eToro vs Plus500

Which of the two online brokers should you invest with?

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We tested eToro and Plus500 in ten different categories. According to our methodology, eToro has scored an aggregate score of 94/100; Plus500 scored 72/100.

In many respects eToro outperforms Plus500. The latter is an easy-to-use broker with a user-friendly platform/app, however, the investing offer is limited to CFDs. eToro, on the other hand, is a more complete broker overall.

eToro allows you to trade not only CFDs but also real shares, ETFs and cryptocurrencies.

With eToro an investor can invest manually on the platform, or take advantage of the innovative copy trading services (where the strategy of a Popular Investor can be copied) or copy portfolio services (in which it is possible to replicate an investment portfolio with a passive strategy).

❓ For those starting to invest, is eToro or Plus500 better?

Both brokers offer platforms and tools that are easy-to-use for beginners. Even before investing with real money, you can practice with a virtual account with both eToro (click here to try the eToro virtual account) and with Plus500.

Plus500, however, has the limit of offering only CFD trading, where eToro allows you to trade CFDs, shares, crypto and real ETFs without leverage.

This aspect is very important because CFDs are complex instruments. Only advanced investors should trade CFDs, as a novice investor could lose significant capital with leverage or pay a lot of swap and rollover interest.

❓ Is eToro or Plus500 safer?

Both eToro and Plus500 are Israeli brokers. eToro serves UK clients through a branch in the UK while Plus500 serves UK clients through a branch based in Cyprus. This means that European investment regulations (capital protection, segregation of assets, etc.) are applied to both. Thus, we can consider both regulated and supervised brokers. In other words, users are significantly less at risk of scams by operating with either eToro or Plus500.

Plus500 is also listed on the stock exchange. As a result, its balance sheets and financial statements are made public to anyone, thus increasing their transparency.

For the latter reason, Plus500 is slightly more transparent than eToro.

❓ Is eToro's platform better than Plus500's platform?

Both eToro and Plus500 offer a platform and an app that are very easy to use.

Although simple, the eToro platform is still more complete than that of Plus500: more analytical tools, more intuitive product research and the ability to copy other traders or passive portfolios.

Overall, eToro's platform and app are better than those of Plus500.

❓ Which of the two brokers offers the best cost and commission conditions?

Both eToro and Plus500 offer a trading account with no maintenance costs. There are some inactivity costs but to avoid them you just need to log in at least once per quarter.

eToro allows you to trade real shares, ETFs and crypto with zero commissions. Negotiating these securities means avoiding overnight funding costs. Incurred costs relate to the CFDs offered by Plus500. For medium to long-term investments Plus500 is not particularly suitable.

If instead you want to use CFDs for daily trades, then Plus500 offers tighter spreads than eToro.

In summary, regarding costs, Plus500 beats eToro for daily transactions (open and closed within the same day). For trades longer than one day, eToro beats Plus500.

❓ What can you invest in with eToro and with Plus500?

As we have previously explained, eToro allows you to negotiate either CFDs or real shares/ETFs/cryptocurrencies, while Plus500 only offers CFD trading.

If we analyze the tradable assets with the two brokers, we will see that the offer is equivalent.

Both offer trading stocks, indices, Forex, commodities, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. In addition, Plus500 also offers CFD trading on options (which makes little sense to take into account due to overnight financing costs).

As for the total number of tradable products, Plus500 slightly outperforms eToro.

Thanks to the offer of the underlyings to be traded, eToro beats Plus500 in the offer of markets and instruments.

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Risk disclosure: Investing involves risk of loss

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CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% 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.