eToro is an easy-to-use platform known for its “copy-trading” feature. We've rated every aspect of eToro in our review.
Quick verdict
eToro’s a good option – as long as you understand the fees. eToro has built a reputation as one of the most innovative online investing platforms around since it launched in 2007, and has over 10 million users worldwide.
This review doesn’t apply to the US version.
Finder score: ★★★★★Customer score: ★★★★★
Stock exchanges score: 3/5 Fees score: 5/5 Tools and research score: 3/5
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.67% 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.
You can trade commission-free on both UK and international stocks with eToro, which is why we’ve given it a good rating for fees, although there are some charges, as we highlight in our fees section. It’s regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so you’ll be protected for up to £85,000 if eToro were to go bust.
eToro is known for allowing users to see what other traders are doing, and copy them. As with any type of investment, it’s your money that’s at risk when you use eToro, and there’s no guarantee of profits. Our review analyses and rates each aspect of the platform.
eToro’s main drawback is that you can only invest in a general investment account – it doesn’t have pensions or ISAs on offer. The most similar provider that also has an ISA is Trading 212.
What stocks can you trade with eToro?
Stock exchanges rating
★★★★★
London Stock Exchange (LSE)
NASDAQ
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
Japan Exchange Group (JPX)
Euronext
Deutsche Börse
You can invest in over 1,000 different global stocks from the world’s leading exchanges, including Apple, Netflix, Google, easyJet, Barclays, Airbus, Adidas. eToro has sorted the stocks available on its site by categories and exchanges to help you find what you’re looking for. It has some handy charts to show you how they are moving in real time at a glance.
You can’t buy stocks that are listed on the Toronto stock exchange, Japan Exchange Group or Deutsche Börse with eToro.
eToro fees
Fees rating
★★★★★
Minimum deposit
$200 (around £140)
Standard platform charge (monthly)
0%
Best platform charge (monthly)
0%
Standard fee per trade
£0
Best fee per trade
£0
Forex conversion fee
0.50%
Deposit fee
£0
Withdrawal fee
$5.00 (around £3.50)
Inactivity fee
$10.00 (around £7)
eToro’s fees are one of the main reasons it’s so popular. You don’t pay commission on trades, which is ideal if you plan to trade regularly.
Despite the much-publicised “commission-free” trading option, eToro isn’t really free. It comes with a couple of unavoidable fees: deposits into and withdrawals from your account.
To get the most out of its extensive trading platform, you can find yourself paying a number of standard (and unexpected) fees, and these can be confusing for beginner traders. Make sure you check its fees before you begin trading, especially around inactivity fees (a fee for not trading but still having money in your account) and currency conversion.
Commission-free investing is currently only available in countries under FCA and cySEC regulation, which includes the UK and all major European countries.
There’s also a minimum deposit amount of $200 for your first deposit. Thereafter the minimum deposit amount is $50. Zero commission doesn’t doesn’t apply to any leveraged trades, shorts or stock CFDs.
While you won’t pay commission on basic share buy and sell orders, you’ll still need to pay a $5 withdrawal fee, and the minimum withdrawal amount is $30.
eToro tools and research
Tools and research rating
★★★★★
Interactive charting
Advanced charting tools
Stop Loss
Trailing stop
ETF research
Latest news
Company announcements
Dividend news
Watch lists
Social or copy trading
Economic calendar
eToro’s got an array of trading tools that can help you, including interactive charting and advanced charting tools. You can use stop loss and trailing stop to have more control over your trades.
When it comes to research, there’s great research on stocks, exchange traded fund (ETF) research, latest news and company announcements. You can also create watch lists and get tips from other traders with social trading.
eToro has a virtual portfolio, which is a demo account that lets you trade up to the value of $100,000 to practise without using real money.
eToro customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction rating
★★★★★
Help over the phone
Help via email
Help in app
Community, forum or a space to share ideas
We carried out a customer satisfaction survey in December 2020.
eToro’s customers like cheap trading fees and found that it’s easy to use. Good customer service was one of the key positives mentioned about the platform.
Some reviews mentioned that they didn’t like the layout of the platform or felt that it was too complicated.
On consumer review platform Trustpilot, eToro has 2.8 out of 5 stars and a rating of “Average”, based on more than 6,300 reviews.
Things are brighter in the App Store, where the eToro app has 3.5 out of 5 stars based on more than 4,700 reviews. On Google Play, the eToro app has 4.1 out of 5 stars based on more than 5,000 reviews.
Positive feedback included the ease of use and flexibility to switch between stocks and crypto. Negative feedback centred around technical glitches and issues with withdrawals.
On Reddit, the users thought that eToro was easy to use and has a good platform. Most of the negative comments surrounded the withdrawal charges and the inactivity fees. (Updated June 2, 2021).
eToro review: What else do I need to know?
eToro lets you trade stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), contracts for difference (CFDs), commodities and currencies. As well as low-cost investing, eToro also offers the OpenBook trading platform, which lets users automatically copy and execute another investor’s trades.
Along with digital trading platforms such as Freetrade and Trading 212, eToro offers a free investing account. This means users can buy and sell a range of global stocks with no commission.
What is social trading?
eToro is the leading social trading platform. This means that you can connect with others to share your investment strategies and discuss trading with the user base. You can also copy other traders’ actions in real-time. This is a nice way of getting the hang of how it works and utilising others’ knowledge and experience.
The platform allows you to filter the different traders that you can copy by loads of different things, such as the risk score, how many people already copy them, how many profitable weeks they’ve had and where they’re located. It also has “trending” traders, “top investors”, and investors based on the risk score.
The platform lets you see the users’ average risk score and gains in the last year. Of course, as always, past performance is not an indication of future results.
eToro CFD trading
If you’re more of an advanced trader, eToro allows you to trade contracts for difference (CFDs). These allow you to trade on market volatility without ever having to own the underlying asset. Great if you don’t want a truck full of soybeans rocking up on your doorstep. Features of eToro’s CFD trading platform include:
Customised risk management. “Trailing Stop Loss” and “Take Profit” can help you protect your investments.
Analysis tools. Includes charts, analyst consensus and insider transactions.
Innovative features. These include One-Click Trading, real-time alerts and interactive newsfeeds.
Leverage. You can apply for up to 1:30 leverage.
What is leverage?
You’ll see leverage being referred to on the site as a ratio, such as 1:30 that you see above. Leverage allows you to open positions that are larger than your capital. For the example above, for every £1 you trade, you have the effect of £30 capital. Because of this, it is possible to lose more than your initial investment, which makes it riskier. You may have to have the funds available in your account to cover losses.
What are the eToro Club tiers
The eToro club is a tiered membership program that you can add to your eToro account, based on the amount of realised equity you have on the platform. It offers a range of perks including fee discounts, analytical tools and access to events.
You can get additional benefits and features with each upgrade in the eToro club. The tiers are:
Silver – $5,000+
Gold – $10,000+
Platinum – $25,000+
Platinum+ – $50,000+
Diamond – $250,000+
How to sign up for eToro
It takes 30 seconds to create your investing account via the eToro website, but you’ll then need to complete your profile and verify your account. This can take 10-15 minutes.
Create an account. This doesn’t take long. You just need to choose a username and enter your email address and a password.
Provide more information. You’ll need to select “complete your profile” to enter this. We’ve listed some of the things eToro will ask for below.
Answer some questions. These will be about your experience of trading in the past, including equities, crypto and leveraged products.
Tell eToro what you plan to trade and for how long. You can choose between stocks, crypto, currencies, commodities and indices.
Give an indication of your future plans. This includes information about what you’re investing for and your expected risk and reward scenario.
Provide a photo of your ID. You’ll have to provide a copy of your passport or ID card and a utility bill or bank statement.
You’ll need to provide:
Your name
Your date of birth
Your address
Your national insurance number
Whether you are a US citizen
Information about your income
Your phone number and email
It can take up to 3 business days for your account to be verified.
How to use eToro
Once you’ve been verified, you can deposit funds and start trading. With the free account, you can access many of the regular eToro features like CopyPortfolio, virtual trading and TipRanks expert stock analysis.
You can add and remove stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies to your watchlist, and also track your portfolio.
However, when using the platform, keep in mind that only basic stock buy orders are commission-free. It can be quite easy to get carried away and start dabbling in other types of assets, but these will attract trading fees and may hold more risk.
It’s good – but you need to understand the fees. eToro has built a reputation as one of the most innovative and popular online investing platforms since its launch in 2007. It currently has over 10 million users worldwide and provides a range of low-cost investing services.
The additional fees are eToro’s biggest drawback, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Take a look through its fees and make sure you understand what each of them is for before you begin. If you think eToro isn’t for you, you can browse other platforms in our share trading comparison table.
eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks as well as trading CFDs.
Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 67% 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.
Past performance is not an indication of future results.
Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro.
Frequently asked questions
Dividends are paid into your eToro account as cash. You’ll get an email, notification and an activity feed item when those are paid.
Not yet. But this is the latest from the eToro team: “It shouldn’t be too difficult to do once we have more resources available. We already have all the necessary APIs for the mobile apps anyway.”
No, eToro is not a financial advice service and does not provide investing advice. Investors are responsible for their own purchasing and trading decisions.
Not yet. But this is the latest from the eToro team: “It shouldn’t be too difficult to do once we have more resources available. We already have all the necessary APIs for the mobile apps anyway.”
Yes, you will likely need to pay tax on any gains you make from buying and selling shares, although this will depend on your personal tax rate. However, you can invest up to £20,000 per year in the investment ISA, which will not be subject to tax, but eToro does not have an ISA option available.
You can withdraw your money using the app directly into your bank account. There is a £5 fee for same-day withdrawals.
Yes you can! Download eToro either on the App Store or get it on Google Play.
Also known as a stocks and shares ISA, this is an account that lets you invest up to £20,000 per year in stocks. You do not need to pay tax on any profits you make in your ISA.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund that is traded on a stock exchange. It operates like a normal stock, but is actually a bundle of various assets such as bonds, stocks and commodities. We have a full guide to ETFs if you’re looking to take a nap.
No, eToro does not offer a stocks and shares ISA (individual savings account). It isn’t known whether this is going to be offered in the future. There are plenty of different platforms that you can get an ISA with, so it’s worth taking a look at our stocks and shares ISA comparison if this is what you’re looking for.
Yes. eToro is regulated and authorised by the FCA in the UK and also covered by the FSCS, so you’ll be protected for up to £85,000 in the event the company goes bust.
As with any type of investment, it’s your money that’s at risk when you use eToro, and there’s no guarantee of profits.
eToro makes money by charging a range of fees on certain types of trades. While it’s free to start using eToro, you’ll need to pay for most of its trademark trading features and options.
eToro is good for investors who understand what they’re doing with investing, or those who have done some research. The platform can be overwhelming and quite confusing for beginners, but if you stick with it and research what you’re unsure of, it’s possible to pick it up.
Zoe is a writer for Finder specialising in investment and banking. Zoe has a BA in English literature and several years of experience in writing about all things personal finance. She has a particular love for spreadsheets, having also worked as a management accountant. In her spare time, you’ll find Zoe skating at her local ice rink.
Expert review
eToro is a really comprehensive trading platform that’s popular with investors. It can seem a bit overwhelming at first glance, but it’s actually pretty simple to use once you’ve got your head around the basics. Once you become familiar with the platform, you can find additional tools available to help you analyse stocks further.
eToro’s main draw is that it offers commission free trading – which could save you up to £11.95 on each trade (compared with the most expensive provider we’ve reviewed). It’s got access to some of the main stock exchanges, letting its users invest in UK, US and European shares.
If you’re interested in investing in exchange-traded funds, eToro does offer them, but its research, tools and support for these aren’t as good as other providers, such as IG and Trading 212.
At Finder, we value and respect our editorial independence. We keep our reviews completely factual so you can use them to make better decisions. While we may receive revenue and referral fees from advertising and affiliate links, advertisers do not approve our reviews.
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