Oanda and FOREX.com are both major global forex brokers that accept clients from the United States who want to trade in the huge forex market. Most major online forex brokerages do not accept U.S. clients due to strict laws. That fact makes this review especially important to any U.S. resident who would like to operate in the forex market. Find out which of these world-class online brokers best fits your needs. Benzinga compared Oanda vs. FOREX.com to help you decide which of these world-class online brokers best fits your needs.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
The products and services available to you at FOREX.com will depend on your location and on which of its regulated entities holds your account
Comparing Oanda vs. FOREX.com
Let's take a deeper dive into comparing these two forex brokers to help you choose the trading account that's right for you.
Fees
Forex fees and commissions generally come in the form of the bid/offer or dealing spread. The tighter the dealing spread, the lower the cost to the trader. Dealing spreads on major currency pairs tend to be tighter than less liquid pairs such as crosses and exotic currency pairs. Both brokers have comparable overall costs with respect to commissions and fees.
What Oanda Offers
Oanda offers 2 types of accounts with different pricing structures as follows:
- Spread-only account: The dealing spread is the only commission you pay with this account type. Spreads for the spread only account start at 1.4 pips for EUR/USD.
- Core pricing plus commission account: This account type also charges the dealing spread, but they are considerably tighter compared to the spread only account. In addition to the reduced spread, you pay a fixed commission per trade, which makes your overall cost the spread plus the commission. Core dealing spreads start at 0 pip, and you’ll pay a $50 commission charge per 1 million base currency units.
In addition to the trading costs cited above, Oanda charges a 10-base currency unit fee for accounts that have been inactive for 12 months, as well as the normal rollover fees for forex positions held overnight.
What FOREX.com Offers
FOREX.com a division of Gain Capital Holdings also charges a dealing spread and has 3 basic account types as follows:
- Standard account: Variable dealing spreads start at 1 pip for EUR/USD.
- Commission account: Charges a flat $5 per 100,000 units of base currency in addition to a reduced dealing spread that starts at 0.2 of 1 pip for EUR/USD.
- STP Pro account: Aimed at professionals, this account type has a $25,000 minimum deposit. It also features Level II pricing and competitive dealing spreads starting at 0.1 of 1 pip for EUR/USD.
Better Platform: FOREX.com
FOREX.com offers slightly better-dealing spreads with its Standard, Commission and STP Pro accounts than Oanda’s Spread Only and Core Pricing accounts. The charge for Oanda’s Core Pricing and FOREX.com’s Commission account works out to the same dollar amount per base currency unit.
Mobile App
Trading on the go can be an important aspect for a beginner or advanced trader. Here's what you need to know about these platforms' mobile app capabilities.
What Oanda Offers
Oanda’s mobile app features its proprietary trading platform FxTrade, as well as the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform. These apps are available for Android, iOS and tablet devices, and allow you to trade all of the broker’s currency pairs. They also feature a news feed, advanced charting functionality, a slew of technical indicators and trading tools.
You can manage your positions and receive mobile notifications through Oanda’s app that also provides a trading performance tool. This tool lets you examine your trading history, breaking down your performance by instrument, profit/loss, win rate and risk-to-reward ratio.
What FOREX.com Offers
FOREX.com’s mobile app is available for Android and iOS mobile and tablet devices and is highly rated by many forex professionals. You have the option of downloading the free MT4/5 mobile trading app that includes all of the advanced features including copy trading found on the popular 3rd-party platform.
In addition to advanced charting and technical analysis tools, the FOREX.com app lets you input real-time order alerts. It also features risk management options, integrated fund management, a Reuters news feed and economic calendars. You can also personalize the navigation bar and dashboard, as well as set up watchlists and alerts. In addition to market and limit orders, you can enter trailing stop orders and conditional orders like one cancels the other (OCO) orders.
Better Platform: FOREX.com
FOREX.com edges out Oanda in this category for its ability to take conditional orders, its Reuters news feed and for offering clients the option of both MetaTrader4 and 5 platforms. The FOREX.com mobile app also has an integrated fund management option not found at Oanda.
Customer Support
Customer support is a very important aspect of any online forex broker and the lack of good support can cost a trader significantly in a volatile market. Find out what each broker offers below.
What Oanda Offers
Oanda offers a complete customer service facility and among the best in the online forex market. You can contact all of its major offices in Asia, North America and Europe through local phone numbers during regular local business hours and get support in 7 languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French and Italian.
Additionally, Oanda offers a demo account to allow traders to test their copy trading and trade strategies before using Oanda Trade with forex pairs, exchange rate, and margin rates in the market.
Oanda’s customer support team can be reached via email 24/7 and through live chat and phone between forex trading hours of 4 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Friday EST. If you have a specific concern, Oanda has an extensive frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to target specific trader concerns.
What FOREX.com Offers
FOREX.com’s customer support lets you contact the broker via email and live chat. While no direct phone number was found on its website, you can contact FOREX.com through its convenient live chat feature 24 hours a day during the trading week from 10 a.m. Sunday until 5 p.m. Friday EST.
Better Platform: Oanda
Oanda prevails in the customer support category due to its localized and multilingual phone support that FOREX.com lacks. Both brokers offer live chat and email support.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is an important factor for novices, as well as for any trader who wants to capture a trading opportunity or get out of a losing position fast. Both brokers offer straightforward desktop, web and mobile platforms, so you need to decide which is the best fit for you.
What Oanda Offers
Oanda’s award-winning platforms offer traders excellent execution, trader analysis and advanced charting, as well as a wide range of technical analysis tools. In addition to Oanda’s web, desktop and mobile platforms, you can download the free MT4 platform with all of its advanced features and expert advisor (EA) automation capabilities. You can also open a demo forex or contracts for difference (CFDs) account funded with 100,000 virtual base currency units.
What FOREX.com Offers
FOREX.com’s proprietary and MT4/5 platform offerings are both easy to learn and intuitive to use. FOREX.com also gives you the option of opening a demo account so that you can assess its platform, practice trading and test strategies.
Better Platform: FOREX.com
Both brokers offer intuitive, easy-to-learn and use proprietary trading platforms. You can also download and use the MT4/5 platforms on FOREX.com and the MT4 platform on Oanda. Since FOREX.com supports MT5, it wins marginally here.
Accounts and Features
Find out what account types you can open at these brokers below.
What Oanda Offers
Oanda lets you trade over 70 currency pairs, plus CFDs, bonds, precious metals and indices. CFD and precious metals trading are not available to U.S. clients. The broker is well regulated in a number of jurisdictions and offers 2 account types:
- Standard: This account type gives you a choice of 4 trading platforms and a wide range of analysis tools. No minimum deposit is required and you get access to institutional-grade execution services.
- Premium: A minimum deposit of $20,000 is required for this account type that offers all of the features of the Standard account, plus unlimited wire transfers, a dedicated relationship manager and priority service queues. You can also access several 3rd-party platforms via your premium account including NinjaTrader, TradingView and Oanda’s proprietary Oanda Pro platform powered by Currenex.
What FOREX.com Offers
FOREX.com lets you trade over 80 currency pairs, plus spot gold and silver. If you wish to trade futures and options on futures, you can open an account with FOREX.com’s FuturesOnline affiliate. The 3 types of accounts you can open at FOREX.com are:
- Standard account: This basic account offers competitive dealing spreads and no commissions. You can also reduce your costs by as much as 18% through cash rebates, and it supports the use of MT4/5 platforms in addition to FOREX.com’s proprietary platforms.
- Commission account: This account features dealing spreads as low as 0.2 pips on EUR/USD, although you must pay an additional $5 commission per 100,000 base currency units. No MT4/5 option exists for this type of account.
- STP Pro account: FOREX.com’s premium account requires a minimum deposit of $25,000 and has a minimum trade size of 100,000 base units. This account gives you access to an electronic communications network (ECN) and Level II quotes, but it does allow using MT4/5 trading platforms.
Better Platform: FOREX.com
FOREX.com prevails in this category for having 1 additional account choice and at least 10 more currency pairs than Oanda, although Oanda’s 3rd-party platform choices for its premium account made the decision somewhat difficult. Oanda also features useful tools like a historical spread calculator that allows you to research the history of a dealing spread of any currency pair over a particular time period.
Overall Winner: FOREX.com
Overall, FOREX.com has slightly better dealing spreads, more currency pairs and an ECN account type, while Oanda is a market maker with no ECN option. You can also use the MT5 MetaTrader platform at FOREX.com which Oanda does not generally support. Still, Oanda was a close 2nd for trading forex and well worth considering especially if you prefer phone customer service.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of accounts offered by OANDA?
OANDA offers the core pricing plus commission and the spread.
What is the cost per trade on OANDA?
OANDA charges a minimum commission of $0.01 per trade.
Get a Forex Pro on Your Side
FOREX.com, registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), lets you trade a wide range of forex markets with low pricing and fast, quality execution on every trade.
You can also tap into:
- EUR/USD as low as 0.2 with fixed $5 commissions per 100,000
- Powerful, purpose-built currency trading platforms
- Monthly cash rebates of up to $9 per million dollars traded with FOREX.com’s Active Trader Program
Learn more about FOREX.com’s low pricing and how you can get started trading with FOREX.com.