Top picks for trading apps
#1 Mobile App - IG's IG Trading app
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard |
Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies |
 IG
|
 |
£250.00 |
0.98 info |
33 |
I've been reviewing IG for over six years, and I continue to be impressed by IG's powerful suite of mobile applications for everyday forex traders. IG’s flagship mobile forex trading app, IG Trading, won our 2024 Annual Award for #1 Mobile App. I find the IG Trading app to be easy to use and jam-packed with powerful features and intuitive trading tools.
IG Trading’s intuitive layout makes it a breeze to navigate between features such as alerts, sentiment readings, trading signals, and highly advanced charts. The app delivers dozens of technical indicators and five distinct chart types. Setting up charts is easy, and zooming in and out across time frames feels quick and precise. IG provides my favorite mobile charts in the industry and IG Trading is a great choice for charting enthusiasts who want to conduct market analysis on the go.
IG also offers the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) app for traders who prefer the MetaTrader experience. Traders at IG also gain access to IG Academy, the broker’s standalone educational app. IG Academy features eight interactive courses organized by experience level, each containing nearly a dozen chapters. Read my full review of IG to learn more about why I’ve rated IG so highly for so many years.
Best cross-platform experience - Saxo's SaxoTraderGO app
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard |
Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies |
 Saxo
|
|
$0 |
1.1 info |
64 |
Saxo's SaxoTraderGO is a favorite of mine and includes everything that forex traders might need to navigate the market. One of the strengths of Saxo’s mobile platform that continues to impress me is how closely the mobile app mirrors the performance of the broker’s web-based platform. Nearly all features found in the web version of the platform are available in the SaxoTraderGO mobile app. Saxo has done a great job unifying the excellent SaxoTraderGO platform experience across devices.
SaxoTraderGO delivers rich charting capabilities and – touching on a theme here – closely matches the experience of the platform’s web-based charts. Charts in the SaxoTraderGO mobile app sync with the browser-based version of the platform. For example, if you draw trend lines and add indicators in the web version, they will appear in the mobile app (and vice versa). The web platform’s economic calendar, educational videos, market news from top-tier sources such as Dow Jones Newswire, and pattern recognition analysis from Autochartist are all accessible on the mobile app.
Saxo was Best in Class in our Mobile Trading Apps category for our 2024 Annual Awards and is a true leader in this category. Read my full review of Saxo to learn more.
Best app for low-cost trading - CMC Markets' Next Generation app
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard |
Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies |
 CMC Markets
|
|
$0 |
0.61 info |
29 |
CMC Markets' cleanly designed Next Generation mobile app comes packed with research tools, integrated educational content, powerful charts, predefined watchlists, and more. Much like Saxo’s fantastic SaxoTraderGO platform suite, the look and feel of the CMC Markets mobile app closely resembles the web-based version of the Next Generation platform.
I’ve been testing CMC Markets’ platforms since 2017, and it’s clear to me that CMC Markets has invested time and resources in the mobile app’s development. The broker has managed to organize quite a bit of information with limited screen space. For example, charting on the mobile version of the Next Generation platform is just as impressive as the web version. Though fewer technical indicators are available on mobile, the app delivers a powerful charting experience.
Other notable features include research content developed by CMC Markets’ in-house staff, such as the Intraday Update, Morning Call, and Evening Call. I’m also impressed by the app’s predefined watchlists, which I’ve found can be great ways to identify trading opportunities. Overall, CMC Markets simply delivers an excellent mobile trading experience. Read my full review of CMC Markets to learn more.
Best forex trading apps comparison
How to compare the best forex trading apps
When choosing a new forex broker account for online trading, consider these five areas of the trading experience:
- Trust (regulatory status): You want a broker that you can trust, above all else. Your broker will preferably be regulated in multiple top-tier jurisdictions, such as the U.S., U.K., Australia, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, or Switzerland. At ForexBrokers.com, we track over 250 regulatory licenses for 60+ forex brokers; learn more by checking out our Trust Score page.
- Trading platforms: Our research finds that most proprietary platforms are superior to third-party software
like MetaTrader. Either way, be sure to select the trading platform that meets your needs across devices, whether that's on the web, your desktop, or with a mobile trading app.
- Trading tools: When I evaluate the research content, trading tools, and educational materials available from brokers, I expect them to be rich with features and easy to use. The more comprehensive each category is within the mobile app you choose, the better off you will be in maximizing trading opportunities.
- Tradeable markets: Consider the total available markets and the number of instruments that are available for you to trade at a given broker. For example, one broker may offer a small selection of currency pairs but a vast array of CFDs on other markets like stocks, commodities, ETFs, futures, cryptocurrency, and other asset classes. Conversely, maybe you want to trade some exotic currencies and want a broker with a larger selection of forex pairs.
- Demo accounts: Opening a free demo account allows you to learn the ins and outs of a trading app, like test-driving a car before you buy it. You get to use the virtual account across all supported devices, such as web, desktop, and mobile. If the platform meets your needs, then you can fund a live account. Some traders also use demo accounts to test various trading strategies before trying them out with real funds.
FAQs
Can you trade forex on your phone?
Yes, if you have a modern smartphone running either an Android or iOS operating system, you can install forex trading apps on your phone. After opening the app, you can log in to your forex account and begin trading from your phone. If you are interested in trading CFDs, there is a range of great mobile options available from some of the top brokers in the industry. Check out our guide to the Best CFD Brokers and Trading Platforms to learn more about CFDs (and to check out our picks for the best CFD brokers).
Does forex have an official app?
No, there is no official app or website because the foreign exchange (forex) market is decentralized — that is, there is no single location or site for the market. The forex market consists of central banks and financial institutions such as brokers, dealers, banks, and corporations. Read more on Wikipedia.
Many trustworthy forex brokers do offer mobile apps for trading. There is a wide selection available, including apps that are developed by brokers in-house, as well as apps from third-party developers. To avoid forex scams, you should only use regulated banks and brokers that are properly licensed to offer forex trading services in your country of residence. For example, if you live in the U.K., check the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to verify a broker is regulated.
Note: If you're looking specifically for the broker FOREX.com, it offers both a proprietary app, called FOREX.com mobile, and the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) app. Read our full-length review of FOREX.com, or check out our MetaTrader guide.
What is the best forex trading app?
Saxo is my top pick for the best overall forex trading app experience. Saxo’s SaxoTraderGO app is intelligently designed and fits into a unified platform experience across devices by closely mirroring its highly-rated web platform counterpart. Read more about Saxo’s mobile suite in my full-length Saxo review.
Check out a gallery of screenshots from Saxo's SaxoTraderGO app, taken by our research team during our product testing.
My testing found that IG offers the best smartphone app — IG Trading — for forex trading in 2024. IG is regulated globally, and its IG Trading app provides access to a variety of quality trading tools alongside multiple news sources for researching trading opportunities. Charting on the IG Trading app is also rich with features. Check out my full-length review of IG to learn more about IG’s suite of mobile apps.
This gallery of screenshots was taken by our research team while testing IG's highly-rated mobile trading app.
What's the best forex trading app for beginners?
The IG Trading app is an excellent choice for beginners, due to its range of tools, integrated content, and the ability to access educational material from IG Academy and DailyFx (it even has a standalone mobile app for education). IG is a leader in education, making its IG Trading mobile app the best forex trading app for beginners in 2024.
As an alternative, Plus500's easy-to-navigate app provides the essentials for trading, and makes viewing available markets a breeze. That said, just because an app is easy to use doesn't mean it is easy to make money. It's worth noting that forex trading is only available at Plus500 via CFDs.
schoolForex trading for beginners
New to trading forex? Check out our guide to trading forex for beginners here. We'll help you pick a forex broker that's great for beginners, and go over some of the forex fundamentals to help jumpstart your forex education.
Does MetaTrader have an app?
Yes, the MetaTrader platform suite — available for mobile — is developed by MetaQuotes Software Corporation and is the most widely used app for trading CFDs, forex, shares, and other asset classes.
There are two versions of the MetaTrader app for both Android and Apple iOS devices: the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) app as and the newer MetaTrader 5 (MT5) app, which continues to gain adoption. I've written a guide that details the differences between these two trading platforms: check out my MT4 vs MT5 guide. You can also learn more about MetaTrader 5 (and find a great forex broker that offers MT5) by checking out my full MetaTrader 5 guide.
Take a quick look at the MetaTrader 5 Mobile Trading app interface with our video walkthrough:
While MT4 and MT5 are incredibly popular due to their wide availability, many of the best mobile apps are developed in-house by some of the best online brokers, such as Saxo and IG.
Can I teach myself forex trading?
Yes, and you shouldn't pay for any courses as there is plenty of high-quality free education available directly from most online brokers, as well as third-party websites (check out my guide to the best free forex trading courses). However, forex trading is not easy — the majority of traders lose money.
To be successful in trading forex, you must learn how to manage risk properly, depending on your goals and the strategy you choose to follow or develop. First, open a free demo account and trade using fake money to learn how the trading platform software works.
Our testing
Why you should trust us
Steven Hatzakis is a well-known finance writer, with 25+ years of experience in the foreign exchange and financial markets. He is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for Reink Media Group, leading research efforts for ForexBrokers.com since 2016. Steven is an expert writer and researcher who has published over 1,000 articles covering the foreign exchange markets and cryptocurrency industries. He has served as a registered commodity futures representative for domestic and internationally-regulated brokerages. Steven holds a Series III license in the US as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
All content on ForexBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the forex industry.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Click here to learn more about how we test.
How we tested
At ForexBrokers.com, our online broker reviews are based on our collected quantitative data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research on the top forex brokers and monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).
Mobile testing is conducted on modern devices that run the most up-to-date operating systems available:
- For Apple, we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 14.5, and the iPhone XS running iOS 17.6.
- For Android, we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 14.
All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser.
Our researchers thoroughly test a wide range of key features, such as the availability and quality of watch lists, mobile charting, real-time and streaming quotes, and educational resources – among other important variables. We also evaluate the overall design of the mobile experience, and look for a fluid user experience moving between mobile and desktop platforms.
ForexBrokers.com 2024 Overall Rankings
Now that you've seen our picks for the brokers that offer the best forex trading apps, check out the ForexBrokers.com Overall Rankings. We've evaluated over 60 forex brokers, using a testing methodology that's based on 100+ data-driven variables and thousands of data points. Check out our full-length, in-depth forex broker reviews.
Overall rankings table
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Forex Risk Disclaimer
There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.
About the Editorial Team
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
John Bringans is the Managing Editor at ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.
Joey Shadeck is a Content Strategist and Research Analyst for ForexBrokers.com. He holds dual degrees in Finance and Marketing from Oakland University, and has been an active trader and investor for close to ten years. An industry veteran, Joey obtains and verifies data, conducts research, and analyzes and validates our content.
Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.
IG
CMC Markets
FOREX.com
XTB
eToro
AvaTrade
Plus500
Tickmill
FP Markets
Pepperstone
Charles Schwab
Interactive Brokers
FOREX.com
City Index
XTB
eToro
Capital.com
Swissquote
AvaTrade
Plus500
FXCM
OANDA
Pepperstone
XM Group
Admirals
FP Markets
Tickmill
IC Markets
FxPro
Markets.com
FinecoBank
BlackBull Markets
Vantage
ThinkMarkets
HYCM (Henyep Capital Markets)
HFM
DooPrime
Questrade
ActivTrades
Trading 212
BDSwiss
Trade Nation
TMGM
Eightcap
Moneta Markets
Spreadex
MultiBank
Exness
ACY Securities
easyMarkets
RoboForex
VT Markets
Octa
IronFX
IFC Markets
Trade360
Axi
TeleTrade
iFOREX
FXOpen
FXPrimus
Xtrade
Forex4you
GBE brokers
Alpari
TopFX
Libertex (Forex Club)
LegacyFX
FXGT.com
ATFX
