Swissquote vs Alpari 2024

Swissquote is a publicly traded company, operates a regulated bank, and is authorised by five Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and zero Tier-4 regulators (High Risk). Swissquote is authorised by the following Tier-1 regulators: Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Monetary Authority of Sinagpore (MAS), Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system.

Alpari is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Alpari is authorised by zero Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), zero Tier-2 regulators (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and one Tier-4 regulator (High Risk).

Traders choose Swissquote for its quality research and vast multi-asset offering – as long as they are willing to pay a premium to have their brokerage account held with a Swiss bank.

Alpari is one of the first brokers to offer the MetaTrader platform glopbally before it became popular. The Alpari group of companies are regulated only in a few jurisdictions, putting the broker at a disadvantage compared to the most trusted brokers.

To open a trading account with Swissquote, you'll need to make an initial minimum deposit of $1000.

Alpari requires a minimum deposit of $20 before you can open an account and start trading.

It's important to make sure that your forex broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. Swissquote offers Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for banking, whereas Alpari provides Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) and Neteller (Deposit/Withdraw).

Comparing the trading costs of forex and CFDs is not easy. Not every broker publishes average spread data, and pricing structures vary. Based on our thorough, data-driven testing of each broker's commissions and fees, we found that Alpari offers better pricing overall for traders.

Methodology: When testing each broker's commissions, fees, and pricing, we analyze multiple trade scenarios and award points based on the expansiveness (or inexpensiveness) of the broker's spreads. We then run multiple scenarios for different investor types, incorporating any miscellaneous fees, to determine an "all-in" cost per trade. Learn more about how we test.

At ForexBrokers.com, we track over 110 international regulatory agencies and sort them by tiers (Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, Tier-4, and Tier-5) to help you choose well-regulated, highly trusted forex brokers. Learn more about our proprietary Trust Score rating system. Based on our research on the regulatory status of over 60 brokers, we've found that Swissquote holds 5 global Tier-1 licenses, while Alpari holds 0. Swissquote holds 1 global Tier-2 licenses, while Alpari holds 0.

After evaluating each broker based on their number of held licenses, years in business, and a range of other data-driven variables, we've determined that Swissquote (99) earned a higher Trust Score than Alpari (68).

To compare the trading platforms of both Swissquote and Alpari, we tested each broker's trading tools, research capabilities, and mobile apps. For trading tools, Swissquote offers a better experience. With research, Swissquote offers superior market research. Finally, we found Swissquote to provide better mobile trading apps.

Here’s what trading platforms are available at Swissquote:

• Proprietary Platform - Yes
• Web Platform - Yes
• cTrader - No
• DupliTrade - No
• MT4 - Yes
• MT5 - Yes
• ZuluTrade - No
• TradingView - No

Here’s what trading platforms are available at Alpari:

• Proprietary Platform - Yes
• Web Platform - Yes
• cTrader - No
• DupliTrade - No
• MT4 - Yes
• MT5 - Yes
• ZuluTrade - No
• TradingView - No

The MetaTrader trading platform suite is wildly popular among forex and CFD traders across the globe. Both Swissquote and Alpari offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4). Forex traders also appreciate the ability to engage in social copy trading. Swissquote and Alpari both offer copy trading.

Swissquote provides traders 80 currency pairs (e.g., EUR/USD) compared to Alpari's 46 available pairs. If you are interested in trading a full range of securities, Swissquote offers traders access to 472 tradeable symbols, while Alpari offers access to 105 tradeable symbols; so Swissquote offers 367 more tradeable symbols than Alpari.

We found in our testing that Swissquote offers a more diverse selection of investment options than Alpari, allowing you to trade Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), U.S. Stocks (CFD), Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD), Cryptocurrency (Physical) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. Neither have Spread Betting.