Best mobile trading apps in Europe in 2024

Home to over 30 million users, eToro remains a popular name amongst European beginners desiring simplicity and access to a good range of products. It’s the best trading app in Europe for social trading. Investors benefit from zero-commission stock and ETF trades, in addition to a bustling community of social traders. 

Social trading represents the growing practice of copying the trades of fellow traders you like or whose strategies you agree with. eToro automates this process, allowing you to effectively and passively follow various strategies. 

The platform provides an intuitive trading app suitable for beginning investors. It features a two-step login feature and 21 languages (and counting), making it ideal for the diverse eurozone. However, advanced users should keep in mind that there are no drawing tools and few alert settings. 

eToro is also known for CFDs, or contracts for differences. These enable traders to participate in the price movements of the underlying securities, currencies, or commodities without actually owning them. 

Read our eToro review.

Founded in 2002, XTB is a major player in the brokerage industry with extensive worldwide experience, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – plus other relevant regulatory bodies – and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

You can invest through xStation 5 and xStation Mobile in different investment products, such as stocks, ETFs, and CFDs on stocks, Forex, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies (this product offering may vary slightly from country to country). It offers 0% commission on stocks and ETFs, but only in some European countries*. International investors only get a 0% commission on stock and ETF CFDs.

Opening an account and transferring money is a quick and hassle-free process. For beginners, it presents a demo account where you can trade as if it were real money to help you feel the investment platform firsthand, and you get access to educational tools. For intermediate and advanced investors, you will find plenty of technical and fundamental tools to help you better assess your investment decisions.

On the downside, you will face an inactivity fee of €10/month after one year of non-trading, and if you have not deposited in the last 90 days, it charges high commissions on CFDs of cryptocurrencies but low costs for Forex.

Want to know more about XTB? Check our XTB Review.

Founded in 2008, Plus500 is an online broker offering various financial products, including real shares (on Plus500 Invest) and CFDs on Forex, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, Commodities, ETFs, Options, and Indices. It is available in over 50 countries and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: PLUS).

There are two distinct account types:

• Plus500 CFD: It only focuses on CFD products;
• Plus500 Invest: Where you can trade stocks (real shares);

The web platform you will use is the WebTrader, Plus500’s proprietary platform, offering a stable trading experience and reliable access from multiple devices, including a mobile app. All platforms are accessible and responsive, and you can start testing the features by opening a demo account.

Their customer support is helpful and readily assessed through a chat that is always shown on the trading platform. Their spreads are low, offering accounts in sixteen currencies, including USD, EUR, and GBP. Still, they charge a 0.70% currency conversion fee and a $10 monthly fee following three months with no activity. On Plus500 Invest, they only charge a small commission per trade (US market: $0.006/share).

Finally, it is regulated by several financial regulators like the FCA and CySEC, meaning that Plus500 is appropriately supervised and that there is an investor protection scheme under the entity you open an account. For instance, If you open an account as a European investor through Plus500CY Ltd, you are protected up to €20,000 (in the UK, the protection is up to £85,000). Additionally, Plus500 provides negative balance protection for CFD trading on a per-account basis.

Want to know more about Plus500? Check our Plus500 Review.

Founded in 2008, DEGIRO remains one of the best trading apps in Europe for traders specialising in equities and ETFs. It’s the discount broker for over 2.5 million Europeans, including beginners and more advanced users. It features low fees all-around, no inactivity fees, a +€/£1 commission for US stock trading (+€/£1 of external costs), and ETFs (+€/£1 of external costs). 

The platform operates on a “do-it-yourself” basis by providing the necessary tools to trade many equities often. The products on offer include futures, warrants, investment funds, and some leveraged products in addition to stocks, ETFs, and bonds. That being said, DEGIRO is a winner for buy-and-hold investors, given a lack of fees for maintenance, custody, and inactivity. 

While focusing on simplicity, its mobile app provides straightforward trade executions alongside two-way and biometric authentications. However, it lacks price alerts. 

Read our DEGIRO review here.

inbestMe is a Robo-Advisor that allows you to build a customized portfolio based on your financial objectives and risk tolerance. It is fully automated and even offers tax-loss harvesting (tax efficiency). It charges a maximum management fee of 0.41%/year. Access to a human advisor is available for amounts above €100,000.

The inbestMe app is not particularly relevant when compared to the brokers’ app since you do not have the purpose of trading, following the news or set alerts. The main functions will be to deposit/withdraw and follow your current portfolio through your investment dashboard. Nonetheless, it is a smooth app, and in the palm of your hand, you check how your portfolio evolves.

You have four available ETF investment styles: inbestMe ETF, inbestMe ETFs Dynamic, inbestMe ETFs Value, and a Socially Responsible Investing ETF. You can start investing in this portfolio with a minimum of €/$5,000.

InbestMe is regulated and supervised by the CNMV (National Securities Market Commission), the body supervising and inspecting the Spanish securities markets. Your investments are protected up to €100,000 by FOGAIN, depending on which Interactive Brokers account is opened (€20,000 for IB Ireland and up to $500,000 for the IB United States).

Lightyear is an emerging investing app in Europe. Its user-friendly and well-designed mobile trading platform features an efficient search function and neatly organised asset groups. It’s available for both Android and iOS. One drawback compared to the web platform is that the mobile app is only available in English.

In the mobile app, you are prompted to choose a 4-digit PIN to secure your app. One notable feature of the mobile app is that it allows you to use biometric data (Face ID or fingerprint) to log in.

You can find a search bar at the top and essential information, such as the announcement “You’re earning interest”, “Popular this week” or “Discover”. These sections are further divided into Stocks and ETFs, serving as a collection of “Trending Assets” on the platform for the current week. The Lightyear mobile app offers Market, Limit, and recurring orders, just like the web trading platform. However, it’s essential to note that compared to competitors such as Interactive Brokers, the order choices are somewhat limited.

Lightyear operates under the regulations of Estonia and the UK authorities. Lightyear Europe is directly regulated by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA) -4.1-1/31. In the UK, Lightyear Financial Ltd administers your Lightyear account. Lightyear Financial Ltd (FRN 955739) is an appointed representative (AR) of RiskSave Technologies Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 775330, FCA).