AxiTrader vs Pepperstone
Is AxiTrader better than Pepperstone? Who offers lower spread, better trading conditions and is a safe broker to trade?
We provide answers to all questions in this AxiTrader vs Pepperstone Comparison Review. For this Review we opened real accounts and deposited over US$ 6,000 in total to compare both offerings, account opening processes at AxiTrader and Pepperstone. Also, in this review we will compare the fees, trading conditions, platform selection and withdrawal process.
What is AxiTrader and Pepperstone
Axi, formally known as AxiTrader, is an Australian Forex and CFDs broker. The broker was founded in 2007, then in 2020 it was rebranded to Axi.
Pepperstone is an Australian Forex and CFDs broker founded in 2010.
Some of the highlights of AxiTrader vs Pepperstone are:
AxiTrader | Pepperstone | |
💻 Website | www.axi.com | www.pepperstone.com |
🛡️Founded year | 2007 | 2010 |
🏦 Headquarter | Australia | Australia |
🗺️ Authorized & Regulated in | Australia, UK, UAE, St Vincent, the Grenadines | Australia, UK, Cyprus, Bahamas, UAE, Kenya |
🔒 Is Broker safe | Yes | Yes |
💰 EUR/USD Spread | 1.2 | 1.15 |
💳 Minimum deposit | US$0 | AUD $200 |
💰 Withdrawal fee | US$0 | US$0 |
🖥️ Trading Platform | MT4 | MT4, MT5, cTrader |
📈 Markets offered | Forex, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies | Forex, Indices, Stocks, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Currency index |
📉 Number of Products | 132 | 158 |
🔎 Our Detailed Review |
Licenses and Regulation
Due to regulations both Brokers are safe to trade and are highly reliable, low risk trading Brokers and are not a scam.
AxiTrader is regulated by the top-tier UK’s FCA, Australia’s ASIC, Dubai’s FSA, St Vincent and the Grenadines FSA.
Pepperstone is regulated by the top-tier UK’s FCA and Australia’s ASIC, which have stringent rules and enforcement processes.
For this AxiTrader vs Pepperstone review, we opened a standard account with AxiCorp Limited, one of the FCA regulated brokers, and an account under Pepperstone Limited, the UK entity regulated by the FCA.
We recommend that traders open their Axi accounts with the UK, Australia or Dubai entities, or a Pepperstone account under the UK entity since it offers the highest deposit protection compensation of up to £85,000 guaranteed by the UK’s FCA, which is the best in the industry.
AxiTrader | Pepperstone | |
🔒 Licenses | FCA, DFSA, ASIC, FSA | ASIC, CySEC, SCB, FCA, FSA |
Top Tier License | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Publically Traded | ❌ | ❌ |
Compensation Scheme | ✔️ (depending on entity) | ✔️ (depending on entity) |
AxiTrader vs Pepperstone Fees
AxiTrader and Pepperstone fees are similar and charge fees below industry averages for the main instruments. The spreads charged on stock trades with Pepperstone are in line with industry charges or even below them.
Based on our tests, the spreads charged in our trades with AxiTrader are all lower than industry benchmarks. We also discovered that the broker charges extremely low spreads on Bitcoin trades. In the case of Pepperstone, the average spreads for the popular instruments in each market are also below industry averages. However, the spreads on Bitcoin trades are way above industry averages. This makes the broker unfriendly to cryptocurrency traders.
AxiTrader Fees | Pepperstone Fees | |
Fees based on 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 Pepperstone accounts, we chose popular instruments in each market. We placed 3 trades for each instrument to get the average spread and reveal both negative and positive sides for each Broker spreads.
We tested the Standard Account with AxiCorp Limited which charges a spread on all tradable instruments. We ran our tests on MetaTrader 4 mobile app on our iPhone as this is AxiTrader’s the only platform.
We tested the Standard Account with Pepperstone Limited, which charges a spread on all tradable instruments. Pepperstone stands out for its low fees for most of the instruments on offer, except for cryptocurrencies.
Markets | Instruments | AxiTrader Avg. spread | Pepperstone Avg. spread | Industry avg. spread |
Indices | FTSE 100 | 1.1 | 1 | 1.65 |
Forex | EUR/USD | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.16 |
Commodities | Gold | 2.8 | 1.6 | 3.53 |
Stocks | AAPL | – | 0.9 | 1.75 |
Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | 14.4 | 110 | 72.81 |
Account Types Compared
AxiTrader offers 2 account types with different fee structures: Standard and PRO accounts. Axi also offers swap-free Islamic Accounts. Pepperstone also offers 2 account types with separate fee structures: the Razor and Standard accounts.
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 Pepperstone is quite straightforward. The registration process took a total of 20 minutes, and our account was approved on the next day.
AxiTrader Accounts | Pepperston Accounts | |
Standard Account | ✔️ | ✔️ |
ECN / Commission Based Account | ❌ | ✔️ |
Islamic Account | ✔️ | ❌ |
PAMM Account | ❌ | ❌ |
Markets and Products
At AxiTrader, you are able to trade CFDs on Forex pairs, stock indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. However, the broker offers a comparatively small number of tradable instruments. Besides, it does not offer ETFs and stocks, which is a drawback.
Pepperstone gives you an opportunity to trade CFDs on Forex pairs, stock indices, stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies and a currency index.
Markets | AxiTrader Instruments | Pepperstone Instruments |
Indices | 31 | 14 |
Forex | 75 | 61 |
Commodities | 20 | 9 |
Stocks | – | 64 |
Cryptocurrency | 6 | 9 |
Currency index | – | 1 |
Trading Conditions
The trading conditions both at AxiTrader and Pepperstone are favorable. Moreover, both traders allow high-risk strategies such as hedging and scalping.
Trading Method | AxiTrader | Pepperstone |
Hedging | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Scalping | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Change Leverage | ❌ | ❌ |
Deposit and Withdrawal
Both deposit and withdrawal processes on AxiTrader and Peppoerstone are quick and straightforward.
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.
All the deposit methods offered by Pepperstone are instant and free. However, a bank transfer can take a few business days to reflect in your trading account.
AxiTrader | Pepperstone | |
💰 Deposit Fee | ❌ | ❌ |
💰 Withdrawal fee | ❌ | ❌ |
💳 Minimum deposit | US$0 | AUD $200 |
Bank Transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Debit/ Credit Cards | ✔️ | ✔️ |
PayPal | ❌ | ✔️ |
Skrill | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Trading Platform
Both AxiTrader and Pepperstone offer the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform. Pepperstone also offers MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and the cTrader platform to the traders.
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. In fact, the lack of other platforms is one of the broker’s actual drawbacks.
The lack of a proprietary trading platform in Pepperstone may dissuade some traders, but the MT5 and cTrader platforms are great.
AxiTrader Platform | Pepperstone Platform | |
Web Platform | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Desktop Platform | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Mobile App | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Alternative Platforms | ❌ | ✔️ |
MetaTrader4 | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Simple to use platform | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Demo Account Trading | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Execution Agency Model | ❌ | ❌ |
Research | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Education and Support
To help traders improve their trading results, AxiTrader offers in-depth articles on many trading topics, also it has a demo account. Likewise, Pepperstone also offers a demo account. Moreover, the broker also offers platform tutorial videos, educational videos, and webinars to suit all types of traders.
AxiTrader’s customer support team was helpful and provided direct and relevant answers to most of our questions. Anyway, on our first interaction with the customer service team, we did not get accurate answers to our questions. Pepperstone’s customer support team was helpful and provided direct and relevant answers.
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.
Pepperstone also has a YouTube channel that offers dozens of educational videos that cover different topics suitable for all levels of traders.
AxiTrader Support | Pepperstone 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 Pepperstone
Setting AxiTrader vs Pepperstone side by side we found both brokers reliable and with good standing. In the case of AxiTrader, a major pro is that Axi has low spreads across all the instruments we traded.
Pepperstone spreads on all instruments are lower than the industry average. However, comparing AxiTrader vs Pepperstone, we found that both brokers offer a small number of tradable instruments.
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.
Our experience with Pepperstone was favorable from the account opening, to the deposit, trading and withdrawal processes. We recommend you to open an account with the UK, Australia or Cyprus entities if any is available to you.
AxiTrader | Pepperstone | |
Recommended for | ✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced Traders ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ EA trading | ✔️Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced Traders ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ EA trader ✔️ Trading CFD |
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 |
Author of this review
By George Rossi
Author of this review
I am a well-rounded financial services professional experienced in fundamental and technical analysis, global macroeconomic research, foreign exchange and commodity markets and an independent trader.
Now I am passionate about reviewing and comparing forex brokers.
Everything you find on BrokerTested is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology