Written by ForexBrokers.com
In this head to head comparison of Interactive Brokers vs Questrade, we will compare the trading platforms, mobile apps, range of investments, costs, market research, and more. Let's dive in.
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Interactive Brokers and Questrade are well-known online brokers, each with distinct backgrounds and regulatory standings. Founded in 1977, Interactive Brokers is a publicly traded company, which adds an additional layer of transparency and scrutiny. Meanwhile, Questrade, established in 2000, remains privately held. When assessing regulatory compliance, Interactive Brokers stands out with nine Tier-1 licenses, indicating a high level of trust according to ForexBrokers.com, compared to Questrade’s two Tier-1 licenses. Additionally, Interactive Brokers holds two Tier-2 licenses, while Questrade holds none.
In terms of overall trustworthiness, Interactive Brokers achieves an impressive Trust Score of 99 out of 99, suggesting it is highly reliable. On the other hand, Questrade receives a Trust Score of 86, reflecting a trusted status. This comparison highlights Interactive Brokers as a potentially more secure choice for cautious investors prioritizing regulatory oversight, while Questrade offers a solid but slightly less comprehensive level of assurance. Regardless of choice, both platforms provide a dependable framework for trading and investing online.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1977 | 2000 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | Yes | |
| Bank | ||
| Tier-1 Licenses | 9 | 2 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 2 | 0 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
When it comes to comparing the commissions and fees of Interactive Brokers and Questrade, Interactive Brokers stands out as the more cost-effective option, especially for forex trading. Interactive Brokers charges a low commission per side, starting at 0.00002 (0.2 basis points) of the U.S. dollar trade value with a minimum of $2 per order, making it a competitive choice. The average spread for the EUR/USD currency pair at Interactive Brokers during Q3 2024 was 0.19 pips, totaling to an effective all-in spread of 0.59 pips after commission. Interactive Brokers' unique pricing model involves aggregating prices from 17 large interbank forex dealers and applying a commission per trade, resulting in a high ranking of #2 for Commissions and Fees by ForexBrokers.com and an impressive 5-star rating.
In contrast, Questrade is less competitive in this category. Its target spreads on the EUR/USD are 1.9 pips, which is relatively high compared to industry standards. This higher spread results in less favorable conditions for forex traders, placing Questrade at a lower #58 ranking in the Commissions and Fees category according to ForexBrokers.com. Consequently, Questrade receives a modest 3-star rating for its commissions and fees, highlighting potential cost concerns for traders seeking the best value.
For active forex traders, Interactive Brokers further incentivizes high trade volumes with discounts, reducing the minimum commission charge per order based on monthly trading volume. In comparison, Questrade does not offer similar incentives for active traders, making Interactive Brokers a more attractive option for those who frequently trade and wish to minimize costs. Overall, Interactive Brokers provides a more competitive fee structure, positioning it as a preferable choice over Questrade for those focusing on value in their trading activities.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $0 | $250 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.59 | N/A |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.59 | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | Yes | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | ||
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | ||
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.
When comparing Interactive Brokers and Questrade in terms of their investment offerings, both platforms provide extensive options for traders. Interactive Brokers stands out with 8,500 tradeable symbols, while Questrade offers 641. In the forex market, Questrade edges slightly ahead, offering 110 tradeable forex pairs compared to Interactive Brokers' 90. Both brokers allow users to trade forex as either a CFD or spot contract. Investors interested in exchange-traded securities will find both platforms supportive, as they allow the purchase of U.S. and international stocks like Apple and Vodafone. For digital currency enthusiasts, Interactive Brokers provides the opportunity to buy actual cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency derivatives, whereas Questrade only offers derivatives.
Despite these differences, both brokers receive high praise, with each earning a perfect 5-star rating for the range of investments available. However, Interactive Brokers is ranked #1 out of 63 brokers by ForexBrokers.com in this category, while Questrade holds the #11 spot. The absence of copy trading on both platforms aligns them in some aspects, but their distinct investment options and ratings highlight the strengths and nuances that potential investors should consider.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 8500 | 641 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 90 | 110 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | ||
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | Yes | |
| 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.
When comparing the trading platforms of Interactive Brokers and Questrade, both brokers shine with their proprietary platforms supported on Windows and web browsers. They each offer free virtual demo accounts for simulated trading, making them accessible choices for newcomers wanting to practice before committing real money. However, while Questrade integrates with DupliTrade for enhanced trading strategies, Interactive Brokers does not, making Questrade a more appealing choice for traders interested in this feature.
In terms of charting tools, Interactive Brokers surpasses Questrade with 85 drawing tools compared to Questrade's 20. When it comes to customization, the watch lists offered by Interactive Brokers stand out with 659 columns compared to Questrade's 52. This versatility is highlighted by Interactive Brokers' higher rating of 5 stars for trading platforms and tools, as awarded by ForexBrokers.com, where it takes the impressive 3rd spot out of 63 brokers. Questrade follows with a respectable 4-star rating and a 34th place ranking, reflecting a slightly less expansive offering.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | ||
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | ||
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | ||
| DupliTrade | Yes | |
| ZuluTrade | ||
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 155 | 64 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 85 | 20 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 659 | 52 |
Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.
Interactive Brokers and Questrade both offer comprehensive mobile trading apps available for iPhone and Android users. Traders with either broker can enjoy features such as real-time price alerts, watchlist symbol syncing, and the ability to draw trendlines on stock or forex charts. Both apps support multiple time frames and allow users to create watchlists with real-time quotes for effective monitoring of their favorite stocks or forex pairs. However, a key difference emerges in the charting capabilities: Interactive Brokers provides 97 technical studies, whereas Questrade offers 64. While both apps facilitate trendline drawing, only Questrade automatically saves these drawings.
For those seeking highly rated mobile trading experiences, Interactive Brokers stands out with a 5-star rating and a #4 ranking out of 63 brokers according to ForexBrokers.com. In contrast, Questrade has a 4-star rating and ranks at #34 in the same category. These distinctions highlight Interactive Brokers as the preferred choice for users prioritizing top-rated features and extensive charting functionalities, while Questrade delivers solid performance complemented by user-friendly tools that cater to traders wanting reliable, seamless mobile access.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 97 | 64 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.
When comparing Interactive Brokers and Questrade in terms of market research offerings, Interactive Brokers stands out for its comprehensive services. It provides daily market commentary and delivers forex news sourced from leading providers like Bloomberg and Reuters. Alongside these, it offers tools from Trading Central and sentiment-based trading tools that depict the ratio of long and short positions across currency pairs. Furthermore, Interactive Brokers benefits from research tools by Acuity Trading and market insights from TipRanks, supported by a detailed economic calendar. These extensive research features contribute to its 5-star research rating and third-place rank among 63 brokers.
Questrade, on the other hand, offers a more limited suite of market research tools. Although it integrates the popular Autochartist and Trading Central tools, it lacks daily market commentary and top-tier forex news. The absence of sentiment-based trading tools and resources from Acuity Trading means its market research capabilities are not as diverse as its competitor. However, like Interactive Brokers, Questrade does provide insights from TipRanks and maintains an economic calendar to keep traders informed of global events. These factors contribute to Questrade's 3.5-star rating and 51st place in research ranking out of 63 brokers.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | |
| Autochartist | Yes | |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | |
| TipRanks | Yes | Yes |
| Signal Centre (Acuity Trading) | Yes | |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.
Interactive Brokers and Questrade both provide educational resources tailored for beginners, but there are distinct differences. Interactive Brokers offers a comprehensive suite of forex and CFDs educational content, including a minimum of ten instructional pieces such as articles and videos. They also host at least one live educational webinar each month, with recordings accessible in a searchable archive. Questrade matches with a similar offering of forex and CFDs materials, but the platform seems to lack the frequency of regular webinars. Both brokers supply at least ten beginner videos focused on trading basics, ensuring newcomers have a solid foundation to start.
For more experienced learners, Interactive Brokers extends its offerings with advanced video tutorials and an investor dictionary that includes over 50 investing terms. Such resources may enhance an investor's knowledge beyond the basics. In contrast, Questrade falls behind in this area, lacking both an exhaustive advanced video collection and a comprehensive investor dictionary. These discrepancies are reflected in their ratings and rankings. Interactive Brokers boasts a stellar 5-star education rating and holds the third rank out of 63 brokers for educational quality, while Questrade secures a modest 3.5-star rating and stands at 36th place.
| Feature |
Interactive Brokers
|
Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes | |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.
After testing 63 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that Interactive Brokers is better than Questrade. Interactive Brokers finished with an overall rank of #2, while Questrade finished with an overall rank of #32.
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
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Questrade
|
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
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| Trust Score | 99 | 86 |
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When comparing Interactive Brokers and Questrade, both offer the ability to buy cryptocurrency derivatives, but only Interactive Brokers provides access to purchasing actual (delivered) cryptocurrencies directly.
Interactive Brokers and Questrade both allow account fund transactions through bank wires, with Interactive Brokers also supporting ACH or SEPA transfers, while Questrade uniquely offers Visa or Mastercard options, providing diverse methods of managing finances for their users.
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 | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
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| Trust Score | 99 | 86 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | Interactive Brokers Review | Questrade Review |
| Broker Screenshots | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
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| Regulation | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 99 | 86 | |
| Year Founded | 1977 | 2000 | |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | Yes | ||
| Bank | |||
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes | ||
| Tier-1 Licenses | 9 | 2 | |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 2 | 0 | |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted) | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia (ASIC Authorised) | Yes | ||
| Canada (CIRO Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) | Yes | ||
| Japan (SFC Authorised) | Yes | ||
| Singapore (MAS Authorised) | Yes | ||
| Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) | Yes | ||
| United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) | Yes | ||
| USA (CFTC Authorized) | Yes | ||
| New Zealand (FMA Authorised) | |||
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes |
| Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted) | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya (CMA Authorised) | |||
| Israel (ISA Authorised) | |||
| South Africa (FSCA Authorised) | |||
| UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised) | Yes | ||
| India (SEBI Authorised) | Yes | ||
| Jordan (JSC Authorised) |
| Investments | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 8500 | 641 | |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 90 | 110 | |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes | |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | |||
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | Yes | ||
| 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 | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.59 | N/A | |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.59 | N/A | |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | ||
| Inactivity Fee | |||
| Execution: Agency Broker | Yes | Yes | |
| Execution: Market Maker |
| Funding | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $0 | $250 | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | |||
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | |||
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | ||
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | Yes |
| Trading Platforms | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | |||
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | |||
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | |||
| cTrader | |||
| DupliTrade | Yes | ||
| ZuluTrade |
| Trading Tools | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 659 | 52 | |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 155 | 64 | |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 85 | 20 | |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes | |
| Charts can be saved | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 97 | 64 | |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | ||
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Research | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | ||
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | ||
| Autochartist | Yes | ||
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes | Yes | |
| TipRanks | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | ||
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Education | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Client Webinars | Yes | ||
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | ||
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
| Major Forex Pairs | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Interactive Brokers Review | Questrade Review |
| Overall | Interactive Brokers | Questrade | |
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| Trust Score | 99 | 86 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | Interactive Brokers Review | Questrade Review |
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