Trade Republic review 2026

Hello, fellow investor! Our first-hand review of Trade Republic will help you assess whether it fits your investing needs.

Trade Republic offers an intuitive platform across PC and mobile, and is supervised by top-tier regulators (BaFin and the Bundesbank in Germany, with EEA passporting).

On the downside, it charges an external execution fee of €1 per trade, doesn’t offer a demo account, and doesn’t provide direct access to US stock exchanges – so you won’t be able to buy certain US-listed stocks such as Reddit (Trade Republic’s listings are sourced primarily from European exchanges like Gettex and LS Exchange via German market structure).

Trade Republic has expanded significantly into payments and banking through its card product. You can choose between a physical card (a one-time fee of €5 or €50 depending on the variant: “Classic” or “Mirror”) or a virtual card. Key benefits include:

• 1% Saveback on card payments, automatically invested into your savings plan (maximum of €15 per month, applicable on up to €1,500 of monthly card spending; to qualify, you need to invest at least €50 monthly via Trade Republic’s savings plans);
• Round-up feature: round up your card payments and invest the spare change automatically;
• No monthly subscription fee;
• Unlimited free ATM withdrawals worldwide for withdrawals of €100 or more (smaller withdrawals incur a €1 fee).

Beyond the card itself, uninvested cash held with Trade Republic earns interest, paid monthly:

• Existing users: currently 2.25% p.a. on EUR cash balances, in line with the current ECB deposit facility rate;
• New users: a promotional 3.00% p.a. rate, applied for a limited period after account opening before stepping down to the standard rate;
• German users: cash interest is structured differently due to local German tax and regulatory considerations – we recommend checking Trade Republic’s German-specific disclosures for exact rates and conditions.

Cash interest rates are variable and tied to ECB monetary policy, so they can change with central bank rate movements. Trade Republic typically updates its published rates promptly when the ECB adjusts its deposit facility rate.

Overview

Founded in 2015, Trade Republic is a Berlin-based fintech that started as a discount broker and has since evolved into a fully licensed European bank. It focuses on five core asset classes: stocks, ETFs, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives. Stocks and ETFs can be traded daily from 7:30 to 23:00 CET, crypto 24/7, and derivatives from 8:00 to 22:00 CET.

Trade Republic uses the motto “Do more with your money” to express its commitment to customers, marketing itself as a “no order fee” platform. In practice, a €1 external execution fee applies to each trade (except for savings plans, which are entirely free) – so a round-trip buy and sell will cost €2 in total. This is still competitive compared to traditional brokers but not strictly commission-free.

Trade Republic was one of the first European brokers to materially increase the interest rate paid on uninvested EUR cash after years of zero-to-low rates under European Central Bank (ECB) policy. New users currently earn a promotional 3.00% p.a. (paid monthly) for a limited period after account opening, while existing users earn 2.25% p.a. on EUR cash balances – aligned with the current ECB deposit facility rate. Different terms apply to German users due to local tax and regulatory considerations. Since most traditional banks still pay materially lower rates on instant-access cash, transferring idle funds to Trade Republic remains an attractive option for earning yield.

Trade Republic was also the first broker in Europe to allow investment in corporate and government bonds for as little as €1 through fractional trading – a meaningful innovation that has since spread across other European platforms.

Account limitations to be aware of:

• You cannot open a business brokerage account with Trade Republic (more information on alternatives to Trade Republic’s business accounts here) – only private accounts are supported;
• Joint accounts are not available;
• Accounts for minors (under 18) are not available, even with parental power of attorney.

On the regulatory front, Trade Republic operates through Trade Republic Bank GmbH, regulated by BaFin (Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) and supervised by the Deutsche Bundesbank, and holds a full ECB banking licence obtained in December 2023. The firm’s EEA authorisation can also be verified through national registers – for example, the Banco de Portugal authorised entities register. Investment assets are protected up to €20,000 under the German Investor Compensation Scheme, and cash deposits are protected up to €100,000 under the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme (EdB).

Finally, Trade Republic provides your annual tax statement directly within the app in the first quarter of the following year (e.g., the 2025 tax statement is made available by April/May 2026). This should help you fulfil your tax filing requirements with minimal friction.

Highlights

Pros and cons

Products and markets

Trade Republic offers five core asset classes: stocks (9,000+), ETFs (2,000+), bonds (500+), cryptocurrencies (50+), and derivatives (10,000+). All of these assets are traded in EUR. You can also check more Trade Republic statistics on our site.

What does the EUR-denomination mean in practice? Let’s use US stocks as an example. Apple, the iPhone manufacturer, is traded on NASDAQ in USD, but on the Trade Republic platform you can only buy it on XETRA (or other European venues like Gettex or LS Exchange) in EUR. Owning Apple stock priced in EUR or USD should give you the same economic return in EUR terms, but the EUR-denominated version typically has lower liquidity than the US-listed original – so wider bid-ask spreads can apply.

The bigger downside: if a company is only listed on US exchanges and hasn’t been cross-listed in Europe, you won’t be able to access it through Trade Republic. This is a meaningful limitation since Trade Republic doesn’t provide direct access to US exchanges. Recent examples of stocks affected include Reddit (RDDT), Robinhood (HOOD), and certain other US-only listings. If you prefer a broker with extensive access to stocks across global exchanges – including direct US market access – we recommend Interactive Brokers.

You can also buy fractional shares in a selected list of stocks and ETFs (Trade Republic doesn’t publish a comprehensive list of eligible instruments). Fractional trading is only possible with market orders executed via the Lang & Schwarz (LS) Exchange electronic trading system, where Trade Republic acts as the counterpart.

Bonds

For bonds, you can invest in corporate and government bonds. Starting from €1, you can buy fractions of a bond and receive the proportional interest payments. Whole bonds are traded on the LSX exchange, while fractions are traded with Trade Republic as the counterpart.

Cryptocurrencies

For cryptocurrencies, you trade real digital assets (not derivatives), which means you actually own the underlying cryptocurrencies. Crypto can be traded 24/7 (including weekends and holidays). Trade Republic stores crypto holdings in cold wallets, kept offline to protect against cyberattacks. Crypto assets are held separately from Trade Republic’s own balance sheet through Trade Republic Custody GmbH (based in Vienna), ensuring asset segregation in the same way that stocks and ETFs are segregated from the broker’s own funds.

Trade Republic is MiCA-licensed for crypto-asset services since April 2025, meaning its crypto offering operates under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework – the same regulatory standard applied to all major regulated EU crypto providers.

Important limitations to be aware of:

• You cannot send or receive crypto externally – holdings can only be bought, sold, or held within the Trade Republic app;
• The crypto offering is currently available in: Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain (other Trade Republic markets may not yet have crypto access).

Derivatives

For derivatives, these are financial instruments that derive their price from an underlying asset such as stocks, commodities, bonds, or indices. Trade Republic offers three types:

• Warrants: similar in concept to options, warrants give you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a financial asset at a specific price before an expiration date;
• Knock-outs: an option-like instrument with a built-in mechanism that causes it to expire worthless if a specified price level in the underlying asset is reached (the “knock-out” trigger). This limits your upside but typically comes at a lower premium than a standard option;
• Factor certificates: instruments replicating a particular security’s price movement with a leverage factor applied (higher potential gains, but equally higher potential losses). Unlike warrants and knock-outs, factor certificates have unlimited duration – though they’re not designed for holding longer than a single trading day due to the compounding effects of daily leverage rebalancing.

The derivative providers on the platform include Société Générale, Citi, and HSBC – all major investment banks with substantial market-making capacity in European structured products.

Be extra careful when trading these products, as they can be hard to fully understand. We had hoped for deeper in-platform explanations for each derivative type, but Trade Republic provides only general guidance (see their support page for more). Most derivatives involve leverage (borrowed exposure), so significant profits or losses can be realised very quickly – they typically suit more experienced investors who intend to hedge specific positions or speculate on short-term price movements.

Savings plans

Finally, Trade Republic offers savings plans (4,900+) covering stocks, ETFs, bonds, and crypto. These let you invest automatically into selected assets with no third-party costs – the only context in which the €1 external execution fee does not apply, which makes savings plans Trade Republic’s most cost-efficient way to invest.

When the XETRA exchange is open, savings plans are executed on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, or 23rd of each month. You can configure:

• Your payment method (direct debit or cash account);
• The execution interval (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly).

Savings plans are well-suited to long-term dollar-cost averaging strategies and are one of Trade Republic’s strongest features for buy-and-hold investors.

Interest on uninvested cash

With Trade Republic, your uninvested cash (money not currently allocated to investments) earns interest paid monthly. The current structure is:

• New users: 3.00% per annum as a promotional rate for a limited period after account opening;
• Existing users: 2.25% per annum on EUR cash balances – aligned with the current ECB deposit facility rate;
• German users: different terms apply due to local tax and regulatory considerations – we recommend checking Trade Republic’s German-specific disclosures for exact rates and conditions.

Interest is accrued daily, paid every month, and you can withdraw your cash at any time. Cash interest rates are variable and tied to ECB monetary policy, so they can change with central bank rate movements.

Your cash is protected up to €100,000 per depositor by the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme (EdB):

Fore more details, please consult the Depositor Information Sheet.

Fees

Trade Republic is quite transparent with the fees. The only fee you will quickly notice will be the €1 external fee per trade in stocks, ETFs, derivatives, bonds, and crypto. The company states that this cost is 100% third-party related (settlement cost). In the case of partial executions, the third-party fee is charged only once per trading day.

There is no withdrawal fee or custody fee. Also, Trade Republic charges no commission on shares dividend payments and ETF distributions, but other external fees may apply.

Since your base currency is in EUR, you will be charged a currency conversion fee for any earnings (e.g., dividends) you get from your holdings since these will immediately be converted to EUR once received.

Their website states, “The selling and buying rates required for currency conversions are calculated on the basis of these rates, taking into account a premium or discount in accordance with the buying and selling margins (…)”. You can find those margins here.

We advise you to take a look at all its pricing details directly.

Supported countries

Trade Republic currently accepts clients from 18 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Notably, Poland was added in September 2025 as Trade Republic’s first market outside the eurozone – a meaningful step that may signal broader non-eurozone European expansion ahead.

Keep in mind that not all products are offered in all countries (the crypto offering, for example, is currently available in only nine of the 18 supported markets). You can verify product availability on your region’s Trade Republic website.

Account opening

Opening an account is relatively easy, as you would expect. It usually takes less than 10 minutes. As soon as you click “Open Free Account” on the homepage, the following page will appear:

You will only have to go through each intuitive step and insert all the information related to “Personal Data,” “Identification,” and “Experience & Knowledge.” It may take up to 24h to confirm that everything is valid.

As a heads-up, you can only open an account if you meet the following criteria:

• You have a valid identification document (identity card, passport, or residence card)
• You are at least 18 years old
• You are a permanent resident in an EU country (please check the “Supported countries” section)
• You are liable for tax in the same EU country
• You have a European cell phone number
• You have a SEPA bank account
• A document to confirm your address

Alternatives

Are you looking for more features? More products? A better trading platform? We have organized some alternatives that might better answer your goals!

Want to know more about these and other Trade Republic alternatives? Feel free to check our Broker Comparison Table, In-depth Broker Reviews, and the Broker Matching Tool.

Bottom line

From our analysis, Trade Republic is a strong all-around platform with several distinctive features – a sleek mobile-first experience, competitive interest on uninvested cash, a full ECB banking licence, and unique innovations like fractional bond trading from €1. That said, it still has some gaps compared to competitors like eToro, Interactive Brokers, or DEGIRO, particularly in product breadth and platform sophistication.

How it fits different investor profiles:

• Beginners: Trade Republic is one of the most accessible platforms in Europe, with a clean, intuitive interface that makes opening an account and starting to invest genuinely simple. The main limitation is the relatively thin educational content – beginners will likely need to supplement Trade Republic with external learning resources;
• Intermediate and advanced investors: may find the platform lacks the depth of fundamental and technical analysis tools available on competitor platforms (Interactive Brokers and Saxo offer significantly more analytical capability). Trade Republic’s value proposition for this group is primarily cost efficiency and the cash-interest feature rather than analytical depth;
• Active stock traders: investors who want broad access to US-listed stocks (including IPOs, mid-caps, and small-caps that haven’t been cross-listed in Europe) will likely prefer Interactive Brokers, which offers direct US market access alongside global multi-market trading;
• Long-term buy-and-hold investors: Trade Republic’s savings plans are particularly well-suited – they’re commission-free (no €1 external fee), support stocks, ETFs, bonds, and crypto, and enable straightforward dollar-cost averaging. Combined with the cash interest feature, the platform is genuinely competitive for this segment;
• Cash savers: Trade Republic’s combination of an ECB-linked interest rate, €100,000 deposit protection, instant access, and the card product with 1% Saveback makes it one of the strongest cash-management options available to European retail customers.

We hope you found our review useful. If you’d like to open a Trade Republic account, you can also take advantage of our bonus.