ThinkMarkets vs Axi — which broker is better?

Pros

• ThinkZero all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus USD 3.50 per lot per side on forex and metals
• Three top-tier licences - FCA 629628, ASIC AFSL 424700 and JFSA registration 0250 - alongside CySEC 215/13 and FSCA FSP 49835
• Roughly 3,260 instruments on ThinkMarkets' own contract table, including 2,796 share CFDs and 324 ETF CFDs, which is unusually broad for a CFD-only broker
• ThinkTrader mobile is a full trading client with proper charting, drawing tools and server-side alerts, and is consistently rated among the best mobile apps in the category
• No minimum deposit on the Standard account and no broker fee on deposits or withdrawals on the published methods
• Seven base currencies including CHF, AUD, SGD and NZD, which removes a conversion layer for clients outside the euro and dollar
• Copy trading through both the in-house ThinkCopy layer and the ZuluTrade network, plus MT4, MT5 and TradingView on the same account

Cons

• 75 percent of ThinkMarkets UK retail accounts lose money trading CFDs, and disclosures across the group's entities have ranged from roughly 68 percent to 89 percent
• Withdrawals are the recurring complaint in public reviews: repeated document requests on already-verified accounts, multi-week delays, and disputed payments marked as successful. A USD 100 minimum withdrawal adds friction on top
• Dormancy is charged on the UK entity: GBP 10 per month from day 181 without a trade, for as long as the balance is positive. The CySEC, ASIC and offshore entities publish no comparable figure we could verify
• No published currency conversion rate, so the true cost of trading a US share CFD from a EUR or GBP account cannot be modelled before you trade
• The FG Acquisition Corp SPAC merger that would have listed the group in Toronto never completed, so there are no public accounts and no listed-company disclosure
• No listed options, no exchange-traded futures, no bonds, no funds and no share ownership - the entire book is contracts for difference

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