Best ECN Forex Brokers 2024

In forex trading, the choice of broker is a major determining factor in your success or failure as a trader. Of course, it’s not the only factor as you would also need to have decent trading skills and a robust strategy, among others. However, your broker holds the key to a lot of aspects that you can’t control like forex spreads, transaction speeds, quality of trading platform, and so on.

In choosing your broker, you have to take a look at all these elements individually. Not only that, you must also choose a broker that provides the tools and features that are suited for your trading style. With that being said, many forex traders like working with brokers that offer ECN accounts. If this is your preference as well, you will find our list of best ECN brokers below to be very useful.

Compare the Top ECN Forex Brokers

Top

1

Avatrade

Up to 1:500 Leverage

Min Deposit: $50

4.9

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2

FP Markets

Up to 1:500 Leverage

Min Deposit: $100

4.88

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3

Avatrade

Up to 1:400 Leverage

Min Deposit: $100

4.86

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4

RoboForex

Up to 1:2000 Leverage

Min Deposit: $10

4.85

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5

Blackbull Markets

Up to 1:500 Leverage

Min Deposit: $0

4.84

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6

Vantage Markets

Up to 1:500 Leverage

Min Deposit: $50

4.83

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7

Fusion Markets

Up to 1:500 Leverage

Min Deposit: $100

4.82

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8

Fortrade

Up to 1:200 Leverage

Min Deposit: $100

4.78

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ECN Brokers at a Glance: Side by side Comparison

Before we talk about the particular advantages and highlights of the best ECN brokers of 2024, let’s first take a look at a quick comparison of their basic features.

What Is an ECN Broker?

ECN is short for Electronic Communication Network. An ECN broker is a broker that uses this technology to connect traders directly to banks, investment corporations, hedge funds, and whatnot. More specifically, the ECN broker does not execute trades for investors. Rather, they simply pass on your trades to the liquidity providers using this direct network and do not intervene in any way. 

Regular brokers, or dealing desk brokers, execute trades themselves instead of routing them to the interbank market. This gives the broker a chance to make a requote or cause delays that will change the value of your trade and even result in higher fees. Also, unlike dealing desk brokers who customarily take a position opposite that of the trader, ECN brokers are not allowed to do so, as this is essentially trading against the client and will bring about a conflict of interest.

What Are the Benefits of Using ECN Brokers?

By choosing from the best ECN brokers offering their services today, traders can enjoy an abundance of benefits that they cannot get from regular forex brokers. Following are some of the most significant ones.

Our Best ECN Broker Reviews of 2024

1. Pepperstone

Leading the list of our best ECN brokers of 2024 is Pepperstone. Regulated by several top-tier financial authorities, including the FCA of the UK and ASIC of Australia, Pepperstone is known for its rapid trade execution, a large assortment of tradable assets that includes more than 90 forex pairs, and its rich library of educational materials.

This broker allows traders the option to use a variety of trading platforms, including the classic MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, and TradingView. As expected of an ECN broker, Pepperstone has tight spreads that start from 0.0 pips. Commissions are quite competitive as well at $3.50 per trade.

2. FP Markets

With over 10,000 tradable assets available to investors, including more than 70 currency pairs, you’d be spoilt for choice at FP Markets. This broker has been serving the forex trading industry for nearly two decades now, and the superior quality of their trading environment has never wavered. They support the MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, and IRESS trading platforms. Their commissions are average, ranging from $3.50 to $6 per traded lot. They have a strong regulatory oversight, and are licensed under tier-1 financial authorities such as ASIC and CySEC.

3. Exness

One of the first things traders notice about Exness is the user-friendliness and ease of use of their platform. This makes Exness a highly recommended choice for new traders. However, don’t let the simplicity of their platform fool you because it is also equipped with advanced tools and features that the more advanced traders will find highly useful.

As one of the best ECN brokers today, Exness guarantees instant trade executions and competitive spreads that start from 0.0 pips. In addition to the MT4 and MT5 support, they also have their own ExnessTrade platform, complete with relevant charting tools and an extensive collection of educational tools.

4. Fusion Markets

If you are in search of the best ECN brokers with the lowest fees, Fusion Markets is an excellent contender. In fact, they just might have the lowest trading and non-trading fees today. They also don’t have a minimum deposit requirement and don’t charge fees for withdrawal or inactivity either.

Spreads are very competitive as well, starting at 0.0 pips even for the EUR/USD pair. Even their commissions are on the low end as they charge only $2.25 per lot per trade, which is significantly lower than many of their closest competitors. To top it off, Fusion Markets comes highly regulated by ASIC and they offer negative balance protection as well.

5. Tickmill

Next on our list of best ECN brokers is London’s own Tickmill. As a UK broker, it is expectedly licensed by FCA, but it is also regulated by CySEC of Cyprus and FSCA of South Africa. Spreads are very low, starting at 0.0 pips and averaging at only 0.1 pips for EUR/USD currency pair.

They also offer leverage of as high as 1:500 for a higher earning potential. Its educational resources are something to be proud of, which makes this broker somewhat of a favorite among new traders. Both MT5 and MT4 platforms are supported, and they also have a WebTrader for proprietary trading.

3. IC Markets

IC Markets is highly popular for their true ECN trading environment, where traders can rest assured that they are indeed getting direct access to liquidity providers. Because of this, IC Markets is able to offer spreads that start from 0.0 pips. Their execution speeds are excellent as well.

If you are looking to trade at a higher leverage, you can take advantage of the 1:500 leverage that this broker offers. Possibly the only downside of choosing IC Markets is their relatively high minimum deposit requirement, but it’s a small price to pay since this broker comes very highly regulated by top-tier authorities.

5. Plus500

A highly recommended ECN broker by both traders and critics, Plus500 delights with the simplicity of their interface, yet they are also obviously equipped with loads of advanced trading tools and educational materials. There are more than 2800 tradable assets to choose from, including over 70 currency pairs.

Plus500 allows for commission-free trades yet their spreads are also very low, starting at 0.0 pips and averaging at about 0.8 pips for the EUR/USD pair. Another noteworthy feature of this ECN broker is their exceptional customer service, which is easily accessible 24/7 on multiple channels.

Choosing the Best ECN Brokers

There is no fixed criteria for choosing the best ECN brokers because forex traders have unique needs. All the brokers that we have listed above all excel in trading conditions, regulatory framework, and trading platforms. Now you just have to figure out which of them will serve your own trading style and strategy.