Plus500 was founded in 2009 in Cyprus and they now have offices in the United Kingdom and Israel as well. They are currently regulated in the United Kingdom (FCA), the European Union (CySEC) and Australia (ASIC). These are all notable regulators that are respected in the industry.

There are no awards that Plus500 appear to have won in recent years. There are 32 languages catered for on their website. While their platform is well laid out, the colour scheme can be a bit hard to read properly.

• 32 languages catered for
• Website difficult to read
• No awards of note

Plus500 are very limited when it comes to the types of accounts that they offer. You can either spend your time on the demo account trading with virtual money, or you can utilise the sole live trading account that they have on offer.

Newer traders will probably be better off served using the demo account while they learn how the trading platform works and as they develop a strategy before they start sinking their hard earned fund into trading.

With the live account, there are no commissions charged, with tight spreads being preferred. The dynamic spreads obviously change over time, but you can see a list of the current spread below.

Generally, there spreads are in line with industry standards. The max leverage that is available to traders is 1:300. Do note that American based traders are not able to open an account with Plus500.

There is a broad range of investment products available on Plus500 for you to choose from, such as equities, ETFs, forex, indices, options cryptocurrencies and commodities.

There are more than 200 different shares that can be traded, with 80 ETF CFDs, 23 index CFDs, 17 CFDs for commodities, 59 different currency pairs and 8 different cryptocurrencies that you can trade with.

• 59 currency pairs
• Over 200 shares available

The company was founded in Cyprus and they also have offices in the United Kingdom and Israel.

They are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom (FRN 509909), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in Australia (AFSL #417727), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (License number 250/14) and they have a capital markets services license with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (license number CMS100648-1), as well as a commodity broker’s license with Enterprise Singapore(license number PLUS/CBL/2018).

These are widely respected bodies that offer the best protection for traders.

Plus500 has its own proprietary trading software and they do not offer any MetaTrader platforms. This platform is very easy to use and everything is well laid out and not overly complicated. It is well suited to beginners and experienced traders alike.

There is a wide array of different languages catered for with this platform. All of the information you need when you are making a trade is kept clean and concise on a single screen for ease of use. There is compressive charting software as part of this offering, with the only downside being the lack of ability to have more than one graph on the same screen at any given moment in time.

There is no scalping allowed with this trading platform. There are fees to be paid if you wish to utilise certain indicators.

• Plus500 has its own proprietary trading software
• It is clean and very easy to use

The Plus500 proprietary trading platform is available on Android, Windows, iPhone and even Apple Watch devices. The mobile version of the software is equally as well designed and operational as the desktop version, with the same clean cut approach being taken.

While there are some minor bugs with the mobile software, overall it is a quality offering and is just as good on mobile devices as it is on the desktop

• Available on Windows, iPhone and Android phones, as well as on the Apple Watch

Plus500 is fairly competitive when it comes to the fees that they charge their users when compared to the rest of the industry. Their forex spreads in particular are up there with those higher than average, whereas their spreads on equities are not great.

There are no commissions at all charged by Plus500, everything is incorporated into the spread. There are three different types of non-trading related fees. There is an inactivity fee if you haven’t traded in 3 months, which is £10 per quarter.

There are withdrawals fees in certain circumstances (as outlined in the deposits and withdrawals section) in addition to their financing cost. The financing costs are not transparent, so they can change over time without users knowing about it.

• Competitive forex spreads
• Poor equities spreads
• No commissions

When it comes to banking methods with Plus500, your options are somewhat limited. You can use bank transfers, credit or debit cards and e-wallets like Skrill and PayPal.

In terms of deposit times, generally credit cards, debit cards and e-wallets will be deposited almost instantly, whereas the bank transfer may take 3-5 working days for it to hit your account. When it comes to withdrawing, it will take up to 24 hours for your withdrawal to be processed when using debit cards, credit cards or e-wallets.

Bank transfers will take between 3-5 working days for it to be processed. Sometimes, you may be asked to verify your identity when making a withdrawal for the first time. While there are usually no charges related to depositing and withdrawing with your Plus500 account, you will be charged £10 per withdrawal once you have more than five withdrawals in the same month period.

Certain banks will also charge up to £6 when withdrawing via a bank transfer. The minimum required withdrawal amount for PayPal is £50 whereas the minimum required withdrawal amount for credit card or bank transfers is £100.

• Industry standard processing times
• Somewhat limited banking options
• Minimum withdrawal requirements

If you have an issue or concern and wish to speak with a member of the customer support team, you can do so either via email or through their live chat feature.

Usually, you will have our issue sorted out straight away and it is easy to get in touch with a member of the customer support team on a 24/7 basis.

Many languages are catered for but one major disadvantage is that you cannot telephone them. There is also a comprehensive FAQ section which will often times answer your question without having to deal with a member of the customer support team.

• Available to be reached 24/7
• No telephone option

There are little to no research tools available as part of the Plus500 offering. There are just over 20 different technical indicators you can use when charting and the only investigative work you can really do is looking at the split between buy and sell positions of other clients at Plus500.

They do not really have any news offering, fundamental analysis or recommendations from a team of expert analysts. Even their economic calendar is not very detailed.

They also do not have any education resources for their users, which is a rarity in the broker industry in this day and age.

• No education resources
• Limited research tools and analysis

Plus500 does not really offer any extra services above and beyond the usual fare, not even having any educational resources or market analysis.

They have also run into issues with regulators over the years, having been fined more than £200,000 by the FSA in 2012. There was also a vote against this broker in 2016 at the FPA Traders Court, which means that caution needs to be taken if you are considering using them as a broker. There are also a lot of instances online of traders who are unhappy with the user experience of the platform, which is another red flag.

They do sponsor the Brumbies rugby union team in Australia as well as the Spanish football team Athletico Madrid.

There is a lot lacking when it comes to the Plus500 offering.

While they have an impressive range of instruments available to traders, this does not make up for some of the other issues. They have no educational resources, which mean that beginners are left to their own devices, there is no market analysis or news sections which help traders to stay in the loop and the payment options are somewhat limited.

They do have proprietary software which is easy to use and liked by a lot of traders. However, they have run into issues with the authorities in the past and there are negative reports from past users.

Overall, it is important to take a cautious approach when dealing with Plus500.