DEGIRO Bulgaria: Alternatives for 2026

In 2014, DEGIRO expanded its online trading platform across several European countries outside the Netherlands, its country of origin. Since then, it has been growing steadily and now serves more than 3 million clients across Europe. Founded in 2008, DEGIRO has been part of flatexDEGIRO since 2020, and its services are provided by flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, a German bank supervised by BaFin (Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority).

Is DEGIRO available in Bulgaria in 2026?

Yes, but not directly. Bulgaria is one of DEGIRO’s accepted residency countries, so Bulgarian residents can open and use an account. What DEGIRO does not have is a dedicated Bulgarian website or a local entity, and Bulgaria is not one of its focus markets. Those are the countries with localised sites, such as Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

In practice, this means you sign up through one of DEGIRO’s existing entities rather than a “DEGIRO Bulgaria” page. Registration is done via the DEGIRO app, and you will need to be 18 or over, hold a valid form of identification, have a euro-denominated bank account within the SEPA zone, and be a tax resident in an accepted country (Bulgaria qualifies). It works, it is simply less straightforward than in DEGIRO’s core markets, which is why many Bulgarian investors prefer brokers with a stronger local presence.

Bulgarian clients are served by flatexDEGIRO Bank SE under the EU passport, with Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) as the host regulator. Accounts are held in euro.

Because the setup is less direct and customer support is not tailored to the Bulgarian market, it is worth comparing DEGIRO against brokers that actively serve Bulgarian clients before you decide.

One more point to keep in mind: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, so a euro-denominated SEPA account is no longer an obstacle for Bulgarian investors opening an account with a European broker.

How much does DEGIRO cost?

DEGIRO’s main trading fees, according to its fees page, are:

• US stocks: €1 commission plus a €1 handling fee per order.
• European stocks and ETFs: €2 commission plus a €1 handling fee per order.
• ETFs in the Core Selection: €0 commission plus a €1 handling fee per order.
• Exchange connectivity: 0.25% of the account value, capped at €2.50 per year for each foreign exchange you hold positions on.
• Currency conversion: 0.25% with AutoFX.
• Inactivity fee: none.

Want to know the available online brokers in Bulgaria? We’ve got you covered!

DEGIRO does accept Bulgarian residents, but if you would rather use a broker that is a better fit for the Bulgarian market, or simply want to weigh your options first, you are in luck. Growing competition has pushed many top online brokers to eliminate commissions on most stock and ETF trades.

All these alternatives to DEGIRO are regulated by top-tier regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Ireland’s Central Bank (CBI) and Cyprus’ Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and all of them can serve Bulgarian residents under MiFID II passporting.

Based on criteria such as fees, product range, platform quality, education materials and security, here are our top picks:

eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.

Founded in 2007, eToro has more than 40 million registered users and 4.28 million funded accounts, who can invest in stocks, ETFs and crypto, and trade CFDs on stocks, ETFs, commodities, Forex, indices and cryptocurrencies. ETFs are traded commission-free, as whole or fractional shares (other fees apply). Stocks have a commission of $1 per trade ($2 on some exchanges, such as Hong Kong and Tokyo). The minimum first deposit is $50, and new users can check eToro’s welcome offer for new users (T&Cs apply).

eToro’s investment platform, accessible through both web and mobile platforms, is a social trading hub. Here, investors can engage in discussions about investments, speculations, and market news with fellow investors. eToro also allows users to replicate trading strategies (CopyTrader™) and invest in ready-made investment portfolios (Smart Portfolios) based on thematic investment strategies.

The demo account is particularly useful for a beginner ($100,000 of virtual money). It lets you have real hands-on experience as you would be using real money. So, when switching to a real account, you will notice no difference between your training and real-life investing. On the downside, withdrawals from a USD account cost $5 (minimum withdrawal $30), and converting euro into dollars to buy US assets costs 0.75%. Bulgarian clients can open a EUR account, which makes withdrawals free and avoids the conversion fee on euro-denominated assets. eToro does not charge an inactivity fee.

eToro is regulated by top-tier regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Bulgarian clients are served by eToro (Europe) Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and passported into Bulgaria under MiFID II, with client funds covered up to €20,000 by the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund (ICF).

For more details, visit our eToro review.

Founded in 1978 and publicly listed on NASDAQ (ticker: IBKR, an S&P 500 constituent since August 2025), Interactive Brokers is a global online broker with more than 5.5 million client accounts, which has come through major financial crises, showing resilience and a rigorous risk management process.

Interactive Brokers offers an advanced investment platform that includes a wide range of products (stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs, futures, bonds, and currencies) from 170 markets in 40 countries, solid trade execution (IB SmartRouting), and a set of technical and fundamental tools to help you in your investment decisions.

Beginners and intermediate investors have educational tools to explore, but the learning curve will be steep. That’s why we mainly recommend it to more advanced traders. Besides, the customer service gives crystal clear answers to your doubts, so there is no need to go back and forth.

On the downside, Interactive Brokers’ fee structure is quite complex, the registration process is lengthy but fully online, and the broker doesn’t offer commission-free trading. However, currency conversion costs only 0.002% (minimum $2), and with narrow spreads and the stock lending programme, Interactive Brokers’ clients can still save compared with most brokers.

Interactive Brokers also launched IBKR GlobalTrader, a modern mobile trading app to trade Stocks, Options and ETFs, ideal for beginner investors. Some of the features of IBKR GlobalTrader include automatic currency conversions and fractional shares.

Bulgarian clients are served by Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited, authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and passported into Bulgaria under MiFID II (the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive).

Want to know more about Interactive Brokers? Check our Interactive Brokers Review.

#3 Freedom24

Freedom24 is operated by Freedom Finance Europe Ltd, licensed by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) since 2015 and passported across the EEA (European Economic Area) under MiFID II, including Bulgaria. It is part of Freedom Holding Corp., listed on NASDAQ under the ticker FRHC.

The broker gives access to more than 1 million instruments on 15 exchanges in Europe, Asia and the US, including 40,000+ stocks, 3,600+ ETFs, 145,000+ bonds and US stock options, with access to venues such as NASDAQ, NYSE, LSE and Deutsche Börse. For long-term investors, Freedom24 also offers ETF Investment plans, which let you invest in selected ETFs regularly with €0 commission. The €0 fee applies only to purchases made within the Freedom24 Recurring Investment function, and other fees apply according to the Freedom24 Fee Schedule.

Freedom24 has two pricing plans, with no minimum deposit:

• Smart in EUR: €0.02 per share + €2 per order on US and European stocks and ETFs, and $0.65 per US option contract. It suits investors with lower trading volumes.
• All Inclusive in EUR: 0.5% of the trade value + €0.012 per share + €1.20 per order, and $3 per US option contract + €10 per order. It includes a personal manager.

The company offers a web-based trading platform and a mobile app. Both are easy to use, well-designed, and intuitive, even for beginners. What we liked the most about the trading platform is the “InvestIdeas” tab, which lets you look at research conducted by Freedom24 analysts, covering particular stocks and giving ideas about investment opportunities.

On the downside, it charges €7 per withdrawal, does not offer fractional shares and does not offer cryptocurrencies. There is no Bulgarian-language version of the platform either, so that is worth checking before you open an account.

Want to know more about Freedom24? Check our Freedom24 review.

Founded in 2002, XTB is a major player in the brokerage industry with extensive worldwide experience, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and other relevant bodies, and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It serves more than 2.9 million clients, and Bulgarian clients are served by XTB S.A. under the EU passport.

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 up to €100,000 of monthly turnover, with a 0.2% commission (minimum €10) above that threshold.

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 when there has been no trading for 365 days and no deposit in the previous 90 days. Currency conversion costs 0.5%, and spreads on crypto CFDs are high, although forex costs are competitive.

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

When comparing with eToro, Interactive Brokers and XTB, DEGIRO sets aside a combination of benefits you do not find in other platforms or, at least, are not displayed in the same simplified manner. As a result, you would find the following distinctive positive characteristics:

• Trading platform: DEGIRO interface is as clean as you can get. It offers the right mixture of being minimalistic and extremely useful at the same time. You can easily find any security through the search engine by entering each product’s name, ticker symbol, or ISIN code.
• Manual conversion: It lets you perform a manual foreign currency conversion from the base currency of your account into other currencies, such as USD or CHF. For example, if you sell Amazon shares, you will end up with USD on your balance, even though your base currency is another currency. In other brokers, the USD from the sale of Amazon shares would be automatically converted to your base currency. So, when buying again USD denominated shares, you would need to translate to USD (double currency fee).
• Notifications: In DEGIRO, you do not get “unnecessary” notifications. Every alert is filled with helpful information such as the national holidays (when the stock market is closed), relevant regulatory updates and other material information. Other online brokers may send notifications that push you towards short-term decisions, such as “X stock is rising 8%”. So, you need to make a greater effort to stick to your long-term goals.
• Banking licence: DEGIRO services are provided by flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, a German bank supervised by BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank. Cash held in a DEGIRO Cash Account is therefore covered by the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme up to €100,000, a level of cover most brokers without a banking licence cannot offer.

When DEGIRO entered the European market, it was a significant shift to the investment community. However, the “first market player effect” is not relevant anymore because the main competitors have adapted at the speed of light. Here are some cons you would find in DEGIRO and not in eToro, Interactive Brokers, or XTB:

• No local presence: there is no Bulgarian website, no local entity and no support in Bulgarian, so the whole experience is in one of DEGIRO’s supported languages.
• Connectivity fee: DEGIRO charges 0.25% of your account value, capped at €2.50 per year for each foreign exchange you hold positions on. If you hold shares on NYSE, NASDAQ and Frankfurt, you can pay up to €7.50 per year just to keep those positions open.
• Trading and handling costs: every order carries a €1 handling fee on top of the commission, even on ETFs in the Core Selection. That means €2 per order for US stocks and €3 per order for European stocks and other ETFs, while eToro charges nothing on ETFs and XTB charges no commission on stocks and ETFs up to €100,000 of monthly turnover.
• Investment protection: under the German investor compensation scheme, eligible claims on securities are covered at 90%, up to €20,000. In practice, a claim of €20,000 would be paid at €18,000. The alternatives have similar limits: the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) covers up to €20,000 at eToro and Freedom24, the Irish scheme pays 90% up to €20,000 at Interactive Brokers, and the Polish scheme covers up to €22,000 at XTB. These schemes only apply if a broker fails and client assets are missing, since securities are held separately from the broker’s own assets.
• No fractional shares: DEGIRO does not offer fractional investing, so you always buy whole shares. For investors starting with small amounts, eToro, Interactive Brokers and XTB are more flexible here.

DEGIRO vs the alternatives at a glance

How are investments taxed in Bulgaria?

None of the brokers above withholds Bulgarian tax on your behalf, so you declare your investment income yourself in your annual tax return to the National Revenue Agency (NRA). According to PwC’s Worldwide Tax Summaries, the main rules are:

• Capital gains: taxed at a flat 10% on the year’s gains minus the year’s losses.
• Exemption for regulated markets: gains on shares sold on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange or on a regulated market in the EU or EEA are exempt. Since 1 January 2021, the exemption also covers shares sold on equivalent stock markets in third countries.
• Dividends: taxed at 5%, including dividends from foreign companies. Tax already withheld abroad can usually be credited under a double tax treaty.
• Interest: interest from bank accounts in the EU or EEA has been tax-free since 1 April 2022, while interest from banks outside the EU and EEA is taxed at 10%.

Whether a specific sale qualifies for the exemption depends on where the trade was executed, so keep your broker’s annual statements. The rules depend on your personal situation, so check them with the NRA or a Bulgarian tax adviser before you invest. This article is not tax advice.

Which platform should you choose?

Whether you decide to invest in stocks through eToro, XTB, Interactive Brokers or any other trading platform, you should take the time to compare platforms before you decide which trading platform you would like to use.

Be sure to compare education resources, pricing information and the products offered before you open an account. This process will help ensure that you do not need to maintain multiple accounts to access all the tools you need.

The best online broker in your specific case will depend on your profile, preference, and objectives. Explore the brokers above and decide for yourself!

A reminder that the above should not be construed as investment advice and should be considered information only. Investors should do their own research and due diligence about the services and opportunities best suited for their risk, returns, and impact strategy.

If you need further guidance or have questions, feel free to reach out to us!