Thndr vs flatex — which broker is better?

Pros

• Transparent brokerage on Egyptian shares and ETFs: EGP 2 plus 0.1% of the executed value, with every third-party fee listed and passed through at cost
• No Thndr fee or commission on mutual fund orders according to the English fee article (18 August 2026) and the introduction of its Arabic version (18 October 2026); one section of the Arabic article still lists EGP 2 plus 0.1%, and Thndr Gold charges 1.5% on buys
• According to Thndr, EGX shares are registered at MCDR under the client's national ID and client cash sits in trust accounts at Egyptian banks
• Three markets in one app: the EGX, US stocks and ETFs with fractional shares on market orders, and ADX-listed shares in Abu Dhabi
• No minimum deposit advertised, plus an investing simulator with 100,000 units of virtual currency
• Local funding rails: InstaPay, Vodafone Cash and other e-wallets, Egyptian bank transfers and cash deposits at CIB branches
• Tools for Muslim investors in Thndr's own words: a Sharia tab in Thndr Lists, the EGX33 Shariah Index, a zakat calculator, and gold and savings products Thndr says are overseen by Sharia committees

Cons

• Supervision rests on Egypt's FRA (tier 3 in our scale) and the FSRA in ADGM (tier 2); there is no listed parent and no banking licence, and we could not confirm the current limit of Egypt's Investor Protection Fund
• US and UAE trading runs through Thndr Financial Ltd, whose FSRA permission does not allow it to hold or control client investments; US orders are executed, and US shares held, by a third party, Alpaca Securities LLC
• Narrow range: we found no options, bonds, crypto, margin lending or CFDs, and the advanced ThndrX platform with real-time EGX data needs the Thndr Trader subscription at EGP 245 a month
• Support runs mainly through in-app chat, plus support@thndr.app, with no published hours; a phone line is reserved for Thndr Fortune clients with EGP 500,000 or more and for Thndr Trader UAE subscribers
• Thndr's help centre states two different US per-share fees (USD 0.0015 and USD 0.005), and US prices in the app update only about every 15 minutes
• Egyptian withdrawals cost EGP 2.5 each and can only go to an EGP account in Egypt or to the e-wallet linked to the registered phone number

Pros

• EUR 5.90 flat commission on German, US, Canadian and other foreign orders with no percentage component up to EUR 40,000 — a EUR 10,000 trade costs the same as a EUR 1,000 trade
• All ETF and fund savings plans execute at EUR 0.00 commission with over 5,000 plans available and no cap on the savings rate
• No custody fee, no account fee, no inactivity fee, and free incoming and outgoing depot transfers
• Genuine spot crypto in around 25 coins at 0.6%–0.7% all-in, traded through the regulated German bank and held by the BaFin-authorised custodian Tangany rather than as an ETN wrapper
• Full German banking licence under BaFin and Bundesbank supervision, with an MDAX-listed parent (flatexDEGIRO SE, ticker FTK) publishing audited accounts and over EUR 100 billion in customer securities under custody
• Tax-simple in both markets it serves: automatic German Abgeltungsteuer withholding and automatic Austrian KESt settlement at 27.5% on flatex.at
• Free foreign-currency sub-accounts, so USD or CHF proceeds can be held rather than converted back at a spread every time
• Fast onboarding — flatex advertises a five-minute fully digital account opening, and no minimum deposit applies

Cons

• 0.00% p.a. credit interest on cash balances. Competitors pay 1%–1.75% on the settlement or call account, so an investor holding EUR 20,000 in cash gives up EUR 200–350 a year that never shows up in any fee table
• Currency conversion costs an absolute margin of USD 0.0040 per euro — roughly 0.35% — which is worse than Consorsbank's published USD 0.0030 and far worse than a multi-currency specialist
• No Eurex or US options and futures trading at all. Certificates, knock-outs and Société Générale CFDs are the only leveraged instruments on offer
• The price list still meters real-time quotes — 25 free per month plus 10 per executed order, then EUR 0.01 per query — although flatex currently advertises Xetra real-time quotes as free until further notice; the professional flatex trader 2.0 platform costs EUR 15–39 a month on top
• The EUR 5.90 floor makes flatex expensive for small orders — a EUR 300 purchase pays about 2% in commission before venue costs, where a EUR 1 neobroker charges 0.3%
• Direct foreign market access is narrow: US, Canada, Euronext, Vienna, Zurich and Milan (sell only). There is no direct London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Nordic access, and stock savings plans cost 1.00% of the rate