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AvaTrade vs IC Markets - 2024 Comparison | FxScouts
AuthorAuthor: Björn MichelsUpdated: October 12, 2023

Last Updated On October 12, 2023

Björn Michels

Trading with a reputable online broker is a crucial factor for success in the international markets. At FxScouts, we help you find the broker that suits your trading needs.

Each year we spend thousands of hours testing brokers by opening accounts, testing their platforms, and rating them according to a set of over 200 metrics. We deposit real money with the brokers to ensure that the products and user experience they advertise are consistent with reality.

We have found that the best way for traders to choose a broker is to compare brokers side-by-side. The comparison tool below allows you to compare two brokers based on their ratings and features.

Select brokers to compare

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Broker Score
Min. Deposit
Regulation
Trading Desk Type
Trading Instruments
Forex Pairs
Crypto Pairs
Pros
Cons
Regulation
Trading Conditions
Trading Platforms
Deposit & Withdrawal
Education & Research
Assets Available
Customer Service
% Lose with this broker
Leverage
Spread
Hedging
Scalping
Account Types
Islamic Account
Trading Platforms
Funding Methods
Trading Commission
11110.54.59/ 5 ZAR 1900FSCA Regulated Forex BrokersASIC Regulated Forex BrokersCentral Bank of IrelandCySEC Regulated BrokersMarket MakerBonds, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Stock CFDs, ETFs, Forex, Indices, Vanilla Options5520
  • Top-tier regulation and security with licenses from ASIC and CBI among others
  • Accessible trading with a low minimum deposit of 100 USD
  • Award-winning mobile trading with the AvaTradeGO app with social trading features
  • Wide range of assets including unique instruments like vanilla options
  • Educational material to support trader development and strategy enhancement
  • Market analysis could be more extensive
  • Poor regulatory oversight outside of the UK and EU
  • Avatrade is a Market Maker and operate a dealing desk which might not align with all trading preferences
Read Review 11110.54.5/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 111115/ 5 111115/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 76%400:10.90 pips Islamic, Professional, Retail MT4, MT5, Avatrade Social, AvaOptionsSkrill, WebMoney, Neteller, Bank Transfer, Mastercard, Visa, Maestro, POLi, Rapidtransfer, Paypal, OzowFees Included in Spread
11110.54.56/ 5 USD 200CySEC Regulated BrokersASIC Regulated Forex BrokersThe Seychelles Financial Services AuthoritySecurities Commission of the BahamasECN/DMABonds, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Stock CFDs, Forex, Futures, Indices6418
  • Well regulated
  • Tight spreads
  • Wide range of assets
  • Great platform choice
  • High minimum deposit
  • Limited market analysis
Read Review 11110.54.5/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 111115/ 5 111104/ 5 111115/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 11110.54.5/ 5 70.81%500:10.10 pips RAW - cTrader, RAW - MetaTrader, Standard - MetaTrader MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingViewVisa, Mastercard, Bank Transfer, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill7 USD / lot - Raw Spread Account

How do AvaTrade 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.

AvaTrade

IC Markets

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 AvaTrade 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 AvaTrade 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 AvaTrade holds three Tier 1 and no Tier 2 licences, and IC Markets holds two Tier 1 and no Tier 2 licences.

 

Is AvaTrade financially regulated?

Yes AvaTrade was founded in 2006 and is regulated by ASIC, CBI, CySEC and FSCA.

 

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, 0 earned a higher trust rating than 0.

Does AvaTrade 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 AvaTrade. 

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Broker
Trading Conditions
Base Currencies
EURUSD (Standard)
Trading Cost (Standard)
EURUSD (Best)
GBPUSD (Best)
USDJPY (Best)
Commission
AvaTrade
11110.54.5/ 5
USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, ZAR, CHF
0.90 pips
USD 9
0.90 pips
1.60 pips
1.10 pips
USD 0
IC Markets
11110.54.5/ 5
AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHF, HKD
0.10 pips
USD 8
0.02 pips
0.23 pips
0.14 pips
USD 7

 

Does AvaTrade 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, IC Markets offers support for and AvaTrade offers support for . 

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 AvaTrade and IC Markets offer copy trading.

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Broker
Platform Choice
Copy Trading
Platforms
AvaTrade
11110.54.5/ 5
Avatrade Social
AvaOptions
IC Markets
111115/ 5
TradingView

 

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 IC Markets offers a greater range and depth of instruments to trade than AvaTrade. IC Markets offers 64 Forex pairs to trade and AvaTrade offers 55 Forex pairs to trade.

Toplist Forex Pairs

And what about Cryptocurrencies?

In this case, AvaTrade offers 20 cryptocurrencies while IC Markets offers 18 cryptocurrencies. So if you want to trade cryptocurrencies, we advise trading with AvaTrade.

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 AvaTrade does not. Overall, AvaTrade 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. 

AvaTrade and IC Markets both have very good educational support. Both AvaTrade and IC Markets offer educational support for more experienced traders.

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Broker
Beginner Course
Advanced Course
Well Structured Education
Education Quality
Webinars
AvaTrade
High
IC Markets
High

 

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 0 offers better research analysis than 0 and that both AvaTrade and IC Markets offer frequent webinars.

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Broker
Economic Calendar
Autochartist
Trading Central
Trading View
Free VPS
AvaTrade
IC Markets

 

Our overall Verdict on AvaTrade

In our review we found that Avatrade has a wide range of tradable assets, low trading fees, and a choice of four different trading platforms. Avatrade offers some of the best trading tools in the industry, alongside a world class selection of educational and market analysis materials, providing traders everything they need to make trading decisions.

Avatrade is also popular for its award-winning mobile app, AvatradeGO, which has great risk management tools and a direct connection to AvaSocial, AvaTrade’s popular social trading system.

One issue South African traders may have with Avatrade is that even though it is regulated by the South African FSCA and has a local South African support team, South Africans will be onboarded through Avatrade’s British Virgin Islands-based entity. This means that South African traders have no recourse in the event of a dispute with the company.

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 four major trading platforms, including MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, TradingView, 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, which is 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?

AvaTrade has an overall rating of 4.59 and IC Markets has an overall rating of 4.56. For more detail please read our reviews of AvaTrade and IC Markets.

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