Plus500 is one of the few CFD brokers whose books you can read: listed on the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 250, audited twice a year, licensed by five tier-one regulators. That transparency is the best thing about it. Across more than 60 trades on live and demo accounts in February and March 2026, we found trading costs consistently worse than the competition and the most limited platform we have tested at this regulatory tier. We score Plus500 at 7.2 out of 10 on the six weighted categories in our rating methodology. CFDs are leveraged products: 80% of retail investor accounts lose money trading them with this provider.
Disclosure: this review is information, not investment advice. We receive no commission from Plus500 and our ratings are based on our own account testing. Read how we make money.
| Overall rating | 7.2/10 |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Haifa, Israel |
| Listing | London Stock Exchange (PLUS.L), FTSE 250 |
| Main licences | FCA (UK) 509909, CySEC (Cyprus) 250/14, ASIC (Australia) AFSL 417727, MAS (Singapore) CMS100648-1, FMA (New Zealand) FSP 486026 |
| Minimum deposit | $100 (card, PayPal, Skrill); $500 bank transfer |
| Spread from | 0.8 pips advertised on EUR/USD; 1.1 pips average measured in our testing |
| Maximum leverage | 1:30 retail, 1:300 professional |
| Instruments | 2,800+ CFDs |
| Swap-free account | Available on request |
| Retail loss rate | 80% of retail accounts lose money |
Pros and cons
What works:
- LSE-listed in the FTSE 250, which forces audited disclosure on a fixed timetable
- Five tier-one licences — FCA, CySEC, ASIC, MAS and New Zealand’s FMA — each verifiable on a public register
- No separate commission; all cost sits in the spread
- 2,800+ instruments across forex, shares, indices, commodities, crypto and ETFs from one account
- Free demo with no time limit
- Guaranteed stop-loss orders on selected instruments, and negative balance protection for UK and EU retail clients
What does not:
- Spreads wider than competitors on most instruments — 1.1 pips on EUR/USD against 0.8 at XM, with bigger gaps on USD/JPY and gold
- No MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or cTrader, and no third-party platform of any kind
- No API, expert advisors, algorithmic trading or copy trading
- Inactivity fee after only three months without a login, at $10 per month
- Only five free withdrawals per month; $10 for each one after that
- Thin research: no webinars, no Trading Central or Autochartist, no substantive daily analysis
- No telephone support at all
Company information
Plus500 was founded in 2008 by six graduates of the Technion institute in Haifa. It floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in May 2013, moved to the main market in July 2018, and now sits in the FTSE 250.
For the year ended 31 December 2025, Plus500 reported revenue of $792.4 million, up 3%, EBITDA of $348.1 million and basic earnings per share of $3.93, giving net profit of roughly $281.3 million. It closed the year with about $0.8 billion in cash after returning some $380 million to shareholders. That balance sheet bears directly on whether your deposit is safe.
David Zruia, who joined in 2010, has been chief executive since July 2020, with Elad Even-Chen as CFO. The group completed its acquisition of Mehta Equities in India in February 2026 and has entered prediction markets through partnerships with CME Group, FanDuel and Kalshi.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal name | Plus500 Ltd |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Haifa, Israel |
| Listing | London Stock Exchange (PLUS.L), FTSE 250 |
| Revenue (FY2025) | $792.4 million |
| EBITDA (FY2025) | $348.1 million |
| Net profit (FY2025) | approx. $281.3 million |
| Registered accounts | 26 million+ worldwide |
| Countries served | 50+ |
Who Plus500 suits, and who it does not
Plus500 is built for someone opening their first CFD account who wants to place a trade without first learning a platform. For a cautious beginner who ranks safety above cost, that is its main appeal.
It is a poor fit for active traders, for anyone needing MetaTrader or an API, and for anyone relying on broker research — all of which point towards the execution-led brokers instead.
Licensing and regulation
Plus500 operates through separate legal entities, each licensed by a different authority — FCA supervision for the UK business, CySEC for the EEA one — and the entity that onboards you determines what protection you actually have. We verified the principal licences on the public registers in February 2026 and re-checked them at publication in July 2026; all were active.
| Entity | Regulator | Licence number | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plus500UK Ltd | FCA (United Kingdom) | 509909 | Tier one |
| Plus500CY Ltd | CySEC (Cyprus) | 250/14 | Tier one |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | ASIC (Australia) | AFSL 417727 | Tier one |
| Plus500SG Pte Ltd | MAS (Singapore) | CMS100648-1 | Tier one |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | FMA (New Zealand) | FSP 486026 | Tier one |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | FSCA (South Africa) | FSP 47546 | Tier two |
| Plus500CA Ltd | CIRO (Canada) | Member firm | Tier one |
| Plus500AE Ltd | DFSA (Dubai) | F005651 | Tier two |
UK clients are onboarded to Plus500UK Ltd, EEA clients to Plus500CY Ltd, Australian clients to Plus500AU Pty Ltd. Confirm it yourself: enter 509909 in the FCA register at register.fca.org.uk, or search the CySEC and ASIC registers.
The group also runs entities in weaker jurisdictions, including Plus500SEY Ltd in the Seychelles and Plus500BHS Ltd in the Bahamas. Clients routed there do not get the compensation-scheme or negative-balance protections described below. Check which entity appears on your client agreement before funding — it is not always the one you expect.
Warnings and enforcement history
The FCA warning list carries two entries referencing the Plus500 name: “Plus 500 UK”, last updated 21 November 2020, and “Plus-500”, published 1 February 2021. Both are clone-firm alerts about fraudsters impersonating Plus500UK Ltd through lookalike domains such as plus-500.ltd, not findings against Plus500, whose authorisation is unaffected.
There is historical enforcement against the firm itself. In 2012 the then-FSA fined Plus500UK Ltd £205,128 for inaccurate and missing transaction reports spanning 2010 and 2011, and Plus500 later settled with Belgium’s FSMA for approximately €550,000. Both are long closed and neither concerned client money. We found no active enforcement, suspension or solicitation warning against any Plus500 entity as at July 2026.
Opening an account and verification
Registration in February 2026 took under three minutes and needed only an email address and password, after which the demo account was immediately available with no documents. Going live required an appropriateness questionnaire on trading experience, financial position and source of funds — mandatory under MiFID II and equivalent rules, and about five minutes’ work.
We uploaded a passport scan and a utility bill, and the account was approved in roughly two hours on a business day — the fast end of an industry range running from one hour to two days. Read the client agreement first, particularly the leverage and margin close-out clauses, which determine when your positions are liquidated.
Account types
Rather than four or five tiers, Plus500 offers a single retail account with an optional upgrade to professional status.
| Feature | Retail | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $100 | Eligibility criteria apply |
| Maximum leverage | 1:30 | 1:300 |
| Negative balance protection | Yes | Not guaranteed, varies by entity |
| Investor compensation scheme | Yes (FSCS or ICF) | May not apply |
| Commission | None | None |
| Guaranteed stop-loss | Available, wider spread applies | Available, wider spread applies |
Professional status requires two of three tests: ten meaningful trades per quarter over the preceding four quarters, a portfolio above €500,000, or a year of professional financial-sector experience. The higher leverage costs you the retail protections above. The simplicity helps beginners and hurts advanced traders: there is no raw-spread or ECN-style account in the range.
The demo account
The demo has no time limit — an advantage over brokers that cut access after 30 days — and carries up to $40,000 in virtual funds. Demo pricing tracked the live account closely, though execution speed differed enough that demo fills are not predictive of live ones.
Swap-free trading
Plus500 offers a formal swap-free account, relevant both to traders observing Islamic finance principles and to anyone wanting overnight financing out of the cost equation. It is requested during registration and requires approval, which took one business day in our test.
Swap-free does not mean cost-free. Overnight interest is removed and replaced by a fixed administration charge on positions held beyond a grace period that varies by instrument, and spreads, currency conversion and the inactivity fee all still apply. Ask support for written confirmation, and check the administration fee for each instrument you intend to trade.
Fees and trading costs
The model is simple — no commission, everything in the spread — but simple is not cheap.
Spreads
Sampling across a trading week in February 2026, we found pricing widened during volatile periods and outside peak hours. Our measured averages against three competitors:
| Instrument | Plus500 | XM (Ultra Low) | Exness (Standard) | Pepperstone (Standard) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.1 pips | 0.8 pips | 1.0 pips | 1.0 pips |
| GBP/USD | 1.5 pips | 0.9 pips | 1.2 pips | 1.2 pips |
| USD/JPY | 2.0 pips | 0.9 pips | 1.1 pips | 1.1 pips |
| AUD/USD | 1.0 pips | 0.8 pips | 1.3 pips | 1.1 pips |
| USD/CHF | 1.7 pips | 1.2 pips | 1.3 pips | 1.3 pips |
| Gold (XAU/USD) | $0.68 | $0.35 | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Oil (WTI) | $0.05 | $0.04 | $0.04 | $0.03 |
Plus500 was above the competition on nearly every instrument we sampled. The worst gap is USD/JPY, roughly double XM’s. On gold the spread was more than three times what Exness and Pepperstone quoted.
Commission and overnight funding
There is no commission on CFD trades, which makes cost easy to read but harder to compare against raw-spread accounts. Pepperstone’s Razor account quotes around 0.1 pips on EUR/USD with a $3.50 per lot commission, and that combination costs less all-in than a flat 1.1-pip spread. Zero commission is a pricing structure, not a discount.
Positions held past 23:00 GMT incur overnight funding. We opened a mini-lot EUR/USD buy at 1.0308 and were charged -0.01079%, about -$1.11 for the night. The rate changes daily and is visible from the information icon beside each instrument. Some instruments carry positive funding rates.
Non-trading fees
Deposits and withdrawals are generally free, with three exceptions. Currency conversion costs up to 0.7% when your account currency differs from the transaction currency. Only five withdrawals per month are free, with $10 charged after that, and a further $10 applies if you withdraw to a different method than you deposited with.
The inactivity fee deserves attention: three consecutive months without a login triggers $10 per month, where many competitors allow six or twelve. We tested what happens when the balance falls below the fee and found the company deducts only the remainder rather than pushing the account negative.
Desktop platforms
Plus500 runs exclusively on its own browser-based WebTrader. There is no MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader or third-party option, and that was still true when we re-checked in July 2026. eToro takes the same browser-only approach; most of the rest of the market supports at least MetaTrader 4.
The interface is clean, instruments are browsable by category, and opening a position takes two clicks — for a beginner, that is the platform’s entire argument. It offers 119 technical indicators, 21 drawing tools, 12 chart types and 11 timeframes from one minute to one week — the indicator count actually exceeds MetaTrader’s default set. What is missing is extensibility: no custom indicators, no scripting, no backtesting.
Trading live, we found further gaps: no one-click trading with a pre-set position size, no expert advisors, and no API access for retail clients. Against that, the platform loads quickly, price alerts are flexible, and there is an integrated economic calendar. The guaranteed stop-loss order is a genuine feature — it holds your exit price exactly even through a gap, in exchange for a wider spread — and few competitors offer it.
Mobile apps
We tested the app on Android 14 and iOS 17 in February 2026. It rates 4.4 out of 5 on Google Play from more than 115,000 reviews and 4.4 on the App Store. Functionality is close to parity with the web version: charts carry all 119 indicators and 21 drawing tools, order entry was smooth, and price alerts arrived promptly as push notifications. Detailed technical analysis remains awkward on a phone screen, and the app drew noticeably on battery when left open with live prices running.
| Metric | Google Play | App Store |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4/5 | 4.4/5 |
| Review count | 115,000+ | 3,000+ |
| Approximate size | 50 MB | 80 MB |
Trading tools
We counted more than 2,800 CFD instruments on the live account. Everything is a contract for difference rather than direct ownership, except the separate Plus500 Invest share-dealing service in a few countries.
| Asset class | Approximate count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Forex | 60+ pairs | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, emerging-market pairs |
| Share CFDs | 2,000+ | Apple, Tesla, Amazon, listings across multiple exchanges |
| Indices | 30+ | S&P 500, DAX 40, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225 |
| Commodities | 20+ | Gold, silver, oil, natural gas, wheat, coffee |
| Cryptocurrencies | 15+ | Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin |
| ETFs | 90+ | iShares Silver, QQQ Trust, SPDR Gold |
| Options CFDs | Selected instruments | Options on indices and currencies |
Share CFD coverage is the strongest part of the range, spanning European, US and Asian listings. The forex list at 60-plus pairs is adequate but not exceptional. One caveat on crypto: trading is by CFD only, so you never hold the underlying coin and cannot move it to an external wallet, and crypto CFDs are restricted or unavailable in several jurisdictions, including for UK retail clients.
Order execution
Across 60 trades on the live account, most orders filled in under one second during active London and New York hours, with delays of one to two seconds around major economic releases. Slippage on major pairs was negligible in normal conditions; during a US employment data release we recorded 2 to 3 pips on some orders.
Plus500 operates as a market maker, meaning it is the counterparty to your trades rather than routing them externally. Execution is usually immediate with little requoting, which we confirmed. But the model carries a structural conflict of interest, because client losses are broker revenue. We saw no evidence of manipulation, but you should understand the model you are trading against.
Order types: market, pending buy and sell limits, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop, and guaranteed stop-loss on selected instruments.
Deposits
We deposited $200 by Visa card in under a minute and the funds appeared immediately. A second deposit via PayPal was equally quick.
| Method | Minimum | Fee | Processing time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa / Mastercard | $100 | Free | Instant |
| PayPal | $100 | Free | Instant |
| Skrill | $100 | Free | Instant, not available for first deposit |
| Bank transfer | $500 | Free | 3–7 business days |
Skrill cannot be used for a first deposit, which must come from a card, PayPal or bank transfer. Open the account in the currency you actually use to avoid the 0.7% conversion charge.
Withdrawals
We requested a $150 withdrawal to a Visa card in February 2026. Plus500 approved it in one business day and the money reached the bank account three business days later — four business days in total, within the company’s advertised range.
| Method | Minimum | Fee | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa / Mastercard | $100 | Free, up to 5 per month | 1–3 days processing plus 1–5 days |
| PayPal | $50 | Free, up to 5 per month | 1–3 days processing plus 3–7 days |
| Skrill | $50 | Free, up to 5 per month | 1–3 days processing plus 3–7 days |
| Bank transfer | $100 | Free, up to 5 per month | 1–3 days processing plus 5–7 days |
The withdrawal completed with no obstruction, no document requests and no retention attempt. Two conditions apply: identity verification must be complete, and funds return to the method you deposited from. The five-free-withdrawals cap is the real criticism.
Customer support
Support runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through live chat, email and WhatsApp, with the platform interface available in 32 languages. Chat was consistently reachable and agents connected quickly at every hour we tried. Answers were accurate but brief, and several replies were clearly drawn from a template rather than written for our question — adequate for a factual query about a fee, less useful for anything requiring judgement.
The significant omission is the telephone: Plus500 offers no phone support of any kind. If you need to speak to someone urgently about a live position, that option does not exist. This is the main reason the category does not score higher.
Research and education
This is the weakest part of the offering: the Trading Academy is short articles and basic videos covering introductory concepts.
- Roughly 50 introductory articles on trading concepts
- Short instructional videos
- A News and Market Insights section
- An economic calendar built into the platform
What is absent is more telling: no live webinars, no in-depth daily analysis, and no third-party research such as Autochartist or Trading Central. Competitors treat these as standard — XM runs daily webinars, Pepperstone supplies Trading Central and Autochartist — and Plus500 finishes last.
Transparency pulls the category back up: audited semi-annual accounts, a published loss rate and verifiable licence numbers matter more than tutorials. Plus500 is poor at teaching you to trade and unusually good at letting you check who you are trading with.
Fund safety and protections
Segregation. Client funds are held at tier-one banks in accounts entirely separate from the company’s operating capital. In an insolvency — remote for a listed, profitable, cash-rich company, but not impossible — segregated client money is not available to the firm’s creditors.
Negative balance protection. Retail clients under the FCA and CySEC entities cannot lose more than their deposited funds, so a gapping market cannot leave you owing the broker money. Negative balance protection is not guaranteed for clients categorised as professional.
Compensation schemes. Cover depends entirely on your entity.
| Entity | Regulator | Scheme | Maximum per client |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plus500UK Ltd | FCA | FSCS | £85,000 |
| Plus500CY Ltd | CySEC | ICF | €20,000 |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | ASIC | No statutory scheme | Not available |
The gap between £85,000 for UK clients and €20,000 for EEA clients is substantial, and Australian clients have no statutory scheme at all. None of this reduces market risk: 80% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider, and protecting your capital from broker failure is not protecting it from the market.
Verdict
After a week of testing, our assessment is that Plus500 is a safe broker that is not a cheap one. Five tier-one licences, a London listing and audited accounts describe an established institution, not a venture that might disappear.
The 7.2 out of 10 is held down almost entirely by trading costs, which carry 20% of the weight in our rubric and are the weakest thing we measured. A 1.1-pip EUR/USD spread and a 2.0-pip USD/JPY spread sit materially above what several well-regulated competitors charge, and the three-month inactivity clock and five-withdrawal cap compound it. Platform limitations and near-absent research pull it down further. Strong regulation raises a broker’s floor; it does not make it the cheapest or the most capable.
Consider Plus500 if you are new to CFDs and want a platform you can use immediately, you value regulatory strength above headline pricing, or you want shares, forex, commodities and crypto from one account.
Look elsewhere if you trade actively enough that spread cost compounds, you need MetaTrader, an API, expert advisors or copy trading, you rely on broker research, or you want to be able to telephone your broker. Our broker reviews cover several cheaper alternatives that still hold tier-one licences.
Treat the loss statistic as the central fact rather than the small print: CFDs are complex leveraged instruments and 80% of retail accounts trading them with Plus500 lose money. Never trade with funds you cannot afford to lose.
Is Plus500 trustworthy?
Is Plus500 a scam?
No, and the evidence is checkable rather than reputational: a FTSE 250 company on the London Stock Exchange’s main market, obliged to publish independently audited accounts twice a year, holding five tier-one licences verifiable on public registers. Being legitimate is not the same as being low-risk, though — 80% of its retail clients lose money.
Why does the FCA list warnings mentioning Plus500?
Two entries reference the name — “Plus 500 UK”, last updated November 2020, and “Plus-500”, published February 2021. Neither is a finding against Plus500: both are clone-firm alerts about fraudsters impersonating Plus500UK Ltd through imitation sites such as plus-500.ltd, and the firm remains authorised under FRN 509909. Confirm the FRN before depositing, because anyone dealing with a clone falls outside FSCS and Ombudsman protection.
Has Plus500 ever been fined?
Yes, historically. In 2012 the FSA fined Plus500UK Ltd £205,128 over inaccurate and missing transaction reports covering 2010 and 2011, and it later settled with Belgium’s FSMA for approximately €550,000. Both concerned reporting conduct rather than client money. We found no active enforcement against any Plus500 entity in July 2026.
Can I actually withdraw my money?
In our testing, yes. We requested $150 to a Visa card in February 2026; it was approved within one business day and arrived four business days after the request, with no extra documentation demanded and no retention attempt. Identity verification must be complete and funds return to your deposit method. The five-free-withdrawals limit is a fee, not a barrier.
Does being a market maker mean Plus500 trades against me?
Plus500 is the counterparty to your trades, so a structural conflict of interest genuinely exists. It is disclosed rather than hidden, and constrained by best-execution obligations and the scrutiny of a public listing. Across 60 trades we saw no evidence of manipulated pricing or asymmetric slippage. The model is common in retail CFDs — which is the argument for choosing a broker you can verify.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum deposit at Plus500?
$100 or currency equivalent by card, PayPal or Skrill, rising to $500 for a bank transfer. There is no deposit fee, but currency conversion costs up to 0.7% if your funding currency differs from your account currency.
Does Plus500 offer a swap-free account?
Yes. It can be requested during registration and removes overnight interest charges, replacing them with a fixed administration fee on positions held beyond a grace period that varies by instrument — so it reduces one cost rather than eliminating costs. Approval took one business day in our test.
Why does Plus500 not support MetaTrader?
Plus500 built its own WebTrader rather than licensing third-party software, consistent with targeting beginners who want simplicity over configurability. The cost is that custom indicators, backtesting and algorithmic trading are unavailable. If any are part of your process, this is a hard blocker.
How many Plus500 traders lose money?
Plus500 publishes the figure as regulators require: 80% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with the provider. That sits within the typical industry band of roughly 75% to 82%, so it reflects the risk of leveraged CFD trading generally. Treat it as the base rate that applies to you too.
Is Plus500 good for beginners?
It is one of the easier platforms to start on, with a two-click order process and an unlimited demo carrying up to $40,000 in virtual funds. But ease of access is not suitability: an interface that makes leveraged trading feel simple does not make it safe, and the thin educational material means beginners must learn elsewhere.
What does Plus500 charge if I stop trading?
After three consecutive months without a login, Plus500 deducts up to $10 per month until you log in again. When we tested a balance falling below the fee amount, the company deducted only the remainder rather than creating a negative balance. If you plan to step away, withdraw your funds.
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