Broker comparisons are usually written by affiliate sites, ranked by commission paid rather than by merit, and they compare the wrong things. They lead with trading fees, which barely matter for a buy-and-hold index investor, and they bury the things that actually do.
For a European investor making monthly contributions to a UCITS ETF for the next twenty years, here is what genuinely separates one broker from another.
The things that actually matter
1. Custody model. How your shares are held is the single most important structural question, and almost nobody asks it. Are your securities held in a segregated account in your own name, or pooled in an omnibus account under the broker's name? Segregation matters if the broker fails.
2. Investor protection scheme. Every EU broker sits under a national compensation scheme. The EU minimum for investment firms is €20,000 per client for securities — considerably lower than the €100,000 deposit guarantee people are familiar with from bank accounts. Note that these schemes cover fraud or failure of the broker, not investment losses. If your ETF drops 40%, no scheme applies.
3. Securities lending. Does the broker lend out your shares? If so, do you receive any of the revenue, and what collateral protects you? Some brokers lend client securities and keep the entire proceeds.
4. Currency conversion cost. If you contribute in EUR and buy a USD-denominated ETF, you pay an FX spread every single month. At 0.25% per conversion on monthly contributions, this quietly outweighs trading commissions for most people.
5. Tax reporting. Does the broker produce documentation your tax authority accepts? A broker that saves you €40 a year in commissions and costs you a weekend of manual reconstruction each spring is not cheap.
6. Withdrawal and transfer-out. Can you move your portfolio elsewhere in-kind without selling? Forced liquidation to change brokers is a taxable event that can cost more than a decade of fee savings.
The three brokers most European investors are choosing between
| Trade Republic | DEGIRO | Interactive Brokers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | Germany | Netherlands | US group; EU clients via Ireland |
| Best for | Simple monthly ETF savings plans | Low-cost European trading | Large or multi-currency portfolios |
| Interface | Mobile-first, minimal | Functional web platform | Powerful, steep learning curve |
| Typical weakness | Limited instrument range | Custody structure questions | Complexity for a simple portfolio |
Trade Republic is built around the recurring savings plan (Sparplan), which is exactly the mechanism a FIRE investor needs. Contributions are automated, ETF savings plans are typically free, and the friction is close to zero. That last point is worth more than it sounds — a broker you find pleasant to use is a broker you keep contributing to. The trade-off is a narrower instrument universe and a mobile-first design that some find limiting.
DEGIRO built its reputation on low costs and a "core selection" of ETFs with reduced or waived commissions. It remains genuinely inexpensive for European trading. Its historical structure — and how client securities have been held — has attracted scrutiny over the years, and it is worth reading the current custody documentation yourself rather than taking a comparison site's word for it.
Interactive Brokers is the institutional option. Best-in-class multi-currency handling, genuine market access, and the strongest platform of the three. EU clients are typically served through its Irish entity. For a large portfolio, or one holding several currencies, the FX handling alone can justify it. For someone contributing €300 a month to a single MSCI World tracker, it is more machine than the job requires.
The comparison nobody runs: total cost over twenty years
Trading commission is the number every comparison leads with, and for a monthly index investor it is close to irrelevant.
Consider €500 monthly into a single UCITS ETF for twenty years — 240 transactions, €120,000 contributed.
- At €1 per trade: €240 total commission over two decades.
- At 0.25% FX conversion on each contribution: €300, and that is if the spread never widens.
- At 0.15% annual custody or platform fee on a portfolio averaging €120,000: €3,600.
The recurring percentage-based cost dwarfs the per-trade cost by an order of magnitude. Optimise for the annual percentage, not the headline commission. A broker charging €2 per trade with no custody fee and EUR-denominated ETFs will beat a zero-commission broker charging 0.2% a year, comfortably, every time.
The decision, simplified
If you want automated monthly contributions and a simple portfolio: a savings-plan-focused broker like Trade Republic removes the most dangerous variable in investing, which is you forgetting to contribute.
If you want low cost with more instrument choice: DEGIRO, having read the current custody terms.
If your portfolio is large, multi-currency, or you need real market access: Interactive Brokers, and accept the learning curve.
In all cases: buy the EUR-denominated share class of an Irish-domiciled accumulating UCITS ETF where one exists, and you eliminate the FX cost, the withholding leakage, and the annual tax event in a single decision.
Two things worth doing regardless of broker
Check the ISIN before every purchase. IE prefix for funds holding US equities. This matters more than which broker you use.
Do not chase broker promotions. Transferring a portfolio to capture a €100 sign-up bonus can force a liquidation and a capital gains event costing many multiples of the bonus. The best broker is very often the one you are already with.
Broker terms, fee schedules, custody arrangements and compensation scheme limits change, and this article names firms without any commercial relationship to any of them. Verify current terms directly with the broker before opening an account. Nothing here is a recommendation of a specific provider for your circumstances.