5 Best Stock CFD Brokers in Europe of 2026
Share CFDs let you speculate on the rise or fall of a stock’s price without actually owning the shares. They have a big advantage over real shares because you can take a short position whenever you want. In the case of real shares you can only take a short position when your broker has shares available to borrow. Trading CFDs on shares also gives you access to leverage, and companies from global exchanges from a single account.
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But the broker you choose to work with can make a major difference in your experience trading CFDs on shares. Trading costs can come out very different from broker to broker, with spreads, commissions, and overnight charges all affecting how much you pay. It’s also worth looking at the selection of stocks available, the platforms you can trade on, and the brokers approach to dividend adjustments on share CFDs.
In this guide, I list my selection of the best share CFD brokers in Europe, based on regulation and safety, range of global exchanges, trading costs, platforms and tools, and overall trading experience.
List of Top Stock CFD Brokers for Europeans
*AvaTrade doesn’t allow CFD trading in Spain; only Futures are available.
Compare All Listed Brokers
| Broker | Score | Fees Score | Min Deposit | Max Leverage | Platforms | Visit Broker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plus500 | 4.3 | 3.3 | $100 | 1:30 (ASIC) 1:30 (FMA) · 1:30 (FSCA) · 1:300 (FSA) · 1:30 (FCA) · 1:20 (MAS) · 1:30 (EFSA) · 1:30 (CySEC) · 1:30 (DFSA) · 1:200 (SCB) | Plus500 Web Platform, Plus500 Mobile App | - |
FxPro | 4.3 | 3.0 | $0 | 1:30 (FCA) 1:10000 (FSA) · 1:200 (SCB) · 1:30 (CySEC) | MT5, cTrader, MT4, FxPro Trading Platform, FxPro Mobile App, TradingView | 73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing money. (EU, UK) |
Swissquote | 4.3 | 2.6 | $1000 | 1:100 (FINMA) 1:20 (SFC) · 1:30 (MFSA) · 1:100 (MAS) · 1:30 (CSSF) · 1:30 (CySEC) · 1:30 (FCA) · 1:30 (DFSA) · 1:100 (FSCA) | MT5, MT4, CFXD, TradingView | Investing in FX & CFD carries a high degree of risk. Losses can exceed your initial investments |
AvaTrade | 4.5 | 4.2 | $100 | 1:400 (FSCA) 1:30 (CBI) · 1:200 (BVI FSC) · 1:30 (ASIC) · 1:400 (ADGM) · 1:25 (JFSA) · 1:30 (ISA) · 1:30 (CySEC) | AvaOptions, AvaSocial, MT5, Proprietary, MT4, DupliTrade, Ava Web Trader, AvaTrade App | - |
XTB | 4.5 | 4.3 | $0 | 1:30 (FCA) 1:30 (BaFin) · 1:30 (KNF) · 1:30 (CySEC) · 1:30 (CNMV) · 1:500 (IFSC) · 1:30 (CNB) · 1:500 (CMF Chile) | xStation 5 | CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% 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. |
How Did I Select the Best Forex Brokers for Trading Share CFDs in Europe?
I carefully considered the needs of share CFD traders in Europe and focused on the qualities that benefit this group the most.
- I selected brokers with an overall review score of 4+ based on our rating system.
- I looked for brokers regulated by European authorities, including FCA, CySEC, FINMA, and ESMA, and assessed their level of trustworthiness, reliability, and financial strength.
- I focused on brokers with low spreads, commissions, and swap fees for trading CFDs on shares.
- I reviewed available software for share CFD trading, focusing on platforms with robust charting, diverse order types, 1-click trading, watchlists, alerts, and an intuitive interface.
- I checked the availability of a strong variety of tradable CFDs on shares from global exchanges.
- I checked the available leverage for CFDs on shares. Leverage allows you to trade without paying for the full value of your position upfront.
- I looked for insightful research and educational content to help traders develop effective trading strategies and make informed decisions when trading CFDs on shares.
- I verified the availability of a diverse range of European deposit and withdrawal methods, ensuring quick and easy money transfers in and out of your account.
Best Overall
- $100Min Deposit
- 2764Tradable Instruments
- HighFees
Why We Picked It
Plus500 combines an outstanding range of shares with an ultra-smooth trading experience. The large range of shares from global exchanges gives traders opportunities across diverse companies, sectors, and geographical regions. I found the proprietary WebTrader platform and mobile app to be highly intuitive and feature rich. Plus500 also leads the pack in innovation with tools like +Insights, which provides powerful information on client positioning.
Key Features:
- European Regulator: CySEC
- European entity: Plus500CY Ltd
- Leverage for Share CFDs in Europe: Up to 1:5
- Tradable Share CFDs: 2,600+, including US, European, Asian, and Australian shares
- Spreads and Commissions: spreads as low as 33 cents in Apple (AAPL)
- Platforms: Plus500 WebTrader, Plus500 mobile app
- Tools/Resources: +Insights, Plus500 Trading Academy
- Share CFD Dividends: Yes
- European Support Languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Hungarian
Plus500 offers shares from U.S., European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Australian exchanges. You can trade shares as diverse as Al Arabia on the Saudi Exchange to Woolworths on the Australian Securities Exchange. And extended hours trading is available on popular stocks like SpaceX and Nvidia. This enables traders to react to news releases and breaking news outside of regular trading sessions.
The broker also does a good job of making risk management straightforward. What really sets Plus500 apart is the combination of standard and guaranteed stop-loss orders, trailing stops, and price alerts to manage open positions. I also liked the way it’s easy to flip between the live and demo accounts.
Pros and Cons
- Excellent range of share CFDs
- +Insights tool
- 24/7 chat support
- Plus500 Trading Academy
- Limited platform choice
Best Share CFD Trading Platforms
- $0Min Deposit
- 2090Tradable Instruments
- HighFees
Why We Picked It
FXPro offers CFDs on thousands of shares, from U.S. and European exchanges which can be traded on 5 of the best platforms available. These include the proprietary FXPro WebTrader platform and mobile app, MT4, MT5, cTrader, and TradingView. The diversity of trading platforms can accommodate everything from beginners to advanced algo traders.
Key Features:
- European Regulators: FCA, CySEC
- European entity: FxPro UK Limited, FxPro Financial Services Ltd
- Leverage for Share CFDs in Europe: 1:5
- Tradable Share CFDs: 2,000+ including from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States
- Spreads and Commissions: as low as 41 cents in Apple (AAPL) + zero commission
- Platforms: FxPro WebTrader Platform, cTrader, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5
- Tools/Resources: Trading Central, VPS, BnkPro E-Money and Investments
- Share CFD Dividends: Yes
- European Support Languages: English, French, Greek, Hungarian, Spanish
I found the FXPro WebTrader platform and mobile app to be intuitive and ideal for casual traders . MT4 and MT5 are also available for traders who want advanced charting, custom indicators, and automated strategies using Expert Advisors (EAs). In my view, cTrader offers a balance of modern design and advanced features. And for traders interested in community, TradingView offers cutting-edge charting, technical analysis tools, and social features.
My tests showed that trading costs are attractive for stock traders. FXPro offers commission-free trading on share CFDs with costs reflected in floating spreads. Dividend adjustments are applied to positions held over the ex-dividend date, long positions credited and short positions debited to reflect the dividend paid on the underlying shares.
Pros and Cons
- Extended hours trading on 50+ shares
- Trading Central stock research
- Ultra-fast trade execution
- FXPro Squawk newsfeed
- Inactivity fee
Best for Professional Traders
- $1000Min Deposit
- 454Tradable Instruments
- HighFees
Why We Picked It
Swissquote is my first choice for professional traders in light of its high execution quality, advanced trading technology, and high trust rating. The Swiss bank is regulated across multiple European jurisdictions and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Average execution speeds of 9 milliseconds and a 98% fill rate makes Swissquote especially attractive for day traders, scalpers, and algo traders.
Key Features:
- European Regulator: FINMA, FCA, CySEC, CSSF, MFSA
- European entity: Swissquote Bank Ltd, Swissquote Ltd, Swissquote Capital Markets Ltd, Swissquote Bank Europe Ltd, Swissquote Financial Services (Malta) Ltd
- Leverage for Share CFDs in Europe: 1:20 with Swissquote Bank Ltd entity, 1:5 with all other European entities
- Tradable Share CFDs: 340 including French, UK, German, and Swiss companies
- Spreads and Commissions: as low as 3 cents in Apple (AAPL) + a commission of 3 cents per share (Standard Account)
- Platforms: Advanced Trader, MT4, MT5
- Tools/Resources: Trading Central, Autochartist
- Share CFD Dividends: Yes
- European Support Languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Greek
The platform lineup is especially strong for experienced traders. The proprietary CFXD platform incorporates TradingView charting, advanced order types like OCO and IF-done, Multi Account Manager (MAM) functionality and FIX API connectivity. The popular TradingView platform is also available, along with MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 which support Expert Advisors (EAs) for automated strategies.
The broker excels with the depth of its research and analysis tools. Traders have access to third party resources including Autochartist, along with Swissquote’s own market research. SwissQuote’s Financial Lab section publishes expert commentary on major market drivers. And Autochartist helps you find trade ideas with emerging chart patterns and important technical levels.
Pros and Cons
- Exceptional regulatory oversight
- FIX API support
- Reliable multilingual support
- Integrated Autochartist signals
- High minimum deposit
Best for Copy Trading
- $100Min Deposit
- 1472Tradable Instruments
- MediumFees
Why We Picked It
AvaTrade was founded in 2006 and is a CFD industry trailblazer with especially strong social trading features. The broker offers its own AvaSocial app and third-party copy trading platform DupliTrade. Clients can access over 700 CFDs on U.S., European, and Asian shares from a single platform.
Key Features:
- European Regulator: CBI
- European entity: Ava Trade EU Ltd
- Leverage for Share CFDs in Europe: 1:5
- Tradable Share CFDs: 700+, across all major stock exchanges including NYSE, Nasdaq, LSE
- Spreads and Commissions: Spreads as low as33 cents in Apple (AAPL)
- Platforms: MT4, MT5, WebTrader, AvaTradeGo mobile app
- Tools/Resources: Trading Central, DupliTrade, AvaSocial
- Share CFD Dividends: Yes
- European Support Languages: English, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Slovak, Spanish, Ukrainian
The AvaSocial app allows you to discover traders based on factors like performance and risk level, follow their activity, interact with the community, and automatically replicate their trades in your account. You are not locked in, as you can monitor your performance and stop copying whenever you want. DupliTrade gives you access to a curated selection of strategy providers, who you can review and copy. With the DupliTrade platform, trades are automatically executed in your connected AvaTrade MT4 or MT5 account.
AvaTrade also has a strong educational offering which can cater to beginner, intermediate, and advanced traders. In-depth courses cover the stock market and technical analysis. But for me what really separated AvaTrade was the attention to detail in its platform tutorials.
Pros and Cons
- Diverse trading platforms
- AvaProtect tool
- Trading Central research
- Good range of account types
- Limited payment options
Best Low Spreads
- $0Min Deposit
- 2534Tradable Instruments
- LowFees
Why We Picked It
XTB launched in Poland in 2004, and has since grown to be a major player among European CFD brokers. The broker offers over 11,300 trading and investing products and holds licences from multiple top-tier regulators. Spreads and overall trading costs for CFDs on shares came in substantially better than average in our tests. And clients have access to a better than average range of both CFDs on shares (2,000+) and real shares ( 5880+).
Key Features:
- European Regulator: CySEC, FCA, CNMV, KNF
- European entity: XTB Limited (CY), XTB Limited (UK), XTB S.A., X-Trade Brokers DM SA
- Leverage for Share CFDs in Europe: 1:5
- Tradable Share CFDs: 1935 including Belgian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss, and UK companies
- Spreads and Commissions: As low as 47 cents in Apple (0.30% markup included in the spread)
- Platforms: xStation 5, xStation Mobile
- Tools/Resources: Stock Scanners, Heatmaps
- Share CFD Dividends: Yes
- European Support Languages: Czech, Italian, Polish, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, French, Spanish, English
I found that trading costs are highly competitive across most instruments at XTB. Spreads were most competitive on shares, forex, and indices. In our hands-on tests, the cost of placing a trade for 100 shares of Apple (AAPL) came in at $6 versus our industry benchmark of $32.98. The cost for Tesla (TSLA) 70% less than average at $15 versus our benchmark of $51.22.
XTB’s proprietary xStation platform was a pleasure to use. I found it intuitive enough for beginners but also packing the features demanded by active day traders. You can access advanced charting, 1-click trading, depth.of-market (DOM), alerts, and integrated market analysis. Stock traders can also use heatmaps and scanners to quickly find the day’s most volatile companies or sectors.
Pros and Cons
- Top-tier regulation
- Competitive spreads
- Strong customer service
- User-friendly trading platform
- Lacks copy trading
All the Brokers We Tested
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About the Authors
Dan Blystone began his career in the trading industry in 1998 on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Later, Dan gained insight into the forex industry during his time as a Series 3 licensed futures and forex broker. He also traded at a couple of different prop trading firms in Chicago. Dan is well-equipped to recommend the best forex brokers due to his extensive experience and understanding of the brokerage industry.
As a Senior Content Editor at FXEmpire, Ola has revised and fact-checked over 200 broker reviews and guides. Her profound understanding of financial markets has been crucial in developing the proprietary rating system.
Aviva is a Senior Content Editor at FXEmpire. Her substantial contributions include refining over 150 broker reviews and 'Best Brokers Guides,' enhancing our proprietary methodology, and ensuring every fact is meticulously verified.