CMC Markets vs Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers is the better overall choice for most serious investors and multi-asset traders, while CMC Markets is the better choice for UK spread betting and traders who prioritise a simpler CFD-focused experience.

Interactive Brokers wins on global market access, exchange-traded products, currency conversion costs, professional trading tools and API access. CMC Markets is particularly strong for spread betting, CFDs, TradingView integration and commission-free UK share investing.

The choice becomes fairly simple:

• Choose Interactive Brokers if you invest internationally, trade stocks, ETFs, exchange-traded options, futures, bonds or currencies, or want professional execution and automation tools.
• Choose CMC Markets if spread betting or CFD trading is your priority, particularly as a UK trader.
• Consider CMC Markets for simple UK share investing if zero dealing commission matters more to you than low foreign-exchange costs.
• Choose Interactive Brokers for international share investing because its FX pricing can make a substantial difference when repeatedly buying assets denominated in another currency.

Both brokers operate in multiple jurisdictions, so fees, instruments and investor protections can differ outside the UK.

Risk warning: Investing can result in losses. CFDs, spread bets and leveraged trading carry substantially higher risk. CMC Markets currently states that 68% of its retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting and/or trading CFDs with the provider. Interactive Brokers states that 57.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with IBKR.

CMC Markets vs Interactive Brokers at a glance

Interactive Brokers currently provides access to around 160 markets across stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds from a multi-currency account. CMC Markets advertises around 21,000 CFD instruments and more than 16,000 stocks and ETFs through its UK equities offering. These numbers are not directly comparable because one represents underlying exchange access while the other includes a large derivatives catalogue.

What is the biggest difference between CMC Markets and Interactive Brokers?

That distinction matters more than comparing a few headline spreads.

CMC Markets has built its UK proposition around products including share investing, CFDs, spread betting, FX Active and cash-settled options. Its CFD and spread-betting platform covers approximately 21,000 instruments, and eligible CFD accounts can integrate directly with TradingView. MetaTrader 4 is also available for forex, indices and commodities.

Interactive Brokers gives investors direct access to a much broader collection of exchange-traded instruments. Its current UK offering covers stocks, ETFs, options, futures, currencies, bonds, funds and other products across approximately 160 markets. Trader Workstation, IBKR Desktop, Client Portal, GlobalTrader, mobile apps and APIs cater to everyone from retail investors to professional and institutional traders.

If your question is simply "Which broker can do more?", Interactive Brokers wins.

If the question is "Which broker is better for UK spread betting and CFD trading?", CMC Markets has the clearer advantage.

Which is cheaper, CMC Markets or Interactive Brokers?

The headline "commission-free" label does not tell you the total cost.

UK and European shares

Interactive Brokers currently charges £3 or €3 for typical Western European stock trades. Larger trades above £6,000 or €6,000 are charged at 0.05% under its simplified pricing. Standard individual accounts have no platform fee, account minimum or inactivity fee.

CMC Markets offers £0 commission on its UK share-investing products. Its equities account advertises no commission, custody, account or platform fee, although FX conversion and some market-data charges can apply.

That means a UK investor primarily buying sterling-denominated shares may reasonably prefer CMC Markets on dealing costs alone.

International shares and FX conversion

Interactive Brokers advertises an FX auto-conversion cost of around 3 basis points, or 0.03% of trade value, for its simplified GlobalTrader pricing. Its ISA page similarly gives 0.03% as an example currency-conversion fee.

CMC's standard equities offering states that a 0.7% currency conversion fee may apply. Its separate CMC Invest plans currently use FX rates ranging from 0.99% on Core to 0.39% on Premium.

Consider a £5,000 currency conversion:

• 0.03% is approximately £1.50
• 0.39% is approximately £19.50
• 0.70% is approximately £35
• 0.99% is approximately £49.50

Those figures isolate the percentage currency-conversion charge and do not include dealing commissions, spreads, taxes or other applicable costs.

For someone regularly buying US shares with GBP, a broker's FX charge can matter far more than whether the trade itself says "£0 commission".

Interactive Brokers' own August 2026 UK comparison estimated a total cost of £1.77 for a £5,000 US stock transaction involving 100 shares under the assumptions used in its example. That is the broker's own illustration rather than an independent benchmark, but it shows why FX pricing is central to IBKR's proposition.

Inactivity fees

Interactive Brokers charges no inactivity fee on standard individual accounts.

CMC Markets states that applicable dormant trading accounts can be charged £10 per month after one continuous year without trading activity, provided funds remain in the account.

For a buy-and-hold investor, however, the relevant CMC investment account and price plan should be checked rather than assuming CFD-account dormancy rules apply across every CMC product.

Fee verdict

CMC Markets can win for simple commission-free domestic share dealing.

Do not choose between these brokers based solely on the word "commission".

Which broker offers more investments and markets?

Interactive Brokers provides access to around 160 markets in 36 countries, covering stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds through one brokerage ecosystem. Its API products provide the same broad market infrastructure to automated and professional users.

CMC Markets still has a large catalogue, but much of its breadth comes from derivatives. UK clients can access approximately 21,000 CFD instruments, including shares, ETFs, forex, indices, commodities and rates or bonds. CMC also advertises more than 16,000 shares and ETFs through its equities offering.

The distinction is important.

A trader taking a CFD position on an instrument does not own the underlying asset. A long-term investor buying the underlying stock through a brokerage account does.

Interactive Brokers is better for:

• Global stocks and ETFs
• Exchange-traded options
• Futures and futures options
• Bonds
• Spot currencies
• Advanced portfolio construction
• Margin accounts
• Short selling
• Professional and institutional trading
• Automated trading through APIs

CMC Markets is better suited to:

• Spread betting
• Retail CFD trading
• FX-focused trading
• Index speculation
• Commodity CFDs
• Trading through MetaTrader 4
• Trading CMC products through TradingView
• Smaller fractional OTC option positions

CMC's current options product deserves a specific distinction. CMC Markets' options are cash-settled OTC options or spread bets, not the same product as buying standard exchange-traded options through Interactive Brokers. CMC says its OTC options are booked CFD-style and can be traded fractionally from 0.01 of a contract.

If options trading is a major reason for opening the account, Interactive Brokers is the stronger choice for most sophisticated options traders.

Which has the better trading platform?

CMC Markets offers its proprietary web and mobile platform, TradingView integration for eligible CFD accounts and MetaTrader 4. Its proprietary platform includes charting, pattern recognition, market sentiment, Morningstar research and Reuters news.

Its TradingView integration is particularly useful. Eligible CMC CFD accounts can open, manage and close positions directly through TradingView while keeping activity synchronised with the CMC platform. TradingView provides more than 400 pre-built indicators, Pine Script functionality and extensive charting tools.

Interactive Brokers takes the opposite approach. Its ecosystem includes:

• Trader Workstation
• IBKR Desktop
• Client Portal
• IBKR Mobile
• IBKR GlobalTrader
• APIs for custom trading systems

Interactive Brokers' API suite supports trading, account management, reporting, historical and real-time data across its global market infrastructure.

Trader Workstation is extremely capable, but that capability creates complexity. Someone buying a handful of ETFs every month may have no need for dozens of order types, market scanners, algorithms and institutional-style risk tools.

For professional and systematic traders, that complexity is the point.

CMC Markets wins on accessibility and third-party charting. Interactive Brokers wins on depth, automation and professional tooling.

Is CMC Markets or Interactive Brokers better for an ISA?

Interactive Brokers currently charges a £3 minimum monthly activity fee for an adult Stocks and Shares ISA. UK and most European stock trades start at £3, US stock pricing starts at $0.005 per share, and there are no custody fees. IBKR ISAs are cash accounts, so margin is not available.

CMC Markets' current CMC Invest structure places its Flexible Stocks & Shares ISA in the Plus plan at up to £6.99 per month. Its Premium plan costs up to £10.99 per month and adds access to a SIPP alongside the ISA and GIA. Trades are commission-free, while FX fees depend on the chosen plan.

CMC Markets also offers flexible ISA functionality, meaning eligible withdrawals can be replaced within the same tax year without reducing the remaining ISA allowance, subject to the applicable UK rules.

For an investor building a heavily international portfolio, I would favour Interactive Brokers because currency-conversion costs and global access compound over time.

For someone wanting a straightforward UK app combining savings, ISA and eventually pension products, CMC Invest deserves consideration, despite the higher monthly plan cost.

Is CMC Markets or Interactive Brokers better for forex and CFDs?

CMC's UK CFD platform gives access to around 21,000 instruments. Its FX Active account offers spreads from 0.0 pips on six major currency pairs with a separate commission, plus a stated 25% spread discount on other FX pairs compared with its regular CFD account.

Interactive Brokers also offers forex and CFDs. Its forex CFD pricing uses volume-based commissions and aggregated quotes from 17 major foreign-exchange dealers, with displayed quotes potentially as narrow as 0.1 pip.

The difference is less about whether IBKR can trade these products and more about what each platform is built around.

CMC Markets feels like a derivatives broker with investing capabilities added around it.

Interactive Brokers feels like a global brokerage system that also supports derivatives.

For a dedicated UK CFD or spread-betting trader, CMC Markets is therefore the cleaner fit.

CMC Markets vs Interactive Brokers for spread betting

CMC Markets offers spread betting across approximately 21,000 instruments to eligible UK clients. Interactive Brokers does not provide a directly comparable UK spread-betting proposition.

For many UK individuals, spread-betting profits are currently outside Capital Gains Tax and Stamp Duty. Spread-betting losses also generally cannot be offset against taxable capital gains. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change, so the tax advantage should not be treated as universal.

That product difference alone can make CMC Markets the obvious winner for a specific type of UK trader.

It does not make spread betting safer. Leverage can magnify losses rapidly.

Which broker is safer?

CMC Markets UK plc is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 173730. CMC states that retail client money is segregated from company funds in accordance with FCA Client Assets rules and advertises Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection of up to £85,000, subject to eligibility and scheme rules.

Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under FRN 208159 and provides client-money and client-asset services under FCA CASS rules.

However, Interactive Brokers' structure is more complicated.

Interactive Brokers says IBUK may custody certain securities and cash with its US affiliate, Interactive Brokers LLC. To the extent qualifying assets are held there, SIPC protection can apply up to $500,000, including a $250,000 cash sublimit, while Interactive Brokers states that UK FSCS protection applies to its products only in limited circumstances. SIPC protects against broker-dealer failure under its rules, not investment losses.

This is a good example of why "both are FCA regulated" is not a complete safety comparison.

Neither regulatory protection nor compensation schemes protect you from an investment falling in value.

Who should choose CMC Markets?

CMC Markets makes the most sense when you:

• Want spread betting
• Primarily trade forex, indices or CFDs
• Prefer TradingView or MetaTrader 4
• Want a relatively accessible web and mobile trading platform
• Mainly buy UK shares and value £0 dealing commission
• Want CMC's flexible ISA, GIA and SIPP ecosystem
• Want fractional cash-settled OTC options rather than conventional exchange-traded options

CMC Markets is less compelling when you frequently convert currencies, require deep global exchange access or trade sophisticated exchange-listed derivatives.

Who should choose Interactive Brokers?

Interactive Brokers makes the most sense when you:

• Buy shares and ETFs across multiple countries
• Regularly convert GBP into USD, EUR or other currencies
• Trade listed options or futures
• Invest in bonds
• Need margin facilities
• Short stocks
• Want sophisticated order types and execution tools
• Run systematic or algorithmic strategies
• Need API access
• Manage a larger or genuinely multi-asset portfolio

The biggest reason to choose IBKR is not one individual feature. It is that you can grow into the platform without quickly outgrowing the brokerage itself.

CMC Markets vs Interactive Brokers: final verdict

For the broad query CMC Markets vs Interactive Brokers, Interactive Brokers is the better all-round broker because it combines lower international trading friction with wider direct market access, exchange-traded options and futures, professional platforms and extensive API capabilities.

CMC Markets should not be dismissed as the weaker version of Interactive Brokers. It serves a different trader particularly well.

Choose CMC Markets for UK spread betting, CFD-focused trading, TradingView or MT4, and potentially simple commission-free UK share investing.

Choose Interactive Brokers for global investing, exchange-traded derivatives, international portfolios, low-cost FX conversion, automation and advanced multi-asset trading.

If I had to choose one account without knowing anything else about the investor, I would open Interactive Brokers.

If the investor told me that their actual objective was to spread bet the FTSE 100, trade index CFDs and manage everything through a straightforward charting interface, I would choose CMC Markets instead.

That is the meaningful distinction between the two.

Frequently asked questions

Is Interactive Brokers better than CMC Markets?

Interactive Brokers provides broader exchange access, professional trading software, APIs and low FX conversion costs. CMC Markets provides a stronger spread-betting proposition plus TradingView and MetaTrader 4 support.

Is CMC Markets cheaper than Interactive Brokers?

CMC's UK equities product offers zero dealing commission but may charge a 0.7% FX conversion fee. Interactive Brokers charges commissions on shares but advertises currency conversion around 0.03% under relevant pricing arrangements.

Can I buy real shares with CMC Markets and Interactive Brokers?

CMC Markets offers equities and CMC Invest accounts, while Interactive Brokers provides direct access to stocks and ETFs across global exchanges.

Does CMC Markets offer the same options as Interactive Brokers?

CMC Markets offers cash-settled OTC options and spread-bet options on selected underlyings. Interactive Brokers provides broad access to conventional exchange-traded options markets. Traders specifically seeking listed stock and index options will generally find Interactive Brokers more suitable.