Interactive Brokers vs IFC Markets 2026

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 51% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Regulation

Interactive Brokers, established in 1977, is a well-known choice in the online brokerage industry. It stands out with its impressive ForexBrokers.com Trust Score of 99, putting it in the highly trusted category. The company is publicly traded, enhancing transparency and investor confidence. Despite not being a bank, Interactive Brokers holds a significant number of regulatory approvals with 9 Tier-1 licenses deemed highly trusted and 2 Tier-2 licenses indicating a trusted status. This solid regulatory framework makes Interactive Brokers a preferred choice for many investors seeking security and reliability in their online trading experiences.

On the other hand, IFC Markets, founded in 2006, presents a more moderate risk profile with a ForexBrokers.com Trust Score of 73, placing it in the average risk category. Unlike Interactive Brokers, IFC Markets is not publicly traded, which may influence investor perceptions of transparency. The company does not hold any Tier-1 licenses, but it does maintain 1 Tier-2 license, suggesting a foundational level of trust. While both brokers are not banks, the differences in their regulatory and trust profiles are key factors for potential investors to consider when choosing between these platforms.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Year Founded info	1977	2006
Publicly Traded (Listed) info	Yes	No
Bank info	No	No
Tier-1 Licenses info	9	0
Tier-2 Licenses info	2	1
Tier-3 Licenses info	0	0
Tier-4 Licenses info	0	1

Fees

Interactive Brokers earns 5 out of 5 stars for commissions and fees and ranks #2 out of 63 brokers, while IFC Markets earns 4 out of 5 stars and ranks #32 out of 63. In practice, Interactive Brokers is usually cheaper for standard-lot forex traders, whereas IFC Markets is easier to read with published spreads and no inactivity fee. IFC’s ECN account narrows the gap, but Interactive Brokers still tends to deliver lower all-in costs on EUR/USD for sufficiently sized trades.

Interactive Brokers quotes tight prices from 17 major banks and charges a commission instead of marking up the spread. In Q3 2024, the EUR/USD averaged about 0.19 pips at IBKR, translating to roughly 0.59 pips all-in after commission. Commissions start at 0.2 basis points per side with a $2 minimum per order ($4 round turn), which is about 0.40 pips on a $100,000 EUR/USD trade; trading smaller than a standard lot gets proportionally pricier due to the minimum. Volume discounts can cut the minimum to $1.50 per order above $1 billion in monthly volume and $1 per order above $5 billion, and pricing ranges around $16–$40 per million round turn. IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro both support forex, but neither is commission-free.

IFC Markets lists an average EUR/USD spread of 1.44 pips (above the 1.08-pip industry average). Its ECN account improves effective pricing to about 1.1 pips after a 0.005% commission on both sides. The broker does not charge inactivity fees and offers active-trader discounts, which will appeal to cost-conscious clients who prefer straightforward pricing. Still, for traders executing standard or larger lot sizes, Interactive Brokers typically provides lower all-in costs.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Minimum Deposit info	$0	$1
Average spread (EUR/USD) - Standard account info	0.59 info	1.44 info
All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active info	0.65 info	1.1 info
Non-wire bank transfer info	Yes	No
PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No	No
Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No	No
Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) info	Yes	Yes

Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.

Range of investments

Interactive Brokers stands out for range of investments: it offers about 8,500 tradeable symbols and 90 forex pairs, compared with IFC Markets’ 630 symbols and 49 pairs. Interactive Brokers supports exchange-traded securities on both U.S. and international exchanges, so you can buy shares like Apple on NASDAQ as well as overseas listings. IFC Markets offers exchange-traded securities on international exchanges but not on U.S. exchanges.

Both brokers let you trade forex as either a CFD or spot contract. For crypto, Interactive Brokers offers both actual coins and crypto CFDs, while IFC Markets limits crypto to CFDs. IFC Markets provides copy trading; Interactive Brokers does not. In ForexBrokers.com’s Range of Investments ratings, Interactive Brokers scores 5 stars and ranks #1 out of 63 brokers, whereas IFC Markets scores 3.5 stars and ranks #31.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) info	Yes	Yes
Tradeable Symbols (Total) info	8500	630
Forex Pairs (Total) info	90	49
U.S. Stocks (Shares) info	Yes	No
Global Stocks (Non-U.S. Shares) info	Yes	Yes
Copy Trading info	No	Yes
Cryptocurrency (Underlying) info	Yes	No
Cryptocurrency (CFDs) info	Yes	Yes
Disclaimers	Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients).

Dive deeper: Best Copy Trading Platforms.

Trading platforms and tools

When comparing Interactive Brokers and IFC Markets for trading platforms and tools, both brokers check key boxes for getting started: each offers a free paper trading (demo) account, an in-house proprietary platform, a Windows desktop download, and a web-based platform. You can place trades directly from charts with either broker. The biggest platform differences are third‑party options: IFC Markets supports MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and includes copy trading, while Interactive Brokers does not support MT4/MT5 and does not offer copy trading.

For overall platform quality, Interactive Brokers earns 5 stars and ranks #2 out of 63 brokers for Trading Platforms and Tools, while IFC Markets earns 4 stars and ranks #29. Choose Interactive Brokers if you want a top-rated, feature-rich in-house experience with chart trading across desktop and web. Pick IFC Markets if MetaTrader or copy trading is important to your workflow.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Virtual Trading (Demo) info	Yes	Yes
Proprietary Desktop Trading Platform info	Yes	Yes
Desktop Platform (Windows) info	Yes	Yes
Web Platform info	Yes	Yes
Copy Trading info	No	Yes
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) info	No	Yes
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) info	No	Yes
Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) info	155	30
Charting - Trade From Chart info	Yes	Yes

Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.

Forex trading apps

Interactive Brokers and IFC Markets both deliver full-featured mobile trading apps for iPhone and Android. Each app supports price alerts and watchlist syncing with your online account, so changes carry over across devices. Charting basics are covered on both, including the ability to draw trendlines, making it easy to mark levels and track setups on the go.

Where they differ is depth and workflow. Interactive Brokers offers 97 technical studies in its mobile charts versus 30 at IFC Markets, giving data-driven traders more tools to test ideas. On the flip side, IFC Markets automatically saves chart drawings, while Interactive Brokers does not. In our ratings, Interactive Brokers earns 5 stars and ranks #4 out of 63 brokers for Mobile Trading Apps on ForexBrokers.com, while IFC Markets earns 4 stars and ranks #34. Choose Interactive Brokers for the widest range of indicators, or IFC Markets if auto-saving your annotations matters most.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Android App info	Yes	Yes
Apple iOS App info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Price Alerts info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Watchlists - Syncing info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies info	97	30
Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Charting - Trendlines Autosave info	No	Yes

Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.

Market research

Interactive Brokers vs IFC Markets for market research: both brokers provide daily market commentary, an economic calendar, and a sentiment tool showing the ratio of long vs. short positions. The key differences show up in news and third‑party research. Interactive Brokers delivers forex news from top-tier sources like Bloomberg, Reuters, or Dow Jones, and adds well-known research tools from Trading Central, TipRanks, and Acuity Trading (Signal Centre). Neither broker includes Autochartist, and IFC Markets does not offer those third-party research integrations or top-tier news feeds.

Ratings reflect this gap. Interactive Brokers earns 5 out of 5 stars for Research and ranks #3 out of 63 brokers at ForexBrokers.com, while IFC Markets scores 3.5 out of 5 and ranks #30. If you want deeper news coverage and more analyst tools, Interactive Brokers is the stronger choice; if you only need core features like commentary, calendars, and sentiment, IFC Markets covers the basics.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Daily Market Commentary (Articles) info	Yes	Yes
Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) info	Yes	No
Autochartist info	No	No
Trading Central info	Yes	No
Client sentiment data info	Yes	Yes
TipRanks info	Yes	No
Acuity Trading info	Yes	No
Economic Calendar info	Yes	Yes

Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.

Beginners and education

For beginners comparing education at Interactive Brokers and IFC Markets, Interactive Brokers is the clear leader. ForexBrokers.com rates Interactive Brokers 5 stars for Education and ranks it #1 out of 63 brokers, while IFC Markets earns 3.5 stars and ranks #25. Interactive Brokers also hosts client webinars at least once a month, giving newcomers a steady stream of live learning opportunities; IFC Markets does not offer monthly educational webinars. Both brokers provide at least 10 beginner videos and at least 10 advanced videos, so you can find content that starts with the basics and progresses to more complex trading topics.

The data provided does not specify whether either broker publishes 10 or more education pieces focused specifically on forex or CFDs. Still, if you want top-rated education with frequent live sessions, Interactive Brokers is the stronger pick. If you mainly want a video library to learn at your own pace, IFC Markets can get you started, though it offers fewer overall learning perks than Interactive Brokers.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Webinars info	Yes	No
Videos - Beginner Trading Videos info	Yes	Yes
Videos - Advanced Trading Videos info	Yes	Yes

Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.

Winner

After testing 63 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that Interactive Brokers is better than IFC Markets. Interactive Brokers finished with an overall rank of #2, while IFC Markets finished with an overall rank of #33.

Interactive Brokers is a highly trusted multi-asset broker with an extensive offering of tradeable global markets. It delivers competitive fees and high-quality research and education, as well as a modern, institutional-grade trading platform suite.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Overall Rating info
Trust Score info	99	73
Range of Investments
Trading Fees
Trading Platforms
Research
Mobile Trading
Education

FAQs

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Overall Rating	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Overall Rating info
Trading Fees
Range of Investments
Trading Platforms
Mobile Trading
Research
Education
Trust Score info	99	73
Winner	check_circle
Review	Interactive Brokers Review

Broker Screenshots	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Broker Gallery (click to expand) info

Regulation	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Trust Score info	99	73
Year Founded info	1977	2006
Publicly Traded (Listed) info	Yes	No
Bank info	No	No
Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). info	Yes info
Tier-1 Licenses info	9	0
Tier-2 Licenses info	2	1
Tier-3 Licenses info	0	0
Tier-4 Licenses info	0	1

Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted)	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Australia (ASIC Authorised) info	Yes
Canada (CIRO Authorised) info	Yes
Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) info	Yes
Japan (FSA Authorised) info	Yes
Singapore (MAS Authorised) info	Yes
Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) info	Yes
United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) info	Yes
USA (CFTC Authorized) info	Yes
New Zealand (FMA Authorised) info	No
Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). info	Yes info

Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted)	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Kenya (CMA Authorised) info
Israel (ISA Authorised) info	No
South Africa (FSCA Authorised) info	No	Yes
UAE (DFSA, FSRA, or SCA Authorised) info	Yes
India (SEBI Authorised) info	Yes
Jordan (JSC Authorised) info

Investments	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) info	Yes	Yes
Tradeable Symbols (Total) info	8500	630
Forex Pairs (Total) info	90	49
U.S. Stocks (Shares) info	Yes	No
Global Stocks (Non-U.S. Shares) info	Yes	Yes
Copy Trading info	No	Yes
Cryptocurrency (Underlying) info	Yes	No
Cryptocurrency (CFDs) info	Yes	Yes
Disclaimers	Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients).

Cost	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Average spread (EUR/USD) - Standard account info	0.59 info	1.44 info
All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active info	0.65 info	1.1 info
Inactivity Fee info	No	No
Order execution: Agency info	Yes	Yes
Order execution: Market Maker info	No	Yes

Funding	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Minimum Deposit info	$0	$1
PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No	No
Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No	No
Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) info	Yes	Yes
Non-wire bank transfer info	Yes	No

Trading Platforms	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Proprietary Desktop Trading Platform info	Yes	Yes
Desktop Platform (Windows) info	Yes	Yes
Web Platform info	Yes	Yes
Copy Trading info	No	Yes
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) info	No	Yes
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) info	No	Yes
cTrader info	No	No

Trading Tools	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Virtual Trading (Demo) info	Yes	Yes
Price Alerts info	Yes	Yes
Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) info	155	30
Charting - Trade From Chart info	Yes	Yes
Charts can be saved info	Yes	Yes

Mobile Trading	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Android App info	Yes	Yes
Apple iOS App info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Price Alerts info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Watchlist [DELETED] info
Mobile Watchlists - Syncing info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies info	97	30
Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines info	Yes	Yes
Mobile Charting - Trendlines Autosave info	No	Yes
Mobile Research - Economic Calendar info	Yes	Yes

Research	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Daily Market Commentary (Articles) info	Yes	Yes
Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) info	Yes	No
Autochartist info	No	No
Trading Central info	Yes	No
TipRanks info	Yes	No
Client sentiment data info	Yes	Yes
Economic Calendar info	Yes	Yes

Education	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Webinars info	Yes	No
Videos - Beginner Trading Videos info	Yes	Yes
Videos - Advanced Trading Videos info	Yes	Yes

Major Forex Pairs	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
GBP/USD [DELETED] info
USD/JPY [DELETED] info
EUR/USD info	Yes	Yes
USD/CHF [DELETED] info
USD/CAD [DELETED] info
NZD/USD [DELETED] info
AUD/USD [DELETED] info
Review	Interactive Brokers Review

Overall	Interactive Brokers	IFC Markets
Overall Rating info
Trading Fees
Range of Investments
Trading Platforms
Mobile Trading
Research
Education
Trust Score info	99	73
Winner	check_circle
Review	Interactive Brokers Review