AvaTrade vs Plus500

Is AvaTrade better than Plus500? Which of them has lower spread, better trading conditions and is safer broker to trade?

We provide answers to all questions in this AvaTrade vs Plus500 Comparison Review. For this Review we opened real accounts and deposited over US$ 10,000 in total to compare both offerings, account opening process at AvaTrade and Plus500, also, we checked fees, trading conditions, platform selection and withdrawal process.   

What is AvaTrade and Plus500

AvaTrade is a large and popular broker that offers trading with forex, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies, stocks, and ETFs.

Plus500 is a large and quite popular CFD broker with a good number of instruments for retail and professional traders.

Some of the highlights of AvaTrade vs Plus500 are:

	AvaTrade	Plus500
💻 Website	www.avatrade.com	www.plus500.com
🛡️Founded year	2006	2008
🏦 Headquarter	Dublin, Ireland	Israel
🗺️ Authorized & Regulated in	Ireland, Japan, Australia, UAE, South Africa, British Virgin Islands	UK, Cyprus, Australia, South Africa, Seychelles, Singapore
🔒 Is Broker safe	Yes	Yes
💰 EUR/USD Spread	0.87	0.8
💳 Minimum deposit	US$100	US$100
💰 Withdrawal fee	US$0	US$0
🖥️ Trading Platform	MT4, MT5, AvaTradeGO, AvaOptions	Plus500’s proprietary trading platform
📈 Markets offered	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, ETFs	Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, ETFs, Options
📉 Number of Products	796	2,400
🔎 Our Detailed Review	AvaTrade Review	Plus500 Review

Licenses and Regulation

Both Brokers are safe to trade and are considered reliable, they both provide a low risk trading environment and are not a scam.

AvaTrade has gained 7 regulatory licenses from some of the top regulators, including Australia, Ireland, Abu Dhabi, and Japan.

Plus500 holds 6 regulatory licenses from several top regulators, like the United Kingdom’s FCA, Singapore’s MAS, and Australia’s ASIC.

For this review, we opened an account with AvaTrade EU Ltd which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, and with Plus500 AU Pty Ltd ASIC regulated broker in Australia.

We recommend you register your AvaTrade account with the Irish, Australian, or Abu Dhabi entity.

For Plus500 the United Kingdom, Australian or Singapore entity are considered the best.

	AvaTrade	Plus500
🔒 Licenses	ASIC, CySEC, DFSA FCA, FSC	FCA, Bulgaria FSC
Top Tier License	✔️	✔️
Publically Traded	❌	❌
Compensation Scheme	✔️ (depending on entity)	✔️ (depending on entity)

AvaTrade vs Plus500 Fees

AvaTrade and Plus500 fees are similar and mainly built into a spread basis, there are no commission-based accounts.

As for additional fees, AvaTrade charges an inactivity fee of $50 or €50 or £50 every quarter after 3 months of account inactivity, while Plus500 does not charge funding fees but charges a monthly fee after 3 months of inactivity.

	AvaTrade	Plus500 Fees
Fees based on spread	✔️	✔️
Floating Spread	✔️	✔️
Fixed Spread	❌	❌
Commission based fees	❌	❌
Inactivity Fee	$50 or €50 or £50	0$
Deposit fee	0$	0$
Withdrawal fee	0$	0$
Active trader/ VIP Programs	❌	❌

Spreads Charged in Our Trades

For our test trades on AvaTrade vs Plus500 accounts, we chose popular instruments in each market. We placed 3 trades for each instrument and listed the average actual spread charged on the live trades done through a funded account. We found that spreads for the two brokers are almost similar, with slight differences.  

AvaTrade’s spreads for forex are much below the industry standards. The offered spreads on indices and commodities are also below the average industry benchmark.

Our testing showed that Plus500 spreads for Forex and ETFs were much lower than the industry average. While Spreads on Indices, Commodities, Stocks, and Cryptocurrencies, are on the higher side.

Markets	Instruments	AvaTrade Avg. spread	Plus500 Avg. spread	Industry avg. spread
Indices	FTSE 100	1.17	2	1.65
Forex	EUR/USD	0.87	0.8	1.16
Commodities	Gold	3.67	4	3.53
Stocks	AAPL	2.1	1.93	1.75

Account Types Compared

Both AvaTrade and Plus500 offer only a single account type to the traders. However, AvaTrade also offers Islamic trading accounts to its Islamic clients.

With AvaTrade our account opening experience was quick and smooth. The registration process took merely 15 minutes. Our account was verified after 1 business day.

Account Opening with Plus500 for our test was smooth, the registration process took merely 16 minutes.

	AvaTrade Accounts	Plus500 Accounts
Standard Account	✔️	✔️
ECN / Commission Based Account	❌	❌
Islamic Account	✔️	❌
PAMM Account	❌	❌

Markets and Products

AvaTrade vs Plus500 offer a similar and very wide range of instruments across all the markets. Both brokers offer all instruments on a CFD basis. 

Markets	AvaTrade Instruments	Plus500 Instruments
Indices	23	29
Forex	55	71
Commodities	29	22
Stocks	614	1737
Cryptocurrency	14	14
ETFs	59	94
Options	–	433

Trading Conditions

Trading conditions with AvaTrade are better as the broker allows both hedging and scalping. It also offers copy trading services with two third-party services: DupliTrade and ZuluTrade. On the other hand, Plus500 does not allow hedging or scalping. It does not even allow traders to change leverage levels.

Trading Method	AvaTrade	Plus500
Hedging	✔️	❌
Scalping	✔️	❌
Change Leverage	❌	❌
Copy trading/ Social trading	✔️	❌
Beginners Trading	✔️	❌
Professional Trading	✔️	✔️

Deposit and Withdrawal

Both deposit and withdrawal processes on AvaTrade and Plus500 are simple enough. Both brokers have a minimum deposit amount of US$100 for all payment methods. However, Plus500 requires $300 for bank transfers.

AvaTrade allows clients to deposit through wire transfers, credit cards, and popular e-wallets like Skrill, Neteller, and Paypal.

We tested deposit by Debit Card on Plus500 and there was no deposit fee and funding was instant.

	AvaTrade	Plus500
💰 Deposit Fee	❌	❌
💰 Withdrawal fee	❌	❌
💳 Minimum deposit	US$100	US$100
Bank Transfer	✔️	✔️
Debit/ Credit Cards	✔️	✔️
PayPal	✔️	✔️
Skrill	✔️	✔️

Trading Platform

AvaTrade offers multiple trading platforms, like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, whereas Plus500 offers its own trading platform.

AvaTrade also offers multiple other options, such as WebTrader (AvaTrade’s proprietary web-based platform), and AvaOptions (for forex vanilla options), AvaTradeGo (for mobile trading). Plus500 offers its trading platform on web and mobile, there is no desktop-specific client.

AvaTrade’s own web trading platform and its mobile trading platform are also very clean and easy to use for the traders. For our tests, however, we placed the orders on the MetaTrader 4 mobile platform.

Plus500’s platform is user-friendly and good for CFD trading, but cannot be customized.

	AvaTrade Platform	Plus500 Platform
🖥️ Proprietary Platform	✔️	✔️
Web Platform	✔️	✔️
Desktop Platform	✔️	❌
Mobile App	✔️	✔️
Alternative Platforms	✔️	❌
MetaTrader4	✔️	❌
Simple to use platform	✔️	✔️
Demo Account Trading	✔️	✔️
Execution Agency Model	❌	❌
Research	✔️	✔️
Advanced Research tools	✔️	❌

Education and Support

AvaTrade offers excellent trading educational materials for new traders. In reverse, Plus500 offers only a few basic videos to educate novice traders.

In AvaTrade vs Plus500 comparison we found that both brokers offer decent customer support with Live Chat and support inquiries.

AvaTrade offers tutorial videos on trading and platform-tools, eBooks and web-based guides on trading, as well as webinars. The broker also offers a demo account for novice traders.

Plus500 does not offer high-quality education resources.

	AvaTrade Support	Plus500 Support
Trading School for Beginners	✔️	❌
Tutorials	✔️	❌
Trading Videos	✔️	✔️
Webinars	✔️	❌
Daily News and Analysis	✔️	❌
Economic Calendar	✔️	✔️
Live Chat	✔️	✔️
Email Support	✔️	✔️
24/7 availability	✔️	❌

Conclusion on AvaTrade vs Plus500

Comparing AvaTrade to Plus500 side by side we found both as trusted brokers. The proposals are almost similar, while AvaTrade can be better suitable for all size and experience level traders, and is an excellent option for beginners, whereas Plus500 lacks education and good research.

Both brokers offer low Trading costs. They are both based on spreads with no commission, yet AvaTrade offers impressive spreads on forex pairs.

Overall experience with AvaTrade was smooth, we liked the broker’s educational materials, which were quite impessive. Our experience with customer support was also good.

We recommend AvaTrade to traders who focus on trading currencies and traders who would like to run hedging or scalping as their trading strategies.

Our experience with Plus500 was mixed. On the positive side, it offers a huge list of CFD instruments across several markets with attractive spreads on forex pairs and other instruments.

	AvaTrade	Plus500
Recommended for	✔️Trading currency pairs or CFD stocks ✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced traders ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ EA trader ✔️ Trading through MT4/MT5 platform	✔️CFD Trading ✔️ Experienced traders
Might not be fit for	❌ Commission based trading ❌ Real Stock/Futures Trading	❌ Beginning Trader ❌ Scalping trader ❌ Hedging trader ❌ EA trader ❌ Trading through MT4/MT5 platform ❌ Commission based trading