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Freetrade ReviewXTB UK Review
Written by Elizabeth Anderson
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Your capital is at risk.
Poland-based XTB made a splash in the U.K. with its July 2023 launch of commission-free share trading — having previously offered only CFD trading — and has set itself up as a strong competitor to other beginner-friendly brokers. XTB aims to be an all-in-one investment app, and its low fees and solid educational content make it particularly attractive to newer investors. Another bonus is that XTB now offers an ISA, so you can invest without worrying about paying tax on potential returns.
-
Minimum Deposit:
£0 -
ISA:
Yes -
SIPP:
No
XTB pros & cons
Pros
- Low fees: commission-free stock and ETF trading.
- Easy-to-use mobile app.
- Can invest through a flexible ISA.
- Pays 4.75% interest on uninvested cash (pound sterling).
- Offers fractional share buying and dealing.
- New eWallet means you can hold and trade in 100 different currencies.
Cons
- No mutual funds or bonds.
- Works out expensive if you trade more than €100,000 a month.
- No SIPP offering.
- Watch out for the £10 a month inactivity fee.
Overall summary
| Feature |
XTB
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Charges & Fees |
|
| Investment Choices |
|
| Mobile App |
|
| Website |
|
| Ease of Use |
|
| Education |
|
Charges and fees
Commission-free trading: XTB offers commission-free share and ETF trading for those trading less than €100,000 a month, so you’re unlikely to pay trading fees unless you are a highly active trader. Transactions above this amount are charged a commission of 0.2%, or a minimum of €10, which can quickly add up. On a £350,000 trade, for example, you’d pay a commission of around £574.
This makes XTB great value for many investors, in line with other commission-free brokers like Trading 212 and eToro. There are no custody or platform charges for maintaining an account with a value of less than €250,000, unlike traditional U.K. platforms that either charge a percentage of your portfolio or a flat fee. This means XTB allows you to buy, sell, and hold stocks and ETFs for free, which is great value. However, an FX fee of 0.5% is applied if you are buying stocks or ETFs in another currency.
Stocks and shares ISA: XTB now offers an ISA, which I think is a fantastic recent addition. It means you can now invest without worrying about potential capital gains tax or other taxes. Another bonus is that XTB's ISA is free to hold unlike other platforms such as Freetrade or CMC Invest, which charge a monthly fee for their ISAs. Bear in mind there is an overall ISA allowance of £20,000 you can pay into ISAs each year. Currently, the ISA is only available through the app and not the web platform. There are no plans to launch an XTB self-invested pension (SIPP), which is a shame for those investing for retirement.
Withdrawal and inactivity fees: It’s free to open and close an account with XTB, but a withdrawal fee of £5 is applied if you are taking out less than £50. There is also an inactivity fee of £10 a month charged if you haven’t made a trade for more than 12 months or if no cash has been put in your account in the previous 90 days. Be mindful of opening an account and then leaving it idle, as the costs could quickly rack up.
It’s free to pay GBP into your wallet, but a fee of 2% is charged if you want to hold U.S. dollars (USD). A virtual wallet that can hold multiple currencies is currently being tested to roll out in Poland and Germany but is not currently available to XTB users in the U.K.
Scenario pricing: When calculating annual share dealing costs, trading frequency and account balance are the two most important factors to consider. Assuming a £30,000 portfolio in a traditional, taxable share dealing account, here are four scenarios of how much XTB would cost based on trade frequency:
- 5 trades per year = £0
- 12 trades per year = £0
- 36 trades per year = £0
- 120 trades per year = £0
- 3 fund trades per year = N/A
| Feature |
XTB
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | £0 |
| Share Trading: 0-9 Deals/ Month | £0 |
| Share Trading: 10-19 Deals/ Month | £0 |
| Share Trading: 20+ Deals/ Month | £0 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 | 0 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £250K-£500K | 0 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £500,000 - £1m | 0 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £1m and over | 0 |
| Bonds - Corporate - Fee | N/A |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) - Fee | N/A |
| ETFs - Fee | £0 |
| Investment Trusts - Fee | N/A |
| Telephone Dealing Fee | N/A |
What type of trader are you?
New to the world of investing? See my picks for the best UK trading platforms for beginners. More experienced traders should check out my guide to the best UK Trading Platforms for Active Traders. If you're looking to trade shares on the go, read my guide to the best UK stock trading apps.
Mobile trading apps
The XTB mobile app is nicely laid out, featuring favourites and hot stocks on the homepage which shows which stocks or instruments are currently most popular with traders. All prices are in real-time. The top tabs also feature news, market sentiment, and your watch list — although I found it took a while for my watch list to synchronise from the web platform when first testing the platform.
During my testing, it was easy to put money into my XTB account using a debit card and I could invest the money straight away. It’s easy to make a trade. Simply select a company (if buying stocks) and choose the amount you’d like to invest.
The charting tools are not as extensive as those offered on the website — for example, you can’t compare different companies or overlay an index on the same chart. However, you can add indicators and drawings, including text.
Tap for a demo of XTB's U.K. trading app.
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Website
XTB’s xStation 5 web platform has many trading tools for investors. There is a calendar of key economic news along with upcoming dividend announcements. You can view many assets, including indices, stocks, commodities, and currencies.
I did find the platform a little complicated, and I’m not sure the website would be appropriate for new investors. You may be better sticking with the app initially, or choosing a platform such as Trading 212 or AJ Bell’s Dodl, which are more straightforward and easy to use. However, you can open a demo account with XTB to help you get to grips with the platform, or investing in general, without risking any of your own money. You are given £100,000 in virtual money to practice trading through the XTB demo account.
XTB is still primarily a CFD broker and I think this comes across on its web platform. New investors may find it difficult to differentiate between real stocks and CFDs. To access stocks, click on ‘STC’; from there, you can search for stocks by country or by typing the company name or ticker into the search bar at the top. Simply click on the star button to add to your watch list or select the chart icon to bring up a detailed chart of a stock’s recent trading performance.
The charting tools and indicators on XTB are not as extensive as other platforms including Trading 212, IG, and Interactive Brokers. You cannot overlay different stocks or indices on the same chart to make it easier to draw comparisons.
However, up to 16 charts can be created at one time so you can track various assets simultaneously across different charts. This is a great feature not offered by many other platforms. Dividend announcement dates can also be added to a chart, and you can add text to annotate a chart.
| Feature |
XTB
|
|---|---|
| Web Platform | Yes |
| iPhone App | Yes |
| Android App | Yes |
| Stock Alerts | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 39 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools | 20 |
| Charting - Notes | Yes |
| Charting - Display Corporate Events | Yes |
| Charting - Stock Overlays | No |
| Charting - Index Overlays | No |
Investment choices
You can invest in more than 3,000 stocks from 14 stock exchanges through XTB, including the London Stock Exchange, NYSE, and Deutsche Boerse. You can also invest in around 750 ETFs, a big jump in the past year. Mutual funds or bonds are not available, so investors looking for these would have to go to another platform such as Hargreaves Lansdown or Interactive Investor.
In my testing, I thought international stocks were nicely integrated into the platform. Simply select ‘stocks’ (STC) and you’ll see a dropdown list of countries that you can open to view available stocks for that particular nation's exchanges.
For those that don’t feel confident building their own investment portfolio, XTB offers ‘Investment Plans.’ Here, you can design a personalised portfolio from 350 ETFs that align with your risk tolerance, industry preferences, or regional coverage. This means that while XTB doesn’t offer mutual funds, there is still an option for investors to access a diversified, ready-made portfolio at exceptionally low cost. It’s free to set up your investment plan and they are free to run, with a low minimum initial investment of just £15. You can run up to 10 plans at the same time.
XTB also offers generous interest on uninvested cash balances for certain currencies. Investors earn 4.75% interest on GBP, 2% a year on USD, and 1.752% on their EUR uninvested holdings — rates that are competitive with bank savings accounts (check XTB's site for the most up-to-date rates).
| Feature |
XTB
|
|---|---|
| Share Trading | Yes |
| CFD Trading | Yes |
| ETFs | Yes |
| Funds | No |
| Bonds - Corporate | No |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) | No |
| Investment Trusts | No |
| Spread Betting | Yes |
| Crypto Trading | No |
| Advisor Services | No |
Education
XTB has put together a variety of educational content in various formats to help different levels of investors, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced trader. The educational and research material has ramped up in the past year, thanks to a partnership with Blackrock aimed at boosting education about ETFs, which are less well-known in the U.K. than in other countries.
XTB offers ebooks and courses even to users with a demo account. I found the offerings to be very in-depth, with a video course on trading strategies coming in around 1.5 hours long. There is also a five-module course aimed at beginners called Trading Basics, which talks through terms such as ‘long’ and ‘short’. These courses are easily accessible on both the mobile app and website whether you have a demo account or a real one.
When you open an account with XTB, you are contacted by WhatsApp and email by a dedicated account manager ready to answer any questions you have. I found this very helpful. It’s a great feature for those who open an account and need guidance on what to do next.
| Feature |
XTB
|
|---|---|
| Education (Share Trading) | Yes |
| Education (Funds) | No |
| Education (Retirement) | No |
| Client Webinars | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No |
Final thoughts
XTB is a well-established brand that is making further inroads in the U.K. by offering a wider range of assets for retail investors. It appeals to both beginner and experienced investors, with charges that are extremely low unless you are trading a large volume of assets (more than €100,000 monthly).
The lack of a SIPP account is a drawback for those looking for long-term retirement investments, but XTB’s ISA and general dealing accounts are strong rivals to other newer and traditional platforms on both fees and investment choices.
XTB is rapidly increasing its U.K. offerings, and we are excited to see what else it will launch in the coming year.
About XTB
XTB was founded in Poland in 2002 and now has 13 offices worldwide. It is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE: XTB.PL) and employs around 1,000 people. XTB began offering share trading in the U.K. in July 2023, having previously only offered forex and CFDs. XTB says it has 1.2 million active clients, and has added 800,000 of those in 2024, with the majority attracted by its 0% commission on stocks and ETF trading.
Is XTB regulated in the UK?
Yes, XTB is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under its U.K. entity XTB Limited (under license number 522157). This means it is authorised to hold customer funds and act as a broker for a wide range of investment products and asset classes. XTB also holds regulatory licenses across other jurisdictions outside the U.K. and has just added licenses for Indonesia, where it plans to launch in 2025.
Is XTB a good broker?
XTB has low fees and solid educational content, but ultimately this answer depends on your individual circumstances and what you are looking for in a broker. XTB is still fairly basic in its share and investment options for everyday investors, so there may be other platforms — such as Freetrade, Interactive Investor, and Trading 212 — that also have low fees and are easier to navigate for beginners or those looking for more investment options.
Is my money safe at XTB?
XTB holds regulatory licenses across various countries, making it very safe from a regulatory point of view. Like with any investment platform, there is always a chance you will lose money if your investments don’t perform as well as you hope.
What is the minimum investment for XTB?
You can open an account with £0 but the minimum amount for buying shares is £10, or $10 if buying U.S. shares and €10 for European shares.
Does XTB have fees?
There are no trading fees on trades worth less than €100,000 a month. For amounts above this, a charge of 0.2% applies. There is also a £10-a-month inactivity fee if you don’t trade for 12 months or haven’t added money into your account within the past 90 days.
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Methodology
For the UK.StockBrokers.com Annual Review, we assessed, rated, and ranked 17 U.K. share dealing platforms over a 10-week time period. Each broker’s platforms and features were exhaustively tested by hand and graded on 53 different variables. In total, over 25,000 words of research were produced.
We thoroughly tested and compared features of prime interest to everyday investors, including but not limited to:
- Investment choices, such as whether the broker offers trading of shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, and CFDs; and offers SIPP and ISA accounts.
- The broker’s charges and fees for investing.
- Functionality and design of mobile apps and website platform, and a fluid experience moving between app and web.
- Usability of tools such as charting and watch lists.
- Market research, such as screening, news and analysis.
- Educational resources including tutorials, online courses, videos, webinars and articles.
Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Our lead researcher and writer, Elizabeth Anderson, has more than a decade’s experience as a financial journalist and market researcher. Elizabeth’s expertise is backed by a team of veteran fellow traders, data auditors, editors and project managers who work to ensure that UK.StockBrokers.com reviews and guides are the most unbiased and complete in the industry. Read more about our team.
About the Editorial Team
Elizabeth Anderson, lead writer and researcher, has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. In addition to her work with UK.StockBrokers.com, she has written extensively for major publications including BBC, The Times and Bloomberg. A keen investor herself, she is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing.
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for UK.StockBrokers.com and ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for Reink Media and former lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.