IC Markets vs Pepperstone 2026: Fees & Safety Tested

Quick Take

Pepperstone edges this head-to-head 9.0 to 8.8, and the split is decided on regulation and account access. It holds six regulators including a direct FCA licence with FSCS up to £85,000, opens at a $0 deposit, and posted the tightest news-window slippage in my 30-broker sample. IC Markets answers with a cheaper $6 cTrader commission and 2,250 instruments against Pepperstone’s 1,200.

Read the full Pepperstone review and the full IC Markets review for the per-account detail behind these numbers.

Side-by-Side at a Glance

Here is the top-line snapshot, then a per-metric grid with the winner of each row.

Metric	Pepperstone	IC Markets	Winner
📊 EUR/USD cost (cheapest tier)	0.1 pip + $7	0.1 pip + $6	IC Markets
💰 Min deposit	$0	$200	Pepperstone
🏛️ Safety score	9.4	8.8	Pepperstone
🏦 Regulators	6, incl. FCA	3, no FCA	Pepperstone
⚡ Withdrawal speed (Skrill)	3 to 8 hr	2 to 6 hr	IC Markets
📈 Instruments	1,200	2,250	IC Markets
💬 Live chat response	1 min 30 sec	1 min 50 sec	Pepperstone
📱 Mobile app (iOS)	4.6 stars	4.6 stars	Equal
US clients	No	No	Equal
🏆 Overall	9.0	8.8	Pepperstone

Both brokers accept clients across the UK, Australia, the Gulf and Southeast Asia, but they lean different ways on regulation. Pepperstone leads with a direct FCA licence for UK retail.

IC Markets routes UK clients to its CySEC entity instead. Here is where each one takes clients, region by region.

MENA

Pepperstone UAE Saudi Arabia Qatar

IC Markets UAE Saudi Arabia Egypt

Southeast Asia

Pepperstone Singapore Thailand Malaysia

IC Markets Vietnam Thailand Indonesia

Europe & UK

Pepperstone UK retail Germany France

IC Markets UK via CySEC Germany Spain

Neither broker accepts US, Canadian, Japanese, Israeli, New Zealand or Belgian residents.

Safety & Regulation: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

This is where Pepperstone pulls ahead. Both brokers are safe and multi-regulated with clean register histories, but Pepperstone runs twice as many entities and, critically, holds a direct FCA licence that IC Markets does not.

• Pepperstone: FCA licence 684312, verified active April 2026, plus ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, BaFin and SCB.
• IC Markets: ASIC AFSL 335692 and CySEC 362/18, verified active March 2026, plus FSA Seychelles. No FCA.

The meaningful split is the UK arm. Pepperstone holds its own FCA licence, so UK retail clients are covered directly with FSCS up to £85,000.

IC Markets holds no FCA licence, so UK clients route to its CySEC entity with only €20,000 ICF cover, roughly four times less protection. Pepperstone also holds a DFSA licence inside the Dubai DIFC and BaFin oversight in Germany, two onshore anchors IC Markets lacks.

Here is the licence detail entity by entity, so you can check which one your account would sit under before you fund it.

Pepperstone was founded in 2010 in Melbourne, IC Markets in 2007 in Sydney. Both hold client money in segregated tier-1 bank accounts, and I cross-checked every licence against the public registers with no current enforcement on either side.

The takeaway is simple: fund the entity, not the brand. A UK retail trader is covered at Pepperstone and routed to a lower-cover offshore-leaning entity at IC Markets.

For the entity detail, see is Pepperstone safe and is IC Markets safe.

Fees & Spreads: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

This is IC Markets’ strongest dimension, and it wins on raw cost by a small margin. I recorded EUR/USD spreads at 5-minute intervals across 14 trading days on each account tier at both brokers.

The spread is identical at the top tier, 0.0 to 0.1 pip on EUR/USD. The gap is the commission.

IC Markets charges $6 round-turn on cTrader Raw, Pepperstone charges $7 on Razor. That leaves IC Markets about $1 per lot cheaper on cTrader.

On the MT4 and MT5 Raw tiers the two are at parity, both $7 round-turn.

Neither broker charges an inactivity fee, and both waive fees on electronic payments. To see what the $1 gap means in cash, take a trader running standard lots a month on the cheapest cTrader tier at each broker.

At 50 lots a month the gap is about $50, or roughly $600 a year. It is small for a low-volume trader and real for a high-frequency scalper. For most traders it is smaller than the value of Pepperstone’s FCA layer.

Platforms & Execution: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Both run the full MetaTrader stack plus cTrader and TradingView native order routing, with no broker-side EA restrictions. Execution is close to identical, so the split comes down to small edges.

IC Markets held a small latency edge, 80 ms on cTrader against 90 ms at Pepperstone from my VPS tests to the LD4 server, and its platforms score is a notch higher at 9.6 versus 9.5. Both cleared their tick-scalping tests with zero rejections and zero requotes.

Pepperstone answers with two workflow advantages. It added TradingView native routing in 2022, a year before IC Markets, and it ships Capitalise.ai free on every account, a no-code automation layer that lets non-coders write strategy rules in plain English.

For raw execution IC Markets is marginally ahead. For automation and chart-first workflows Pepperstone leads.

Account Types: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Pepperstone opens lower and simpler; IC Markets asks for more upfront. Both include an Islamic swap-free overlay and both centre on a raw-spread commission tier for active traders.

Pepperstone’s $0 minimum on both accounts is the friendlier entry, with no micro tier needed because you fund what you like. IC Markets requires $200 on every account and has no sub-$50 micro option, the single biggest gap for a trader funding small.

The 2,250 versus 1,200 headline hides where the range sits. IC Markets stacks its count on single-name stock CFDs, while Pepperstone actually carries more currency pairs.

If you want the widest single-name equity range, IC Markets and its ~2,100 stock CFDs are the reason to pick it. If your focus is forex, Pepperstone’s 90-pair book is the deeper one despite the smaller headline.

Deposits & Withdrawals: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Both cleared 9 withdrawal cycles without manual review in my testing. IC Markets was slightly faster on e-wallets; Pepperstone offers more rails and no dormancy charge.

IC Markets’ Skrill payouts settled in 2 to 6 hours across 4 tests. Pepperstone’s took 3 to 8 hours across 6 tests. Both are fast, and both settled USDT crypto payouts inside 90 minutes on the broker side.

Here is the funding picture method by method, deposit and payout.

IC Markets accepts crypto across all three of its entities, while Pepperstone routes crypto through the SCB Bahamas entity only. Pepperstone adds PayID for Australian clients and carries no inactivity fee, where some peers charge $5 to $15 monthly after 90 days dormant. Both charge a $20 flat fee on bank wires under $200.

Customer Support: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Both run strong Arabic and Southeast Asian language desks on a 24/5 schedule. Pepperstone answered faster and covers one more language.

Pepperstone’s live chat answered in 1 minute 30 seconds on average across 5 test contacts, against 1 minute 50 seconds at IC Markets across 6. Both close chat over the weekend and drop to email, and both staff Arabic and Mandarin desks with native speakers rather than translated templates.

The one shared gap is Italian and German support, limited to local business hours at both brokers rather than 24/5. For raw speed and language depth, Pepperstone has the edge.

Pros & Cons: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Pepperstone: where it wins

• Six regulators including FCA 684312 with FSCS up to £85,000
• $0 minimum deposit on both Standard and Razor accounts
• Best news-window slippage in my 30-broker sample, 13 of 14 within 0.2 pip
• Capitalise.ai no-code automation free on every account
• Live chat answered in 1 min 30 sec across 5 tests, 12 languages

• Razor commission is $7 round-turn, $1 above IC Markets cTrader
• Crypto CFDs route only through the SCB Bahamas entity

IC Markets: where it wins

• cTrader Raw at $6 round-turn, the cheapest cost tier tested
• 2,250 instruments across eight asset classes
• cTrader market orders averaged 80 ms, the fastest measured here
• Skrill withdrawals settled in 2 to 6 hours at zero fee
• 54,430 Trustpilot reviews at a 4.8 average

• No FCA licence; UK clients route to the CySEC entity
• $200 minimum on every account, no micro tier

Who Should Pick Which

Match your trader profile to the broker that fits it. This is the fastest way to decide without re-reading every section above.

Bottom Line: Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Pepperstone wins the head-to-head overall at 9.0 against 8.8. It holds six regulators including a direct FCA licence with FSCS up to £85,000, opens at a $0 deposit, and posted the tightest news-window slippage in my sample. IC Markets routes UK clients to a lower-cover CySEC entity and asks $200 to open.

IC Markets is the better broker for a specific trader: the high-volume scalper who wants the cheapest cTrader commission and the widest instrument range, and who does not need FCA cover.

• Pick Pepperstone if you want stronger regulation, a $0 start and free automation
• Pick IC Markets if you scalp on cTrader and want the lowest cost-per-lot
• Brand new to forex? Start with Pepperstone and its $0 entry
• Scaling above 50 lots a month on cTrader? IC Markets saves you about $600 a year

Top pick overall

Pepperstone

Best for traders who want FCA regulation with ECN-tight execution.

• FCA 684312 covers UK retail with FSCS up to £85,000
• $0 minimum deposit, Razor at 0.1 pip plus $7 round-turn
• Regulated: FCA, ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, BaFin, SCB

Visit Pepperstone

75% of retail CFD accounts lose money.How we earn →

Best for cost and choice

IC Markets

Best for scalpers who want the cheapest cTrader commission and 2,250 instruments.

• cTrader Raw at $6 round-turn, the cheapest tier tested
• 2,250 instruments and 80 ms cTrader execution
• Regulated: ASIC, CySEC, FSA Seychelles

Visit IC Markets

74% of retail CFD accounts lose money.How we earn →

For the full per-account detail, read our Pepperstone review and our IC Markets review. Both were tested against the same testing methodology, and you can compare the wider field in our best forex brokers guide.