Markets.com vs ATFX 2025

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

Markets.com has a Trust Score of 93, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

ATFX has a Trust Score of 85, giving it a "Trusted" Trust Score Label.

Markets.com may be an expensive option, but its trading platforms are easy to use, and traders gain access to a wide range of forex and CFD symbols.

Founded in 2015, ATFX is regulated in the U.K. by the FCA, but its lack of additional substantial regulatory licenses pulls down the broker's overall Trust Score. ATFX offers the popular MetaTrader 4 platform, but hasn't yet produced its own proprietary trading platform. ATFX demonstrates potential as a relatively new forex broker, but still has considerable room to improve across several key categories, such as its available range of markets and variety of trading platforms.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. Markets.com holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised). ATFX, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). Neither have Canada (CIRO Authorised), CBI Authorised (Ireland), Japan (SFC Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised), Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, both Markets.com and ATFX are Cyprus (CySEC Authorised) and South Africa (FSCA Authorised).. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), Thailand (SEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses Markets.com is British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised), while ATFX is Mauritius (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Bahamas (SCB Authorised), Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that Markets.com offers a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows), whereas ATFX supports a Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader, DupliTrade and ZuluTrade

Both Markets.com and ATFX offer the whole MetaTrader suite, which consists of both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. If you’re new to MetaTrader 4 here’s our educational guide on how to use MT4.

Markets.com requires a minimum deposit of $100, while ATFX requires a minimum deposit of $500. You'll also want to make sure that your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our testing, we've found that both Markets.com and ATFX offer Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for deposits. Neither have PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw)

When choosing a forex broker, it’s important to consider each broker’s available investment products and tradeable asset classes. We’ve researched each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. During our testing, we found that Markets.com delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than ATFX, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies, Agriculturals, ETF and U.S. Stocks (CFD).

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; Markets.com offers 2179, and ATFX offers a total of 150 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that neither Markets.com nor ATFX allow you to trade physical cryptocurrencies.

Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. We test each broker’s research offering to help you decide which broker is right for your technical or fundamental analysis needs. Markets.com delivers the following research tools: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. ATFX, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading

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