This page lays out what 14 UK spread betting apps are actually like to use, based on live funded accounts. We installed every broker’s iOS and Android app on an iPhone 15 Pro (22 Aug 2026) and a Google Pixel 8 (23 Aug 2026), giving us 28 installs total, and recorded taps from login to a trade, whether price alerts fired, whether you could place a guaranteed stop-loss order inside the app, and any crashes or odd behaviour. Execution speed medians come from a separate test of 210 live timed orders across the same 14 brokers, run 18 to 27 August 2026. The ranking below is based on hands-on use of each iOS and Android app, not on overall scores.
Spread betting is leveraged, and between 61% and 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money across the 14 brokers we compare. What that figure does and does not mean.
Rebuilt on 6 Sep 2026. The census list and the Top Apps Compared table were merged into one table. It lists the eight apps in the order of our hands-on comparison, then the six tested but not placed alphabetically under a divider. The two Top App Picks cards became jump buttons above the table, and the video now sits below it. No figure changed. Earlier: Updated 5 Sep 2026. Three brands with no UK spread betting account left the harvest, so the industry nine-pair figure the app cards compare against moved from 1.74 to 1.7 points. OANDA’s card, whose own nine-pair average is 1.74 points, now reads over the industry figure where it read level with it, and the word is now computed from the two figures rather than typed. No broker’s own spread figure, tap count or score changed. Earlier: This page was rebuilt on 30 Aug 2026 using our August 2026 app test dataset. The comparison table’s tap counts, alert results, GSLO outcomes, and logged issues draw from the 28 installs of our August 2026 app test. Execution medians come from the separate 210-order dataset. Overall broker scores are not produced by these tests. Corrected earlier, on 28 Aug 2026 and unchanged since: IG’s minimum deposit read £250 and is £0, City Index’s read £100 and is £0, and FXCM was rated 70 and scores 74.
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All 14 UK Spread Betting Apps, Ranked
The eight apps with a position from our hands-on comparison are listed first, followed by the six we tested but did not place. Use the chips to filter, sort by taps to trade or min deposit, and tap a broker's name for its verdict.
Filter the 14, or jump to a pick
In our test
App
Deposit
Visit buttons link to partner sites that may pay us, and the app order is not for sale.
14 UK spread betting apps compared using the 28-install August 2026 dataset: taps to trade, price alerts, guaranteed stops, and issues, on iPhone 15 Pro and Google Pixel 8. Every figure is computed from the dataset at build time. Download the raw rows as CSV.
Lowest spreads of the ranked apps. The test logged four taps, price alerts fired, no issues logged, but no guaranteed stop route was available anywhere in the ticket.
4 taps from login to a trade
Yes
No
None
45MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView
£10
Visit Pepperstone72.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Price alerts fire
Yes
Guaranteed stops in app
No
Issues logged
None
Apps
MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView
Minimum deposit
£10
Overall broker score
98/100, ranked 1 of 14 on the platforms comparison
Tested on
iPhone 15 Pro (22 Aug 2026) and Google Pixel 8 (23 Aug 2026), live funded accounts
Fastest median fill in our timed test. Four taps to trade, price alerts fired, guaranteed stops in the app, and the fastest median fill of the 14 at 88ms.
4 taps from login to a trade
Yes
Yes
None
4MT4, TradingViewOwn: OANDA Trade
£0
Visit OANDA76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
TradingView charting on mobile. Four taps to trade, price alerts fired, guaranteed stops in the app, and the store listing is now StoneX Trading after the rebrand.
4 taps from login to a trade
Yes
Yes
None
4MT4, TradingViewOwn: Web Trader
£0
Visit City Index68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Price alerts fire
Yes
Guaranteed stops in app
Yes
Issues logged
None
Apps
MetaTrader 4, TradingView; Web Trader (own platform)
Minimum deposit
£0
Overall broker score
82/100, ranked 7 of 14 on the platforms comparison
Tested on
iPhone 15 Pro (22 Aug 2026) and Google Pixel 8 (23 Aug 2026), live funded accounts
FCA regulated
StoneX Financial Ltd, trading as City Index (FRN 446717)
No app position. Four taps to trade and price alerts fired, but guaranteed stops are unavailable in the app, while it runs only on MT4 and requires £50.
4 taps from login to a trade
Yes
No
None
4MT4
£50
Visit Vantage70.98% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Price alerts fire
Yes
Guaranteed stops in app
No
Issues logged
None
Apps
MetaTrader 4
Minimum deposit
£50
Overall broker score
40/100, ranked 14 of 14 on the platforms comparison
Tested on
iPhone 15 Pro (22 Aug 2026) and Google Pixel 8 (23 Aug 2026), live funded accounts
Visit Vantage70.98% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Capital at risk when spread betting. Between 61% and 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money with these providers.
Price alerts fire means an alert we set on both installs triggered. Guaranteed stops in app means a guaranteed stop-loss order could be placed in the app ticket. No issues logged means neither install crashed or misbehaved. MetaTrader means the spread betting account runs on MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5. cTrader means the spread betting account runs on cTrader. TradingView means the spread betting account runs on TradingView. £0 to open means no minimum deposit. Taps were counted from login to a placed trade and were identical on iOS and Android for all 14 brokers. Eight apps hold an app position from our hands-on comparison; the other six are listed alphabetically without one, as ranking them would be a claim we do not make.
Scores, opening deposits and platform lists are read from each provider’s own UK site. Spread averages are the figure each provider publishes on its own pricing page, compiled on 1 Aug 2026. Every account here has a full write-up in our spread betting broker reviews directory.
The eight apps below are in our app order, which is the order we would install them in and not the order our scores put the brokers in. Each verdict names what the app is good at and what it costs you elsewhere.
1. Spreadex - Best Spread Betting App
Spread Bet Score
96
💱 Avg Spread (9 Pairs)
1.52 pts EUR/USD = 0.9
📊 Spread Bet Platforms
TradingView, SpreadEX Platform
💰 Minimum Deposit
£0
🗺️ FCA regulated: Spreadex Limited (FRN 190941)
61% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Spreadex holds an overall broker score of 96/100. You need 4 taps from login to a placed trade on the iOS 4.0.7 and Android 4.0.6 builds we ran. Price alerts work, and you can attach a guaranteed stop inside the app using Spreadex’s Controlled Risk Bet. The premium is not published, and guaranteed stops can only be set when opening a trade. Execution median came in at 152ms across 15 live orders. The single limitation that stood out: Spreadex offers no demo or practice account at all, so you cannot trial the app without committing real funds. Both installs ran without a single issue.
Pros & Cons
TradingView and SpreadEX Platform on the spread betting account
Guaranteed stop-loss orders available
No minimum deposit and no inactivity fee
No MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 app
Average spread of 1.52 pts trails Pepperstone’s 1.34 pts
Publishes no demo account terms we could read on its own UK site
Pepperstone scored 98/100. The app took 4 taps from login to trade on both operating systems. Price alerts worked correctly. Execution median was 104ms, making it the second fastest of the 14 brokers we tested. The trade-off is that there is no guaranteed stop-loss order route anywhere in the app. Pepperstone does not offer guaranteed stops on any platform, so you cannot place a GSLO from the order ticket. On the demo side, you get up to 5 practice accounts that remain open for 60 days of inactivity and are renewable, even without a live account. Neither install gave us any trouble.
Pros & Cons
Under the industry average on all nine pairs, at 1.34 pts
Four apps to choose from: MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView
Demo account available
No guaranteed stop-loss orders
£10 minimum deposit while eight of the fourteen ask nothing
Capital.com scores 88/100. You get 3 taps from login to a placed trade, joint fewest of the 14 apps. Price alerts worked, and you can place a guaranteed stop in the app. The premium is charged only if the stop is triggered, though guaranteed stops are not available on 1X products. Execution median was 121ms. The UK spread betting app is a separate store listing from the Capital.com CFD app. The demo has no expiry and starts you with £1,000, the lowest starting balance among the 14. Nothing went wrong on either build.
Pros & Cons
EUR/USD at 0.6 pts against a 1 pt industry average
Guaranteed stop-loss orders available
AUD/USD at 0.6 pts, the lowest in our 1 Aug 2026 data for that pair
£20 minimum deposit
No MetaTrader 5 and no cTrader
USD/SGD at 4 pts against a 3.2 pt industry average
OANDA scored 91/100. The iOS 5.15.0 and Android 5.14.2 builds both required 4 taps from login to a trade. Price alerts triggered correctly, and you can place a guaranteed stop inside the order ticket. Execution median was 88ms, the fastest of the 14 brokers we tested. The main demo account does not expire, though MT4 demo sub-accounts close after 90 days of inactivity. We logged no issues on either platform.
Pros & Cons
Stakes from £0.01 per point, the lowest published minimum stake here
Guaranteed stop-loss orders available
No minimum deposit
Nine-pair average of 1.74 pts, over the 1.7 pt industry figure
EUR/JPY at 2.9 pts against a 2.2 pt industry average
CMC Markets scored 62/100. On the iOS 7.11.0 and Android 7.10.4 builds, you need 4 taps from login to a placed trade. Price alerts worked, and you can place a guaranteed stop-loss in the app. The premium is taken at placement and refunded if the stop is not triggered, a different charging model from most peers. Execution median came in at 180ms. The demo has no fixed expiry but does close after a period of inactivity. Both builds ran clean in our test.
Pros & Cons
The NGEN app alongside MetaTrader 4
Over 330 forex pairs and 21,000 markets published
EUR/USD at 0.8 pts against a 1 pt industry average
Scores 62/100, the lowest of the apps ranked here
EUR/GBP at 2.2 pts against a 1.4 pt industry average
An inactivity fee of £10 a month once an account has been dormant for one year
IG scored 86/100. Both the iOS 10.3590.0 and Android 10.3588.0 installs needed 4 taps from login to trade. Price alerts worked, and you can place a guaranteed stop in the app with the premium only charged if the stop triggers. Execution median was 153ms. We completed a first launch to first trade inside the same session. The demo has no stated expiry, although a separate MT4 demo requires its own registration. No problems surfaced on either install.
Pros & Cons
Options and futures alongside forex, indices, shares and commodities
EUR/USD at 0.85 pts against a 1 pt industry average
No minimum deposit and no inactivity fee
USD/SGD at 4.7 pts against a 3.2 pt industry average
No MetaTrader 5 and no cTrader
Publishes more than one total for the size of its own market range
City Index scored 82/100. You need 4 taps from login to a placed trade. Price alerts work, and guaranteed stops are placeable from the app with no upfront charge; the premium applies only if the stop is triggered. Execution median was 112ms, the third fastest of the 14. The app-store listing is now under StoneX Trading after the rebrand. The demo runs 12 weeks and then closes. Neither build put a foot wrong.
Pros & Cons
TradingView charting inside Web Trader
Guaranteed stop-loss orders with no upfront premium
No minimum deposit
Nine-pair average of 2.16 pts, the widest but one of the fourteen
USD/JPY at 2.6 pts, double the 1.3 pt industry average
An inactivity fee of £12 a month once an account has been inactive for 12 months
FXCM scored 74/100. You need 5 taps from login to a trade. Price alerts did not work on either platform in our test. The Android 2.9.3 build lacks the price alerts screen entirely. There is no guaranteed stop-loss order; FXCM does not offer GSLOs at all. Execution median was 181ms. Demo access runs 30 days on Trading Station. No other issues in our test.
Pros & Cons
Three apps to choose from: MetaTrader 4, TradingView and Trading Station
Nine-pair average of 1.59 pts against the 1.7 pt industry figure
GBP/USD at 1 pts against a 1.3 pt industry average
£50 minimum deposit
No guaranteed stop-loss orders
EUR/GBP at 1.7 pts against a 1.4 pt industry average
When you compare spread betting apps, start with how many taps it takes to open and close a position. Every extra tap counts when you are trying to act on a price. Check whether price alerts actually work on your specific phone. Guaranteed stop-loss availability inside the app matters if you want downside protection without slippage. Demo terms vary widely: some expire quickly, some run without a time limit, and the starting balance ranged from £1,000 upward. Execution speed matters too; in our live order test, medians ranged from 88 ms to 237 ms across the 14 brokers. Those five concrete things are what you can measure yourself before committing.
Our spread betting calculator works out what a point is worth on your own numbers, including the spread, and the UK platform comparison ranks the same 14 accounts on cost rather than on the app.
Which App Platforms Help You Reduce Risk?
You can place a guaranteed stop-loss from inside the spread betting app at Spreadex, OANDA, Capital.com, IG, ThinkMarkets (on the ThinkTrader app), City Index, CMC Markets, and Spread Co (on selected markets). At Trade Nation, the app does not give you a guaranteed stop route. Pepperstone, FXCM, FxPro, ActivTrades, and Vantage do not offer guaranteed stops at all. The distinction matters: if you want a hard floor on a position that cannot be gapped through, you need an in-app GSLO, and you cannot get one from brokers that lack the order type entirely.
Spread bets are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 61% and 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting with the 14 providers on this page, and each provider’s own current percentage is published in full. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
What Spread Betting Markets Can You Use With Apps?
Not always the provider’s full range. CMC Markets publishes 21,000 markets and Spreadex over 10,000, and in both cases the complete list is on the proprietary app rather than on the MetaTrader 4 build beside it. IG states more than one total for its own range, so it has no number in that comparison; it is the one of the three that adds options and futures.
MetaTrader 4 stays a reasonable choice if you are trading the majors, and it is the most portable skill on this page: Spreadex, Pepperstone, Capital.com, OANDA, City Index and FXCM all carry TradingView, so the charting you learn on one account works on the next one. What each account can be bet on is set out on our spread betting markets page.
Can You Use The Same App For Spread Betting And CFD Trading?
Yes, and it is the same download. The app is the interface to the price feed, the order ticket and the charts, and it is not built around one derivative.
The account behind it is what differs. You choose spread betting or CFDs when you open it, and the leverage limits and the tax treatment follow that choice rather than the software. Our spread betting versus CFD trading comparison sets out which suits which.
Is A Demo Account Available With A Spread Betting App?
Demo terms are not uniform. Spreadex offers no practice account at all. At Pepperstone you can open up to 5 demo accounts, each expiring after 60 days of inactivity and renewable. OANDA’s main demo has no expiry, while Capital.com’s demo has no expiry and starts you with £1,000, the lowest starting balance we saw. IG’s demo carries no stated expiry date. City Index caps the demo at 12 weeks before it closes. We verified all these terms between 17 and 20 August 2026.
Our spread betting demo account comparison sets out what each provider offers and how long the access lasts.
Which Apps Are Best For Beginners?
OANDA, on stake size. You can open a bet at £0.01 per point, the lowest published minimum stake of the 14 providers we compare, so a first position can be sized small enough that being wrong costs pence. The account opens at £0 and offers a guaranteed stop-loss order on top.
Capital.com is the alternative if the app itself is what puts you off: fewer menus, a shorter path from watchlist to order, and guaranteed stops available for £20 to open. Our best spread betting platform for beginners comparison applies one stated rule to the full ranking and names every account it leaves out.
Which Apps Are Best For Day Traders?
Pepperstone, on cost. A day trader pays the spread more often than anyone else, and Pepperstone came in under the industry average on all nine of the forex pairs we track, at a nine-pair average of 1.34 points in our 1 Aug 2026 data. It runs on cTrader and TradingView as well as both MetaTrader builds.
Charts that sync between the phone and the desk matter more here than anywhere else, which is what TradingView is for on this page. Our day trading guide covers the setups, and the strategy page puts entry, exit and stop rules on them in numbers.
iOS And Android: What Actually Differs
Android and iOS apps rarely run the exact same build. In 11 of the 14 brokers the version numbers differed, with iOS ahead in each case except Capital.com where they were identical and City Index and CMC where the difference was just a minor build number. In our tests, most apps ran without trouble. We did log a few platform-specific issues: ThinkMarkets Android stuttered twice on the FTSE 100 tick chart, FxPro iOS hung for about 4 seconds on a cold start, and Spread Co iOS dropped the session once. FXCM Android lacks the price alerts screen entirely.
Spread Betting Apps: FAQs
What Is The Best Spread Betting App In The UK?
Spreadex ranks first in our app comparison, with Pepperstone second. Spreadex pairs one-tap dealing with TradingView charting that stays usable on a phone screen, and it scores 96/100 in our overall assessment. The app that suits you depends on whether you want the lowest running cost, the widest market range or the smallest stake, and the ranking above says which account is which.
Can You Use The Same App For Spread Betting And CFD Trading?
Yes, the same app usually carries both. The application is the interface to the price feed, the order ticket and the charts, and it is not built around one derivative. What differs is the account you signed up for: leverage limits and the tax treatment are set by the account type, not by the software, and our spread betting versus CFD comparison sets out which is which.
Which Spread Betting Apps Offer Guaranteed Stop-Loss Orders?
Six of the 8 apps ranked here offer a guaranteed stop-loss order: Spreadex, Capital.com, OANDA, CMC Markets, IG and City Index. A guaranteed stop holds its level through a gap, which an ordinary stop does not, and the premium is normally charged only if the stop triggers. The amount differs by market and by provider, so price it before you attach one.
Do Spread Betting Apps Offer A Demo Account?
Six of the 8 apps ranked here publish demo terms we could read on the provider’s own UK site. A demo runs the same app on simulated money, so it teaches you the order ticket and nothing about how you behave with your own money at risk. Our demo account comparison sets out what each provider offers and how long the access lasts.
Scores come from our own assessment criteria and are never influenced by commercial arrangements. Avg. spreads are taken from each broker’s website and updated monthly. Last update on 1 Aug 2026. Opening deposits, platform lists and loss percentages were read from the providers’ own UK sites. This page is information rather than financial advice, and there is always a risk involved with spread betting.
Justin Grossbard co-founded Spread-Bet.co.uk with Noam Korbl in 2024, and co-founded the broker comparison network CompareForexBrokers with him in 2014. He has been investing since 1998 and actively trading since 2014, and has written on forex and CFD trading for Kiplinger, Entrepreneur, Finance Magnates and MoneyShow since 2019.
