Markets.com vs ActivTrades 2026

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

Markets.com has a Trust Score of 93, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

ActivTrades has a Trust Score of 80, giving it a "Trusted" Trust Score Label.

Markets.com may be an expensive option, but its trading platforms are easy to use, and traders gain access to a wide range of forex and CFD symbols.

ActivTrades has been around for over 20 years and holds multiple Tier-1 regulatory licenses. Traders gain access to the broker's proprietary trading platform, ActivTrader, along with a decent offering of third-party platforms. Though ActivTrades boasts above-average spreads and several innovative platform features, its selection of tradeable symbols is below-average and there are no active trading accounts or volume-based discounts.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. Markets.com holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised). ActivTrades, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). Neither have Canada (CIRO Authorised), Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), CBI Authorised (Ireland), Japan (FSA Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised), Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, Markets.com is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised) and South Africa (FSCA Authorised), while ActivTrades is none.. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), Thailand (SEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA, FSRA, or CMA Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses Markets.com is British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised), while ActivTrades is Bahamas (SCB Authorised) and Mauritius (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that both Markets.com and ActivTrades offer a Proprietary Desktop Trading Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader, DupliTrade [DELETED] and ZuluTrade [DELETED]

Both Markets.com and ActivTrades offer the whole MetaTrader suite, which consists of both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. If you’re new to MetaTrader 4 here’s our educational guide on how to use MT4.

Markets.com requires a minimum deposit of $100, while ActivTrades requires a minimum deposit of $0. It's also important to ensure your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our research, we've found that Markets.com supports neither of these for funding and deposit methods, whereas ActivTrades supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw). Neither have Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) [DELETED] and PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw)

When choosing a forex broker, it’s important to consider each broker’s available investment products and tradeable asset classes. We’ve researched each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. During our testing, we found that Markets.com delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than ActivTrades, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Copy Trading, Commodities: Silver, Commodities: Oil, Commodities: Agriculturals, ETF and U.S. Stocks (CFDs).

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; Markets.com offers 2179, and ActivTrades offers a total of 1267 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that neither Markets.com nor ActivTrades allow you to trade physical cryptocurrencies.

The best forex brokers arm their clients with a variety of research tools and resources. Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. In our testing, we discovered that both Markets.com and ActivTrades offer the same suite of research tools and resources. Here’s a comprehensive list of the tools provided by both brokers: Daily Market Commentary (Articles), Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) and Copy Trading.. Neither have Autochartist, Stock Charts [DELETED] and Trading Central

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