Written by ForexBrokers.com
In this head to head comparison of IFC Markets vs RoboForex, we will compare the trading platforms, mobile apps, range of investments, costs, market research, and more. Let's dive in.
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.
When evaluating the regulatory aspects of online brokers, IFC Markets and RoboForex have some notable differences. Founded in 2006, IFC Markets is not publicly traded and is not a bank, holding a Trust Score of 73, which places it in the average risk category according to ForexBrokers.com. It holds one Tier-2 license, indicating a standard level of trust. On the other hand, RoboForex, established in 2009, also isn't publicly traded or a bank, but it holds one Tier-1 license, suggesting a high level of trust, matching its identical Trust Score rating of 73.
Both brokers share the same Trust Score, putting them at average risk, but their licensing status sets them apart. RoboForex holds a Tier-1 license, which is generally seen as indicating more trustworthiness than IFC Markets’ Tier-2 license. Therefore, while both have similar trust ratings, RoboForex's regulatory credentials might offer additional peace of mind for traders prioritizing regulatory oversight.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2006 | 2009 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No |
| Bank | No | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 0 | 1 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 0 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 1 | 2 |
When comparing IFC Markets and RoboForex, differences in commissions and fees can significantly influence your trading experience. IFC Markets offers a slightly higher average spread for EUR/USD at 1.44, above the industry average of 1.08. However, those opting for IFC Market's new ECN account may find more competitive effective spreads at 1.1 pips, considering the 0.005% commission on both sides of a trade. The absence of inactivity fees along with active trader discounts also contributes to value for money. IFC Markets has been rated 4 stars out of 5 in commissions and fees, ranking 39th among 63 brokers according to ForexBrokers.com.
On the other hand, RoboForex offers average spreads of 1.3 pips for the EUR/USD pair on their Procent and Pro accounts, which are relatively high. With a rating of 3.5 stars for commissions and fees, their ranking stands at 55th out of 63 brokers as per ForexBrokers.com. While both platforms offer trading flexibility, the difference in their cost structures could be a deciding factor depending on your trading strategy. Choosing the right broker for your needs requires careful consideration of these unique features.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $1 | $100 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.44 | 1.3 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 1.1 | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | Yes |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | Yes |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | Yes |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.
When comparing IFC Markets and RoboForex for their range of investment options, it's clear that both brokers provide clients with forex trading through CFDs or spot contracts. However, the scale of available tradable symbols is one major differentiator. IFC Markets offers a selection of 630 symbols, including 49 forex pairs. On the flip side, RoboForex impressively provides a vast array of 8,400 tradable symbols, albeit with a smaller focus on forex pairs, offering just 28. Moreover, while both brokers do not grant access to buy exchange-traded securities on U.S. exchanges, IFC Markets stands out for offering international exchange-traded securities, whereas RoboForex does not.
Both platforms enable copy trading and offer cryptocurrency derivatives instead of the actual cryptocurrencies. Yet, RoboForex's broader range of tradable options earns it a higher rating in the Range of Investments category. RoboForex enjoys a rating of 4.5 stars and ranks #20 out of 63 brokers, while IFC Markets holds a rating of 3.5 stars, ranking #43. This highlights RoboForex's more extensive offering that caters to various trading preferences.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 630 | 8400 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 49 | 28 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | No |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | 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.
Both IFC Markets and RoboForex provide excellent trading platform options, catering to various trader preferences. They each offer free virtual demo accounts, allowing new traders to practice before diving into live trading. While RoboForex does not have its proprietary platform, IFC Markets has developed an in-house platform that complements the widely renowned MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms available at both brokers. Traders can choose between Windows-based desktop installations or web-based platforms for seamless access, regardless of the operating system. Copy trading is supported by both brokers, providing traders the opportunity to mimic the strategies of experienced investors.
Charting tools are robust across both platforms, as traders can expect an equal number of drawing tools—15 at each broker, alongside the capability to execute trades directly from stock charts. Both brokers offer detailed watch lists with seven columns each, aiding in efficient trade monitoring. Despite their robust offerings, neither broker supports DupliTrade or ZuluTrade integrations. With both platforms receiving a commendable four-star rating for their trading platforms and tools, IFC Markets holds a slightly higher industry ranking than RoboForex, coming in at 36th compared to RoboForex’s 43rd position out of 63 brokers ranked by ForexBrokers.com.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | No |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | Yes |
| DupliTrade | No | No |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 | 15 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 |
Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.
When it comes to mobile trading apps, both IFC Markets and RoboForex have tailored solutions for traders using iPhones and Android devices. Both platforms support the essential features like stock and forex price alerts, the ability to draw trendlines on charts, and the option to view multiple time frames such as daily, weekly, or intraday. Each also provides 30 technical studies for their charting tools and offers real-time quotes for customizable watchlists. IFC Markets distinguishes itself with watchlist symbol syncing, allowing changes made in the mobile app to seamlessly sync with the client's online account, a feature not available with RoboForex. Both apps, however, save chart drawings automatically, enhancing ease of use during active trading sessions.
While both IFC Markets and RoboForex share the same rating of 4 out of 5 stars for their mobile trading apps, there is a slight variation in their rankings by ForexBrokers.com. RoboForex comes in at #43 out of 63 brokers, offering a slightly better standing compared to IFC Markets, which is ranked #52. These metrics indicate that although the user experience is highly favorable for both apps, RoboForex holds a slight lead in terms of overall positioning among brokers in mobile trading app evaluations.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes | No |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.
Both IFC Markets and RoboForex provide traders with essential daily market commentary, keeping clients informed on market movements and trends. Additionally, both platforms offer an economic calendar for tracking global events. However, when it comes to forex news from top-tier sources like Bloomberg and Reuters, RoboForex stands out by providing such information, while IFC Markets does not. In terms of research tools, RoboForex integrates options from Trading Central, a key feature absent in IFC Markets' offering of technical analysis tools.
Divergences continue with sentiment-based trading tools, where IFC Markets provides insights into the ratio of long and short positions across different instruments, a feature not available with RoboForex. Meanwhile, RoboForex enhances its research offerings with tools from Acuity Trading, which IFC Markets lacks. Despite these differences, both brokers achieve a commendable 3.5-star rating for research. However, RoboForex is marginally better ranked at #37 compared to IFC Markets' #40 in ForexBrokers.com's research category, reflecting slight variances in their offerings.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | No | Yes |
| Autochartist | No | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | No |
| TipRanks | No | No |
| Signal Centre (Acuity Trading) | No | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.
In comparing the educational resources available to beginners, IFC Markets offers a notable selection of materials, including more than ten educational pieces such as articles and videos focused on forex and CFDs. Additionally, they provide a rich collection of beginner and advanced educational videos to help new traders and those with more experience. IFC Markets also supplies an investor dictionary with definitions for over 50 investing terms. RoboForex, on the other hand, falls short in these areas, not meeting the minimum threshold of educational resources related to forex or CFDs and lacking beginner-focused video content. They also do not offer an investor dictionary, which could be a critical resource for new traders looking to expand their knowledge.
Neither IFC Markets nor RoboForex offers online educational client webinars or archives of past webinars, which limits live interactive learning opportunities for users. Despite this, IFC Markets leads the way in education rankings, coming in at 30 out of 63 brokers according to ForexBrokers.com, whereas RoboForex ranks significantly lower at 56. Both platforms receive an equal rating of 3.5 stars for educational content, but IFC Markets’ comprehensive library edges it ahead, particularly for those starting in forex and CFDs trading.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
|
RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | No |
| Client Webinars | No | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No | No |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | No |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | No |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | No |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.
After testing 63 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that IFC Markets is better than RoboForex. IFC Markets finished with an overall rank of #45, while RoboForex finished with an overall rank of #46.
IFC Markets is a well-established broker that has been in operation for 17 years. Forex traders at IFC Markets gain access to multiple trading platforms, a growing range of tradeable markets, and a balanced offering of research and educational content. However, IFC Markets’ Trust Score suffers due to the broker’s limited range of regulatory licenses.
| Feature |
IFC Markets
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RoboForex
|
|---|---|---|
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| Trust Score | 73 | 73 |
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Both IFC Markets and RoboForex do not provide the option to purchase actual delivered cryptocurrency, but they do offer the ability to buy cryptocurrency derivatives.
When comparing online brokers IFC Markets and RoboForex in terms of deposit and withdrawal options, RoboForex offers a broader range of methods including ACH, SEPA transfers, PayPal, Skrill, in addition to Visa, Mastercard, and bank wires, while IFC Markets supports transactions via Visa, Mastercard, and bank wires only.
Please note:
We review each broker’s overall global offering – a “Yes” checkmark in our Compare Tool does not guarantee the availability of any specific features in your country of residence. To verify the availability of any features within your country of residence, please contact the broker directly.
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0 of 5| Overall Rating | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
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| Trust Score | 73 | 73 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | RoboForex Review |
| Broker Screenshots | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
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| Trading Platforms Gallery (click to expand) | |||
| Mobile Trading Gallery (click to expand) | |||
| Research Gallery (click to expand) | |||
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| Regulation | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 73 | 73 | |
| Year Founded | 2006 | 2009 | |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No | |
| Bank | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | No | Yes | |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 0 | 1 | |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 0 | |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 1 | 2 |
| Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted) | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia (ASIC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Canada (CIRO Authorised) | No | No | |
| Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Japan (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Singapore (MAS Authorised) | No | No | |
| Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) | No | No | |
| USA (CFTC Authorized) | No | No | |
| New Zealand (FMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | No | Yes |
| Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted) | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya (CMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Israel (ISA Authorised) | No | No | |
| South Africa (FSCA Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised) | No | No | |
| India (SEBI Authorised) | No | No | |
| Jordan (JSC Authorised) | No | No |
| Investments | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 630 | 8400 | |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 49 | 28 | |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No | |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | No | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No | |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | 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 | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.44 | 1.3 | |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 1.1 | N/A | |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | Yes | |
| Inactivity Fee | No | Yes | |
| Execution: Agency Broker | Yes | Yes | |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes | Yes |
| Funding | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $1 | $100 | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | Yes | |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | Yes | |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes | |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | Yes |
| Trading Platforms | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | No | |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | Yes | |
| cTrader | No | No | |
| DupliTrade | No | No | |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Trading Tools | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 | |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 | 30 | |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 | 15 | |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes | |
| Charts can be saved | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes | No | |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 | |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Research | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes | |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | No | Yes | |
| Autochartist | No | No | |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | Yes | |
| TipRanks | No | No | |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | No | |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Education | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | No | |
| Client Webinars | No | No | |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No | No | |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | No | |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | No | |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | No |
| Major Forex Pairs | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/JPY | Yes | Yes | |
| EUR/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CHF | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CAD | Yes | Yes | |
| NZD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| AUD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| Review | RoboForex Review |
| Overall | IFC Markets | RoboForex | |
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| Trust Score | 73 | 73 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | RoboForex Review |
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