TradeStation vs Interactive Brokers — which broker is better?

Pros

• EasyLanguage plus tick-level historical data gives retail traders genuine strategy development, backtesting and optimisation — not a toy backtester
• Commission tiers are assessed per asset class, so equities, options and futures each step down independently with monthly volume
• Options fall from USD 0.80 to USD 0.00 per contract and futures from USD 1.75 to USD 0.50 per side at the top volume brackets
• RadarScreen scans hundreds of symbols in real time with custom indicators, and the Matrix ladder is a proper depth-of-market execution tool
• Regulated by the SEC and FINRA (CRD #39473) with SIPC cover to USD 500,000, and owned by Tokyo-listed Monex Group
• Zero commission for U.S. clients on US equities and more than 3,000 ETFs, including spot Bitcoin ETPs; clients outside the U.S. pay a USD 5.00 ticket charge per trade
• Full entity account support — LLCs, corporations, trusts and partnerships — plus futures IRAs

Cons

• USD 10 monthly inactivity fee unless the account placed at least ten trades or held a USD 5,000 average end-of-month equity balance during the previous 90 days
• Base-tier options pricing of USD 0.80 per contract is above the US market average, and index options cost more again
• USD 1.75 per futures contract per side at the base tier is roughly double a dedicated futures broker's headline rate
• Non-trading fees are dated and steep: USD 125 outgoing ACAT, USD 35 annual IRA fee, USD 50 IRA termination, USD 14.95 per option exercise or assignment
• No spot cryptocurrency, no forex, no fractional shares and no no-transaction-fee mutual funds
• Margin starts at 11.75% on debit balances under USD 50,000, and uninvested cash earns essentially nothing on the first USD 100,000

Pros

• US stocks from USD 0.0035 per share on the Tiered plan, minimum USD 0.35 per order and capped at 1% of trade value
• Currency conversion at 0.20 basis points (minimum USD 2) — an order of magnitude cheaper than most European brokers' 0.25%–1.5%
• Roughly 160 market destinations in 36 countries from a single multi-currency account, with 28 settlement currencies
• No inactivity fee since 2021, plus no custody fee and no platform fee
• Trader Workstation offers over 100 order types plus a mature Python/Java/REST API used widely by retail algo traders
• Nasdaq-listed parent (IBKR) with published quarterly financials and around USD 21 billion of equity capital
• Top-tier licences in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with per-entity investor compensation disclosed
• Paper trading account mirrors the live platform, including the full API

Cons

• Customer support is the most common complaint: many requests go through the ticket system, and public reviews (e.g. on Trustpilot) often cite slow replies and template answers
• Trader Workstation has a genuinely steep learning curve; the first session is intimidating even for experienced traders
• The fee schedule is complicated: Fixed versus Tiered, pass-through exchange fees, and per-exchange minimums make cost prediction harder than it should be
• Real-time market data is a paid subscription per exchange, so the headline commissions understate the true monthly cost for active traders
• Account opening is longer and more document-heavy than at app-first brokers, and the website navigation is poor
• Spot crypto is only available to US clients via a separate arrangement; EEA clients get futures and exchange-traded products instead