We finance our services on depotkonto.de through affiliate programs with various providers of securities accounts.
If you apply for a securities account via our site, your application is approved, and you start using the account, we receive a commission from some providers.
However, the providers of custody accounts have no influence on our product reviews and recommendations, either through commissions or otherwise. Such commissions also do not increase the price you pay for an offer—they are borne entirely by the service provider.
The custody accounts we present are chosen solely based on their quality and performance profiles, ensuring that we offer you the best options available.
Online brokers in Germany
Geschrieben von
Erkan Boga
Gründer & Geschäftsführer
Erkan Boga ist Gründer der qmedia GmbH und die treibende Kraft hinter depotkonto.de. Als Unternehmer mit über 30 Jahren Erfahrung im digitalen Sektor verbindet er...
Online brokers in Germany compared
| Stock exchange: | Gettex |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €0.99 |
| Stock exchange: | Lange & Schwarz Exchange |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €1 |
New reference value from 16.09.2026: 2.5%
Remark
| Stock exchange: | Tradegate Exchange |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €4.90 + 0.25% |
| Maximum price: | €69.90 |
| Stock exchange: | Frankfurt |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €4.90 + 0.25% |
| Minimum price: | €9.90 |
Advertising notice: provider links in this overview are affiliate links — we receive a commission from the provider for sign-ups made through them.
- The comparison above shows, per broker, the annual fee, the order fee, the trading venue and the interest paid on cash, plus whether the app and support run in English and whether the provider accepts most nationalities. Those are the four things an investor living in Germany has to check.
- “Commission-free” means no order fee. It does not mean no cost: the spread on the single trading venue such brokers use is where the price sits, and it is wider outside German exchange hours.
- For an ETF savings plan the broker fee is the small lever and the fund’s own cost the big one; for frequent trading it is the other way round. Decide how you will invest before you compare.
- Every broker in the table withholds German capital gains tax automatically and applies your tax-free allowance. That is the reason to choose a German broker over one abroad, whatever the fees.
How to read the comparison
Every entry lists the same items, so the providers can be read against each other. The annual fee is the cost of holding the account; where it says zero, there is no custody fee. The order fee is what a single purchase or sale costs, either a flat amount or a base fee plus a percentage of the order with a cap. The trading venue tells you where your orders are executed and, indirectly, when: a broker with one venue trades when that venue is open. The credit interest is what uninvested cash on the account earns.
Below these figures each entry lists what the broker offers: which asset classes, how many free ETF savings plans, whether the app, the website and the support line are in English, and whether the provider accepts most nationalities. The product details behind each entry add the custodian bank and the regulator. Links to the providers are affiliate links, as the notice under the table says; the ranking and the figures are editorial.
What “commission-free” actually costs
The brokers that advertise trading for a euro or for nothing route every order to a single trading venue, typically an electronic exchange or a market maker, and earn from the spread and from the venue rather than from you. Three consequences follow. You cannot choose the exchange, so a US share is bought as a euro listing on a German venue rather than in New York. The spread between buying and selling price is your real cost, and it widens in the evening and early morning when the reference exchanges in Frankfurt and New York are closed, so a limit order placed during the day is cheaper than a market order at night. And illiquid securities may not be tradable at all.
None of this makes the model bad. For buying a broadly diversified ETF once a month, a single venue with a narrow spread during the day is exactly enough. It matters for anyone who trades small foreign stocks, wants to pick an exchange or trades outside German hours.
Compare the buying and selling price the app shows you at midday and at nine in the evening for the same ETF. The difference between the two gaps is the cost that no fee table lists.
Neobrokers, direct banks, branch banks
The providers in the comparison follow three business models, and the model predicts most of what you will find in the details.
Neobrokers are app-first companies, often licensed as securities institutions rather than banks, with the cash account at a partner bank. Low or no order fees, one or two trading venues, ETF and share savings plans without execution fees, and in several cases an English interface. They rarely offer a current account, so you need a reference account elsewhere.
Direct banks combine the Depot with a current account, cards and savings products. They give access to a dozen or more trading venues in Germany and abroad, charge a base fee plus a percentage per order, and run their apps and support in German almost without exception.
Branch banks add in-person advice and charge for it through custody fees and higher order fees. For an investor who wants to sit down with someone, that can be worth it; the comparison marks the one that accepts most nationalities.
Which brokers work in English
The comparison flags English app, English website, English support and English-speaking call centre separately, because they do not come together. A broker can have an English app and a German-only hotline. As at September 2026, the neobrokers in the table run everything in English; the direct banks run in German; one branch bank offers its banking app in English.
Three documents stay German at every provider, whatever the interface language: the account agreement and price list (the legally binding versions), the annual tax certificate (Jahressteuerbescheinigung) and the exemption order (Freistellungsauftrag). The tax certificate is the one you will need: it is what a tax adviser reads or what you type into a tax return. If you do not read German, an English-speaking support line that can walk you through it is worth more than an English app.
Which costs matter for your way of investing
The fee that matters depends entirely on how often you trade. The table shows what a year with 24 orders costs under three illustrative price models, before spreads:
| Price model | 24 orders of €500 | 24 orders of €2,000 | 24 orders of €10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat €1 per order | €24 | €24 | €24 |
| Flat €4 per order | €96 | €96 | €96 |
| €5 plus 0.25%, capped at €60 | €150 | €240 | €720 |
| Own calculation with illustrative price models, not the tariff of any specific provider; current tariffs are in the comparison above. As of 2 September 2026. | |||
At €500 per order the percentage model costs six times the flat fee; at €10,000 it costs thirty times as much. For a monthly ETF savings plan, however, the order fee is usually zero everywhere, and the cost that decides is the fund’s total expense ratio, which never appears on a broker statement. The ETF broker comparison is built around that case and shows that 1.2 percentage points of fund cost outweigh any execution fee over 20 years.
Interest on uninvested cash
Cash waiting on the clearing account earns interest at several brokers, and the comparison shows the rate. The ceiling for what any bank can pay on a permanent basis is the European Central Bank’s deposit facility rate of 2.25%, the rate at which banks park money with the ECB overnight. A broker paying close to it passes the ECB rate through; a broker paying nothing keeps it. Interest on cash is investment income and runs through the same withholding as dividends, with the allowance of €1,000 per person applied through the exemption order. Whether the cash should be there at all is a separate question; the savings calculator shows what the same money earns invested.
Regulation and what happens if a broker fails
Every provider in the comparison is supervised by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), named in the product details together with the custodian bank. Two protections apply. Securities are held in collective custody at the central securities depository, and under Sections 5 and 6 of the Securities Deposit Act (DepotG) you hold fractional co-ownership of them; they are your property and do not fall into the broker’s insolvency estate. Cash on the clearing account is a bank deposit, covered under Section 8 of the Deposit Guarantee Act (EinSiG) up to €100,000 per customer and bank. If the broker is a securities institution rather than a bank, that cover is the partner bank’s, and claims against the broker itself fall under the investor compensation scheme at 90% up to €20,000 (Section 4 of the Investor Compensation Act).
Tax withholding and opening the account
All brokers in the comparison withhold 25% capital gains tax plus the solidarity surcharge, 26.375% in total, and church tax where it applies, and they apply the annual allowance once you have filed an exemption order with your tax ID. What that means for a gain, and why the rate is not 25%, is explained with the capital gains tax calculator. A broker abroad does none of this; you would declare everything yourself.
Opening an account is the same at every provider: registered address, tax identification number, passport, video identification. What each step involves, how to fund the account and what non-EU citizens need to know is covered on the page about the trading account in Germany; the overview of everything in English on this site starts at Investing from Germany.
Sources
- European Central Bank: Key ECB interest rates (deposit facility 2.25% since 17 June 2026) – accessed 2 September 2026
- Securities Deposit Act: Section 6 DepotG (fractional co-ownership in collective custody), in German – accessed 2 September 2026
- Deposit Guarantee Act: Section 8 EinSiG (€100,000) and Investor Compensation Act: Section 4 AnlEntG (90%, €20,000), in German – accessed 2 September 2026
- Income Tax Act: Section 32d EStG (tax rate 25%) and Section 20 EStG (saver’s allowance), in German – accessed 2 September 2026
- ESMA: Market Report on Costs and Performance of EU Retail Investment Products, March 2026 (ongoing costs of equity ETFs and active funds) – accessed 2 September 2026
Frequently asked questions about online brokers
An online broker is a platform that allows you to buy and sell investments digitally. They provide access to financial markets through web platforms and mobile apps. Branch banks and direct banks also offer online brokerage services as part of their banking platforms.
A trading account is used to place buy and sell orders for investments such as shares or ETFs. You use your broker’s platform to select an investment, place an order, and monitor your portfolio. The broker handles execution and settlement in the background.
To deposit money, you transfer funds from your bank account to your brokerage account. This step is required before you can start investing. Once the money is available, you can use it to place trades or set up savings plans.
Yes. Online brokers operating in Germany must be licensed and supervised by financial authorities. The main regulator is BaFin, which ensures that providers comply with financial market regulations and investor protection rules.
When comparing top online brokers, important factors include fees, available trading venues, investment options, and platform usability. The right choice depends on your investment strategy and how actively you plan to trade.