Name: Libertex Review
Rating: 3.9
Author: Broker Reviews

Libertex prices differently from almost everyone it competes with: instead of marking up the spread, it quotes at or near zero and charges a percentage commission per position. We opened a live account, funded it with $500, and spent three weeks across February and March 2026 testing the platforms, costs, deposits, withdrawals and support. On major FX the pricing held up against three larger rivals. The instrument list did not, and the single Cyprus licence carries a history worth knowing first.

Disclosure: we may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. It does not change our scores, our rankings, or anything we found in testing. Read how we make money.

Overall rating	7.7/10
Founded	1997 (Forex Club Group) / 2012 (Libertex brand and Cyprus entity)
Headquarters	Limassol, Cyprus
Main licences	CySEC 164/12 (Cyprus), held by Indication Investments Ltd
Minimum deposit	$100
Spreads from	0.0 pips (commission-only pricing model)
Maximum leverage	1:30 (European retail) / 1:600 (professional clients)
Instruments	300+
Swap-free available	Yes, on request
Retail loss rate	About 79%

Pros and cons

Everything below comes from that live-account testing unless stated. The six categories we score and their weights are set out in how we rate brokers.

What works

A real EU licence: CySEC 164/12, held by Indication Investments Ltd, confirmed by hand against the regulator’s entity register in February 2026. Compensation cover runs to EUR 20,000 per retail client.
Cheap on majors. Our measured all-in cost on EUR/USD in February 2026 was 0.6 pips equivalent, against 0.8 at IC Markets, 1.0 at Pepperstone and 1.6 at XM.
Cost stability through news: during the February 2026 US employment release the commission stayed fixed while competitor spreads we were watching widened noticeably.
MT4 and MT5 alongside the proprietary platform, so expert advisors, backtesting and third-party signals all work.
Libertex Invest, a separate unleveraged account for real shares at no commission.
Same conditions for everyone: a $100 account trades on identical terms to a $10,000 one.

What does not

Just over 300 instruments against 1,200 at Pepperstone and XM and roughly 2,200 at IC Markets. In single stocks it is about 100 here versus more than 1,600 at IC Markets.
CySEC suspended the licence temporarily in August 2021 over compliance concerns tied to promotional offers and gift programmes. It was reinstated within weeks, but it happened.
One licence only. No FCA authorisation, so no FSCS: EUR 20,000 of cover where FSCS reaches GBP 85,000.
An inactivity fee of EUR 10 a month after 180 days without a trade, deducted until the balance hits zero.
Commission runs from roughly 0.003% on major FX to 0.5% on some illiquid products, with no consolidated schedule to check it against.
No guaranteed stop loss, and stops execute as market orders once triggered.

Who this broker suits (and who it does not)

The case rests on pricing transparency. Under a commission model you know before you click what the trade costs, because the rate is set in advance and does not move.

Worth considering if you are:

An active FX or commodity trader who prefers a fixed, pre-declared commission to a spread that can widen without warning.
An experienced MetaTrader user who needs expert advisors and a strategy tester.
An investor who wants commission-free real shares alongside a CFD account.
Starting small: $100 opens the account, on the same terms every other client gets.

Look elsewhere if you are:

Trading a broad watchlist, especially individual equities and exotic FX crosses.
New to leveraged trading and likely to misread a percentage commission as cheaper than it is on thin instruments.
Set on FCA oversight and the higher FSCS ceiling a UK-regulated entity carries.
Likely to leave the account dormant, where the EUR 10 monthly charge erodes a small balance.

Licensing and regulation

Regulation is the first line of defence for client money and carries the heaviest weight in our scoring. This was the picture when we checked in February 2026.

Regulator	Country	Licence number	Tier
CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission)	Cyprus	164/12	Tier 2 (European)

We verified this by hand through the CySEC register. Licence 164/12 is registered to Indication Investments Ltd and is independently checkable on the regulator’s own site. It permits cross-border services throughout the European Economic Area and Switzerland under MiFID, and obliges the firm to:

Hold client money in bank accounts segregated from company funds.
Provide negative balance protection to retail clients.
Belong to the Investor Compensation Fund, covering up to EUR 20,000 per retail client.
Cap retail leverage at 1:30 on major currency pairs.
Comply with MiFID II transparency and disclosure rules.

The part that needs stating plainly: in August 2021 CySEC temporarily suspended the licence over compliance concerns, specifically promotional offers and gift programmes the firm was running. It was lifted after a few weeks once those concerns were addressed and the programmes withdrawn. Read one way that is a black mark; read another, it shows supervision here is real. It was a marketing-conduct matter, not a client-money shortfall.

Against the field this is adequate rather than strong. IC Markets holds ASIC and CySEC; Pepperstone holds FCA, ASIC, CySEC and DFSA; XM holds CySEC, ASIC and IFSC. Libertex holds one, and it sits below an FCA-regulated firm where FSCS cover reaches GBP 85,000 against the ICF’s EUR 20,000.

Check which entity you are signing with. The Mauritius brand LBX operates through MAEX Limited under an FSC Mauritius licence and targets clients outside Europe. Routed there, your protection is materially weaker: no ICF, no MiFID II obligations. Confirm your account is registered to Indication Investments Ltd before you deposit.

Opening an account and verification

When we opened our account in February 2026 the process was fully digital. Initial registration took about three minutes and asked only for name, email, phone number and country of residence.

Identity verification follows standard European KYC rules. We uploaded a passport scan and a recent utility bill; approval came through in roughly one business day, around the industry average. Accepted documents are a passport, national ID card or driving licence for identity, and a utility bill or bank statement under three months old for address, in Latin script.

Registration also includes the MiFID II appropriateness assessment CySEC requires, covering prior experience, product knowledge, annual income and net worth. This is not a formality: the answers can restrict which products or leverage levels you are offered.

A demo account is available immediately with $50,000 in virtual funds. Given how differently this broker prices, we would spend at least two weeks on it working out what the commission costs on your intended instruments before funding anything real.

Account types

Where many brokers stack four or five tiers with better conditions for larger deposits, Libertex offers one CFD account on identical terms to everyone, plus a separate share-dealing account.

Feature	CFD account	Libertex Invest
Product type	Contracts for difference	Real shares
Minimum deposit	$100	$100
Spread	0.0 pips	Market spread
Commission	Variable by instrument	None
Leverage	Up to 1:30 retail / 1:600 professional	None (1:1)
Platforms	Libertex, MT4, MT5	Libertex only
Swap-free option	Available on request	Not applicable (no overnight financing)
Negative balance protection	Yes	Not applicable (no leverage)

We bought Apple and Tesla through Libertex Invest; execution was immediate and the only cost was the market spread. Professionals can access 1:600 leverage but surrender negative balance protection and ICF cover for it, a poor trade without real experience behind you. On minimum deposit, $100 sits mid-table: XM opens from $5, IC Markets from $200, Pepperstone from $0.

Swap-free accounts

A swap-free account removes overnight financing, which matters both to traders who avoid interest on religious grounds and to anyone holding positions across many nights who wants a predictable carrying cost. Libertex offers one, but only on request through support, and it is not promoted on the site the way some competitors give it a dedicated page. We emailed asking how to activate it and had a detailed reply within one business day; activation requires a specific form and supporting documentation.

Overnight swap charges are removed on positions held past the daily rollover.
A fixed daily administration fee replaces them, applied after a grace period of between 3 and 14 days depending on the instrument.
Available on the CFD account only. Libertex Invest does not need it, because unleveraged share ownership carries no overnight financing.
Covers most of the available instrument range.

That structure is the industry norm, but it does mean a swap-free account is not a free one. Price the administration fee against the swap you would otherwise pay. XM and IC Markets both publish their terms more openly.

Fees and trading costs

Spreads and the all-in cost

Libertex quotes major FX at 0.0 pips most of the time; the cost sits in the commission. To compare fairly we converted the total Libertex cost, spread plus commission, into a pip equivalent and set it against competitor spreads on their standard accounts. These are our own February 2026 measurements.

Instrument	Libertex (all-in)	IC Markets Standard	Pepperstone Standard	XM Standard
EUR/USD	0.6 pips	0.8 pips	1.0 pips	1.6 pips
GBP/USD	1.0 pips	1.0 pips	1.2 pips	2.1 pips
USD/JPY	0.8 pips	0.9 pips	1.1 pips	1.6 pips
AUD/USD	0.9 pips	0.8 pips	1.2 pips	1.8 pips
USD/CHF	1.0 pips	1.0 pips	1.4 pips	1.9 pips
Gold (XAU/USD)	18 cents	15 cents	20 cents	30 cents
Oil (WTI)	3.5 cents	2.5 cents	3.0 cents	4.0 cents

Costs vary, and these reflect average active-session conditions. On the majors this is a strong result: cheaper than Pepperstone and XM on every pair we measured, matching or beating IC Markets on four of five. It lost on gold and oil, where IC Markets was cheaper.

Commissions

Commission is a percentage of position value and varies by instrument, starting around 0.003% on major FX and reaching 0.5% on some less liquid products. It is transparent in that it is fixed in advance and does not move with market conditions. It is opaque in that the rate differs across hundreds of instruments, so a headline figure tells you little about what your own trading will cost.

Do not confuse this with an ECN account. On an ECN model such as IC Markets Raw Spread you pay a low spread plus a fixed per-lot commission; here you pay a zero spread plus a percentage. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your position sizes and instruments.

Overnight financing

CFD positions held past the daily rollover incur swap charges based on the interest rate differential between the two currencies in the pair. We found these around the industry average. Wednesday attracts a triple charge covering the weekend.

Deposit, withdrawal and inactivity fees

Deposits are free by every available method. Withdrawal charges, as measured in February 2026, vary by route.

Bank transfer: 0.5% of the amount, minimum $2, maximum $10.
Credit or debit card: $1 per transaction.
PayPal and Skrill: free.
Neteller: 1% of the amount.

Those are reasonable, and free PayPal and Skrill withdrawals are a genuine plus. The inactivity fee is less welcome: EUR 10 a month once an account goes 180 days without a trade, deducted until the balance reaches zero. Milder than some outliers, worse than XM’s $5 after 90 days, and considerably worse than IC Markets, which charges nothing.

Desktop platforms

Libertex WebTrader is an HTML5 platform that runs in the browser with nothing to install. The interface is clean and aimed at beginner to intermediate traders. Order entry is one-click and the expected commission is displayed before you confirm, which matters more than usual given how this broker prices. Charting carries a decent indicator set and it ran well on any modern browser.

MetaTrader 4 provides at least 45 currency pairs with everything MT4 users expect: expert advisors, the strategy tester, more than 30 built-in indicators and custom indicators from the MQL4 community. Performance was stable throughout. MetaTrader 5 adds 21 timeframes against MT4’s nine, 38 built-in indicators and broader order-type support; every instrument on the Libertex list was reachable through it.

Offering both MetaTrader versions is an advantage over brokers restricted to a proprietary platform. Charts loaded quickly on a mid-speed connection and we saw no freezing in normal conditions. During the US employment release on the first Friday of February 2026, MT4 held up with a price-update lag under a second.

Mobile apps

We used the Android app for a full week in February 2026, published on Google Play as “Libertex: Trade & Invest” and on the App Store as “Libertex: Stocks & CFD Trading”. It mirrors WebTrader on a phone screen: one-click order entry showing the commission before confirmation, interactive charts with indicators, push notifications on price moves, Face ID and Touch ID login, and deposits and withdrawals in-app.

The Google Play rating sits around 4.2 out of 5 from more than 78,000 ratings, with over 10 million downloads; the App Store rating is similar. The recurring complaint in store reviews, which we could not reproduce, is slow loading on some instruments at peak times. For comparison, XM’s app rates around 4.5 and Pepperstone’s around 4.3. Both official MetaTrader mobile apps also connect to Libertex accounts.

On Trustpilot, the libertex.com page carries roughly 4.3 out of 5 from more than 9,500 reviews, split between praise for platform simplicity and withdrawal speed and complaints about delays on specific transactions. We would not weight a Trustpilot score heavily on its own.

Trading tools

The analytical toolkit is essentially whatever MetaTrader gives you, which is substantial: expert advisors, the strategy tester for historical backtesting, and the full MQL4 and MQL5 indicator libraries. There is no in-house research terminal or bundled analytics package. What those tools can be pointed at is the bigger constraint: in February 2026 we counted just over 300 products.

Asset class	Libertex	IC Markets	Pepperstone	XM
Currency pairs	50+	60+	60+	55+
Shares	100+	1,600+	900+	600+
Indices	20+	25+	25+	20+
Commodities	15+	22+	30+	15+
Cryptocurrencies	40+	20+	30+	30+
ETFs	30+	Not available	100+	Not available
Total	300+	2,200+	1,200+	1,200+

Two bright spots: the crypto book is the largest of the four at over 40 instruments, and ETFs are available where two competitors offer none. Major and minor currency pairs are all present with good liquidity while exotic crosses are thin. Gold, silver and oil trade well; agricultural commodities and less common metals are sparse. Sufficient for major FX, commodities and global indices; not for breadth in single stocks.

Order execution

We placed more than 40 orders on the live account through February 2026. Fill times were under one second on most orders during active hours across the London and New York sessions, and we saw no requotes at all in normal conditions across the whole test period.

Slippage ran between 0.1 and 0.3 pips during higher-volatility stretches, consistent with the industry norm. Through the US consumer price index release in February 2026, fills slowed to 1 to 2 seconds and slippage widened to between 0.5 and 1.0 pips, which is expected around a major data print.

Order types cover market orders, pending orders including buy limit, sell limit, buy stop and sell stop, plus stop loss and take profit that can be modified after entry. Trailing stops are available on MetaTrader.

One limitation deserves emphasis: stop losses execute as market orders once triggered, so the fill can differ from the level you set during sharp moves or price gaps, and there is no guaranteed stop loss on offer. If gap protection is central to your risk management, that absence matters. We found no evidence of deliberate delays or selective rejection of profitable orders.

Deposits

We funded the account with $500 through several routes in February 2026.

Method	Minimum	Fee	Processing time
Credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard)	$10	Free	Instant
Bank transfer (SEPA / wire)	$100	Free	3–5 business days
PayPal	$10	Free	Instant
Skrill	$10	Free	Instant
Neteller	$10	Free	Instant
SOFORT / Giropay / iDEAL	$10	Free	Instant or within hours
Trustly	$10	Free	Instant

Our Visa deposit credited immediately with no fee, and PayPal was equally instant. The first deposit must be at least $100 or currency equivalent; after that the minimum drops to $10 across most methods. Every route is free of broker-side charges.

Withdrawals

Withdrawals carry the same weight as costs in our scoring, because a broker you cannot get money out of is not a broker. We requested $200 via PayPal on 15 February 2026 and it was processed the same day, within a few hours — fast against the industry average.

Method	Minimum	Fee	Processing time
Credit and debit cards	$10	$1 per transaction	1–3 business days
Bank transfer	$10	0.5% (min $2, max $10)	3–5 business days
PayPal	$10	Free	Within 24 hours
Skrill	$10	Free	Within 24 hours
Neteller	$10	1%	Within 24 hours

A same-source policy applies under anti-money-laundering rules: if you deposited by Visa, funds must return to that card up to the deposit amount, with profits above that available by another route. Our card withdrawal took two business days with no unexplained delays. Some online reviews report delays; the usual causes are incomplete verification or a withdrawal routed differently from the deposit, both avoidable.

Customer support

We contacted support repeatedly across February and March 2026 through every channel: live chat during business days, email at [email protected], and an online help centre. We could not find a customer telephone line.

Live chat response times ranged from 2 to 8 minutes. Answers were accurate: an agent fully resolved a detailed query about the commission rate on a specific instrument, which is not a given on a question that technical. By email, a query about swap-free activation came back in 18 hours.

Criterion	Score	Notes
Response speed	4/5	2–8 minutes on live chat, 18 hours by email
Answer accuracy	4/5	Accurate and useful, including on technical pricing questions
Contact channels	3/5	Chat and email only, no published phone line, chat limited to business days

The weakness is availability, not quality. Chat runs on business days rather than around the clock, and with no phone line there is no escalation route outside those hours. XM, by comparison, runs a round-the-clock desk across more channels.

Research and education

The offering is reasonable but unremarkable: a structured Education section covering trading fundamentals, technical analysis, risk management and financial concepts; a regularly updated blog; daily market news; and videos on YouTube. The best feature is sequencing — lessons run from beginner to advanced in a deliberate order, each covering one topic such as what a stop loss is. For someone starting out, that beats a scattered library of articles.

The research side is thinner. We followed the news and analysis section for two weeks and found updates regular but shallow next to a dedicated provider such as Trading Central. There is no proprietary research desk producing anything you could trade from directly.

Transparency is the weaker part of this category. Commission rates vary across hundreds of instruments with no consolidated schedule, and the swap-free terms are not documented publicly at all. Both are things a competitor could publish and does not here.

Fund safety and protections

Segregation of client money. CySEC rules require client funds to sit in bank accounts separate from the firm’s operating capital. We asked support which banks hold client money; they said first-tier European banks without naming them.

Negative balance protection. Applied to retail clients under MiFID II, so you cannot lose more than your account balance even through sharp volatility or price gaps. Mandatory for CySEC-licensed firms, not a discretionary benefit.

Investor Compensation Fund. Retail clients can claim up to EUR 20,000 if the firm becomes insolvent — a net an offshore-licensed broker does not provide, though well short of the GBP 85,000 FSCS ceiling at a UK-regulated firm.

Account security. SSL encryption across all connections and two-factor authentication at login. We enabled 2FA during testing; setup was straightforward and worked with standard authenticator apps including Google Authenticator.

Protection	Libertex	IC Markets	Pepperstone	XM
Client money segregation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Negative balance protection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compensation scheme	Up to EUR 20,000 (ICF)	None (ASIC entity)	Up to GBP 85,000 (FSCS via FCA entity)	Up to EUR 20,000 (ICF)
Two-factor authentication	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Two caveats. None of this substitutes for your own risk management, and if your account is routed to the Mauritius LBX entity rather than Indication Investments Ltd, the fund safety described above largely does not apply.

Verdict

Libertex is a CySEC-licensed broker running an unusual and, on major FX, genuinely competitive pricing model, backed by a group with 27 years of market history. The licence delivers real protection: segregated client money, negative balance protection and ICF cover to EUR 20,000. MT4 and MT5 give a full analytical and automation toolkit. Withdrawals were the standout, with a PayPal request cleared the same day.

The weaknesses are structural. An instrument list of just over 300 rules this out for anyone trading a broad watchlist. There is one licence, not four, and it was suspended for a period in 2021. There is no guaranteed stop loss. Support runs business days only with no phone line. Commission rates are not published in a form that lets you price your own trading without effort, and the swap-free terms are not published at all.

We score this 7.7 out of 10, re-derived from the six weighted categories behind all our broker reviews: regulation and licensing 7.5, trading costs 8.0, withdrawals and fund access 8.5, platforms and execution 7.5, customer support 7.0, research and transparency 6.5. Withdrawals and costs carry the result. Research and transparency is the category holding it back, and the one Libertex could most easily fix by publishing what it currently makes you ask for.

None of that speaks to whether you will make money, and you should assume the odds are against it. About 79% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this broker. The figure moves between roughly 74% and 86% depending on the measurement period, with the current number published on the broker’s own site. Contracts for difference are complex instruments carrying a high risk of losing money rapidly through leverage. Do not deposit money you cannot afford to lose.

Is Libertex trustworthy?

Is Libertex a scam?

No, on the evidence we gathered. Libertex is operated by Indication Investments Ltd, a registered Cyprus Investment Firm holding CySEC licence 164/12, which we verified directly against the regulator’s public register in February 2026. It is bound by MiFID II. The 2021 suspension was resolved quickly and concerned marketing conduct, not client money.

Can I actually withdraw my money?

Yes, based on our own testing. The PayPal withdrawal we requested on 15 February 2026 completed the same day; a card withdrawal took two business days. Complete identity verification first, and withdraw to the method you deposited from. Most reported withdrawal problems trace back to one of those two points.

What happened with the CySEC suspension in 2021?

CySEC suspended the licence over compliance concerns relating to promotional offers and gift programmes, then lifted it after a few weeks once those were withdrawn. It is a real mark on the record and we have scored regulation accordingly, but it also demonstrates the supervision is not nominal.

Is my money protected if the broker fails?

With the Cyprus entity, yes: up to EUR 20,000 through the Investor Compensation Fund, on top of segregated client money and negative balance protection. That is well below the GBP 85,000 an FCA-regulated firm carries through the FSCS. Routed to the group’s Mauritius entity, LBX operated by MAEX Limited, none of those protections apply.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum deposit at Libertex?

The first deposit must be at least $100, or the equivalent in euros. Subsequent deposits can be as small as $10 through most payment methods.

How does the zero-spread model actually work?

Rather than marking up the quoted price, Libertex charges a percentage commission on each position instead, starting around 0.003% on major currency pairs. The cost is fixed in advance and does not widen when markets get volatile, but it varies substantially across the instrument list, so check it per product.

Does Libertex offer a swap-free account?

Yes, on request through customer support, with a specific form and supporting documentation required. Overnight swap charges are removed and replaced by a fixed daily administration fee applied after a grace period of between 3 and 14 days depending on the instrument. Available on the CFD account only.

Which platforms can I trade on?

Three: the proprietary Libertex platform as browser-based WebTrader and a mobile app, plus MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. The proprietary platform suits beginners through its simplicity; MT4 and MT5 suit traders who need advanced analysis and automated strategies.

What is the maximum leverage?

Retail clients under the European entity are capped at 1:30 on major currency pairs, as MiFID II requires. Clients reclassified as professional can access up to 1:600, but that means giving up negative balance protection and ICF cover — rarely a good trade without substantial experience and capital.

Is there an inactivity fee?

Yes. EUR 10 per month once an account has gone 180 days without a trade, deducted until the balance reaches zero. If you are stepping away from trading, withdraw your funds or close the account first.

Can I buy real shares rather than CFDs?

Yes, through the separate Libertex Invest account. It carries no leverage and no commission; your only cost is the market spread. Because there is no leverage there is also no overnight financing, which is why the account needs no swap-free variant.

Item	Detail
Legal name	Indication Investments Ltd
Parent group	Libertex Group (formerly Forex Club)
Founded	1997 (group) / 2012 (Cyprus entity)
Headquarters	Limassol, Cyprus
Registration number	HE 251168
Clients	More than 3 million
Employees	Approximately 700
Countries served	More than 100
Awards	More than 45 international awards

Libertex Review: Zero-Spread Pricing Under a CySEC Licence