Broker Comparison
XTB vs DEGIRO (2026):
fees, entities and which one suits you
Updated August 2026 • 14 min read • Written for EU investors
These two brokers sit at opposite ends of the same problem. XTB S.A. trades real stocks and ETFs at 0% commission up to a monthly threshold and adds fractional units and automated plans, but converts currency at 0.5% and prices several deposit methods as a percentage. DEGIRO converts at 0.25%, prices its Tradegate Core Selection at €1.00 all-in, and covers bonds, funds and derivatives XTB does not. Before any of that matters, check which XTB entity your country routes you to — one of them offers no real shares at all.
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How XTB and DEGIRO compare in the EU
Side by side on the costs and features that actually change the outcome for a European investor. UK clients are served by different entities on both sides and are not covered here.
| XTB | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|
| Entity serving EEA clients | More than one. XTB S.A. (Poland, KNF) offers real stocks and ETFs and is confirmed for German and Polish clients; XTB Limited (Cyprus, CySEC) offers no real stocks, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or Fractional Rights | flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch, the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE |
| Commission, EUR-listed UCITS ETFs | €0 at XTB S.A. up to €100,000 of cumulative turnover per calendar month across all registered accounts | €1.00 all-in on the Tradegate Core Selection; €3.00 on other exchanges. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply |
| Commission, stocks | Same tariff: €0 up to €100,000 per calendar month, then 0.2% (min €10) | Varies by exchange and by the schedule that applies to you, plus the €1.00 handling fee |
| Currency conversion | 0.5% markup on XTB’s own exchange rate, at execution. Where no direct rate is quoted, conversion runs through USD and 0.5% of the mid rate is applied at each step | 0.25% AutoFX; manual conversion €10.00 + 0.25% on the Dutch, German, French and Irish schedules |
| Connectivity fee | None | €2.50 per exchange per calendar year, capped at 0.25% of total account value — you pay whichever is lower. Exempt venues are set per entity and always include the ETF Core Selection |
| Custody fee | €0 up to €250,000; 0.02% per year, charged monthly, on the excess above an average daily portfolio value of €250,000 | €0 |
| Inactivity fee | €10/month only if no position opened or closed in 365 days and no deposit in 90 days; not charged if you hold an open position on any account | None |
| Deposit costs | Priced by method. XTB S.A. table: card 0.70% (EUR) / 0.95% (USD), PayPal 0.85%, BLIK and Autopay free. German branch table: PayU card payments and SOFORT free, PayPal 0.85%. One free deposit for clients whose first agreement was concluded on or after 27 October 2025 | Bank transfer in and out free |
| Withdrawal costs | Free at XTB S.A., though your bank, card issuer or payment operator may charge its own commission or conversion fee; €10 on withdrawals below €100 at the Cyprus entity | Free |
| Fractional units | Yes at XTB S.A. (Fractional Rights, same tariff) | No — DEGIRO’s helpdesk states it facilitates whole shares only |
| Recurring purchases | Investment Plans are listed as an available product for XTB S.A. clients | DEGIRO’s order execution policy lists eight order types and two validity durations; none is a scheduled or recurring purchase |
| Bonds | Not priced in the XTB S.A. tariff table | €2.00 on the Dutch, French and Irish schedules; €3.90 on the German, plus the €1.00 handling fee |
| Investment funds | Not priced in the XTB S.A. tariff table | €3.90 per order on the Dutch, French and Irish schedules, €7.50 on the German, plus a 0.20% annual service fee |
| Options | Priced only in the Cyprus table, at 0.25% of the premium; absent from the XTB S.A. table | €0.75 per contract on Eurex, MEFF, Euronext Derivatives and Nasdaq Nordic Derivatives; USD 0.75 on the US markets, which also carry €5.00 per month connectivity |
| Outgoing transfer | €25 per ISIN; Spanish-listed securities 0.10% per ISIN (min €100) | €20 per position plus external costs on the Dutch, French and Irish schedules; free on the German schedule |
| Transaction taxes | Both brokers pass local transaction taxes on to the client. XTB publishes its rates: France 0.4%, Spain 0.2%, Italy 0.1%. DEGIRO’s schedules state that quoted prices exclude transaction tax and that any tax levied is passed on, without publishing per-market rates | |
Sources: XTB S.A. Table of Tariffs and Commissions dated 29 June 2026; XTB S.A. German branch Kosten- und Provisionsverzeichnis dated 27 October 2025 (deposit methods); XTB Limited (Cyprus) Table of Commissions and Fees dated 2 April 2026; DEGIRO’s Dutch, German, French and Irish fee schedules effective 1 January 2026. Verified August 2026. Fees are subject to change — check both brokers’ current schedules before opening an account.
Check this before you compare a single fee
Both brokers operate through more than one legal entity, and the entity that onboards you determines what you can buy and which compensation arrangements apply. On the XTB side this is not a technicality: one of the two EEA entities offers no real shares at all.
XTB — two EEA entities, two different products
XTB S.A., based in Warsaw and regulated by the Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), is the entity whose tariff table prices real stocks, ETFs and Fractional Rights. It is confirmed as the entity serving German and Polish clients.
XTB Limited (Cyprus), regulated by CySEC, serves EEA clients in the states covered by its passport. Its fee table contains no section for real stocks, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or Fractional Rights — the products are structurally absent. It prices CFDs, options and spot crypto assets instead, and charges €10 on withdrawals below €100.
Everything on this page about 0% commission on real shares and ETFs describes XTB S.A. only. Use XTB’s country-of-residence selector to establish which entity applies to you before reading the rest as a like-for-like comparison.
DEGIRO — one entity, German schemes
DEGIRO is the trading name of flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch, the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE. flatexDEGIRO Bank SE is primarily supervised by the German financial regulator (BaFin). In the Netherlands, flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch is registered with DNB and supervised by AFM and DNB. The legal form changed from AG to SE on 30 December 2025.
The applicable compensation schemes are German, not Dutch. Cash on a DEGIRO money account is covered by the German deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000 per client, and the German investor compensation scheme covers 90% of losses on investments that cannot be returned, to a maximum of €20,000 per client. The 90% applies first.
Neither XTB entity’s investor compensation limit is stated in the fee tables read for this comparison. Confirm the entity and the current limit with XTB directly before funding an account.
What you actually pay on each trade
Commission is one component of four. Currency conversion, connectivity and how you fund the account move the answer more than the headline rate does. Every XTB figure below is from the XTB S.A. tariff table and applies only if that is the entity you are onboarded to.
EUR-listed UCITS ETFs, no conversion involved
The common case for European passive investors: buying a EUR-denominated listing of a world or S&P 500 UCITS ETF. No currency conversion applies on either side, which isolates the commission difference.
| Trade size | XTB S.A. | DEGIRO, Core Selection (Tradegate) | DEGIRO, other exchange |
|---|---|---|---|
| €200 | €0.00 | €1.00 | €3.00 |
| €500 | €0.00 | €1.00 | €3.00 |
| €1,000 | €0.00 | €1.00 | €3.00 |
| €5,000 | €0.00 | €1.00 | €3.00 |
What that adds up to: at €500 a month, DEGIRO’s Core Selection costs €12 a year in handling fees and a non-Core ETF costs €36 a year plus the connectivity fee for that exchange, while XTB S.A. costs nothing in commission below the threshold. That threshold is €100,000 of cumulative turnover per calendar month across all your registered accounts, far above what a monthly investor transacts; above it the tariff is 0.2% with a minimum of €10, and the minimum bites hardest on the first trade that crosses the line. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply, and DEGIRO’s connectivity fee is €2.50 per exchange per calendar year capped at 0.25% of your total account value, whichever is lower — the Core Selection is exempt from it.
Trades in a foreign currency, where conversion applies
Both brokers convert automatically. XTB applies a 0.5% markup on top of its own exchange rate at the moment of execution; DEGIRO applies 0.25% through AutoFX. DEGIRO charges €1.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee on the US and Canadian exchanges; XTB charges no commission below the monthly threshold. That produces a clean crossover point.
| Trade size | XTB S.A. (0.5% conversion) | DEGIRO (€2.00 + 0.25% conversion) | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| €200 | €1.00 | €2.50 | XTB |
| €500 | €2.50 | €3.25 | XTB |
| €800 | €4.00 | €4.00 | Level |
| €1,000 | €5.00 | €4.50 | DEGIRO |
| €2,000 | €10.00 | €7.00 | DEGIRO |
| €5,000 | €25.00 | €14.50 | DEGIRO |
Break-even sits at roughly €800 per trade. Below it XTB’s zero commission outweighs the higher conversion markup; above it DEGIRO’s 0.25% wins. One adjustment to make before you use this: DEGIRO’s connectivity fee applies on non-exempt venues, adding €2.50 per exchange per calendar year capped at 0.25% of your total account value, whichever is lower. If you buy EUR-listed UCITS ETFs instead, none of this applies to either broker. Currency fluctuations can impact your returns.
The conversion cost most comparisons miss: XTB can charge it twice. Where XTB quotes no direct rate between two currencies, it converts first into USD and then into the target currency, applying 0.5% of the mid rate at each step. On those pairs the real conversion cost is 1%, not 0.5%, and the break-even above moves against XTB accordingly. DEGIRO’s AutoFX is a single stated rate of 0.25%. Holding an account in the currency the instrument is quoted in avoids conversion on either platform.
Funding the account
XTB’s tariff prices deposits as well as trades, and on a small monthly plan the funding method can cost more than the commission difference this whole comparison turns on. DEGIRO’s schedules make money transfers in and out free.
Pick the free rail, not the convenient one. The XTB S.A. table charges 0.70% on EUR card deposits, 0.95% on USD card deposits and 0.85% on PayPal, while BLIK and Autopay transfers are free. The German branch table differs on exactly this point: PayU card payments and SOFORT are free there, PayPal is 0.85%, and recurring savings-plan payments funded by PayU card cost 0.70% in EUR. Clients whose first agreement with XTB was concluded on or after 27 October 2025 get one free deposit, once, regardless of how many accounts they hold. Deposit fees are charged directly at the time of transfer and deducted from your bank account rather than your trading account. On a €500 monthly plan funded by card at 0.70%, that is €42 a year — more than DEGIRO’s €36 a year on a non-Core ETF, which reverses the headline result entirely.
Withdrawals carry no XTB S.A. commission, but XTB states that for transfers by bank, card or alternative payment method — particularly where the receiving currency differs from the account currency — your bank, card issuer or payment operator may charge its own commission or conversion fee, for which XTB accepts no liability. The Cyprus entity charges €10 on withdrawals below €100.
Withholding tax on dividends at XTB
This one is not a fee, but it is a recurring cost and it is specific to how XTB holds your stock.
XTB clients’ shares are registered on an omnibus account kept by the custodian. When a dividend is paid, the withholding tax taxpayer is the bank designated for that market by the custodian, and that bank does not know the identity of XTB’s clients or their tax residence — so a double tax treaty rate cannot be applied. XTB states that the taxpayer must therefore apply the highest rate local regulation provides, naming 30% for US-listed shares, 35% for Czech and 35% for Portuguese. The deduction is made on the settlement date of the corporate action. If you hold dividend-paying US stock, that gap against a treaty rate compounds every year and can exceed everything else on this page. You are responsible for confirming the tax rules that apply in your country.
Stock commission at DEGIRO varies by exchange
XTB applies one tariff to every market it covers. DEGIRO prices stocks per exchange, and the applicable schedule depends on the country you are onboarded in, so there is no single figure that holds across Europe. The examples below all carry the €1.00 handling fee on top.
| Exchange | DEGIRO commission | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| US and Canadian exchanges | €1.00 | Same on all four euro-market schedules |
| Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels | €2.00 | On the Dutch schedule |
| Euronext Dublin | €2.00 | On the Irish schedule |
| Euronext Paris | €1.00 | On the French schedule |
| XETRA | €3.90 | Standard tier; no reduced band on the German schedule |
| Börse Frankfurt, ASX, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo | €5.00 | Highest tier |
Sources: XTB S.A. Table of Tariffs and Commissions dated 29 June 2026, XTB S.A. German branch Kosten- und Provisionsverzeichnis dated 27 October 2025, and DEGIRO’s Dutch, German, French and Irish fee schedules effective 1 January 2026. Verified August 2026. Figures exclude local transaction taxes, which both brokers pass on. Fees are subject to change.
Investment universe
If your portfolio is stocks and ETFs only, XTB S.A. and DEGIRO both cover it. The gap opens once fixed income, funds or derivatives enter the picture — and it opens much wider if your country routes you to XTB’s Cyprus entity.
| Asset class | XTB S.A. | XTB Limited (Cyprus) | DEGIRO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real stocks | Yes | No | Yes, across more than 45 markets in 30 countries |
| Real UCITS ETFs | Yes | No | Yes, including over 1,000 ETFs, ETCs and ETNs listed on Tradegate as the Core Selection. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply |
| Fractional units | Yes (Fractional Rights) | No | No, whole shares only |
| Bonds | Not priced in the tariff table | No | Yes |
| Investment funds | Not priced in the tariff table | No | Yes, with a 0.20% annual service fee |
| Options | Absent from the tariff table | Yes, 0.25% of the premium | Yes, upgraded profile required |
| Futures | No | No | Yes, upgraded profile required |
| Warrants, certificates and leveraged products | No | No | Yes |
| CFDs on stocks, indices, commodities and currencies | Yes | Yes | No |
XTB S.A. is deep within the stocks-and-ETFs lane and runs a CFD business alongside it, which is a different risk category with its own costs and leverage dynamics. DEGIRO is the broader platform for a traditional long-only portfolio that includes fixed income or funds, and it covers derivatives for clients who upgrade their profile. A reader building a two-fund or three-fund UCITS portfolio will find neither XTB S.A. nor DEGIRO limiting — but will find XTB’s Cyprus entity unable to serve them at all.
Sources: XTB S.A. Table of Tariffs and Commissions dated 29 June 2026, XTB Limited (Cyprus) Table of Commissions and Fees dated 2 April 2026, and DEGIRO’s Dutch, German, French and Irish fee schedules effective 1 January 2026. Verified August 2026. Product availability differs by country at both brokers — confirm for your market before opening an account.
What each platform lets you do
Two features change behaviour rather than just cost, and both sit on the same side.
| Feature | XTB S.A. | DEGIRO |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional units | Yes, Fractional Rights priced on the same tariff as whole shares and ETFs | No — DEGIRO’s helpdesk states it facilitates whole shares only |
| Scheduled or recurring purchase order | Investment Plans listed as an available product | The order execution policy lists eight order types and two validity durations; none is scheduled or recurring |
| Order by value rather than quantity | Not stated in the tariff table | Yes, for specific assets, combined with a limit — but without fractional units the order fills in whole units and the remainder stays as cash |
| Currency conversion between your own cash accounts | 0.5% of transfer value, or 0.8% at weekends and on holidays, deducted from the account the transfer is made from | Manual FX at €10.00 + 0.25% on the Dutch, German, French and Irish schedules; AutoFX converts automatically at 0.25% |
| Demo account | Yes | Not offered — DEGIRO’s stated reason is that opening an account is free, so clients can use the live platform |
Fractional units and a recurring purchase order are what let a fixed monthly contribution be fully invested without a manual order each month. DEGIRO offers neither, which is the clearest structural gap between the two for a monthly investor — against which sit the connectivity, currency and external product and spread costs that apply on any platform, and the account-funding costs described above. DEGIRO routes orders directly to market under its own membership or through third-party brokers, currently ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and Morgan Stanley, and publishes its monitoring of their execution quality. Both brokers are execution-only and neither provides investment advice.
Sources: XTB S.A. Table of Tariffs and Commissions dated 29 June 2026; DEGIRO’s Orderen- en Orderuitvoeringbeleid version 20250822, DEGIRO helpdesk pages on fractional shares and demo accounts, and DEGIRO’s Dutch, German, French and Irish fee schedules effective 1 January 2026. Verified August 2026. Features and availability are subject to change and differ by country.
Four markets, opt-in, and all-or-nothing
DEGIRO’s securities lending service is available in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Italy only. It is not available in Germany, France, Ireland or the United Kingdom, so for many readers of this page it does not apply at all.
Where it is available it is opt-in and off by default. Nothing is lent unless you accept the Appendix Securities Lending through Settings › Product settings › Securities Lending and pass the applicable appropriateness test. Opting in makes every share, ETF and bond in the portfolio eligible — there is no per-position choice — and it does not guarantee that anything is actually lent. You can opt out at any time by the same route; securities already on loan may take up to three business days to return, and opting back in is possible after a 14-day cooling-off period.
DEGIRO is the counterparty of the client: it transfers legal title to itself and then enters into the lending transaction with the borrower. Borrowers post collateral of at least 105% of the loan value, adjusted daily and held by Stichting Collateral, which the client cannot access. Voting rights transfer to the borrower and are recoverable only by instructing a recall five trading days before the record date. DEGIRO receives the borrowing fees, deducts the fees payable to its service providers, and pays 50% of the remaining amount to the client as a Compensation Payment, credited in the month following accrual — so it is a share of net revenue, not of gross.
Sources: DEGIRO Securities Lending Conditions version 20250807, DEGIRO’s securities lending FAQ and Ex-Ante Cost Information disclosure dated 15 August 2025, and written confirmation from DEGIRO’s affiliate network contact dated 6 August 2026. Verified August 2026.
Where each broker is strong and where it costs you
XTB S.A.
Strengths
- 0% commission on real stocks and ETFs up to €100,000 of cumulative turnover per calendar month
- Fractional Rights priced on the same tariff, so a fixed monthly amount can be fully invested
- Investment Plans available for recurring purchases
- No connectivity fee, and no custody fee below €250,000
- Free deposit rails exist on both branch tables, plus one free deposit for first agreements concluded on or after 27 October 2025
- No XTB commission on withdrawals, though third parties may charge their own
Costs and limitations
- None of this applies if your country routes you to XTB Limited (Cyprus), which offers no real shares or ETFs
- 0.5% currency conversion markup, twice DEGIRO’s rate — and charged twice over where the conversion runs through USD
- Card deposits cost 0.70% in EUR and 0.95% in USD; PayPal 0.85%
- Dividends are taxed at the highest local rate through omnibus custody, which XTB states is 30% on US-listed shares
- No bonds, investment funds, futures or warrants priced in the tariff table; options absent from the XTB S.A. table entirely
- €10 monthly fee where both inactivity conditions are met
- 0.2% commission (min €10) above €100,000 of monthly turnover, and 0.02% annual custody on the excess above €250,000
- €25 per ISIN to transfer holdings out, or 0.10% (min €100) for Spanish-listed securities
DEGIRO
Strengths
- 0.25% AutoFX conversion, half XTB’s rate, as a single stated markup
- Core Selection: over 1,000 ETFs, ETCs and ETNs on Tradegate at €1.00 all-in, exempt from the connectivity fee. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply
- Access to bonds, investment funds, options, futures and warrants
- More than 45 markets across 30 countries
- No platform fee and no inactivity fee, though transaction, currency, connectivity, external product and spread costs may apply
- Money transfers in and out are free on all four euro-market schedules
- Cash covered by the German deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000 in the event of firm failure, which does not cover investment losses
Costs and limitations
- No fractional shares — DEGIRO’s helpdesk states it facilitates whole shares only, so a fixed monthly amount cannot be fully invested
- No scheduled or recurring purchase order among the eight order types in its execution policy
- Connectivity fee of €2.50 per exchange per calendar year, capped at 0.25% of total account value, on non-exempt venues
- Stock commission varies by exchange and by schedule, so costs are harder to predict than a single tariff
- €20 per position plus unpublished external costs to transfer out on the Dutch, French and Irish schedules; free on the German schedule
- Core Selection positions sit on Tradegate, and not every destination broker accepts incoming Tradegate transfers
- No demo account, so there is no way to see the platform before opening one
Which broker suits which investor
There is no universal answer. Four variables decide it: which XTB entity your country routes you to, the currency your instruments are priced in, your typical trade size, and whether you need anything beyond stocks and ETFs.
XTB may suit you if…
- You have confirmed that XTB S.A. is the entity that will onboard you
- You buy EUR-denominated UCITS ETFs regularly and fund through one of the free deposit rails
- You want a fixed monthly amount fully invested through fractional units
- You want recurring purchases automated rather than placed manually
- Your foreign-currency trades are small, below roughly €800 each, on pairs XTB quotes directly
- You do not need bonds, investment funds, futures or warrants
DEGIRO may suit you if…
- You want bonds, investment funds or derivatives alongside your equities
- You make larger foreign-currency trades, above roughly €800 each, where the 0.25% conversion rate outweighs the flat charges
- Your target ETFs are in the Tradegate Core Selection and you plan to hold long-term. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply
- You need exchanges XTB does not cover
- You may pause contributions for long periods and want no inactivity exposure
- You want cash held under a deposit guarantee in the event of firm failure, which does not cover investment losses
For a European investor running a EUR-denominated UCITS ETF portfolio funded through a free deposit rail, XTB S.A.’s tariff is difficult to match and the fractional-unit and automation features remove real friction. For an investor whose portfolio spans asset classes, or who trades in foreign currency at size, DEGIRO’s broader universe and single 0.25% conversion rate are the stronger argument, and its Core Selection closes most of the commission gap at €1.00 all-in — currency or external product and spread costs may apply. Both accounts can be held at once, at the cost of two sets of statements at tax time. Investing involves risk of loss and this is not investment advice — check both brokers’ current terms and confirm what applies in your country before deciding.
Ready to open an account?
Both brokers open and close accounts free of charge. Read the current fee schedule for your country first, confirm which XTB entity serves your market, and note that at XTB the funding method changes the total cost. You can hold both accounts at the same time. Investing involves risk of loss.
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Common questions
Is XTB or DEGIRO cheaper for EUR-listed UCITS ETFs?
On commission alone, XTB S.A. is cheaper. Its tariff table charges 0% commission, minimum €0, on real stocks and ETFs up to €100,000 of cumulative turnover across all registered accounts within a calendar month, then 0.2% with a minimum of €10. DEGIRO charges €1.00 all-in for a Core Selection product on Tradegate, which is €0.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee, and €3.00 for an ETF on another exchange, which is €2.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply. Two things sit outside the commission line. First, this only holds if you are onboarded to XTB S.A.: XTB Limited (Cyprus) offers no real stocks, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or Fractional Rights at all. Second, how you fund the account matters, because XTB’s tariff prices several deposit methods as a percentage while DEGIRO’s schedules make bank transfers in and out free. Investing involves risk of loss.
Which broker is cheaper for trades in a foreign currency?
It depends on trade size, and the break-even sits near €800. XTB charges no commission below the monthly threshold but applies a 0.5% markup on top of its own exchange rate, so a €500 purchase costs about €2.50 in conversion. DEGIRO charges €1.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee on the US and Canadian exchanges, plus 0.25% AutoFX, so the same €500 purchase costs about €3.25. Below roughly €800 per trade XTB is cheaper; above it DEGIRO is, because the lower conversion rate outweighs the flat charges. Two adjustments: DEGIRO’s connectivity fee of €2.50 per exchange per calendar year, capped at 0.25% of your total account value, applies on non-exempt venues; and where XTB quotes no direct rate between two currencies it converts through USD and applies 0.5% of the mid rate at each step, so the conversion cost is charged twice rather than once. Currency fluctuations can impact your returns.
Does XTB have hidden fees?
Nothing is hidden, but four costs sit outside the 0% commission headline. First, currency conversion on real stock and ETF trades carries a 0.5% markup on XTB’s own exchange rate, applied at execution, and it is charged twice where no direct rate is quoted and the conversion runs through USD. Second, deposits are priced by method: the XTB S.A. table charges 0.70% on EUR card deposits, 0.95% on USD card deposits and 0.85% on PayPal, while BLIK and Autopay transfers are free, and the German branch table makes PayU card payments and SOFORT free. Clients whose first agreement with XTB was concluded on or after 27 October 2025 get one free deposit. Third, a €10 monthly fee applies only where both conditions are met, meaning no position opened or closed in the last 365 days and no cash deposit in the last 90 days; it is not charged if you hold an open position on any account, and it is converted into the account currency. Fourth, a custody fee of 0.02% per year, charged monthly, applies to the portion of the average daily portfolio value above €250,000, not to the whole portfolio.
Does XTB offer options, and does DEGIRO?
It depends which XTB entity you are a client of. Options are priced in the XTB Limited (Cyprus) fee table dated 2 April 2026 at a 0.25% markup on the premium with no currency conversion markup. They do not appear in the XTB S.A. table dated 29 June 2026 at all, so a client of XTB S.A. cannot assume access. Note the trade-off: the Cyprus entity is also the one that offers no real stocks, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or Fractional Rights. DEGIRO prices options at €0.75 per contract on Eurex, MEFF, Euronext Derivatives and Nasdaq Nordic Derivatives, and USD 0.75 per contract on the US markets, where a €5.00 monthly connectivity charge applies for trading and for merely holding a position. Derivatives require an upgraded account profile with additional approval, and they are not relevant to a standard long-term ETF investor. Investing involves risk of loss.
Which broker offers fractional shares and automated investing?
XTB S.A., on both counts. Its tariff table prices Fractional Rights alongside whole shares and ETFs at the same 0% commission up to €100,000 of cumulative monthly turnover, and Investment Plans are listed as an available product for XTB S.A. clients. DEGIRO’s own helpdesk states it facilitates whole shares only, and DEGIRO’s order execution policy lists eight order types and two validity durations, none of which is a scheduled or recurring purchase. The policy does include a value order for specific assets, where you enter an amount rather than a share count, but without fractional units the order still fills in whole units and the remainder stays as cash. If you invest a fixed amount every month and want it fully invested, that is a real difference. This is not investment advice.
Which entity will I be a client of, and what investor protection applies?
DEGIRO is the trading name of flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch, the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE. flatexDEGIRO Bank SE is primarily supervised by the German financial regulator (BaFin). In the Netherlands, flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch is registered with DNB and supervised by AFM and DNB. The legal form changed from AG to SE on 30 December 2025. The applicable schemes are German, not Dutch: cash is covered by the German deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000 per client, and the German investor compensation scheme covers 90% of losses on investments that cannot be returned, to a maximum of €20,000 per client. XTB serves EEA clients through more than one entity. XTB S.A., regulated by the KNF in Poland, offers real stocks, ETFs and Fractional Rights, and is confirmed as the entity serving German and Polish clients. XTB Limited (Cyprus), regulated by CySEC, offers no real stocks, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or Fractional Rights. Neither XTB entity’s investor compensation limit is stated in the fee tables read for this comparison, so confirm both the entity and the current limit with XTB before you fund an account. These schemes address the failure of the firm only. They do not protect you against investment losses: investing involves risk of loss, and the value of your investments can fall.
Does DEGIRO lend out my shares?
Only in four markets, and only if you choose to take part. DEGIRO’s securities lending service is available in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, and is not available in Germany, France, Ireland or the United Kingdom. Where it is available it is opt-in and off by default: you must accept the Appendix Securities Lending through Settings, then Product settings, then Securities Lending, and pass the applicable appropriateness test. Opting in makes every share, ETF and bond in the portfolio eligible, with no per-position choice, and it does not guarantee that anything is actually lent. DEGIRO is the counterparty of the client: it transfers legal title to itself and then enters into the lending transaction with the borrower. Borrowers post collateral of at least 105% of the loan value, adjusted daily and held by Stichting Collateral, which the client cannot access. Voting rights transfer to the borrower and are recoverable only by instructing a recall five trading days before the record date. DEGIRO pays 50% of the remaining borrowing fees after deducting the fees payable to its service providers, credited in the month following accrual. No lending rate is published anywhere, rates vary per security and continuously, and lending carries counterparty, collateral, market, borrower-default, selling and operational risk.
Can I hold both XTB and DEGIRO accounts at the same time?
Yes. There is no restriction on holding accounts at both brokers simultaneously, and some investors use XTB for commission-free EUR ETF purchases and DEGIRO for bonds, investment funds or exchanges XTB does not cover. Splitting accounts adds administrative overhead at tax time and means tracking two sets of costs and two sets of statements, so it is worth being clear about what each account is actually for before opening both. You are responsible for confirming the tax rules that apply in your country. This is not investment advice.
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QuantRoutine provides educational content only. Nothing on this page is an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to open an account with any specific broker. Investments can lose value, and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own investment, tax, and legal decisions. Always review each broker’s current terms, fees, and eligibility on their official website before opening or funding an account. Fee structures are subject to change; verify the current schedule with each broker directly.