eToro pros & cons
Overall Summary
-> View eToro Features List
Is eToro safe?
eToro is considered Highly Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 90 out of 99. eToro is not publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by three Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), zero Tier-2 regulators (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and one Tier-4 regulator (High Risk). eToro is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system Learn more about Trust Score or see where the different eToro entities are regulated.
Offering of investments
eToro offers a total of 3479 tradeable symbols. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to eToro clients.
Usability: As a multi-asset broker, eToro goes above and beyond to make the experience smooth for traders. For example, eToro provides the ability to select between trading CFDs and the underlying assets directly from the trade-ticket window. A subtle feature, but very useful.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading is available at eToro through CFDs and through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker’s U.K. entity, nor to residents of the U.K. or the Netherlands. In addition, cryptocurrency trading at eToro is not available in Russia.
Commissions and fees
eToro is a market-maker broker and lists a typical variable spread of 1 pip on the EUR/USD, which is slightly higher than the industry average. Considering its trading fees, retail traders don’t choose eToro for its spreads, but rather for its social copy trading platform capabilities.
VIP accounts: eToro offers a VIP club (called eToro Club) with five tiers of membership that range from Silver to Diamond. These tiers are for traders who maintain balances between $5,000-$250,000 and feature varying benefits depending on the level of membership. VIP perks range from access to Trading Central, to discounted withdrawal and deposit fees, to a dedicated account manager – among other VIP-style benefits.
Popular Investor program: eToro’s Popular Investor program (for traders who allow other investors to copy their strategy) has four levels – ranging from Cadet to Elite – where traders can become eligible for various perks. To qualify for the Cadet tier you must have more than $1,000 in account equity, attract $500 in customer assets that copy your strategy, and maintain a risk score below 7 for at least two months. Benefits available to Popular Investors include spread rebates, monthly payments, and even a management fee for those who reach elite status.
Cryptocurrency trading: Overall, eToro’s pricing is close to the industry average for trading physical cryptocurrency. For each buy and sell position, users pay a single fixed fee of 1% (on top of the spread) on each side of the trade (both when opening a closing a position).
While trading bitcoin has become a little more expensive (when compared to its prior pricing at 0.75%), eToro has leveled the playing field on nearly 200 crypto assets with its 1% flat rate commission, which can be helpful when trading emerging cryptocurrencies that would have otherwise been more expensive (on its previous fee schedule).
Meanwhile, converting from crypto to crypto at eToro only costs 0.1% (in addition to prevailing spreads).
With its large number of crypto assets – both CFDs and the underlying assets – eToro was our No. 1 broker for Crypto Trading for our 2023 Annual Awards.
Exchange-Traded Securities: In addition to trading CFD shares, eToro also offers zero-dollar commission for U.S. stock trading (not available to U.S. investors) and supports fractional shares. To learn more, see our UK.StockBrokers.com review of eToro.
Mobile trading apps
eToro offers an excellent mobile experience. The ease-of-use factor is high, and eToro delivers nearly all the same features across both its web platform and its mobile app, which multi-device clients will appreciate.
Apps overview: eToro provides two mobile apps: the eToro app and eToro Money for crypto and money transfers. Both apps are available on Google Play for Android, and Apple App Store for iOS devices.
Check out our video walkthrough of eToro’s mobile app:
Ease of use: Testing on Android, I found that the eToro mobile app maintains the look and feel of the web version, including useful functions such as dark and light mode themes, and synced watchlists that help to unify the platform experience across devices.
Charting: Like the rest of the mobile app, the charts are responsive and closely match the web platform experience, though just five indicators are present compared to 67 on the web. Drawing tools are missing from the app entirely and would be a welcome enhancement to an otherwise cleanly-designed and well-integrated mobile app.
Cryptocurrency wallet: The eToro wallet, known as eToro Money, is a separate mobile app where users can deposit and withdraw money and actual cryptocurrencies. The eToro Money Wallet closely resembles the look and feel of the eToro mobile app, and includes support for social trading.
Note: While crypto trading services are available for investors on the eToro platform, it should be noted that eToroX – the brands crypto exchange – is no longer available to retail clients.
Other trading platforms
eToro’s main innovation is merging self-directed trading and copy trading under a unified trading experience. It is a winning combination. See our Best FX Brokers for Copy Trading.
Platforms overview: Ease of use and simplicity of design are at the heart of the eToro web platform experience, and carrying out basic operations is straightforward and painless. Traders gain access to functions such as the ability to create watchlists, as well as the option to add instruments simply by searching available markets. These design qualities helped eToro rank Best in Class in the Ease of Use and Beginners categories for our 2023 Annual Awards.
Check out our video walkthrough of eToro’s well-designed web platform:
Charting: The full functionality of eToro’s charting truly comes alive when you launch its ProCharts setting. ProCharts comes with 66 indicators, 13 drawing tools and the ability to save and choose from predefined layouts.
Trading tools: Another innovative tool from eToro is its CopyPortfolios feature, which groups traders into single funds for copy trading. CopyPortfolios help to bridge the gap for investors who want to use eToro on a passive basis, as they can create a portfolio based entirely on one or more CopyPortfolios. On the other hand, self-directed traders can also use CopyPortfolios to diversify their trading, making it a potentially useful tool for all eToro clients.
Cryptocurrency tools: eToro users can find crypto-trading ideas and copy other individuals or groups of traders across 108 supported cryptocurrency pairs. Investors looking to withdraw underlying crypto assets from their eToro account can use the eToro Mobile wallet app. This app acts as a custodian with a multi-signature scheme and closely mirrors the brand’s forex mobile app.
Copy trading structure: Fully automated trading systems (i.e. algorithmic trading) such as those supported on MetaTrader are not permitted at eToro. Therefore, when you copy another trader on eToro, you can be sure they are placing each trade manually. This is quite useful to know, as many other social trading platforms that aggregate the performance of traders usually permit discretionary (manual) trading as well as automated strategies.
Market research
eToro’s research offering is competitive and continues to improve year-over-year. The addition of weekly video updates that include market analysis alongside research articles from in-house analysts has elevated eToro’s research offering, bringing it into closer competition with the best brokers for market research.
Research overview: eToro offers a standard economic calendar, an earnings reports calendar, news headlines, daily market analysis series, and podcasts. That said, several of these features are not directly integrated into the eToro platform. Trading Central is also available, but is not offered to all clients – it’s reserved for eToro club members that have reached a specific tier status. There are also research reports for stocks available to funded account holders.
Market news and analysis: eToro does an excellent job incorporating fundamental analysis into its platform for shares trading, and in the daily articles posted to eToro’s blog. However, the lack of technical analysis leaves eToro falling behind category leaders such as IG and Saxo Bank, and is a feature that would improve eToro’s Analyst Weekly series of articles. It’s worth noting that eToro has made considerable progress in this category, with the addition of eToro Plus, Digest & Invest, Trader Talks, and its Weekly Crypto Roundup series.
Sentiment data: Only the trades of top traders at eToro are used to calculate sentiment data, rather than showing sentiment based on data from all users. This takes it a step above the usual sentiment tools brokers provide, and is similar to how CMC Markets displays this data.
Wall newsfeed: eToro uses a Twitter-style wall feed of collective commentary for each given instrument. This public feed appears as a stream of updates from other eToro users, designed to give you an idea of what other traders are posting about in the eToro network. As the content is sourced by eToro users, it can vary in quality. It is certainly unique; that said, I find content that is generated by in-house staff or from third-party professionals to generally be of higher quality.
Education
While the eToro Learning Academy and blog offer a good number of videos, articles, and weekly webinars, the quality and volume trail educational leaders like AvaTrade, Saxo Bank or IG. That said, eToro has made significant progress in this category, and the addition of new courses and content on the eToro Academy brings eToro closer to the best brokers in the education category.
Learning center: eToro offers an online trading academy containing dozens of videos and articles that are organized by category and experience level.
Integrated educational tidbits: eToro provides extra details for beginners next to each symbol available within its platform, such as information about trading instruments (like the EUR/USD currency pair), and general facts to consider before investing.
Room for improvement: eToro has a decent number of videos on its YouTube channel, including archived webinars and market analysis, but I found it hard to distinguish between research, promotional, and educational videos. Organizing educational content by playlist and separating platform tutorials from financial market education would help to balance eToro’s video content in this category.
Final thoughts
eToro is great for retail traders who want to crowdsource investment ideas using the power of copy trading, or for highly-experienced active traders who want to be rewarded for sharing their ideas with other traders.
Less experienced traders that require some degree of handholding may find the user-friendly platform an added benefit. That said, I do not recommend eToro for active or high-volume traders, as higher spreads and small maximum trade sizes will be a limiting factor (unless you want other investors to copy your strategy). Algorithmic trading is not supported at eToro.
eToro is an excellent choice for social copy trading and crypto trading (and earned the top ranking for both categories in our 2023 Annual Awards). eToro also took home our 2023 Industry Award for #1 Trader Community.
Is eToro trustworthy?
Is eToro really free?
Can you make money with eToro?
Is eToro good for beginners?
What type of broker is eToro?
About eToro
An early pioneer in social copy trading, eToro was founded in Israel in 2007 as a financial trading technology developer. After launching its first product, it has since grown to service over 32 million registered users with an innovative platform that continually evolves to be one of the largest social networks globally, with clients in over 140 countries, and $7.5 billion in assets under administration. eToro has added ESG scores for over 2,700 tradeable stocks. The broker has also announced a partnership with Twitter for the use of $Cashtags.
Read more on Wikipedia about eToro.
Disclosures
eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs.
Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Past performance is not an indication of future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 complete years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision.
Copy trading is a portfolio management service, provided by eToro (Europe) Ltd., which is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cryptoassets are highly volatile and unregulated in the UK. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro.
2023 Review Methodology
At ForexBrokers.com, our reviews of online forex brokers and their products and services are based on our collected data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research and detailed forex guides, and we monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).
Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process). We test all available trading platforms for each broker – whether they are proprietary or come from third-party providers – and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.
We also take an in-depth look at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads – including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We research other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and a range of other important fee-based data points.
Some of the other important research categories that are factored into our testing include mobile trading accessibility and capability, availability of market research and educational content, and each broker’s overall Trust Score.
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. Generative AI tools are not a part of our content creation or product testing processes. 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. Read our Generative AI policy to learn more.
Read our full explanation and accounting of our research and testing process to learn more about how we test.
Article Resources
eToro Regulation, eToro Learning Academy, eToro YouTube channel
Popular Forex Guides
- Best Forex Brokers
- Best Forex Brokers for Beginners
- Best Forex Brokers for Copy Trading
- Best MetaTrader Brokers
- Best Forex Brokers for TradingView
- Best Forex Trading Apps
- Best Zero Spread Forex Brokers
- Compare the Best Forex Brokers
