Skilling vs Axi — which broker is better?

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

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