Tickmill is a low-cost, execution-focused broker for traders who place enough orders that a fraction of a pip shows up on their statement. We opened a live Raw account, funded it with $500, placed more than 50 orders, ran two withdrawals and contacted support three times. The trading environment is strong and the top-tier licensing is verifiable. The weak spots are real: a thin crypto book, no two-factor authentication, no mobile price alerts, and a support desk that closes before the US session gets going.
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 | 8.6/10 |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | London, UK (UK entity) / Limassol, Cyprus (EU entity) / Mahé, Seychelles (global entity) |
| Main licences | FCA 717270 (UK), CySEC 278/15 (Cyprus), FSCA FSP 49464 (South Africa), FSA SD008 (Seychelles) |
| Minimum deposit | $100 |
| Spreads from | 0.0 pips (Raw account, plus commission) |
| Maximum leverage | 1:500 (Seychelles entity) / 1:30 retail (FCA and CySEC entities) |
| Instruments | 630+ |
| Swap-free available | Yes, on both Classic and Raw |
| Retail loss rate | 73% (Tickmill Europe Ltd) / 69% (Tickmill UK Ltd) |
Pros and cons
We tested Tickmill across January and February 2026 on a funded live account, and everything below comes from that testing unless stated. Our weights and protocol are in how we rate brokers.
What works
- FCA 717270 (authorised 29 July 2016) and CySEC 278/15, both confirmed active on the regulators’ registers in July 2026.
- All-in cost near the sector floor: our February 2026 Raw EUR/USD spread averaged 0.1 pips at peak hours, about 0.7 pips with the $6 round-turn commission.
- Execution matched the marketing — across 50 live orders, a median fill near 150ms, 47 filled at the requested price, no requotes.
- Real platform choice: MT4, MT5, TradingView, the Tickmill Trader app and browser WebTrader.
- Swap-free accounts on both account types, with published terms.
- No broker-side deposit or withdrawal fees, and a $25 minimum withdrawal.
What does not
- No two-factor authentication on trading accounts — the most conspicuous gap we found.
- Only 15 cryptocurrencies, against more than 30 at Pepperstone and more than 50 at XM.
- The Raw commission rose from $2 to $3 per side in the 2026 restructure, eroding Tickmill’s old outright cost lead.
- Tickmill Trader has no price alerts, so you cannot ask it to flag a level.
- Support runs 24/5, roughly 07:00–16:00 GMT, leaving the second half of the US session thinly covered.
- Tickmill appears on the Securities Commission Malaysia Investor Alert List, explained below.
Company information
Tickmill was founded in August 2014 in Mahé, Seychelles, by Ingmar Mattus, Illimar Mattus and Nikolai Nikolajenko, with Sudhanshu Agarwal as chief executive of Tickmill Ltd since inception. The group is four entities — Tickmill UK Ltd (London), Tickmill Europe Ltd (Limassol), Tickmill Ltd (Seychelles) and Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd. Which one you contract with determines your protection, the most important structural fact in this review.
The FCA authorised the UK entity in July 2016. The group reports over 100,000 clients and offices including London, Limassol, Tallinn and Kuala Lumpur. We checked for acquisitions or restructuring in July 2026 and found none; the last significant transaction was the 2017 purchase of CySEC-regulated Vipro Markets.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal name (group) | Tickmill Group |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Chief executive | Sudhanshu Agarwal |
| Founders | Ingmar Mattus, Illimar Mattus, Nikolai Nikolajenko |
| Clients | More than 100,000 |
| Countries served | More than 200, excluding the United States and other restricted jurisdictions |
| Instruments | More than 630 |
Who this broker suits (and who it does not)
Tickmill suits the trader whose main cost is friction — someone placing enough orders that spread plus commission compounds into a number they can feel. At roughly 0.7 pips all-in on EUR/USD in our February 2026 testing, it sits in the cheapest decile of the brokers covered in our broker reviews, under a licence you can verify on a public register.
It suits you less if you want a broad crypto book, if two-factor authentication is non-negotiable, if you trade into the US afternoon and expect to reach a human, or if you want a structured education programme. None of that changes the underlying risk: Tickmill Europe Ltd publishes that 73% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with it, and the UK entity publishes 69%. Treat any capital you commit as capital you can afford to lose.
Licensing and regulation
This is Tickmill’s strongest area. We verified each licence against the regulators’ own registers in January 2026 and again in July 2026. All four remain active, with no revocation, suspension or restriction on taking new clients.
| Regulator | Country | Legal entity | Licence number | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) | United Kingdom | Tickmill UK Ltd | 717270 | Tier 1 |
| CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) | Cyprus | Tickmill Europe Ltd | 278/15 | Tier 1 |
| FSCA (Financial Sector Conduct Authority) | South Africa | Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd | FSP 49464 | Tier 2 |
| FSA (Financial Services Authority) | Seychelles | Tickmill Ltd | SD008 | Tier 3 (offshore) |
Firm reference 717270 shows Tickmill UK Ltd authorised since 29 July 2016 at 9A Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4YN; check it on the FCA register. Under the UK licence, client money is segregated at tier-1 banks and clients fall within the FSCS. One correction matters: the FSCS limit for a failed investment firm is £85,000 per eligible person. The £120,000 figure circulating since 1 December 2025 is the deposit limit for banks and does not reach brokerage claims — Tickmill’s own licensing page cites £120,000, conflating the two. Under CySEC, EU clients are covered by the Investor Compensation Fund for 90% of a claim to €20,000, with mandatory negative balance protection.
The Malaysia listing. Tickmill appears on the Securities Commission Malaysia Investor Alert List, confirmed in July 2026. This was not in our original testing notes and we disclose it because anyone searching for a Tickmill regulator warning will find it. The SC lists firms offering investment services in Malaysia without SC authorisation — a territorial registration listing rather than a fraud finding, naming many established international brokers. No licence has been revoked and neither the FCA nor the CySEC entity is affected. For Malaysian readers the consequence is concrete: no recourse to the SC and no local compensation scheme. We reduced the regulation and licensing score accordingly.
Two further boundaries. Tickmill UK Ltd holds a DFSA Representative Office licence (reference F007663), which permits marketing inside the DIFC but not client-facing services, so it is not a route to DFSA-supervised protection. And Tickmill holds no ASIC authorisation, so Australian and New Zealand traders sit outside a locally regulated retail offering.
Traders outside the UK and EU are most likely routed to Tickmill Ltd in Seychelles, where there is no equivalent compensation scheme and the FSA’s requirements are materially lighter — true of nearly every international broker, but worth stating plainly.
Opening an account and verification
We opened our account in January 2026. The web form took about 10 minutes and includes a suitability assessment covering trading experience and finances — a sign the firm applies appropriateness testing rather than waving people through. We uploaded a passport scan and a utility bill; verification took about one business day, which is respectable but not exceptional when competitors clear automated checks within the hour.
The minimum deposit is $100 across all account types, re-confirmed against the published schedule in July 2026. A demo account opens without verification — ours was live in about two minutes with $100,000 virtual and 60-day validity.
Account types
Two live accounts, Classic and Raw. The restraint is a feature: a wall of near-identical tiers usually exists to obscure pricing. The structure changed in 2026, when the former Pro account was rebranded Raw and the commission rose at the same time.
| Feature | Classic | Raw |
|---|---|---|
| Spreads from | 1.6 pips | 0.0 pips |
| Commission | None | $3 per side per lot ($6 round turn) on FX and precious metals |
| Minimum deposit | $100 | $100 |
| Maximum leverage | Up to 1:500 (entity dependent) | Up to 1:500 (entity dependent) |
| Minimum trade size | 0.01 lots | 0.01 lots |
| Platforms | MT4, MT5, Tickmill Trader | MT4, MT5, Tickmill Trader, TradingView |
| Swap-free option | Available | Available |
Our February 2026 Raw testing gave an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips at peak hours; with the $6 round turn that is about 0.7 pips all-in. The same pair on Classic measured about 1.7 pips with no commission, so Raw is cheaper for anyone placing more than a handful of trades a week. The TradingView-linked Raw account charges more: $3.50 per side.
Leverage depends entirely on your entity. Retail clients of the UK and EU entities are capped at 1:30 on major FX pairs and 1:20 on gold and major indices under FCA and ESMA rules; Seychelles clients can reach 1:500. EU professional classification also unlocks 1:500, but means surrendering retail protections — a trade nobody should make casually.
Swap-free accounts
Swap-free trading matters to a broad group: traders whose faith prohibits interest, and anyone holding positions for weeks who would rather not pay a rolling overnight charge. Tickmill offers it on both account types, and our conversion request was approved within one business day.
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Availability | Classic and Raw accounts |
| Overnight swaps | None |
| Administration fee | Fixed daily fee on some instruments after three consecutive nights held |
| Extended grace period | 41 days on some instruments (gold, JPY and CHF crosses) on Classic |
| Instruments covered | All available instruments |
| Trading conditions | Identical spreads, commission and leverage to standard accounts |
Read the administration fee schedule before holding anything long term. The charge is fixed per lot, applied at 00:00 server time, and does not vary with trade direction, so on a multi-week position it can quietly exceed what the swap would have cost. Tickmill also reserves the right to ask for justification before converting an account. The terms are acceptable but not the most generous in the sector.
Fees and trading costs
Cost is why most people look at Tickmill, so we tested the claim rather than repeating it. Through February 2026 we sampled spreads on seven instruments at different times of day against published figures for three competitors, and re-checked the fee schedule in July 2026 with the headline numbers unchanged.
Spreads
Raw spreads were highly competitive during the European and US sessions and widened noticeably between the New York close and the Tokyo open. That is normal, but it means an overnight strategy will not see the headline numbers.
| Instrument | Tickmill (Raw) | IC Markets (Raw) | Pepperstone (Razor) | XM (Zero) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 0.1 pips | 0.02 pips | 0.10 pips | 0.2 pips |
| GBP/USD | 0.3 pips | 0.10 pips | 0.30 pips | 0.4 pips |
| USD/JPY | 0.2 pips | 0.10 pips | 0.20 pips | 0.3 pips |
| AUD/USD | 0.3 pips | 0.10 pips | 0.20 pips | 0.4 pips |
| USD/CHF | 0.4 pips | 0.30 pips | 0.40 pips | 0.5 pips |
| Gold (XAU/USD) | $0.12 | $0.08 | $0.13 | $0.25 |
| Oil (WTI) | $0.03 | $0.02 | $0.03 | $0.04 |
Those are raw spreads before commission. Tickmill’s figures come from our own February 2026 sampling; competitor figures from independent reviews and published schedules for the same period. Adding commission on one standard EUR/USD lot: Tickmill Raw 0.7 pips ($7), IC Markets Raw 0.72 pips ($7.20), Pepperstone Razor 0.8 pips ($8), XM Zero 0.9 pips ($9). The gap over IC Markets is now cents rather than the clear lead Tickmill once held.
Commission and swaps
Classic charges no trading commission; the cost sits entirely in the spread. Raw charges $3 per side per standard lot — and one scope detail is easy to miss: it applies to FX and precious metals only, so the $6 round turn does not travel across the whole instrument list. The rate was $2 before the 2026 restructure; even after the rise, Tickmill undercuts IC Markets and Pepperstone at $3.50 per side.
Overnight financing is mid-field. In February 2026 we recorded, per standard lot per night, EUR/USD long -$6.20 and short +$1.80, and GBP/USD long -$4.50 and short +$0.90. These move daily with interbank rates and Wednesday is charged triple to cover the weekend, so read them as a snapshot of that month rather than a rate card.
Deposit, withdrawal and inactivity fees
Tickmill charges nothing on deposits or withdrawals, and we saw no deduction on either withdrawal we ran. Intermediary banks and payment processors may still apply charges outside the broker’s control.
Inactivity is the one genuinely murky line. Tickmill’s own cost pages list no fee, but the weight of current third-party schedules describes $10 or currency equivalent per quarter after 12 months without activity, and Tickmill’s policy allows archiving of inactive accounts holding under $50 for 60 days. We could not resolve the contradiction from published sources, so it is not verified at the time of publication: confirm with support before leaving an account idle.
Desktop platforms
We spent a week on the desktop offering in February 2026: MT4, MT5, TradingView through a linked Tickmill Trader account, and browser WebTrader. The MT4 implementation is clean — installation was straightforward, server connections stayed stable, and expert advisor support works as expected, which is much of why algorithmic traders gravitate here. Orders through MT4 filled in under 200ms in most cases.
MT5 adds 38 built-in indicators against 30, six pending order types against four, and an integrated economic calendar. More usefully, the full 630+ instrument list is reachable through MT5 where MT4 does not surface all of it. Tickmill bundles an Advanced Trading Toolkit for both — correlation matrix, session map, sentiment indicator, alarm manager — which we expected to be filler and found usable.
TradingView is the newest route: link a Tickmill Trader account and trade from its interface at no connection cost, the trade-off being the higher $3.50-per-side commission. WebTrader covers machines where you cannot install software.
Mobile apps
We tested on Android in February 2026. There are three apps: MetaQuotes’ official MT4 and MT5 clients plus Tickmill Trader. The proprietary app covers trading, charting and account management with a clean interface, quick execution and one-tap trading. As a lightweight way to manage an existing book from a phone, it works.
Two weaknesses stood out. There are no price alerts, so a trader monitoring specific levels is pushed back to MetaTrader or a third-party tool. And there is no two-factor authentication — given how routinely trading accounts are targeted, the most significant security gap we found anywhere in this review.
Tickmill Trader has passed 100,000 installs on Google Play with middling ratings; reviewers praise simplicity and execution speed while criticising exactly the features we found missing. Against IC Markets, which has no proprietary app, and Pepperstone, which adds cTrader, Tickmill wins on simplicity and loses on depth.
Trading tools
Tickmill lists more than 630 instruments. This is how the range broke down when we reviewed it in February 2026.
| Category | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| FX pairs | 62 | Majors, minors and exotics |
| Share CFDs | 490+ | US, UK and European equities |
| Indices | 22 | S&P 500, NASDAQ, DAX, FTSE 100 |
| Commodities | 19 | Gold, silver, oil, natural gas, copper |
| Cryptocurrencies | 15 | Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple |
| Bonds | 4 | US and European government bonds |
| ETFs | 25 | Funds tracking global indices |
Trading exotics such as USD/TRY and USD/ZAR, we saw spreads widen sharply to 15–30 pips — normal, but a reminder that the headline 0.0 pips describes EUR/USD at peak hours and nothing else. Share CFDs are the deepest part of the offering, with spreads reasonable on major US names and wider on less-traded European listings.
The obvious hole is crypto. Fifteen coins is thin in a market that has expanded relentlessly, and no amount of execution quality compensates for instruments that are not on the list.
Order execution
We placed 50 live orders across February 2026 to measure execution rather than infer it. Median fill was around 150ms during European and US session hours, close to the 0.15 seconds Tickmill publishes; in thin liquidity it drifted to roughly 250ms, still acceptable for all but the most latency-sensitive strategies.
Of the 50 orders, 47 filled at exactly the requested price. Two saw negative slippage under 0.3 pips each and one filled 0.2 pips in our favour — a 94% no-slippage rate, consistent with the 99.9% fill rate Tickmill claims. One month of orders is indicative rather than definitive.
We recorded no requotes at all, which is what a market-execution model should produce. Trading a GBP/USD order deliberately through a UK data release, the spread widened for a few seconds but the order still filled promptly. Tickmill’s execution infrastructure is among the best we have measured in this price bracket.
Deposits
We funded with $500 by Visa credit card in January 2026. From pressing deposit to seeing the balance took under two minutes, with no fee from Tickmill.
| Method | Minimum | Fee | Processing time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | $100 | Free from Tickmill | 1–3 business days |
| Visa / Mastercard | $100 | Free | Instant |
| Skrill | $100 | Free | Instant |
| Neteller | $100 | Free | Instant |
| Cryptocurrency (BTC, ETH, USDT) | $100 | Free | Network confirmation dependent |
Card issuers may still apply their own conversion charges, and some treat the payment as a cash-equivalent transaction. Crypto deposits add flexibility with one caveat: price movement between sending and confirmation can change the value that lands in the account.
Withdrawals
Withdrawals are where brokers most often disappoint, so we ran two through different rails. In February 2026 we requested $200 back to the Visa card; Tickmill processed it within one business day and the funds appeared five business days later, that delay being the card issuer’s refund cycle. A second test of $150 via Skrill landed the same day.
| Method | Minimum | Fee | Processing time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | $25 | Free from Tickmill | 1 business day to process, then 3–7 days at the bank |
| Visa / Mastercard | $25 | Free | 1 business day to process, then up to 8 days at the bank |
| Skrill | $25 | Free | 1 business day, usually same day |
| Neteller | $25 | Free | 1 business day, usually same day |
| Cryptocurrency | $25 | Free | Network confirmation dependent |
Withdrawals return through the funding method, with profits above the deposit available by other routes — an anti-money-laundering requirement rather than an obstruction, but it catches people out.
On the question people actually search — can you get your money out — our answer from two tests in February 2026 is yes, with no unexplained delay and the published timetable met both times. One caveat: our tests ran through a single entity in a single month, and some users of the Seychelles entity report longer waits.
Customer support
Tickmill runs live chat, email and telephone support 24/5. We made contact three times in February 2026. The first live chat during European business hours was answered in about two minutes, and the agent gave a detailed, accurate answer on account types rather than deflecting to a help-centre link. A separate email about swap-free terms drew a reply in about four hours.
The real limitation is coverage, not quality. The desk operates roughly 07:00–16:00 GMT, so a UK trader working through the New York afternoon, or anyone in a US or Asia-Pacific time zone, finds the window closed before they need it, and there is no weekend cover. For a broker built for active traders that is a meaningful gap.
This is where our score diverges most from the original Arabic edition, which scored support 3.5/5. Much of that deduction was for Arabic-language service quality and Middle East time-zone coverage, neither a criterion on this site. On the English-language experience alone the desk performed well, held back only by the hours.
Research and education
The English-language education is competent without being a reason to choose the broker. Reviewing it in February 2026 we found tutorial articles, structured courses, a video library, and webinars that offered real market analysis rather than a sales pitch. Daily and weekly technical analysis covers the main pairs, commodities and indices; acceptable, but not the institutional-grade research the larger brokers publish.
The practical tools are the better part. The integrated economic calendar shows expected impact alongside previous and forecast figures, the trading calculator returns margin requirements and pip values with output that matched the live platform when we checked, and Autochartist ships with MT4 and MT5 to identify chart patterns automatically.
On transparency, two things count against Tickmill: the inactivity fee position cannot be established from its own published pages, and its group licensing page cites FSCS protection of £120,000 when the limit for a failed investment firm is £85,000. Neither is a fund-safety issue, but a reader doing their own diligence should be able to trust the broker’s own numbers.
Fund safety and protections
We checked client-money arrangements independently in the first quarter of 2026 and re-verified the position in July 2026. Client funds sit in tier-1 bank accounts segregated from the firm’s operating capital, so if the company runs into difficulty client money is not part of the estate available to creditors — the first layer of fund safety to establish about any broker. Negative balance protection applies to all UK and EU entity clients.
Tickmill UK Ltd clients fall within the FSCS, covered to £85,000 per eligible person for investment claims; Tickmill Europe Ltd clients within the Cyprus ICF, covering 90% of an eligible claim to €20,000. Both are last-resort backstops for firm failure, not protection against trading losses. Seychelles clients get neither.
Finally, the security gap. There is no two-factor authentication on Tickmill trading accounts, and most competitors have shipped it. Segregation and compensation schemes protect against the firm failing; they do nothing about someone else logging into your account.
Verdict
After four weeks of live testing in early 2026 and a re-verification of the regulatory and fee position in July 2026, Tickmill earns 8.6 out of 10. It is strong where it has always claimed to be: cost, execution and supervision — what an active trader actually consumes, and few competitors deliver all three at once.
| Category | Weight | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation and licensing | 25% | 8.7/10 |
| Trading costs | 20% | 8.8/10 |
| Withdrawals and fund access | 20% | 9.0/10 |
| Platforms and execution | 15% | 8.5/10 |
| Customer support | 10% | 8.0/10 |
| Research and transparency | 10% | 7.5/10 |
| Overall | 100% | 8.6/10 |
Three categories moved from our original assessment. Customer support rose, because Arabic-language service quality was a scored criterion in the original edition and is not one here. Regulation and licensing fell on the Securities Commission Malaysia listing, and trading costs came down a fraction on the unresolved inactivity-fee position.
Choose Tickmill if your priority is minimising the cost of each trade with fast, requote-free fills under a verifiable regulator. Look elsewhere if you need a deep crypto book, if two-factor authentication is non-negotiable, if you rely on mobile price alerts, or if you need support outside European office hours. Size positions on the assumption you can lose what you put in: Tickmill’s own disclosures put the retail loss rate at 73% (EU entity) and 69% (UK). This is not investment advice.
Is Tickmill trustworthy?
Is Tickmill a scam?
No. Tickmill operates under FCA authorisation in the UK (firm reference 717270, authorised since July 2016) and CySEC authorisation in Cyprus (278/15). We verified both on the regulators’ own registers in July 2026: active, with no restrictions on taking new clients. Anyone can repeat the checks in a few minutes.
Why does Tickmill appear on a regulator’s alert list?
Tickmill is named on the Securities Commission Malaysia Investor Alert List, confirmed in July 2026. That list identifies firms providing investment services in Malaysia without SC authorisation, and names many established international brokers alongside genuine scams. It is a territorial registration issue, not a fraud finding: no allegation of misappropriation, no licence revoked, and neither the FCA nor the CySEC entity affected. For a Malaysian client the consequence is no recourse to the SC and no local compensation scheme.
Are there withdrawal problems with Tickmill?
We ran two withdrawals in February 2026, by card and by Skrill, and hit no obstruction in either; both were processed within the published timetable. Most complaints trace to incomplete verification documents or attempts to withdraw by a different method than the deposit used. Some users of the Seychelles entity report longer waits.
Is my money protected if Tickmill fails?
That depends on which entity you signed with. Tickmill UK Ltd clients are covered by the FSCS to £85,000 per eligible person for investment claims; Tickmill Europe Ltd clients by the Cyprus ICF for 90% of a claim to €20,000; Seychelles clients by no comparable scheme. Note that Tickmill’s own licensing page cites £120,000 — the deposit protection limit for banks, not the investment limit.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum deposit at Tickmill?
$100 across both Classic and Raw accounts, re-confirmed in July 2026. You can fund by Visa or Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller or cryptocurrency, with no fee charged by Tickmill.
What is the difference between the Classic and Raw accounts?
Classic charges no commission and builds the cost into a spread from 1.6 pips. Raw offers spreads from 0.0 pips with $3 per side per standard lot on FX and precious metals. In our February 2026 testing EUR/USD cost about 0.7 pips all-in on Raw against about 1.7 pips on Classic.
Does Tickmill offer swap-free accounts?
Yes, on both Classic and Raw, and our conversion request was approved within one business day. Overnight swaps are removed, but a fixed daily administration fee applies to some instruments held more than three consecutive nights — on a long-held position that can exceed the swap it replaced.
How long do Tickmill withdrawals take?
In our February 2026 tests Tickmill processed requests within one business day. Total time depends on the rail: e-wallets usually same day, cards up to eight business days at the issuer, bank transfers three to seven. The minimum is $25 with no broker fee.
Does Tickmill support two-factor authentication?
No. As at July 2026 there is no 2FA on Tickmill trading accounts. This is the clearest security shortcoming we found and it deserves weighing against the broker’s otherwise strong protections.
Is Tickmill regulated in Australia?
No. Tickmill holds no ASIC authorisation, so Australian and New Zealand traders sit outside a locally regulated retail offering and outside any Australian compensation arrangement. We could not confirm which group entity onboards Australian clients at the time of publication.
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