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Our methodology
BrokerCue ranks brokers with a finance score built from three weighted parts. Safety of the money carries the most weight at 40%, so strong deposit protection outweighs a tempting low fee. Cost comes next at 35%, and the offer itself accounts for 25%. Cheap charges cannot buy a weak protection record to the top of the list.
Every ranking puts partners first, then orders the rest by score. That rule applies across the board, so a partner can sit above a broker with a higher score. Once the partners sit at the top, the score settles everything below them.
The score leans on published material. Data come from official brand pages, regulator registers and other cited sources, and the heaviest weighting sits on the component a retail investor stands to lose most if it goes wrong.
Partners receive full reviews and profiles with the detail behind the number. Brands outside that group are still scored on the same three parts, from the same cited material, so the comparison holds across the whole list rather than only for the sponsored section.
Before you read any figure, check which of the three parts it feeds. A low cost weight will not offset a poor safety record.
This page explains how BrokerCue scores and ranks brokers.
What we cover
This site compares brokers, prop firms, robo-advisors, P2P lending, investing tools.
What we score
Every broker is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 on the criteria below. The overall score is the weighted average of these criteria.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cost | 35% |
| Offer | 25% |
| Trust | 40% |
How rankings are ordered
Rankings apply the following priorities in order; a later priority only breaks a tie in the earlier ones:
- Brokers with a paid offer serving the current view come before those without one.
- Within each of those groups, brokers available in your country come first, followed by those marked unavailable.
- Within each availability group, brokers marked as lacking a required licence come after the others.
- Where these priorities tie, affiliate network links come before our own referral or direct partner links.
- Among network offers, an offer explicitly listing your country comes before a broad default offer. Within each of those groups, known expected commission per click comes before unknown values, and higher expected commission comes first. Ties are broken by commission terms (lifetime, revenue share, then per sale or lead) and then higher payout. For referral or direct partner offers, only explicitly listing your country breaks the commercial tie; their payout is not used as expected commission per click.
- Only after all the earlier priorities tie do rated brokers come before those marked "not rated yet", followed by higher overall score.
When no country is selected, eligible active offers serving at least one country qualify for the paid group, including offers limited to particular countries. We use the highest recorded expected commission per click across an offer's base value and country values. When a country is selected, its value is used where recorded, otherwise the offer's base value applies.
A broker with a lower score can therefore appear above one with a higher score because of the earlier priorities. Featured cards and sponsor strips sit outside the ranking. A booked placement is labelled "Sponsored"; when none is booked, the featured card shows a partner picked by the commission it pays us, labelled "Featured".
Countries
Global rankings list every relevant broker. When a broker does not accept customers from your country, we mark it and point you to an alternative. Country pages list only brokers available in that country.
Sources
Facts come from each broker's own website and documents, public registers, affiliate network listings and other published sources, including independent reviews. Each fact on a page shows its source link and the date we checked it. When a broker publishes no country list, its countries come from its affiliate programme listings, and the page says so. The editorial policy explains how facts are checked.
Keeping it current
Scores change when the facts behind them change. A ranking is published once at least five brokers in it are scored, and a broker gets a review page once enough of its key facts are confirmed. Spot a mistake? Write to [email protected].
This page is written by the BrokerCue Editorial Team.