Compare Forex Brokers side by side

How do Pepperstone and IC Markets stack up against each other?

The Radar Chart below highlights how the brokers stack up against each other across various metrics. The highest score a broker can receive in each area is 5.

At FxScouts, we help traders find the broker that suits their trading needs. In many cases, the best way to achieve this is to compare brokers side-by-side.

To compare Pepperstone and IC Markets, we used the same factors we use when reviewing brokers: The trust and regulation of the broker, the trading platform, the costs and trading conditions, and the level of education and market analysis available at the broker.

Does Pepperstone or IC Markets have a better trust and regulation rating?

Trust and regulation are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a Forex broker. Trust in the Forex trading business is almost entirely founded upon regulation. We spend many hours evaluating the safety of each broker by delving into their fine print and confirming each one of their regulatory licences on the online registers. The more top-tier authorities a broker is regulated by, the higher its trust rating.

In our comparison, we found that Pepperstone holds three Tier 1 and two Tier 2 licences, and IC Markets holds two Tier 1 and no Tier 2 licences.

 

Is Pepperstone financially regulated?

Yes Pepperstone was founded in 2010 and is regulated by ASIC, BaFin, CMA, CySEC, DFSA, FCA and SCB.

 

Is IC Markets financially regulated?

Yes IC Markets was founded in 2007 and is regulated by ASIC, CySEC, SCB and FSA-Seychelles.

 

Based on these findings, Pepperstone earned a higher trust rating than IC Markets.

Does Pepperstone or IC Markets have lower costs?

Another important aspect we consider when comparing brokers is the cost of trading. When evaluating trading costs, we always consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and the ongoing trading costs, including the spreads and commissions. When calculating trading costs, we measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit. The cost includes both the spread and any commission charged. 

Not all brokers publish their trading costs, so we often open accounts and trade on their platforms to verify the spreads and commissions. Based on our reviews, we found that IC Markets has overall lower trading costs than Pepperstone. 

 

Does Pepperstone or IC Markets offer a better choice of trading platforms?

Traders want Forex brokers to offer them a choice of trading platforms, so we give brokers who offer multiple platforms higher ratings. Trading platforms we consider include MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader and proprietary mobile and web-based platforms. 

In this case, Pepperstone offers support for cTrader, MT4, MT5 and TradingView and IC Markets offers support for cTrader, MT4, MT5 and TradingView. 

Do the brokers offer copy trading?

Copy trading is a great option for beginner traders who can’t trade full-time or lack experience with Forex trading. In this case both IC Markets and Pepperstone offer copy trading.

 

Which broker offers a better choice of trading instruments?

A variety of CFD instruments – and a large range of CFDs for each instrument category allow traders more opportunities for profitable trading. The best brokers will have thousands of CFDs to trade, covering all these instrument categories. We found that Pepperstone offers a greater range and depth of instruments to trade than IC Markets. Pepperstone offers 100 Forex pairs to trade and IC Markets offers 64 Forex pairs to trade.

And what about Cryptocurrencies?

In this case, Pepperstone offers 19 cryptocurrencies while IC Markets offers 18 cryptocurrencies. So if you want to trade cryptocurrencies, we advise trading with Pepperstone.

Which broker offers better deposit and withdrawal processes?

Although brokers may have reasonable trading fees, many traders are caught out by the high non-trading fees charged by some brokers, including deposits and withdrawals. Traders want to be able to deposit and withdraw funds quickly and cheaply. Most brokers have multiple funding methods with zero fees for making deposits, but some brokers make it more expensive and take longer to process withdrawals. 

We rate brokers more highly that process withdrawals within 24 hours by multiple withdrawal methods and without charging processing fees. We found that IC Markets charges a withdrawal fee and Pepperstone does not. Overall, Pepperstone has better deposit and withdrawal processes than IC Markets. 

Which broker offers better educational support?

We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas. 

IC Markets has better educational support than Pepperstone. Both IC Markets and Pepperstone offer educational support for more experienced traders.

 

Which broker offers better market analysis materials?

To successfully predict the price movements of an instrument, traders will need access to frequent market research and analysis. We find that research and market analysis are always better when they are produced in-house and updated frequently. Third-party resources don’t show the same expertise in trading ideas, so we place a strong emphasis on frequent in-house updates. Some brokers also often offer interactive webinars where traders can learn from experts in the field. 

We found that Pepperstone offers better research analysis than IC Markets and that both IC Markets and Pepperstone offer frequent webinars.

 

Our overall Verdict on Pepperstone

With low trading costs, regulation from the world’s top authorities, fast ECN trade execution, and three of the best trading platforms, we recommend Pepperstone to traders of all experience levels and for all trading strategies. 

Pepperstone’s low trading costs provide the foundation for our recommendation, including some of the tightest spreads in the industry (0.10 pips EUR/USD average on the Razor Account), low commissions, and no minimum deposit requirements.

The beginner and professional trading communities also appreciate this Australian broker for its wide trading platform selection, including cTrader, MT4, and MT5. These three platforms are considered the best in the industry and all three are further improved by Pepperstone’s range of free trading tools, such as Autochartist and the Smart Trader Toolset.

And while it isn’t the most complete, Pepperstone’s education section is well-structured, making it a good choice for beginner traders.  Overall, as our highest-rated ECN broker, if you want to pay a small commission for tight spreads, you won't find much better than Pepperstone.

Our overall Verdict on IC Markets

An excellent all-round broker with a very high trust rating, IC Markets was founded in 2007 in Australia and holds licences from some of the strictest regulators in the world. IC Markets is well-known for its low trading costs, choice of trading platforms, and wide range of trading tools.

IC Markets offers a lower-cost trading environment than almost any other broker, with average spreads of 0.10 pips (EUR/USD) on its Raw Spread Account in exchange for a low commission of 6 USD (round turn) per lot.IC Markets is one of the few Forex brokers to support all three major trading platforms, including MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, and cTrader; and offers numerous trading tools for each, including VPS services, Trading Central, and various copy trading services.

Beginner traders will benefit from IC Markets’ exceptional customer support, available 24/7 to help with any account or technical queries. While its education section is more comprehensive than most other brokers, it offers a fairly limited selection of market analysis materials.

Which broker has the highest overall rating?

Pepperstone has an overall rating of 4.61 and IC Markets has an overall rating of 4.56. For more detail please read our reviews of Pepperstone and IC Markets.