one venue charge (Stockholm: 0.03% versus 0.10%), which is not what you want from a fee schedule