We tested 40+ brokers & then selected the 10 best Forex brokers for South Africans that are regulated with FSCA, FCA or CySEC.
There are over 50+ Forex Brokers that accept South African traders. Most of these brokers claim to offer more or less the same features & trading environment.
So how do you decide which broker is best for you?
At Forexbrokers.co.za, we did the full research for you so that you don’t have to.
10 Best Forex Brokers in South Africa ranked based on our Research & User Reviews
First we narrowed down the list & selected only the regulated & credible brokers that work in the South African market.
Then we signed up with each broker & analyzed multiple factors including: minimum deposit, trading fees (average/typical spread for major instruments, commissions & even fees on deposits/withdrawals), maximum leverage, convenience of trading platform (mobile & desktop), ease of withdrawals, technical support. We even put in consideration the actual user reviews and ratings of real traders.
Now without further waiting…
Here’s our complete list of 10 best performing forex brokers in South Africa. We have compared their Tier-1 & Tier-2 regulations, fees (spread & non-trading fees), time taken during deposits & withdrawals, trading execution time & support offered (last 4 months):
Tickmill is our 1st rank forex broker for South African traders. Tickmill is a No Dealing Desk (NDD) broker that is regulated by FSCA (FSP no. 49464 & FSP Name Tickmill South Africa Pty Ltd), FCA & CySEC. Since they are regulated by multiple Top Tier Regulators, including in South Africa, so we consider them to be safe.
Tickmill was established in 2014, and we consider them to be a safe broker as they are regulated with multiple top-tier regulators i.e. FSCA, FCA (UK) & CySEC (Cyprus).
In terms of fees, Tickmill has an average spread with their Classic Account, starting from 1.6 pips for EUR/USD. But their spread with Pro account is very low from 0.1 pips (Typical spread) for EURUSD + $2 commission per Standard Lot both sides ($4/Standard lot for both sides). Also, Tickmill doesn’t charge any fees on deposits or withdrawals.
South African traders at Tickmill can use Online bank tranfer option for funding & withdrawals in Rand (ZAR). Instant funding is available with online bank transfer, and local bank transfer withdrawals are processed within 24 hours maximum.
But Tickmill does not have ZAR base currency account option, so your funds are converted at the latest exchange rates depending on your account currency.
Tickmill is a Metatrader only forex & CFD broker & they offer MT4, MT5 & Webtrader platforms (their Metatrader platforms are available on multiple devices). They have recently started to offer the latest Metatrader 5. Their forex trading currency pair offering is wide with 62 pairs, but their other trading instruments are limited with just 14 CFDs on Stock Indices, 2 Oil CFDs, 2 Metal CFDs, 3 Crypto CFDs & 4 Bonds.
Tickmill doesn’t have any local phone number in South Africa currently, however their chat support & email support is available from Monday to Friday from 7AM – 10PM (GMT).
Tickmill Pros
Tickmill Cons
read our in-depth Tickmill review
BDSwiss is a European forex & CFD broker. But they are not regulated with FSCA in South Africa.
BDSwiss was founded in 2012 in Zurich, and they are a reputed forex broker. They are regulated by regulators FSC & FSA (license no. SD047).
BDSwiss have an average spread of 1.6 pips for EUR/USD with their Classic account. But the spread with Raw Account is very competitive, it is on average 0.3 pips (plus $5 commission per standard lot on Forex). They also offer CFD trading on Gold, popular indices like NASDAQ, and 20 Crypto CFDs at competitive fees.
They offer variety of account types with many features including negative balance protection. They offer ZAR base currency accounts for traders in SA, and you also have the option to choose USD, EUR & GBP account currency.
Their minimum deposit is $100 with Classic Account & Premium accounts. But with VIP, Raw accounts, the minimum funding required is $3,000 & $5,000 respectively, which are much higher than other brokers. But the overall trading fees is much lower with these account types.
The deposits at BDSwiss are free of any additional charges for all transaction methods. But BDSwiss have some non-trading charges which include Inactivity charges & fees on withdrawals below limits and made via wire transfers & methods other than credit card. Also, they don’t have local Internet banking (EFT) option for funding or withdrawals in South Africa.
During our research, we found BDSwiss’s support to be good. You can reach them via Live chat, email & phone. But they don’t have a local phone number in South Africa at the moment.
BDSwiss Pros
BDSwiss Cons
read our in-depth BDSwiss review
HotForex is our recommended choice for low cost forex broker in South Africa. We consider them to be safe as they are regulated in South Africa with FSCA (FSP No 46632) since 2016 & with FCA in UK (HF Markets (UK) Limited with Reference number: 801701) since 2019. They offer one of the lowest trading fees among the regulated brokers that we have compared & listed so far.
HotForex, or HF Markets a 100% STP forex broker in South Africa. They were founded in 2010 & have been regulated by FSCA as HF MARKETS SA (PTY) LTD since 2016.
In terms of trading fees, HotForex has the lowest spread with their Zero account & there is no fees on deposits/withdrawals. Their average EUR/USD spread is around 1.3 with Premium account (this would vary according to market conditions), and it is normally around 0.1 pips with Zero account (plus R80 Roundturn commission per lot). The typical spread for CFD like XAU/USD is 0.29 with all account types. HotForex SA is solid for low fees!
HotForex offers ZAR accounts for South African traders, this is optional & you can choose USD or EUR base currency account as well. They offer 12 trading platforms Including the latest MT5, and the MetaTrader for Android, iPhone and desktop. Their trading instruments on offer are very wide: forex, CFDs on indices, shares, bond & commodities. HotForex also offer crypto CFDs.
They also have an attractive 100% deposit bonus for new customers in South Africa and have some great loyalty programs for existing clients.
The funding & withdrawal options at HotForex are also very good & at zero fees, and they also offer online bank transfer option via major SA bank accounts for deposit & withdrawals. The deposits via Bank transfer can take 10 minutes, but the withdrawals can take 2 business days. The minimum withdrawal amount is R70 with bank transfer.
In terms of support, they have a quick Live chat support, and they also have a local phone number in South Africa for support.
HotForex Pros
HotForex Cons
read our HotForex review to see detailed comparison of spread, platforms and features.
Exness is FSCA & FCA regulated, which are 2 Top Tier regulators, so we consider them to be safe. We like Exness because they have very low spread (even with their Standard Account), higher number of trading instruments, good support & instant withdrawal methods. But the support at Exness is not the best as per our tests.
Exness was founded in 2008 & they are now one of the largest broker globally in terms of daily trading volume, with around 2 Trillion USD trading volume in May, 2022 (as per the latest financial reports on their website). They are a well regulated broker & are regulated by FSCA, FCA, CySEC, so we consider trading with them to be safe for South African traders.
Their spreads are extremely competitive for forex pairs, and on average it is around 1 pips for EUR/USD (as per the contract specifications on their website), even with their Standard account. The spread is 0.6 pips on average with their Pro account, and it is as low as 0 pips (plus 7 USD commission) with Zero & Raw Spread accounts. Overall, we found Exness to be a broker with one of the lowest spread for Standard accounts, while Tickmill has lower overall fees for commission based account types.
Exness offers the latest MT5 platform as well as MT4 (you can choose), which we consider to be a positive thing. Moreover, they have really good account offerings, including standard accounts & Pro accounts. Their range of CFD instruments include CFDs on 10 metals, 35 cryptos, 3 energies (oil), 100+ stocks & 10 indices.
Their funding & withdrawal methods are quite convenient for South African traders. They have local Internet banking transfer option for deposits & withdrawals, with all major banks supported. Both the deposits & withdrawals are instant with this method. But some users have complained about issues with their withdrawals at Exness & high currency conversion charges for ZAR withdrawals (see our cons below).
The customer support at Exness is fair, we did not find it to be the best because of slow & delayed response time. Exness’s chat support is available 24 hours for 5 days in a week, but it is only available to logged in users. We found their chat support to be friendly, but there were delays while connecting during our test & the support agents were slow in answering our queries. The responses to queries sent to their support email are very slow, and in some tests it took a few days to get a response to our questions. Also, they don’t have a local phone number in South Africa.
Exness Pros
Exness Cons
OctaFX is a global forex broker that is only regulated with one Top-tier regulation i.e. CySEC with License no. 372/18. They are not regulated with FSCA.
OctaFX was founded in 2011. We consider them to be moderate risk broker for forex & CFD trading as OctaFX Group are regulated with only one Tier-1 regulator CySEC.
In terms of fees, OctaFX charges variable spread for every trade. Their typical EUR/USD spread is 0.7 pips with their MT4 & MT5 Trading Accounts (as per OctaFX’s spread data), which is highly competitive when compared with other South African regulated brokers. There is no extra commission per lot with any account, and the only trading fees they charge is the spreads. They also charge do not charge any inactivity fees or deposit & withdrawal fees. So their fees overall is very competitive.
OctaFX is a Metatrader only forex broker. The offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4) & the latest MT5 platforms, and the also have their apps for forex trading & copy trading. Their Metatrader platform has support for desktop, web & mobile. Their number of trading instruments are limited compared to other brokers. For eg. OctaFX only offers 35 currency pairs for forex trading. But the do offer CFDs on Commodity, Indices & Cryptos. Although, other CFD brokers have higher number of instruments.
OctaFX does not offer ZAR base currency trading accounts, only USD & EUR account currency options are available to SA traders. They also don’t offer local Internet Banking option for deposits & withdrawals. Deposit and withdrawal options at OctaFX SA are very limited & only include Credit/debit card and Cryptos. But they don’t charge any fees on deposits or withdrawals with these methods.
OctaFX does not have local phone support & office in South Africa. But we found their Live chat support to be quick in answering questions.
OctaFX Pros
OctaFX Cons
read our in-depth OctaFX review to see detailed comparison for their fees, regulations & more.
XM Trading is another popular forex broker with South African traders. But they are not regulated with FSCA, instead their parent company is regulated with foreign regulators ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus) & IFSC. We like their fast order execution, low spread with Ultra Low Account and zero fees on deposits/withdrawals.
XM Group is a part of Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd that was founded in 2009. They are now one of the leading forex broker in terms of daily trading volume. The parent company of XM i.e. ‘Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd’ is regulated by CySEC & ASIC (Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd since 2015), so we consider them to be moderate risk broker.
Note: SA traders at XM are registered under ‘XM Global Limited’ which is regulated by offshore regulation FSC & the company is registered in Belize.
XM is a market maker broker (so there may be a conflict of interest), so they are able to offer fast trade execution, with almost zero re-quotes & zero rejection. Their fees with their Ultra Low Account is also low. They have negative balance protection with all their account types.
The minimum deposit at XM is $5 with their 3 account types (Micro, Standard & Ultra Low). The max. leverage is 1:1000 with all these account types.
Their typical spreads with Micro & Standard account types are very high for most CFD instruments. For example, their typical spread for EUR/USD during normal market hours is 1.9 pips with Micro account, and this is quite high. Also, their Swap fees is very high for most of the instruments.
XM has both web & mobile trading, available on MT4 & MT5 platforms. Plus, they have wide range of trading instruments including currencies & CFDs on metals, indices & commodities. They also offer choice of ZAR as the trading account’s base currency. Their trading conditions are quite good.
Their support is also really fast in handling issues, especially their live chat which also available 24 hours during the week. Another plus, is that they don’t charge any fees on deposits & withdrawals.
XM Pros
XM Cons
FXTM is our #7 forex broker in South Africa as per our comparison. They are licensed with FSCA, FCA & CySEC, so we consider them to be safe. Plus, they offer instant order execution with Micro account & fair support, but their fees is quite high with this account type. We gave them a lower rating because of high spreads.
FXTM was founded in 2011 & it got regulated with South Africa’s FSCA in 2016. We consider them to be safe since they are regulated with multiple top-tier regulators (FCA, CySEC & FSCA) globally. Their parent company ‘Exinity Limited’ is also well regulated.
They offer competitive spread for majors including EUR/USD (0 pips + as low as 0.4 USD commissions per lot) with their ‘Advantage MT5’ account. But the spread is very high with their spread only account types (on average it is 1.9 pips with Micro account & 2.1 pips with Advantage Plus account). So, for traders choosing lower account types at FXTM, the fees is quite high. In terms of their trading fees, we recommend choosing FXTM’s Advantage account.
The Swap fees at FXTM are moderate. For example, for EUR/USD it is -0.38 for Long & 0.2 for Short positions. The non-trading fees are higher than other brokers. For example, there are extra withdrawals fees with some methods & there is also inactivity fees.
FXTM offer a wide range of trading instruments, 63 major, minor & exotic currency pairs, CFDs on commodities, metals, indices as well as stocks. But they don’t offer CFDs on cryptos. The trading platforms offered by FXTM are MetaTrader 4 & 5, with mobile trading app compatible with Android and iOS.
They have very convenient funding methods including local bank transfer in ZAR with zero fees on deposits with this method. But they charge extra fees on some withdrawal methods, like there is 1 USD fees for local bank transfer withdrawals in ZAR. But the withdrawals are quick & normally processed in less than 24 hours.
Their customer support is very active, with quick & knowledgeable live chat available 24*5, during our tests. Besides this, they provide free education to new traders in the form of webinars, articles & seminars.
FXTM Pros
FXTM Cons
AvaTrade is a European broker that is also regulated with FSCA in South Africa. We recommend them to traders looking to trade forex & CFDs at fixed spread, with a locally regulated broker.
AvaTrade is an European forex broker that was founded in 2006. They are regulated with FSCA since 2015 under the company name ‘Ava Capital Markets Pty Ltd’.
In terms of fees, AvaTrade’s trading fees with their account are lower, than other brokers that we have compared. They offer fixed spread accounts, with EUR/USD spread being 0.9 pips (on average) with Retail account. But their & non-trading charges are high, as they charge an inactivity fees (for non-trading for 3 months) of $50, and an Administration fee of $100 for 12 months of inactivity in an account.
AvaTrade offer MT4, MT5 platforms for web & mobile, along with their proprietary app. Like all the other brokers, they offer Forex, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks & bond trading.
Their deposit and withdrawal options include credit cards, wire transfer, and wallets. They also accept local bank transfer deposits. On the plus side, they don’t charge any fees on deposits & withdrawals.
AvaTrade’s customer support is not the best, as their phone & chat support is not available 24/5. It is only available during the company’s business hours. But they do have a local phone number in South Africa.
AvaTrade Pros
AvaTrade Cons
read our in-depth Avatrade review
Plus500 is a popular CFD trading platform, that is also listed on London Stock Exchange. They are regulated with top-tier regulators including FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia) & CySEC.
Plus500 was found in 2008, and we consider them to be safe for South African traders as they are regulated with 2 top-tier regulators & are also publicly listed.
Plus500 has variable spread which depends on the instrument being traded & the market conditions, but we found it to be very competitive for most CFD instruments. Also, their minimum deposit is not too high at R1500, and they don’t charge any extra fees on deposits or withdrawals.
They offer their proprietary platform on web & mobile. Their platform is easy to use, and very user friendly. But the downside is that it is not available on desktop.
We have found their support to be good in comparison to other brokers, and they are available via live chat, email & whatsapp number. But their education section is quite limited though.
Plus500 Pros
Plus500 Cons
IC Markets is one of the largest forex broker in terms of daily trading volume. They are well known & are regulated with top-tier regulators including ASIC (Australia) & CySEC.
IC Markets has been operating since 2007, and we consider them safe for traders in SA since they are a reputed broker & are also regulated with multiple regulators.
IC Markets offer Raw Spread trading accounts & Standard account. With Raw spread accounts, the spread is as low as 0.1 pips (plus $5-6 commission per Standard Lot depending on your platform, which can be MetaTrader or cTrader) for most CFD instruments. With Standard account too, the spread is competitive, around 0.62 pips on average for EUR/USD are per our benchmark check.
Their trading fees is comparatively quite low even with their Standard account. There is no extra commission with Standard Account type at IC Markets.
They have minimum/starting deposit requirements of $200 with all their account types. But IC Markets does not have any local funding options in SA like Bank transfer, and they also don’t have ZAR account base currency available. They are a MetaTrader broker, but offer cTrader platform also. Their platforms are available across all devices.
Our experience with their support was good. We found them to be knowledgeable & helpful in answering our questions. But there was some delay in connecting to their Live Chat support.
IC Markets Pros
IC Markets Cons
Regulation matters because it ensures the safety of your funds & protects you in case of any bad practice like fraud or manipulation by the broker. In South Africa, you must check whether the broker is regulated by FSCA or not.
Any good broker will be compliant with major Regulators & will not have complaints (in the past) against them.
If the broker is regulated & registered with more than 1 of these Top-tier Regulatory authorities (without any complaint against them), then we consider them to be safe for trading.
For this, you should search for your broker’s name or their regulation number, on search on Regulator’s (FSCA, FCA or ASIC) websites, as most of them have public search available. Below example is the image of what FSCA’s FAIS Financial Service provider search interface looks like.
Also, if you are searching for approved brokers on FSCA, only checking the “Authorized” status is not enough. Make sure to verify if the broker is approved for offering derivative instruments. You need to ensure that the broker that you are choosing is approved for offering derivatives trading. For example, below is how the “Approved Products” category would look like for a broker regulated for offering Forex & CFD trading.
So next time before choosing any broker, properly do your research, and check if the broker is regulated or not. If the broker claims that it is regulated, then search the name of the broker on the websites of the Regulatory authorities: fsca.co.za (FSCA’s website) & fca.org.uk (FCA’s website) to verify the broker’s claim, and also check if there have been any complaints against the broker in the past.
If the broker that you are about to trade with is not regulated or has a valid complaint against it or has been fined in the past for some bad practice, then its best to stay away from that broker. Also, as another rule, never choose a broker that is not regulated with at-least 1 top regulator i.e. FSCA, FCA. CySEC or ASIC.
The following are the Top-tier Regulators for Forex & CFD trading in various countries. If a forex broker is regulated by more than 1 of these major regulators then it is considered to be a low risk brokerage.
| Regulatory Authority | Country |
|---|---|
| FSCA (Financial Sector Conduct Authority) | South Africa |
| FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) | United Kingdom |
| ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) | Australia |
| CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) | Cyprus |
| BaFIN (The Federal Financial Services Authority) | Germany |
| MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) | Singapore |
Forex Brokers like HotForex, Exness, Tickmill & FXTM are licensed with at-least 2 top-tier regulators, including with FSCA in South Africa. So these brokers are considered to be low risk.
It is also important to note that some brokers may register their clients under Offshore regulators for lesser compliance. You should avoid such brokers & instead choose forex brokers that are licensed by Top-tier regulations & register your account under a major regulation like FSCA in South Africa.
Always ask your broker about the regulation under which your account will be opened. Most good brokers will transparently answer this question. Also, almost all of the regulated brokers will highlight the name of the “Entity” under which you are registering & their Regulatory Information on the account opening form.
So make sure to verify that your account is opened under a Top-Tier Regulated entity.
Forex brokers charge fees through their spreads, commissions on trades (in some cases) & rollover (for overnight open positions). Some brokers also charge extra fees during deposits & withdrawals, but don’t actually show it as their fees.
Tracking the fees charged by a broker & then comparing it with other brokers is not easy, but we are here to help you with this.
Here’s a breakdown of the 4 types of fees forex brokers charge:
Another important point to note is that some forex brokers have fixed spread accounts, like Avatrade. Most brokers have variable or floating spread accounts where the actual spread varies depending on the market conditions, it could be higher or lower than the broker’s ‘typical or average spread’. But the spread at a Fixed spread broker like Avatrade remains the same as what is listed as the typical spread for every instrument on their website.
Before signing up with any forex broker, you should check the broker’s contract specification page as it normally has information on the broker’s spread. Like below is the screenshot from the XM’s forex spread overview page.
This above example highlights the ‘Average spreads’ at XM with their Standard Account. For a major like AUD/USD, their average spread is 1.9 pips with Standard Account. The average spread is normally calculated over a period by the broker. The actual spread during trading this instrument on XM’s platform may be higher or lower because XM is a variable spread broker.
Below terms from FXTM Broker’s website shows the terms of their Advantage account fees.
Forex Brokers normally mention their commission for “each side” of the trade/order. So if the broker mentions that they charge $2 commission per lot per side, then it means that the broker is charging $2 for opening the position & another $2 during closing of the position. The total commission would be $4 with this example.
Also, the commission could vary depending on the CFD instrument. For example: BDSwiss have $5 commission on forex, $2 in CFD indices & 0.15% commission on share CFDs. So you should check the total fees commission for the exact instrument that you want to trade because it is quite possible that the fees for that instrument is lower at another regulated CFD broker.
Let’s take another example. HotForex mention their commissions with Zero account in ZAR as well for traders who have opened account ZAR as their base currency. Their commission is R80 for majors, and R110 for other currency pairs. So, you should also check is the exact commission for currency pairs that you want to trade. As the commission could be higher for that instrument.
Another important point is that if you are a high volume trader, then the fees structure with ECN accounts will be more transparent & have lower trading costs for you.The Swap fees at different brokers are different & this fees can add up if you are holding a position overnight. For example, the Swap fees charged by XM for Long EUR/USD 1 Standard Lot for a trade open for 1 Night is USD -5.05, and it is USD -1.15 for Short Position. For the same conditions the Swap Fees charged by HotForex is USD -4.40 USD for Long & -0.50 USD for Short.
Similarly, at Exness the Swap Long EUR/USD 1 Standard lot is −3.54 USD & you earn 0.97 USD for Swap Short for overnight trade open for 1 night. So, in this example, you would notice that XM is charging the highest fees for this trade with both Swap Long & Short on EUR/USD. You should take this fees into account if you are going to hold your position overnight.
You should use the Swap Calculator on the broker’s website to see the exact Swap that you will have to pay or you will earn for the overnight position for a particular position. This fees would vary depending on the broker & you may earn a positive Swap at some brokers for the same order while another broker may charge you.
This fees could add up if you broker is charging you high Swap Fees & you keep your position open for few nights. So, compare the Swap Long & Swap Short Fees at every broker for the instruments that you want to trade & then decide which broker would be favourable for you.
You will find the deposit & withdrawals charges listed on the broker’s deposit/withdrawal page on their website. This below screenshot of table from Tickmill’s website highlights their deposit & withdrawal commissions. They charge zero commission on all funding & withdrawal methods.
You should also check the fees with deposits & withdrawals via Internet Banking Transfers in ZAR. Some brokers like Exness & HotForex offer this for free without any extra fees, but some brokers may charge high fees during conversions to your account base currency from ZAR if your account’s base currency is not in ZAR.
For example, FXTM charges an inactivity fee of 5 USD per month after 6 months of Inactivity. This fees will be deducted from your account balance.
To save your time, we have already calculated & compared the fees of all the brokers for you in our comparison.
In the table below, we have compared the typical spread (in pips) of our 4 top rated forex brokers for their standard accounts (according to the Contract Specification information on their websites):
| Currency Pair | HotForex (Premium Account) | XM Trading (Ultra Low Account) | Exness (Standard Account) | FXTM (Micro account) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1 | 1.9 |
| USD/JPY | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| GBP/USD | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5-1.2 | 2 |
| USD/ZAR | 90 | 118 | 116.8 | 139.3 |
| XAU/USD | 29 | 25 | 30 | 45 |
Below Comparison Table Shows the Swap Fees comparison of EUR/USD & GBP/USD (both long & short) at major SA forex brokers.
| Currency Pair | HotForex | XM Trading | Exness |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD (Long) | -4.40 USD | -5.1 USD | −3.54 USD |
| EUR/USD (Short) | -0.50 USD | -1.1 USD | 0.97 USD |
| GBP/USD (Short) | -2.30 USD | -3.53 USD | −1.32 USD |
| GBP/USD (Long) | -1.80 USD | -3.83 USD | −1.61 USD |
Note: All 4 brokers compared above have variable spread, so the actual spread may be higher than the value listed in the above comparison table. The actual live spread will fluctuate based on the market conditions. And the actual Swap Fees would also vary, and you should check using the broker’s Swap Calculator.
Based on our comparison of the standard accounts offered by different brokers, typically XM broker & Exness had the lowest spread for most currency pairs, while FXTM generally had the spread on the higher side (with their Micro Account).
Also overall, HotForex has competitive spread for most FX pairs & other CFD instruments like NASDAQ, Gold with Premium account. All 4 brokers listed in above comparison table have variable spread, so the actual spread may be lower or higher than their typical spread for an instrument. The actual spread is based on the Live market conditions.
For ECN brokers, Exness & HotForex are very competitive with their spread. For Example, HotForex has much lower spread (plus $6 commission per 1 lot for forex majors & $8/lot for all other currency pairs) with Zero account, while Exness has spread from 0 pips + USD 7 per lot commission with their ECN type Pro Accounts. FXTM also has really tight spread & low commissions with their MT5 Advantage account. Tickmill too has Pro Account which is an ECN type account with Raw Spread & only $4 commission per 100,000 units (Standard Lot).
Another factor to consider is if the broker offers quick order execution speed. Fast execution eliminates slippage & re-quotes. Forex brokers either offer market execution or instant execution of orders.
If you are an intraday trader that opens/closes many positions daily, then it should be even more important for you to opt for a broker with the best trade execution speed.
But there is no method to test the execution speed other than actually placing trades on the broker’s live platform. Some brokers will offer good execution on demo, but won’t offer the same speed during live trading. So if you are about to choose a broker then, you should actually their live platform trading conditions with minimum funding & low position size.
During our trading execution tests, 2 brokers, XM Forex with their Ultra Low Account & FXTM with Micro Account had fast order execution (as both these brokers have instant execution account types). The brokers HotForex, Exness & Tickmill also have quick market execution.
Most of the good brokers have a terms or trading conditions page on their website regarding their execution policy. You should check the broker’s execution policy, and look for terms like market execution, no re-quotes, real-time execution etc.
Adding funds & making withdrawals with a broker should be fast & easy. You would agree, right?
Most brokers transparently show their funding/withdrawal time & methods on their websites. You should always check that first & compare which methods suit you.
Like this page on Tickmill’s website where they transparently show their deposit & withdrawal commissions for various methods.
You should also carefully look into the withdrawal fees, because some brokers offer zero fees on deposits but charge high fees during withdrawals.
Some brokers like Exness, Tickmill, HotForex even offer local bank transfer (Internet Banking) deposit & withdrawal options in South Africa. If you prefer local bank deposits, then we recommend Exness, Tickmill & HotForex. But if you prefer card & other wallet methods, then XM & HotForex are very good as well.
Normally, it is best if your broker offers funding & withdrawals in ZAR via EFT or Internet Banking. Generally, this method is easiest to use, faster & with lowest fees. For ex. if your broker only offers wire transfer option, then it may be difficult to fund your account, and withdrawals would also be slower & with higher fees as compared to local internet banking.
Overall, we find Tickmill, HotForex, XM & Exness offer the fastest deposits & withdrawals and all 4 brokers charge zero fees on funding & even on withdrawals. FXTM is also quick in processing payments, but they lack in the fees as they charge “Fees/Commission” with most of the withdrawal methods that are suitable for South Africans.
Your account base currency is the currency in which your trading deposits, profits are converted. Eg: If you choose ZAR as your base currency then all your account deposits, profits in your account with the broker with be held in ZAR (South African Rand).
The most popular base currency options are USD & EUR, but as per our research ZAR trading accounts are very popular among traders in South Africa.
As per our research, there are a few forex brokers that offer ZAR account in South Africa i.e. with Rand (ZAR) as a base currency option for your trading account. These include popular brokers HotForex, Exness, XM Broker & Plus500.
Brokers will generally display their account base currency options on their Account Types page. Like this page on XM’s website which shows ZAR account currency option:
This is a really important consideration for South African traders, if you are looking to make local deposits and withdrawals in Rand. There are following advantages for have a ZAR forex account:
But if your account currency is let’s say USD, then the broker will convert that profit into USD & may charge fees for that conversion.
Almost every broker has multi device platforms including webtrader, desktop application & mobile app; although there are a few exceptions like Plus500 which does not have any desktop version.
Moreover, there are some brokers that have their own proprietary web based platforms like Plus500 & Etoro.
You should ask these questions these for starters: Is it available for Android, iOS? What instruments are available in the app & are your desired currency pairs there? Is it fast to use?
According to us, a good mobile trading app would be quick to place & close trades, get price alerts, news feed. We have compared the best forex trading apps for South African traders based on 9 factors.
It is best to choose a broker that offers support for all devices.
Plus, remember to check the trading app’s negative reviews before you download it. You can check the app’s review from Google’s Play store & iOS App store. In general, a good app will have a lot more positive reviews than negative. Go deep into the negative reviews too to find out if there are any repetitive issues being reported by app’s users.
Another important point to look for in the app is its security. Check if there has been any incident in the past related to broker’s security, like data leaks of their clients data. There have been some brokers which experienced security issues.
The forex broker’s customer support is a really important factor in our comparison. We tracked the support of every broker that we have listed here.
We especially liked XM’s chat support as they are quite responsive & knowledgeable.
A good broker would offer 24 hours support during the weekdays via Live Chat, preferably have a local phone number in South Africa & have Email support 24/7 that answers in less than an hour. But not all brokers offer 24/7 support. For ex: Avatrade offers customer support during their business hours only, so there may be high waiting time with them for support related issues. Also, there might be a few minutes of delay while connecting with chat support at some brokers.
We compared the customer support by contacting all the brokers in our review via Live chat & email. Overall, we found XM & HotForex had the best customer support. Both these brokers have quick chat support that is available 24/5, without much hold time. Normally, their replied in under 6 hours for emails sent to their support email.
While some brokers have slower support than others & it can some effort to get support. Like Exness’s email support is very slow in responding to queries, and in most cases you will have to wait for a few minutes to connect to their Live chat support.
Also, during chat with Exness’s support, we noticed that it took few minutes for their support agents to respond to queries. Their email support in some cases did not reply back to our emails, and when they did, it took a few days.
A good way to test the support is by sending a few emails to the broker’s support email & testing the live chat during business hours. You should perform these tests over a period, so you can have the idea on how responsive their support is.
Another factor that you should consider is the number of CFD trading instruments available on the broker’s platform. Many traders now trade CFDs on metals, commodities, indices etc. Always check beforehand if the instrument that you want to mostly trade is not available at the broker or not.
Most forex brokers have a webpage on their website where they list the range of available instruments & contract specifications for each instrument which can include lot size, typical spreads, lowest spreads etc. Normally, brokers create separate pages for each type of CFD instrument like Forex, metals, indices, commodities etc.
As an example, Forex trading instrument page on HotForex SA’s website has list of all their Forex trading pairs, along with typical spread for each currency pair, and you can also sort the table data.
Other than forex, you should check if the broker offers NASDAQ or NAS100, crypto CFDs, Gold CFDs etc. These are the most commonly traded CFD instruments other than currency pairs, by the traders in South Africa as per our research, but some brokers don’t offer all these instruments. For example, many brokers like FXTM, OctaFX etc. don’t offer Crypto CFDs.
Make sure to always check beforehand if all the trading instruments that you want to trade are provided by the broker. And check what fees the broker charges for the instrument you want to trade. For example, you may want to trade Gold & NASDAQ CFDs mainly, then you should compare the overall fees for these instruments at all the regulated forex CFD brokers.
| Forex Broker | Regulations | Average Spread (EUR/USD) | Leverage | Account minimum | Forex Trading Platform(s) | Start Trading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tickmill | FCA, FSCA, CySEC | Floating spread, from 1.6 pips with Classic account. And spread from 0.1 pips (plus $4 commission per 100,000 units) with Pro account. | 1:500 | $100 | MT4 | get started |
| BDSwiss | CySEC, NFA | 1.6 pips with Classic Account | up to 1:500 | $100 | MT4 & MT5 for web, mobile devices, | get started |
| HotForex | FSCA (South Africa), FCA, CySEC | As low as 0.3 pips with Zero Account | up to 1:1000 | $5 (~R76) | MT4 & MT5 for web, mobile devices, | get started |
| FXTM | FSCA, FCA, Cysec | 0 pips(plus $4.88 fees per 100,000 units) with Advantage Account. And on average 1.9 pips with Micro accounts | Up to 1:2000 | $50 | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Webtrader, iOS, Android apps | get started |
| OctaFX | CySEC (Tier-1), FSC | 0.7 pips with MT4 Account | 1:500 for forex | $25 (with Visa) | MT4 & MT5. | get started |
| Exness | FCA, CySEC | On Average 1 pips with Standard Account. | up to 1:2000 | $1 | MT4 & MT5 for web, mobile devices, | get started |
| XM Trading | FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySEC | 0.8 pips with XM’s Ultra Low Account | 1:888 | $5 (~R76) | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 for web & mobile | get started |
| Avatrade | FSCA, Bank of Ireland, ASIC (Australia) | Fixed 1.3 pips | 1:1000 | $100 | MetaTrader 4 for web & mobile | get started |
| FxPro | FSCA, FCA | Floating, on average 1.5 pips with MT accounts. And 0.4 pips (plus $0.45 fees per 10,000 units traded) with cTrader account. | 1:500 | $500 | MT4, MT5, cTrader. | get started |
| Plus500 | FCA, ASIC | Floating spread, from 0.6 pips. | 1:30 | R1500 | Proprietary app & webtrader. | get started |
As a beginner in Forex Trading, you must look for a broker that offers a free demo account, is regulated with FSCA, and also offers good education material. We have done research on 50+ brokers operating in SA, here are our top picks:
Ultimately this depends on your trading requirements, like the currency pair that you want to trade, your deposit methods, leverage requirements, if you require a raw spread ECN account broker etc. However, there are some general guidelines that you should check before depositing your money with any broker.
Always choose a broker that is regulated with top tier regulators like FCSA, FCA or ASIC. Another thing that matters is the spread, the lower the better.
Also, check if your desired broker offers a platform of your choice. Most traders prefer MT4 & MT5, so you should see if your broker offers these 2 platforms. Plus, some other consideration are customizable leverage between (1:10 to 1:50), various trading platforms options on mobile & web, 24/5 responsive Support and easy deposit & withdrawals. If your broker offers ZAR account, then it is a positive thing.
For a start, you must only choose a broker that is regulated with a top tier regulator. But not every regulation is the same, as many brokers claim to be regulated, but are actually regulated with some Offshore regulators to avoid compliance. So you should check with your broker, if they are regulated with respected regulations like: FCA, FSCA, CySEC or ASIC.
We have also created this list of FSCA regulated forex brokers for South African traders.
You can find the regulation information on a broker’s website. Almost all brokers add this information at the bottom section on their websites or their about pages.
Further, all regulators like FCA, FSCA also have a public search on their website to check broker’s regulation & license number. Moreover, all the brokers that we have reviewed on our website are regulated with top regulators. Also, we have given links to their registration number in our reviews.
There are around 1000+ FSCA regulated entities dealing in FX & other derivative instruments. To make your search simple, we have checked & found that HotForex, ForexTime, Tickmill, Exness and Avatrade performed best in our ranking parameters & user reviews.
But if you want one broker with low spread & FSCA regulation, then Exness is our recommendation with spread of almost 1 pip for EUR/USD in their Standard account.
Disclosure: We earn a commission if you Sign Up with a broker through referral links in this review. This helps us cover the expenses for running the website.
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