AxiTrader vs IC Markets

Is AxiTrader better than IC Markets? Which of them has a lower spread, better trading conditions, and is a safer broker to trade?

We provide answers to all questions in this AxiTrader vs IC Markets Comparison Review. For this Review, we opened real accounts and deposited over US $11,000 in total to compare both offerings, the account opening process at AxiTrader and IC Markets also, we checked fees, trading conditions, platform selection, and withdrawal process.   

What is AxiTrader and IC Markets?

AxiTrader is an Australian Forex and CFDs broker that offers trading with forex pairs, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. In 2020 it was rebranded to Axi.

IC Markets is an Australian Forex and CFDs broker with hundreds of tradable market instruments in such categories as forex pairs, stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.

Some of the highlights of AxiTrader vs IC Markets are:

	AxiTrader	IC Markets
💻 Website	www.axi.com	www.icmarkets.com
🛡️Founded year	2007	2007
🏦 Headquarter	Sydney, Australia	Sydney, Australia
🗺️ Authorized & Regulated in	Australia, the UK, the UAE, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines	Australia, Cyprus, Seychelles, Bahamas
🔒 Is Broker safe	Yes	Yes
💰 EUR/USD Spread	1.2	1.02
💳 Minimum deposit	US$0	US$200
💰 Withdrawal fee	US$0	US$0
🖥️ Trading Platform	MT4	MT4, MT5, cTrader
📈 Markets offered	Forex, Indices, Commodities Cryptocurrencies	Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies
📉 Number of Products	132	559
🔎 Our Detailed Review	AxiTrader Review	IC Markets 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.

Axi is licensed by 4 regulators globally including the top-tier UK’s FCA, Australia’s ASIC, Dubai’s FSA, and St Vincent and the Grenadines FSA.

IC Markets is licensed by 4 regulators worldwide including the top-tier Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Seychelles’ Financial Services Authority (FSA), and The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB).

For this review, For this review, we opened an account with AxiCorp Limited which is one of the FCA regulated brokers, and a standard MT5 account with IC Markets (EU) Limited, licensed by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). More on CySEC

We recommend that you register your Axi accounts with the UK, Australia or Dubai entities, and IC Markets account with the Australian or Cyprus entity if available in your jurisdiction.

	AxiTrader	IC Markets
🔒 Licenses	FCA DFSA ASIC FSA	AFSL CySEC FSA SCB
Top Tier License	✔️	✔️
Publically Traded	❌	❌
Compensation Scheme	✔️ (depending on the entity)	✔️ (depending on the entity)

AxiTrader vs IC Markets Fees

AxiTrader vs IC Markets fees are similar and mainly built into spreads. They do not change any commission-based fees.

Both Axi and IC Markets do not charge any other non-trading fees such as deposit, withdrawal, and account inactivity fees. Only IC Markets’ Raw Spread Account charges a commission.

	AxiTrader	IC Markets
Fees based on the spread	✔️	✔️
Floating Spread	✔️	✔️
Fixed Spread	❌	❌
Commission-based fees	✔️	✔️
Inactivity Fee	$0	$0
Deposit fee	$0	$0
Withdrawal fee	$0	$0
Active trader/ VIP Programs	✔️	✔️

Spreads Charged in Our Trades

For our test trades on AxiTrader vs IC Markets 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.

Looking at the spreads charged in our Axi trades, we found that they were all lower than industry benchmarks. None of Axi’s average spreads were above industry averages, which was quite impressive. We also discovered that the broker charges extremely low spreads on Bitcoin trades as compared to its peers.

A deeper look at the IC Markets spreads charged shows that they were mostly below the industry average except dor the stock spreads that were aligned with the industry average.

Markets	Instruments	AxiTrader Avg. spread	IC Markets Avg. spread	Industry avg. spread
Indices	FTSE 100	1.1	1.0	1.65
Forex	EUR/USD	1.2	1.0	1.16
Commodities	Gold	2.8	2.2	3.53
Stocks	AAPL	–	1.5	1.75
Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin	14.4	39.24	72.81

Account Types Compared

IC Markets gives traders a choice to pick different accounts since it offers 4 account types with slightly different functionality. Those types are the Standard account, cTrader raw Spread account, the Raw Spread account, and Islamic account. Axi offers 2 account types with different functionalities: Standard and PRO accounts. Axi also offers its traders swap-free Islamic accounts. Read more about swap-free Islamic account

AxiTrader account opening is rather quick and easy. The registration process took only 15 minutes and our account was approved on the next day, as expected.

Account Opening with IC Markets for our test was smooth, the registration process took exactly 14 minutes. The account was approved in 1 business day.

	AxiTrader Accounts	IC Markets Accounts
Standard Account	✔️	✔️
ECN / Commission Based Account	❌	❌
Islamic Account	✔️	✔️
PAMM Account	❌	❌

Markets and Products

Both AvaTrade and IC Markets offer a mostly similar and very wide range of instruments for most of the markets. Stock traders would be pleased with IC Markets since Axi does not offer any instrument with that market.

Both brokers do not offer instruments on bonds and ETFs which is a major drawback.

Markets	AxiTrader Instruments	IC Markets Instruments
Indices	31	23
Forex	75	61
Commodities	20	12
Stocks	–	453
Cryptocurrency	6	10

Trading Conditions

The brokers provide excellent trading conditions to their clients by offering high-risk trading strategies like scalping and hedging, they are a good fit for social and copy traders. Both AvaTrade and IC Markets are suitable for beginners and experts.

The only difference is that, unlike IC Markets, Axi does allow changing leverage.

Trading Method	AxiTrader	IC Markets
Hedging	✔️	✔️
Scalping	✔️	✔️
Change Leverage	❌	✔️
Copy trading/ Social trading	✔️	✔️
Beginners Trading	✔️	✔️
Professional Trading	✔️	✔️

Deposit and Withdrawal

The AxiTrader vs IC Markets review shows that deposit processes on both Axi and IC Markets are quick and simple.

We didn’t face any challenges during the deposit and withdrawal processes with both AxiTrader and IC Markets.

Axi’s clients can deposit funds via various options, such as bank transfers, debit/credit cards, and e-wallets such as Skrill, PayPal, and Neteller.

IC Markets’ clients can deposit funds into their trading accounts via bank transfers, debit/credit cards, and e-wallets such as Skrill, and Neteller.

Important to mention, that IC Markets charges an AUD $20 fee for international bank transfers withdrawal

	AxiTrader	IC Markets
💰 Deposit Fee	❌	❌
💰 Withdrawal fee	❌	❌(with an exception)
💳 Minimum deposit	US$0	US$200
Bank Transfer	✔️	✔️
Debit/ Credit Cards	✔️	✔️
PayPal	❌	✔️
Skrill	✔️	✔️

Trading Platform

Both AxiTrader and IC Markets offer their clients the popular MetaTrader4 platform, traders can get access those platforms via desktop, mobile, or web. IC Markets also offers MetaTrader5 and the cTrader platform as well as copy-trading systems attached to each platform. Actually, the lack of alternative platforms from Axi is an oversight on their part.

Both brokers do not have their proprietary platforms.

AxiTrader does not have a proprietary trading platform. Traders can trade via the broker’s website, as well as via the mobile and desktop MT4 applications.

Algorithmic traders will find a home with IC Markets, which offers fast execution speeds and guarantees no requotes on submitted trades. The broker’s cTrader platform offers the cAlgo app that algorithmic traders can use. The cTrader Copy app allows to social/copy trade.

	AxiTrader Platform	IC Markets 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

Both AxiTrader and IC Markets offer excellent trading educational materials for new traders. The customer service team was quite helpful and gave us direct answers to our questions.

We found that AxiTrader provided helpful video tutorials on how to navigate their platform. However, the broker could as well provide more video tutorials covering other topics.

We found that IC Markets’ education offering lacks depth, and we would like to see the broker add more content on intermediate and advanced topics.

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

Conclusion on AxiTrader vs IC Markets

Summing up our AxiTrader vs IC Markets review, we came to the point that both brokers are safe to trade and highly reliable.

Both brokers provide excellent trading conditions to their clients with a wide range of instruments, with a slight difference that AxiTrader does not allow change leverage. Both brokers do not provide bonds and ETFs trading which is remiss of them. Also, Axi does not allow trading with stocks hence trades may prefer IC Markets instead.

Both AxiTradaer vs IC Markets fees are mostly built into spreads with no commission fee, only IC Markets’ Raw Spread Account charges commissions.

Both brokers provide excellent trading conditions, only Axi does not allow traders to change leverage. The educational materials for both brokers are quite good as well, however, they both lack depth

Overall, our experience with AxiTrader was smooth from opening our account, to the deposit, trading and withdrawal processes. We recommend that traders open accounts with the UK, Australia or Dubai entities.

Overall, our experience with IC Markets was good. We recommend IC Markets to all levels of traders from beginners, intermediate and advanced traders who can all benefit from its services.

	AvaTrade	IC Markets
Recommended for	✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced Traders ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ EA trading	✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Trading Currency Pairs ✔️ Cryptocurrency Trading ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ Trading through MT4/MT5 platform
Might not be fit for	❌ Trading Futures or Real Stocks ❌ Commission-based trading ❌ Trading on other platforms rather than MT4	❌ Trading Futures or Real Stocks ❌ Commission-based trading