Is CMC Markets better than Plus500? Who has lower spread, better trading conditions and is a safer broker to trade?
We provide answers to all questions in this CMC Markets vs Plus500 Comparison Review. For this Review, we opened real accounts and deposited over US$ 11,000 in total to compare both offerings, account opening process at CMC Markets and Plus500 also we check fees, trading conditions, platform selection, and withdrawal process.
What is CMC Markets and Plus500?
CMC Markets is a global Forex broker that offers financial trading services with CFDs and spread betting.
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 CMC Markets vs Plus500 are:
| CMC Markets | Plus500 | |
| 💻 Website | www.cmcmarkets.com | www.plus500.com |
| 🛡️Founded year | 1989 | 2008 |
| 🏦 Headquarter | UK | Israel |
| 🗺️ Authorized & Regulated in | UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, UAE | UK, Cyprus, Australia, South Africa, Seychelles, Singapore |
| 🔒 Is Broker safe | Yes | Yes |
| 💰 EUR/USD Spread | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| 💳 Minimum deposit | US$0 | US$100 |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | US$0 | US$0 |
| 🖥️ Trading Platform | MetaTrader4, the Next Generation platform | Plus500’s proprietary trading platform |
| 📈 Markets offered | Forex, Indices, Stocks, ETFs, Commodities, Treasuries, Cryptocurrencies | Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, ETFs, Options |
| 📉 Number of Products | 10063 (depends on the jurisdiction) | 2,400 |
| 🔎 Our Detailed Review | CMC Markets 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.
CMC Markets holds 8 regulatory licenses from top financial regulators. The broker is regulated in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates
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 CFD account with CMC Markets UK Plc and deposited money so as to run our tests, and with Plus500AU Pty Ltd ASIC regulated broker in Australia.
You can register your account with any of the CMC Markets entities since all of them are overseen by reputed regolators. For Plus500 the United Kingdom, Australian, or Singapore entity are considered the best.
| CMC Markets | Plus500 | |
| 🔒 Licenses | FCA, BaFin, AFSL, MAS, FMA, IIROC, DFSA, | FCA, Bulgaria FSC |
| Top Tier License | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Publically Traded | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Compensation Scheme | ✔️ (depending on the entity) | ✔️ (depending on the entity) |
CMC Markets vs Plus500 Fees
CMC Markets and Plus500 fees are similar and mainly built into a spread basis, there is no commission-based accounts or commission charge for Plus500, however, CMC Markets does charge fixed commissions on share CFDs.
For additional fees, CMC Markets has bare minimum non-trading fees. It offers free deposit and withdrawal fees (with exceptions), however, it charges £10 after a year of inactivity. The broker also charges fees for Guaranteed stop losses (GSLO), which gets refunded if GSLO is not triggered.
Plus500 does not charge funding fees but charges a $10 monthly fee after 3 months of inactivity.
| CMC Markets Fees | Plus500 Fees | |
| Fees based on the spread | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Floating Spread | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Fixed Spread | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Commission-based fees | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Inactivity Fee | £10 | $10 |
| Deposit fee | $0 | $0 |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 | $0 |
| Active trader/ VIP Programs | ❌ | ❌ |
Spreads Charged in Our Trades
For our test trades on CMC Markets 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 the funded account.
CMC Markets spreads for forex and commodities are much lower than the industry average, while spreads on indices are much higher.
Our testing finds 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 | CMC Markets Avg. spread | Plus500 Avg. spread | Industry avg. spread |
| Indices | FTSE 100 | 2 | 2 | 1.65 |
| Forex | EUR/USD | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.16 |
| Commodities | Gold | 3 | 4 | 3.53 |
| Stocks | AAPL | 1 | 1.93 | 1.75 |
| Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | – | 49.02 | 72.81 |
| ETFs | QQQ | – | 0.17 | 0.45 |
Account Types Compared
CMC Markets offers 3 account types: Spread betting account, CFD account, and Professional account. Thus, making the offering more attractive since Plus500 offers a single account.
Overall, the account opening with CMC Markets was smooth; we didn’t face any verification issues. As for Plus500, we failed to verify our first account, thus, we had to register our second account which was approved without any problems.
The account registration on CMC Markets process was simple and took around 10 minutes. Our account was approved on the same day, which was great.
Account Opening with Plus500 for our test was smooth, the registration process took merely 16 minutes. The account was verified the same day.
| CMC Markets Accounts | Plus500 Accounts | |
| Standard Account | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| ECN / Commission-based Account | ❌ | ❌ |
| Islamic Account | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAMM Account | ❌ | ❌ |
Markets and Products
As you can see from the table below, CMC Markets offers a wider range of instruments than Plus500 except for the cryptocurrency markets – both brokers offer the same amount of instruments. However, for CMC Markets cryptocurrency trading is only available from 11 pm (GMT) Sunday – 9 pm (GMT) Friday. Options traders might prefer Plus500 since CMC Markets does not offer instruments for that exact market.
| Markets | CMC Markets Instruments | Plus500 Instruments |
| Indices | 95 | 29 |
| Forex | 339 | 71 |
| Commodities | 111 | 22 |
| Stocks | 8000+ | 1737 |
| Cryptocurrency | 14 | 14 |
| ETFs | 1000+ | 94 |
| Options | – | 433 |
| Treasuries | 53 | – |
Trading Conditions
Our CMC Markets vs Plus500 review shows that CMC Markets has better offerings and trading conditions: it allows high-risk trading strategies such as scalping and hedging, allows traders to change leverage (only for professional traders). It also allows copy trading and social trading.
Overall, CMC Markets creates excellent conditions for both beginner and professional traders. Plus500, in its turn, has poor trading conditions. It doesn’t allow scalping, hedging, and changing leverage. It is not suitable for beginners, only for expert traders
| Trading Method | CMC Markets | Plus500 |
| Hedging | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Scalping | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Change Leverage | ✔️ (with exceptions) | ❌ |
| Copy trading / Social trading | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Beginners Trading | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Professional Trading | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Deposit and Withdrawal
Both deposit and withdrawal processes on CMC Markets and Plus500 are simple enough. Both brokers don’t charge any fees for deposits, however, CMC Markets charges a £15 fee for instant withdrawal with bank transfer or transfer to an international bank account. CMC Markets is more attractive with its $0 minimum deposit.
CMC Markets allows deposit and withdrawal by debit/credit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal. Plus500 offers payment methods by credit/debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, and Skrill.
We tested both deposit and withdrawal processes on CMC Markets by PayPal.
We tested deposit by Debit Card on Plus500 there was no deposit fee and funding was instant. However, the broker credited our funds to credit/debit card when we requested withdrawal on PayPal.
| CMC Markets | Plus500 | |
| 💰 Deposit Fee | ❌ | ❌ |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | ❌ (with an exception) | ❌ |
| 💳 Minimum deposit | US$0 | US$100 |
| Bank Transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Debit/ Credit Cards | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| PayPal | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Skrill | ❌ | ✔️ |
Trading Platform
For our CMC Markets vs Plus500 review, we also tested both brokers’ platforms available. They both have their proprietary platforms, however, CMC Markets makes the offering flexible since it offers traders the MetaTrader4 platform as well. The lack of alternative platforms is a huge flaw for Plus500.
We tested CMC Markets The Next Generation platform and placed test trades via the broker’s mobile platform but the “Confirm” button didn’t work. The customer support didn’t respond to our query so we had to operate our trades through the desktop client.
Plus500 platform is very user-friendly and good for CFD trading, but cannot be customized.
| CMC Markets 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
CMC Markets education and research section are great with well-organized and easy-to-understand tutorials, webinars, and a demo account, in reverse Plus500 just provides a basic guide and does not offer high-quality education resources so losing in that point for beginners too.
CMC Markets and Plus500 both offer decent customer support with Live Chat and support inquiries.
Our experience with CMC Markets’ customer support was mixed. Most of the time, the support team was very quick in response, and answers were also direct and accurate. However, we did not receive any response to one of our queries.
Plus500 offers only a few basic videos to educate novice traders.
| CMC Markets 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 CMC Markets vs Plus500
Our CMC Markets vs Plus500 comparison review shows that both brokers are safe to trade.
CMC Markets wins the offering since it provides better conditions for traders with a greater selection of instruments and high-risk trading strategies, while Plus500 does not allow hedging or scaling and is not suitable for beginners.
Both brokers have their proprietary platforms, but only CMC Markets offers MT4 platform for its traders. Also, the educational materials on Plus500 were quite poor.
Overall, our experience with CMC Markets was satisfying. The broker is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) under the ticker CMCX. It offers excellent forex spreads, which are low and stable. The deposit and withdrawal methods were limited; we also faced issues with the mobile app. The interaction with customer support left mixed feelings too. We didn’t get answers to one query, however, the remaining replies were fast and accurate.
The experience with Plus500, however, was mixed. There was a striking difference between our first and second account opening; our first attempt wasn’t successful, however, the second one went quite smooth. Also, the lack of decent educational materials was upsetting as well. On the positive side, Plus500 holds 6 regulatory licenses and is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
| CMC Markets | Plus500 | |
| Recommended for | ✔️Trading currency pairs or CFD stocks ✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced traders ✔️ Scalping Traders ✔️ Hedging Traders ✔️ EAs Traders ✔️ Spread Betting ✔️ Social/Copy Traders ✔️ MT4 Traders | ✔️CFD Trading ✔️ Experienced traders |
| Might not be fit for | ❌ Day Traders ❌ Trading of Real Stocks ❌ MT5 Traders | ❌ Beginning Trader ❌ Scalping trader ❌ Hedging trader ❌ EA trader ❌ Trading through MT4/MT5 platform ❌ Commission-based trading |