ThinkMarkets 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.

ThinkMarkets has a Trust Score of 92, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

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

Founded in 2010, ThinkMarkets is a trusted broker that holds multiple Tier-1 regulatory licenses, boosting its overall Trust Score rating. ThinkMarkets offers the full MetaTrader platform suite (both MT4 and MT5) as well as its proprietary ThinkTrader platform. Traders at ThinkMarkets also gain access to trading signals via its Signals Centre and social copy trading (in certain jurisdictions). ThinkMarkets has a growing number of available markets, research materials, and educational content, yet still has room to improve in these important categories.

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. ThinkMarkets holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Japan (FSA Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA 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), Singapore (MAS 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, ThinkMarkets is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised), South Africa (FSCA Authorised) and UAE (DFSA, FSRA, or CMA Authorised), while ActivTrades is none.. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised) and Thailand (SEC Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses ThinkMarkets is Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised) and Mauritius (FSC Authorised), while ActivTrades is Bahamas (SCB Authorised) and Mauritius (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), British Virgin Islands (FSC 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 ThinkMarkets and ActivTrades offer a Proprietary Desktop Trading Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader, DupliTrade [DELETED] and ZuluTrade [DELETED]

Both ThinkMarkets 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.

ThinkMarkets requires a minimum deposit of $50, 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 ThinkMarkets 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 ThinkMarkets delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than ActivTrades, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Spread Betting, Copy Trading, Commodities: Silver, Commodities: Oil and U.S. Stocks (CFDs). Neither have ETF.

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; ThinkMarkets offers 4000, 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 ThinkMarkets 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 ThinkMarkets 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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