Best Spread Betting Platforms in the UK

We put Pepperstone at the top of our list for this year, after the broker scored 10/10 in five of the six categories we tested. This makes Pepperstone our best spread betting platform over all, as well as the broker with the lowest spreads and swiftest execution speeds .

The huge selection of over 1,200 markets for trading spread bets. and support for the TradingView, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader platforms, make this a great choice for you, regardless of your trading style. Taking all these aspects into account, we scored Pepperstone 98/100, putting it out in front of its competitors.

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75.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

Pepperstone was the best performer we found for trading costs. Our testing identified the tightest spreads across each of the 9 currency pairs sampled, making it a great choice if you’re a cost-conscious trader.

Spread Bet Spreads	EUR/USDEUR/GBPGBP/USDAUD/USDUSD/CADEUR/JPYAUD/JPYUSD/JPYUSD/SGD	EUR/USDEUR/GBPGBP/USDAUD/USDUSD/CADEUR/JPYAUD/JPYUSD/JPYUSD/SGD	EUR/USDEUR/GBPGBP/USDAUD/USDUSD/CADEUR/JPYAUD/JPYUSD/JPYUSD/SGD	EUR/USDEUR/GBPGBP/USDAUD/USDUSD/CADEUR/JPYAUD/JPYUSD/JPYUSD/SGD	EUR/USDEUR/GBPGBP/USDAUD/USDUSD/CADEUR/JPYAUD/JPYUSD/JPYUSD/SGD
	0.80	1.10	1.40	1.00	1.40
	0.90	1.20	1.40	1.10	1.80
	1.00	1.10	1.50	1.20	1.50
	0.85	1.40	1.40	0.82	1.77
	1.10	1.30	1.60	1.20	1.60
	1.20	1.30	1.30	1.20	1.70
	1.00	1.50	1.50	1.00	1.80
	1.00	1.30	1.60	1.30	1.50
	1.30	1.50	1.50	1.50	1.50
	0.90	1.40	1.40	1.30	2.20
	0.90	1.20	1.60	1.50	1.80
	1.10	1.50	1.40	1.40	1.70
	1.20	1.50	1.50	1.40	1.80
	1.90	1.20	2.00	1.00	1.70
	1.40	1.70	1.60	1.40	1.80
	1.40	1.40	1.70	1.90	1.70

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/01/2025

The lowest spread we found was on the EUR/USD pair – the average here was just 0.80 pips, 0.32 pips below the industry standard of 1.12 pips.

Learn more about our spread testing in detail in the table below.

*We update the average spreads for each broker monthly, based on the spreads the broker publishes on their website. The last update on 20/09/2024

This is actually something we value really highly as traders ourselves. These relatively small differences in spreads add up to a serious amount of money – if you’re saving around 30% on each trade, this translates to a huge saving over multiple trades.

Even more pleasing for us – we found that Pepperstone outperformed the industry on 7 of the 9 pairs we tested. The USD/CAD, for example, averaged 1.40 pips, 0.69 below the industry average. The EUR/GBP tested at 1.10 pips, beating the industry standard by 0.36.

Ross Collins, SpreadBet’s senior analyst, shared his thoughts on Pepperstone’s forex spread results:

“For me, these tests really confirmed Pepperstone as one of the strongest choices for forex spread betting,” he said. “You won’t find tighter spreads than this in the market.”

Here are the results of Ross’ spread testing in more detail:

In fact, our tests found that Pepperstone offered tight spreads across all its available assets and instrument classes.

This includes shares – you’ll find spreads of 4 points on UK stocks, and a 0.10% flat spread on other shares from the US, EU, Asian and Australian markets. This is better than the industry average in all cases.

Another feature we liked was Pepperstone’s selection of spread betting platforms. Whether you prefer trading on TradingView, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, or cTrader, you’ll find all these platforms are supported here. You’ll also gain access to excellent trading tools with Pepperstone, like the Smart Trader Tools for MT4, and Autochartist.

With Smart Trader Tools, you get a set of 28 plugins and 30 indicators that offer better trade management as well as advanced indicators such as pivot points. MT4’s tools are already some of the best available in our opinion, but Smart Trader enhances this even further.

Autochartist uses automated technical analysis, giving you inspiration for new trading strategies ideas across the trading day. We found this particularly helpful if you’re a day trader.

To find you the best trading experience, we also examined Pepperstone’s execution speeds. Pepperstone scored some of the fastest execution times in all of our tests, averaging 77ms on limit orders and 100ms on market orders.

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75.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

We liked how well SpreadEx performed in testing – particularly its excellent mobile app. We actually scored the app 10/10, and were similarly impressed by the platform’s competitive spreads and access to more than 10,000 markets. Overall, the broker achieved 96/100 in our testing, which secures second spot on our list of best brokers for spread betting.

64% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

What particularly impressed us about SpreadEx was the broker’s own spread betting app, which gives a reliable and responsive trading experience on both iPhone and Android devices.

We found this was a great app for analysing forex pairs, thanks to more than 35 technical indicators like MACD and moving averages – all accessible on your handheld device.

If you use support and resistance levels or trendlines in your trading, then the Pro Real Trend indicator is an excellent tool.

We were able to automate the process, using multi-timeframe analysis. In our view, this is a great feature on a mobile app, as it helps overcome one of the biggest issues with mobile trading – plotting lines on charts.

Guaranteed stop-loss orders are another feature of the app that we really appreciated. Here’s what our co-founder Noam Korbl had to say about SpreadEx’s GSLOs:

“I really like to see GSLOs for beginners, as this helps you protect yourself in markets that are particularly sensitive to announcements, such as the gold market,” he said.

“With the guaranteed stop-loss, the platform will automatically close your position once your losses reach a set level.”

We also found that the app’s trading conditions were generally strong. Our tests showed that the broker produced reliable executions and decent spreads – averaging just 0.90 pips on the EUR/USD pair.

The performance on the EUR/USD was the third best of all the brokers we tested, and SpreadEx beat the industry average across all nine pairs we looked at.

When you use the SpreadEx app, you’ll gain access to the broker’s excellent range of more than 10,000 financial markets. This includes 70+ currency pairs, plenty of commodities, 17 indices, and 9,000+ shares, bonds and ETFs.

One last feature of SpreadEx we really liked was its support for crypto spread betting. If you have a professional spread betting account with SpreadEx, then you can spread bet cryptocurrencies – no other broker we tested supports this at present.

Keep in mind that only professional traders can use the crypto spread betting service, and in doing so you’ll waive all your FCA protections.

OANDA scored 91/100 overall in our tests, largely thanks to its low spreads starting from 1 pip, and its excellent beginner trading experience. The broker offers its own OANDA Trade, which we found to be excellent for beginners due to minimum stakes that started from just £0.01p. We also like the guaranteed stop-loss orders, and free Autochartist signals.

76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

OANDA ran out as our third best spread betting broker overall, but was our best choice for beginners. The biggest reason for this was its proprietary trading platform, OANDA Trade. With great features, and a relatively low level of risk, we found this to be an excellent platform for beginners.

One of our biggest highlights for relative newcomer traders was OANDA’s low stake sizes. We were able to open spread bets with stakes of only £0.01p per point, a lot lower than the £0.50p minimum that other brokers, like IG Markets, charge.

When you start making live trades, you’re always going to be risking real money. So it’s nice to see a platform that eases the transition, giving you the option to start small and keep financial losses to a minimum. You also won’t need to deposit large amounts of capital from the outset, further lowering the barrier to entry.

In fact, when we opened our OANDA account we found that the broker does not require a minimum deposit at all. This means you can start trading with a level of funds you feel comfortable risking. Even if that’s only £10, you’ll still be able to open a spread bet with the minimum £0.01p stake.

With OANDA you should be able to keep your costs low while maximising your trading capital. This helps you to open more trades without fees eating away at your funds. As we analysed trading cost, we found OANDA offered low spreads. The joint lowest was the 1.0 pip EUR/USD spread, which narrowly beat the 1.12 pip industry standard.

We found this was mirrored across five of the nine forex pairs we tested. OANDA’s average USD/CAD spread of 1 pip beat the industry standard by the most – 0.59 pips.

One thing that we did find a little disappointing about OANDA was its selection of markets. You’ll be able to trade on around 150 assets, while most spread betting brokers offer more than 1,000.

Still, the selection isn’t too bad, and there are 68 forex markets, covering the major and minor pairs, 29 commodities, and 16 indices. This should be more than enough for you if you’re a trading newcomer.

We rated City Index 82/100 in our broker tests. The strongest results were in our trading platform, range of markets, and trading conditions tests. City Index also scored highly in our execution speed analysis, clocking in at below 130ms.

You’ll gain access to 8,500 markets, while the City Index Web Trader platform provides TradingView charting and strong risk management tools. The guaranteed stop-loss order is our top pick for protecting your capital.

69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

What impressed us most about City Index’s Web Trader platform was the support for TradingView’s advanced charts, which we believe give you the best insight in the industry.

You’ll get more than 100 technical indicators, including Bollinger Bands. As well as this, you’ll have access to top drawing tools like Fibonacci retracement, which is ideal for price action traders.

Risk management is something we feel all traders need to be aware of, so it’s good to see these features built into the platform. Guaranteed stop-loss orders (GLSOs) are our favourite here, as they you offer maximum protection against volatile markets.

If you’re a day trader, then the broker’s trading signals from Trading Central will be highly valuable too. You’ll be able to look for trading ideas across forex pairs, commodities, and indices like NASDAQ.

City Index is also one of the larger brokers available to you as a trader. You’ll gain access to 8,500 financial spread betting markets, and the platform’s signals provide automatic scans on all of these.

We also found the broker had a very strong selection of 84 forex pairs, which is actually among the largest offered by the brokers we tested. As well as forex, City Index lets you trade on 4,700 shares, 20 indices, and more than 14 commodity markets, with additional futures markets on each asset class.

Our tests showed that City Index’s trading conditions are excellent, offering a stable experience for you as you spread bet. This was underlined by the execution speed – City Index’s 95ms limit order speed and 131ms market order speed were both the second highest in our tests.

City Index also performed fairly well in our spread testing. The average for the EUR/USD was 1.10 pips with City Index, a shade lower than the industry average of 1.12 pips.

While this is not an earth-shattering difference, we did find City Index to be consistently competitive. The broker actually finished up in fifth place in our trading cost tests, and beat the industry average across all of the nine forex pairs we analysed.

We scored IG Markets 86/100, after the broker achieved strong results in our trading platform, costs and market selection tests. In fact, IG’s 17,000+ markets was the biggest range from any of the brokers we tested. In our view, IG provides excellent trading conditions – the tight spreads start at 0.85 pips, while the broker supports platforms like MT4 and ProRealTime.

70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

IG Markets offers the best range of spread bet markets from any of the brokers we tested, with over 17,000 products. To put this into context, the average from our tests was 2,000 markets. IG gives you access to 130+ indices, 13,000+ stocks, 100+ forex pairs, 5,000 ETFs, and 30+ commodities, all from a single account.

What really made IG Markets stand out to us was its futures and options. We like this, because it lets you spread bet on long-term trading ideas or hedge your long-only portfolios.

Futures markets are particularly suited to opening longer-term trades on markets like the FTSE 100, as you won’t need to pay overnight fees on this instrument. You will need to consider the slightly wider spread on this type of bet, although you can potentially offset this with tax-free profits.
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In our tests, we found that the full catalogue of markets is only available on IG’s own trading platform. This isn’t actually too bad in our view, as the platform is a competitive option, with plenty of technical and fundamental analysis tools.

One of the things we liked most about the IG Markets platform was its free trading signals. With so many financial instruments available, it’s great that you can automatically scan the markets to seek out opportunities, whether you’re trading commodities, indices, or forex pairs.

We found these in IG’s Signal Centre. This is an intuitive area of the platform that even beginners should find simple to use. Comprehensive commentary from providers Autochartist and PIA First, and exact buy and exit prices, make this useful for traders of all experience levels.

There are other platforms available, however, which we think might be slightly better for more experienced traders. Both ProRealTime and MetaTrader 4 give you advanced tools for deploying indicators and automating strategies.

The final point we need to mention here relates to the IG Markets spreads. These scored very well in our testing, and the average of 0.85 pips on EUR/USD was the second lowest of all the brokers on our list. Four out of the nine pairs we tested were tighter than the industry average.

As you can see from the table below, IG Markets is a low-cost broker, which we found particularly impressive when you consider just how many different markets are available.

We awarded FXCM a score of 64/100 during our testing. This was largely due to the great trading conditions provided on the MetaTrader 4 platform, and the tight spreads from 1 pip on the EUR/USD pair. We really liked the range of tools that enhance MetaTrader 4, including a VPS and Capitalise.ai to make automating bets easy.

64% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

In our view, FXCM is a strong MetaTrader 4 broker, as it offers great trading conditions on the platform, as well as extra trading tools if you become a client. We already like MetaTrader 4 because of its 30+ indicators and automated trading tools, which makes it better than most other platforms.

One unique feature we found while using FXCM was access to Capitalise.ai – a no-code solution for automating your strategies with zero programming knowledge. We were able to simply type our trading strategy rules into the tool, and the AI turned this into an automated including risk management feature.

As we tested FXCM, we found the trading experience fairly strong. We awarded it a respectable 7/10 for the fast execution speeds and competitive spreads. FXCM averaged 1 pip on EUR/USD in our tests, beating the industry average and saving you money every time you spread bet with FXCM.

While it does cost a little more, we recommend the Virtual Private Server (VPS) option, as it helps you get the best out of your automated trading strategies and even boost your execution speeds. This is £30 a month on the MT4 platform, but gives you access to 24/5 spread betting.

Combine this feature with zero-code tools like Capitalise.ai, and you should be able to build a strong automated strategy.

We did find that FXCM lagged behind brokers like Pepperstone and IG Markets for available markets. You’ll only get 450+ markets with FXCM, compared to thousands on Pepperstone and IG. However, we still found a good variety of high liquidity markets – such as 41 forex pairs, 15 indices, and 21 commodities.

For shares and exchange-traded funds, though, it’s a different story. There are only 350 shares and one ETF, which is certainly on the low side.

We gave CMC Markets a score of 62/100 in our testing, because of its great range of more than 330 currency pairs. The 12,000+ other financial markets and some highly competitive spreads also earned CMC Markets a place on our list. The broker’s NGEN platform was another great feature for us, with advanced charts and tools like pattern recognition tools that automatically find new trading ideas.

69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

CMC Markets offers a large pool of 12,000 markets, covering everything from commodities to indices. We found 330+ currency markets – the most of any of the brokers we tested. On average, brokers only usually offer around 70+ markets.

With so many forex pairs available, you’re going to need some great filtering tools. Fortunately, we found the NGEN platform provides this. You can view different lists, such as USD, EUR, and JPY crosses, making it much easier to find the ideal currency pairs for spread betting.

As well as great watchlist filtering and customisation, the NGEN platform offers excellent market analysis – we found 60+ technical indicators, including moving averages and pivot points.

One of the best NGEN features we found in our own trading was the pattern recognition tool. We used this to customise and automate candlestick and chart pattern analysis across all of CMC’s markets.

So, if you prefer to use wedge patterns and engulfing candlesticks have the highest accuracy, you can configure the analysis to focus on these.

FxPro made our list because of the chart package on its Edge Web Platform. This gives you plenty of technical analysis indicators and performance management tools to keep you on track. The broker’s fast execution speeds and trading signals are also great, especially if you’re day trading.

73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

We’re often a little wary of proprietary trading platform options, but the FxPro Edge Web Trader was actually very impressive. The one-click trading direct from the charts is an excellent feature, and gives the platform the edge on MT4.

It’s clear to us FxPro had traders in mind when they developed this one-click tool. If you’re a scalper or day trader, you’re going to like this feature.

Other things we liked about the FxPro platform are the 50+ built-in indicators. You’ve got popular indicators like Donchian Channels here, as well as momentum, volatility, volume, and reversal-based indicators.

Plus, you can access 15 timeframes, ranging from just one minute right up to a whole month. The six chart types, including candlesticks and Heikin Ashi, also give you the freedom to customise your charts however you wish.

On top of this, we found you could track your trading performance with graphs. This is a really nice touch in our view, as we always recommend analysing your trading in order to improve and grow as a spread bettor.

We did find some downsides. For example, FxPro advertises 2,100 markets, but when we opened a spread betting account we found this is restricted to 100 markets, covering forex, commodities, and indices.