Best MT4 Forex Brokers for 2023

Having The right! trading platform is essential when trading the world’s foreign exchange market. The MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform is considered the go-to platform for forex traders and is one of the most popular platforms around.

However, while many brokers may offer MT4, not all of the brokers are equal. On top of having access to MT4, it is important that your broker offers a backup option to execute your trades while offering a high level of safety and security for your funds.

Our team of experts has been able to identify the best MT4 forex brokers which are outlined below using a 250-point checking system across nine core categories.

 

 

List of Top MT4 Forex Brokers

• FP Markets – Best Overall
  
  Low fees. Wide range of markets. Excellent trading tools.
• Exness – Best for Cryptocurrency Trading
  
  Good range of cryptos. Zero overnight swap fees. Multiple account types.
• OctaFX – Best Low Spreads
  
  Zero commission. Zero swap fees. Good spreads.
• Swissquote – Best for Auto Trading
  
  Public company listed on Swiss exchange. Multiple account types. MT4 and MT5 auto-trading capabilities.
• Multibank – Best for Professional Traders
  
  Advanced account types. ECN, MAM, and PAMM accounts. 
• Errante – Best for Account Offering
  
  Competitive fees. Multiple account types. 
• Tickmill – Best for Trading Tools
  
  Access to FCA-regulated signal provider. Excellent range of education materials. 
• CMC Markets – Best for Research Materials
  
  Industry-leading research from expert analysts. Automated technical analysis research. Active trading rebates. 
• FlowBank – Best for Tradable Instruments
  
  4,000+ markets on MT4. 50,000+ markets on its own proprietary platform. 
• JustMarkets – Best for Customer Support
  
  Range of account types including raw spread and swap-free.
• IronFX – Best for Beginners
  
  Multiple account types. Excellent content in IronFX School.
• OANDA US – Best for US Traders
  
  Globally regulated. Trader loyalty program to earn cash rebates. Top trading tools.

How did FX Empire choose the best MT4 brokers?

• We made sure each broker offers free access to the MT4 trading platform.
• We tested how easy it is to access MT4 and how fast you can start trading.
• We reviewed the broker’s regulations and licensing to operate.
• We analyzed if the broker provides additional plugins to MT4 such as third-party applications like AutoChartist, an extra indicator package, and access to social trading options.
• We checked if the broker allows users to operate Expert Advisors through MT4 to enable algorithmic trading capabilities.
• We checked for other additional features to help traders such as the range of markets, account types, fees, customer service, trading tools, and more.

Our team of experts has identified each broker’s strengths and weaknesses using FX Empire’s comprehensive methodology. Here’s how we test.

Now let’s dive into the selected brokers.

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Our Methodology

FX Empire pioneered broker reviews in the financial industry. The methodology we use to evaluate brokers has grown in depth and checkpoints as the industry has changed over time as well. Our reviews now test for more than 250 data points covering nine core categories.

Such detailed evaluations allow us to provide our readers with a much higher level of confidence in choosing the right broker. The data we have gathered is through opening live trading accounts, and speaking to real customer support agents (where available) to battle test the complete user experience when opening an account and trading with a broker.

The nine core categories that we use to rate a broker include:

• Trust
• Fees
• Platforms and tools
• Tradable instruments
• Customer service
• Deposit and withdrawals
• Account types
• Research
• Education

The more than 250 data checkpoints over each of these categories are also measured side by side against other brokers. This helps us to determine just how competitive a broker’s offering is in relation to the industry average.

To identify the best MT4 forex brokers, we conducted a deep analysis of the brokers which have an overall rating of 4+ out of 5 in our scoring system, offer the MetaTrader 4 platform, and provide the ability to trade forex but also extra features that may be useful for individual trading styles.

This is why we have further categorized the best MT4 brokers to make them suitable for different traders’ needs – by the best overall, the best for professional traders, cryptocurrency trading, trading tools, copy trading, account offering, and customer service.

Meet Our Writers

The team of forex and CFD writers and editors at FX Empire is composed of trading industry professionals and seasoned financial journalists. Our writers have been published on leading financial websites such as Investopedia and Forbes. In addition, they all have extensive trading experience.

How to choose the best MT4 forex broker?

Below are some of the key points to consider when choosing the best MT4 forex broker to trade with.

Why is it important to choose a regulated MT4 forex broker?

Choosing a regulated broker is important as your broker holds your funds and executes your trades. Without proper oversight, your funds could be at risk and your trades may not be executed fairly.

Brokers that choose to be regulated and overseen by the laws of a government financial body, provide a higher level of safety and security than those that do not. However, not all financial regulators are equal.

In our reviews, we break down financial regulators into three categories including tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3:

• Tier 1 regulators are well-known authorities such as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and many others.
• Tier 2 regulators are lesser-known authorities but are still considered to be of a high standard. Examples include the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand (FMA) and many others.
• Tier 3 regulators are generally from more offshore-based countries. Examples include the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC), the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) and many others.

Many brokers have entities that are regulated by tier 1 to tier 3 regulators but may also have entities that are not regulated at all such as entities registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

It is always worthwhile checking the entity you are opening a trading account with and the protections available from its regulator. For example, opening an account with an FCA-regulated broker means traders are eligible for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which covers up to £85,000 in case of broker insolvency.

Many of the tier 1 regulators also enforce a negative balance protection policy on a broker’s retail trading clients, while also enforcing that client funds should be held separately from company funds. Many tier 2, tier 3, and unregulated brokers are not obliged to offer this – some still will offer this but some may not.

Read more about Best regulated forex brokers.

What fees should you be aware of when choosing an MT4 forex broker?

Nowadays, traders have a huge selection of different account types offered by different brokers. Each account type is likely to come with different types of trading fees and non-trading fees. Below are a few that you should be aware of.

Trading fees are those that are charged for opening, closing and holding a trade. These include:

• Spreads. This is the difference between the buy price and sell price. Ideally, this needs to be as low as possible.
• Commission. This is the cost of opening and closing a trade and should also be as low as possible.
• Swaps. This is a fee to hold any leveraged positions overnight. This is usually based on a combination of interest rates and a broker markup.

Some brokers will offer accounts that have spread from 0 pips but charge a commission to open and close a trade. Other brokers will offer accounts in which they markup the spread so you can trade from 1.5 pips but will not charge any commissions.

In our rating reviews, we consider a low spread for EURUSD to be less than 1 pip and a high spread above 3 pips when using a commission-free trading account. For cross-currency pairs such as GBPJPY, we consider a high spread to be above 5 pips and a low spread to be below 3 pips.

For commission-based trading accounts, the benchmark spread for EURUSD should average around 0.1 pips. A commission charge of more than $5 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per transaction is considered to be high, whereas below $3 is considered to be low.

Non-trading fees include fees for account management. Most retail brokers do not charge a fee just to have an account open but they may charge an inactivity fee if there hasn’t been any activity on your account for a while. It’s worthwhile checking with your chosen broker.

Test for H4

It is also worthwhile checking the fees for deposits and withdrawals. Some brokers may not charge any fees to deposit or withdraw funds but other brokers may charge for one or both options.

What is the best type of forex brokerage account for MT4?

There is a range of account types that brokers may offer when trading from the MetaTrader 4 platform.

Some brokers will base their account types on the type of execution available. These include:

• STP accounts. Straight Through Processing accounts are those in which client orders are routed directly to the broker’s liquidity provider.
• ECN accounts. Electronic Communications Network accounts are those in which client orders are matched up to prices from a variety of liquidity sources in an anonymous network.
• DMA accounts. Direct Market Access accounts are those in which clients trade directly with the interbank market participants.

Read more about STP, ECN, and DMA accounts.

Other brokers will base their account types on the minimum deposit. For example, a Standard Account could have a minimum deposit of $100 whereas a Premium Account could have a minimum deposit of $5,000.

Generally speaking, most brokers will offer lower spreads and commissions and more trading tools and services to those with a higher account balance. It’s worthwhile exploring all of the different account types offered by a broker to see what other additional tools and services are available that could help with your trading.

A great account type to get started with is a demo trading account. These are great for beginners as it allows you to trade in a virtual environment and practice your skills risk-free.

What is the best leverage when choosing an MT4 forex broker?

One reason trading has grown in popularity is that it is now possible to trade using very small sums of capital due to the effect of leverage. Forex, CFD and Spread Betting accounts are leveraged accounts. What does this mean?

Leverage is the process of using borrowed funds to increase the size of your cash position. This means you can trade bigger positions using a small deposit. Effectively, your broker is lending you the rest of the capital and there is an overnight fee (known as the swap fee) for any open positions which act as a form of ‘interest payment.’

The amount of leverage offered by a broker depends on:

1. Who the broker is regulated by.
2. Your categorization as a client.

Tier 1 regulators and some tier 2 regulators ensure that brokerage clients fill in a trading application form. Depending on the answers given, individuals will be categorized as retail or professional.

• Retail trading accounts generally offer more protection than professional trading accounts including a negative balance protection policy and lower leverage (maximum 30:1 on forex).
• Professional trading accounts generally offer high leverage (sometimes up to 200:1 on forex) but without the regulatory need to offer a negative balance protection policy (although some top brokers will still offer this to professional traders as well).

For example, retail traders with a tier 1 regulated broker can open a $30,000 position size on a currency pair with only $1,000 in cash in the account. The margin rates are lower for other asset classes such as stocks as they present more risk due to the market closing overnight (unlike the forex market which is open 24/5).

You may see adverts for 500:1 or 1,000:1 leverage. However, these will mainly be from offshore brokers who have much lower regulatory requirements or unregulated brokers.

When trading the financial markets, risk management and safety should always come first.

Which MT4 platform should you use?

The MetaTrader 4 trading platform can be used in several different ways:

• A desktop version that can be downloaded on Windows.
• A desktop version that can be downloaded on Mac (but using a service or plugin to use Windows applications on a Mac).
• An online web version called MetaTrader 4 Web Trader.
• A mobile trading app for Android users.

It is important to decide how you would like to access your MT4 trading platform and then find out if your chosen broker offers it. Many Mac users will use the Web Trader but some brokers do offer detailed instructions on how to use free, third-party plugins to run the desktop version on your Mac.

For those interested in algorithmic trading strategies, you will need to use a desktop version. The Web Trader allows you to easily view charts, indicators, timeframes, and different markets, as well as to trade, but does not offer algorithmic capabilities.

It may be worthwhile checking if your chosen broker has its own proprietary mobile trading app on top of the MT4 mobile trading app as well, just in case one goes down. Trading with a broker with multiple types of trading platforms and proprietary apps will ensure zero downtime on your trading and have less of an impact if one platform has any issues.

What to look for in MT4 offering?

The stand-alone version of MetaTrader 4 is the same across the industry and across different brokers. However, some brokers will offer additional add-ons and customizations to the platform or connect with third-party providers. This is something to look out for because extra tools and access to more software can help to boost your trading experience.

While MT4 is the go-to platform for forex traders, the mobile app has been removed from iOS devices. If you are focused on algorithmic trading then look for a broker that provides access to an MT4 VPS service as this won’t be available from the web platform.

For beginner traders, look out for tutorials and videos on how to use MT4. While there is a lot of information available online, it’s easier to find the right information if your broker already has it available. This can help you to get started in the best possible way and learn all the benefits trading with an MT4 broker provides.

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• Best Forex Brokers in the USA

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