Written by ForexBrokers.com
In this head to head comparison of HFM vs IronFX, we will compare the trading platforms, mobile apps, range of investments, costs, market research, and more. Let's dive in.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 51% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
HFM and IronFX, both founded in 2010, are two online brokers offering various trading services. Neither is publicly traded nor operates as a bank. When considering trust, ForexBrokers.com rates both brokers in the 'trusted' range, with HFM earning an 86 and IronFX receiving an 83 out of 99. This suggests that both brokers carry a similar level of trust, but HFM edges slightly higher in the ratings.
In terms of regulatory licenses, which can offer further peace of mind for traders, HFM holds two Tier-1 licenses and three Tier-2 licenses. Tier-1 licenses are the most trusted, while Tier-2 licenses are also considered trustworthy. IronFX, on the other hand, holds three Tier-1 licenses but lacks any Tier-2 licenses. This indicates that both brokers maintain a strong regulatory standing, albeit with different approaches to obtaining licenses.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2010 | 2010 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No |
| Bank | No | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 | 3 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 3 | 0 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 2 | 1 |
When it comes to commissions and fees, HFM and IronFX both have their unique offerings in the competitive landscape of online brokers. HFM, which earns a 4-star rating for its fees, is ranked #31 out of 62 brokers by ForexBrokers.com. A typical spread for their Standard trading accounts is listed at 1.2 pips, but without a specific time frame, the actual average spread could be higher. For traders opting for the Zero account, they might expect an effective spread of 0.7 pips after commission. However, it's important to note that this figure doesn't represent an average spread.
IronFX, also rated at 4 stars for its commission structure, falls at #47 in the rankings by ForexBrokers.com. The broker's pricing approach leaves room for improvement as their spreads tend to be higher than the industry standard. For the Standard variable spread account, IronFX lists a typical spread of 1.8 pips, again without defining a date range. IronFX offers a zero fixed-spread account as well, which starts at zero pips coupled with an $18 per lot commission, although overnight spreads can widen to 3 pips.
In conclusion, both HFM and IronFX receive equal star ratings for their commissions and fees, yet they differ in their approach and overall ranking. While HFM has a slight edge in ranking, due diligence is advised for traders interested in account specifics and potential hidden costs associated with each broker's pricing models.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $0 | $50 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.7 | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No | Yes |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.
When comparing HFM and IronFX in terms of their investment offerings, both brokers provide forex trading options as CFDs or spot contracts, appealing to traders interested in currency markets. However, HFM stands out with 500 tradeable symbols and 102 forex pairs, while IronFX offers 340 tradeable symbols and 83 forex pairs. Neither HFM nor IronFX allows the purchase of exchange-traded securities from U.S. or international exchanges, which limits their offerings for traders looking to invest in traditional stocks.
In terms of cryptocurrency, both HFM and IronFX enable the trading of cryptocurrency derivatives rather than actual cryptocurrencies. They both support copy trading, which can be advantageous for less experienced traders seeking strategies to mirror. According to ForexBrokers.com, HFM is rated 4 stars and ranked 36 out of 62 brokers for its range of investments, whereas IronFX receives a rating of 3.5 stars and is ranked at 51. This distinction highlights HFM’s slightly broader investment opportunities compared to IronFX.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 500 | 340 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 102 | 83 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Dive deeper: Best Copy Trading Platforms.
When considering trading platforms and tools, HFM and IronFX both provide essential offerings for traders, including access to MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and the ability to trade directly from stock charts. HFM stands out by offering both MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and its own proprietary platform, giving traders an extra option that IronFX lacks. Both brokers supply a Windows-based desktop platform as well as a web-based platform, allowing flexibility in how traders engage with the market. Furthermore, each broker offers a free demo account for simulated trading, letting newcomers practice without financial risks.
For those interested in additional features, HFM provides more drawing tools for charting, totaling 30 compared to IronFX's 15. Both brokers offer similar capabilities for watch lists with 7 columns each. In terms of copy trading, both make this feature available to their clients. While IronFX does not support MT5, its offering is still competitive, albeit rated lower at 3.5 stars compared to HFM's 4 stars for trading platforms and tools. Notably, HFM is ranked higher at #42 by ForexBrokers.com, whereas IronFX is positioned at #60 out of 62 brokers, making HFM a more appealing choice for those prioritizing advanced platform options and charting tools.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | No |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | No |
| DupliTrade | No | No |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 15 | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 30 | 15 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 |
Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.
When it comes to mobile trading apps, both HFM and IronFX offer solid options for iPhone and Android users. Each platform provides essential features such as real-time price alerts, the ability to draw trendlines, and access to multiple time frames on stock or forex charts. Both apps also allow users to create watchlists with real-time quotes, albeit without syncing those watchlists across different devices. With 30 technical studies available for charting, both HFM and IronFX provide ample tools for technical analysis, and drawings on charts are automatically saved for convenience.
However, when comparing overall performance and user satisfaction, HFM edges out with a 4-star rating for its mobile trading app, while IronFX scores a 3.5-star rating. Rankings by ForexBrokers.com further back this difference, placing HFM at #39 out of 62 brokers, whereas IronFX sits lower at #61. This suggests that while both services feature similar capabilities, HFM might be the preferred choice for traders seeking a slightly more refined mobile experience.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | No |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.
Both HFM and IronFX provide traders with daily market commentaries and access to forex news from top-tier sources like Bloomberg, Reuters, or Dow Jones, ensuring they stay well-informed about current market trends. While HFM offers tools from Autochartist for technical and fundamental research, IronFX lacks this feature but compensates with Technical Analytics from Trading Central. An additional point of difference is that HFM offers a sentiment-based trading tool to help traders gauge market mood, while IronFX does not.
Both brokers supply an economic calendar to track global news events, aiding in strategic decision-making. Despite these differences, both HFM and IronFX receive four out of five stars for their research offerings. When compared rankings by ForexBrokers.com, HFM is positioned higher at #20 versus IronFX's standing at #28, indicating a slight edge in the research category for HFM among the 62 brokers analyzed.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes |
| Autochartist | Yes | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | No |
| TipRanks | No | No |
| Signal Centre (Acuity Trading) | No | No |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.
When exploring educational resources for forex and CFDs, both HFM and IronFX offer a variety of materials suitable for beginners. HFM provides extensive educational content, including archived webinars, a searchable archive of past sessions, and beginner-friendly videos. Notably, HFM hosts at least one educational webinar each month, offering continued learning opportunities, a feature that IronFX does not provide. Both platforms offer an investor dictionary and a collection of beginner educational videos, ensuring new traders have ample resources at their disposal. However, for advanced traders, HFM stands out by offering a range of videos tailored to experienced traders, unlike IronFX, which lacks this feature.
In terms of educational rankings and ratings, HFM and IronFX are closely matched, each securing a solid 4-star rating. Nevertheless, HFM edges slightly ahead in educational resource rankings, securing the 37th spot out of 62 brokers, while IronFX is ranked 44th. These ratings suggest that users looking for a comprehensive educational suite with ongoing webinar support might find HFM more appealing, although both platforms provide substantial resources for beginners entering the world of online trading.
| Feature |
HFM
|
IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | No |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.
After testing 62 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that HFM is better than IronFX. HFM finished with an overall rank of #30, while IronFX finished with an overall rank of #48.
Alongside its enhanced MetaTrader offering and quality research, HFM (HF Markets), previously known as HotForex, offers a proprietary copy trading platform, HFcopy, a proprietary HF mobile app, and a decent selection of over 1,000 CFDs and 47 forex pairs. Still, trading costs at HFM are slightly above the industry average.
| Feature |
HFM
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IronFX
|
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
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| Trust Score | 86 | 83 |
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Both HFM and IronFX do not offer the ability to buy actual delivered cryptocurrency, but they do provide opportunities to trade cryptocurrency derivatives instead.
Both HFM and IronFX do not provide ACH or SEPA transfers or PayPal for deposits or withdrawals, but they both support Skrill, Visa, Mastercard, and bank wires for managing account funds.
Please note:
We review each broker’s overall global offering – a “Yes” checkmark in our Compare Tool does not guarantee the availability of any specific features in your country of residence. To verify the availability of any features within your country of residence, please contact the broker directly.
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0 of 5| Overall Rating | HFM | IronFX | |
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| Trust Score | 86 | 83 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | HFM Review |
| Broker Screenshots | HFM | IronFX | |
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| Regulation | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 86 | 83 | |
| Year Founded | 2010 | 2010 | |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No | |
| Bank | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes | Yes | |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 | 3 | |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 3 | 0 | |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 2 | 1 |
| Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted) | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia (ASIC Authorised) | No | Yes | |
| Canada (CIRO Authorised) | No | No | |
| Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Japan (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Singapore (MAS Authorised) | No | No | |
| Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| USA (CFTC Authorized) | No | No | |
| New Zealand (FMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes | Yes |
| Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted) | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya (CMA Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| Israel (ISA Authorised) | No | No | |
| South Africa (FSCA Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| India (SEBI Authorised) | No | No | |
| Jordan (JSC Authorised) | No | No |
| Investments | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 500 | 340 | |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 102 | 83 | |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No | |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No | |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes | |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
| Cost | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.2 | 1.2 | |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No | Yes | |
| Inactivity Fee | Yes | No | |
| Execution: Agency Broker | No | Yes | |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes | Yes |
| Funding | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $0 | $50 | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No | |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes | |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| Trading Platforms | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | No | |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | No | |
| cTrader | No | No | |
| DupliTrade | No | No | |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Trading Tools | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 | |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 15 | 30 | |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 30 | 15 | |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes | |
| Charts can be saved | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | No | |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 | |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Research | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes | |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes | |
| Autochartist | Yes | No | |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | Yes | |
| TipRanks | No | No | |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | No | |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Education | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Client Webinars | Yes | No | |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | No | |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
| Major Forex Pairs | HFM | IronFX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/JPY | Yes | Yes | |
| EUR/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CHF | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CAD | Yes | Yes | |
| NZD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| AUD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| Review | HFM Review |
| Overall | HFM | IronFX | |
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| Trust Score | 86 | 83 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | HFM Review |
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