Thanks to the numerous online trading apps available today, investing in the stock market has never been easier. Among all the options available, you will need to make a choice, and finding the best stock trading app in Saudi Arabia can be difficult.
Fortunately, we successfully analyzed many trading apps before and conducted multiple trading app reviews, so we can clarify some of your doubts and help you make an informed decision! In this article, we listed the best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia, comparing their specificities and highlighting their strengths.
Best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia
- Interactive Brokers: Best Overall
Online broker with a sophisticated trading platform that offers a wide range of products. The company, founded in the US, provides the app IBKR GlobalTrader, which is ideal for beginners. - XTB: Best for forex and CFDs
Headquartered in Poland and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, XTB offers access to a range of CFD on stocks on its trading app, where you can also trade Forex at a competitive price. - Saxo: Best trading app for advanced traders
Full-service broker who offers stocks, ETFs, bonds, derivatives, crypto, and other products. You can access 36 different markets overseas from Saudi Arabia using their powerful trading apps. - Plus500: Best for demo account
Plus500 is a multi-asset online broker with commission-free CFDs in Indices, Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Shares, Options, and ETFs. It recently launched Plus500 Invest for those who want to invest in real shares.
Disclaimer: 82% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia compared
#1 Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers has proven to be one of the most reliable brokers in the market. The broker, licensed and regulated by many top-tier international regulators, was founded in New York over 40 years ago and survived many financial crises, making it a well-established and trustworthy broker regulated by many top-tier regulators.
They offer trading apps with sophisticated and powerful tools, a wide range of products available for trading, and low prices. The broker offers different mobile apps and web-based platforms that should be used according to your knowledge and experience. The mobile app IBKR GlobalTrader is a user-friendly app suitable for beginners because it simplifies investments without losing the powerful tools for which the broker is famous.
If you want to make the most out of the broker’s powerful tools, you can use the IBKR Mobile, a complete and sophisticated trading app to trade stocks, ETFs, and options. As the features of this app can be overwhelming for beginners, we would recommend the IBKR GlobalTrader if you do not have a lot of experience.
In addition to the mobile apps, you will also find a desktop app and web-based apps where you have advanced trading tools to access the global financial markets. Overall, we believe that Interactive Brokers offers the best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia, and you can find what you are looking for, irrespective of your needs!
Please check our Interactive Brokers review to find out more about the broker.
#2 XTB
76-83% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
XTB is a company founded in 2002 in Poland that offers CFD stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia through the subsidiary XTB International, authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Commission in Belize (FSC License No.: 000302/316). It is important to consider the safety of a platform when choosing the best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia. We note that XTB is licensed in many jurisdictions and regulated by top-tier authorities such as the FCA. The broker allows customers to open Islamic accounts and is considered one of the best forex brokers in Saudi Arabia.
The award-winning trading app xStation, available for mobiles and desktops, enables you to trade a wide range of instruments, gives you access to several technical analysis tools, allows you to copy the trades of other investors, and provides you with comprehensive educational resources. However, you will only be able to buy CFDs on stocks. Therefore, you will not have direct exposure to stocks, only indirect exposure via the derivative. We must note again that this is a complex and risky financial instrument in which most investors lose money when trading on the platform.
In any case, with no commission on the CFDs on stocks, no minimum deposit, great educational resources, and a free demo account that can be used for a month, XTB is a good and reliable option for beginners and advanced investors, provided that you understand the risk of investing in CFDs. This puts the platform in fourth place on our list of best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia.
If you want to learn more about the broker, please check our XTB review!
#3 Saxo
62% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Saxo Bank is a Danish bank founded in 1992 that operates in Saudi Arabia through the representative office in Saxo Bank A/S in the United Arab Emirates. It is undoubtedly one of the most reliable options for advanced traders and beginners since it provides safety, fair prices, and useful tools. Saxo can offer a stock trading app that is among the best in Saudi Arabia: SaxoTraderGO. These are comprehensive, customizable, and have attractive features for investors.
As the name suggests, SaxoTraderGO is a user-friendly, customizable, and award-winning trading platform that can be used by experienced investors and beginners. The app has a mobile and a desktop version. The broker also provides SaxoTraderPRO, a desktop-based platform (that works on Windows and MAC) developed for advanced traders due to its level of detail and complexity. The desktop app is extremely customizable, offers sophisticated tools to analyze and track your performance, and can be used on up to 6 different screens.
Considering that the trading apps have excellent educational resources, low prices, and an impressive range of tradable assets, Saxo deserves a third place on our list of the best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia. The only downside we could think of is that after registering and completing the verification, you will need to fund your account with at least $2,000 to start trading, which can be burdensome for some beginners.
#4 Plus500
82% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Plus500 is a broker founded in 2008 and whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. Regulated by top-tier authorities such as FCA and CySEC, the broker provides a mobile app named Plus500 and a web-based platform called WebTrader. Both are comprehensive and accessible, and you can test their features by opening a demo account.
It is very important to differentiate the two accounts you can access within the trading platforms: Plus500 CFD and Plus500 Invest.
In Plus500 Invest, you can trade stocks (real shares of the companies). In Plus500 CFD, on the other hand, you can only trade CFDs on several financial instruments. The distinction is important because CFDs are leveraged and riskier products, which may exacerbate your losses.
Overall, the broker offers solid stock trading platforms for Saudi Arabian customers, where you can open an Islamic account. The platforms have low costs, reliability and safety, interesting features and products for beginners (demo account) and experienced traders, and good usability. As a downside, though, you will not have access to ETFs.
If you want to learn more about Plus500, please check our full Plus500 review.
Methodology
When making this list, we wanted to help investors in Saudi Arabia to make an educated choice when choosing the best stock trading app. Each of the trading apps we presented has its main features, and we tried to provide a diverse list that will suit the needs of different profiles of investors. In any case, we prepared this list considering the following criteria:
- Prices: the price cannot be the only aspect to be considered when choosing the trading app to invest in, but it is definitely important. You do not want to pay more for a service when you can get the same quality for lower prices.
- Educational resources: high-quality educational resources may be a great advantage, especially for beginners, who can use them to educate themselves before investing money.
- Range of products and markets available: Does the app offer real stocks and ETFs, or only CFDs? Does it have crypto?
- Customer service: irrespective of your choice, problems almost always appear, and it is important to find trading apps developed to help you when it does happen.
- The trading app itself: of course, we took into consideration the functionalities and usability of the platform, as well as its specific features.
- Security: all platforms in the list are regulated by top-tier authorities from many jurisdictions.
What is the difference between a stock and stock CFD?
While the stock gives you a property right over a share of the company, the CFD does not. The stock CFD is a derivative contract where the underlying asset is the stock and where the broker promises to pay you back the difference in value between the time you opened the position and the time you close it. CFDs have a leverage effect: if you buy a stock CFD and its price goes down, you will need to borrow money from the broker to keep the position open. This makes the instrument a risky option that is not suitable for beginners.
How to invest in Saudi Arabia stock exchange (video summary)
Bottom line
To summarize, here’s the list of “Best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia”:
Interactive Brokers
Best OverallXTB
Best for Forex and CFDsSaxo Bank
Best trading app for advanced tradersPlus500
Best for demo account
It is hard to choose the right stock trading app in Saudi Arabia. Luckily, we helped many people in the same situation before, and we can help you now. To facilitate your choice, we listed a few of the best stock trading apps in Saudi Arabia, in our opinion, comparing what they can offer and highlighting their strengths.
We know that trading stocks is a good way to achieve financial freedom, but, like everything in life, risks are involved. We hope that our analysis was enough to help you make an educated decision that acknowledges those risks, whether you are experienced or a novice in the world of trading.
In any case, keep on studying, do due diligence, know your investment profile, and invest wisely!
