DEGIRO vs Trading 212 (2026):
Manual broker vs app-first automation
Both target European investors, but the workflow is different. DEGIRO is closer to a classic broker — manual buys, 5,000+ ETFs, 50+ exchanges, and a banking license. Trading 212 is app-first — fractional shares, AutoInvest Pies, zero commission. This comparison covers fees, FX, automation, tax reporting, securities lending, and regulation.
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TL;DR
Consistency beats micro-optimising. Pick the broker you’ll actually use every month.
- You want a traditional broker workflow — manual buys, limit orders, broader exchange access.
- You need 5,000+ ETFs including niche products and bonds/options.
- You prefer a banking-backed broker with €100,000 cash deposit protection.
- You’re in Belgium — DEGIRO handles the TOB tax; Trading 212 is blocked there.
- You’re fine placing orders manually and don’t need fractional shares.
- You want the simplest app UX and zero-commission ETF investing.
- You invest small amounts and want fractional shares from €1.
- You value automation — AutoInvest Pies handle contributions on autopilot.
- You want interest on uninvested cash (~2–3% p.a., varies by country).
- You want a demo account to practise before going live.
Quick comparison
| Category | DEGIRO | Trading 212 |
|---|---|---|
| ETF commission | €1 handling fee (Core Selection on Tradegate); ~€3 total on other ETFs | €0 commission on all ETFs |
| FX conversion | 0.25% (auto-conversion) | 0.15% (Invest account) |
| Connectivity fee | Removed on Tradegate; may apply on other exchanges | None |
| Fractional shares | Not available | Yes, from €1 |
| Recurring investing | Manual only | AutoInvest Pies (fully automated) |
| Demo account | No | Yes |
| ETFs available | 5,000+ across 50+ exchanges | ~2,800 across 16 exchanges |
| Interest on cash | None | ~2–3% p.a. (varies by country, credited daily) |
| Multi-currency account | No (auto-converts) | Yes (13 currencies) |
| Tax report provided | Annual report (accuracy varies — verify) | None — full burden on investor |
| Securities lending | Default on Basic account (opt-out via Custody) | Opt-in only (50% interest share to investor) |
| Payment for order flow | Yes | No |
| Available in Belgium | Yes (handles TOB) | No (blocked) |
| Regulator (EU clients) | BaFin (DE) + AFM/DNB (NL) | CySEC (Cyprus) |
| Investor protection | €20,000 (assets) + €100,000 (cash) | €20,000 ICF + up to €1M Lloyd’s insurance |
| Banking license | Yes (flatexDEGIRO Bank AG) | No (most EU clients) |
| Company structure | Publicly traded (XETRA: FTK) | Private company |
| Deposit fee | Free | Free (bank); 0.7% above €2,000 via card/e-wallet |
How “commission-free” actually gets paid
Ignore the headline marketing. For long-term ETF investors, real drag comes from FX costs, spreads, and missed contributions — not commissions.
- Core Selection ETFs on Tradegate: €1 handling fee per trade. No annual connectivity fee on this exchange.
- Other ETFs / other exchanges: ~€3 per trade. Annual connectivity fee may apply — verify current terms.
- Fair Use Policy: first buy per ETF per month is free if same direction and ≥€1,000 on Core Selection.
- FX: 0.25% auto-conversion markup on non-base currency trades.
- Deposit fee: none.
- Interest on cash: none.
- Payment for order flow: yes — DEGIRO receives PFOF, which may affect execution quality.
- ETF commission: €0 on all stocks and ETFs (Invest account).
- FX conversion: 0.15% on the interbank rate — lower than DEGIRO’s 0.25%.
- Deposit: free via bank transfer. 0.7% fee above €2,000 via card or e-wallet.
- Interest on cash: ~2–3% p.a. depending on your country (credited daily). Verify current rate on T212.
- Payment for order flow: no — T212 does not use PFOF.
- Hidden cost: spread and execution quality, especially on illiquid ETFs.
Both brokers list VWCE in EUR — no FX conversion needed. Here’s what one monthly buy costs:
- DEGIRO (Core Selection on Tradegate): €1 handling fee. No FX cost. Annual cost: ~€12.
- Trading 212: €0 commission. No FX cost (EUR-denominated). Annual cost: €0 in explicit fees (spread cost varies).
- Key difference: DEGIRO requires whole shares — a €300 deposit may leave ~€40 idle. Trading 212 deploys the full €300 via fractional shares.
FX and currency conversion
Many Europeans fund in EUR but buy assets priced in USD or GBP. FX conversion is a recurring cost that compounds over decades — the markup, frequency, and whether it’s avoidable all determine your outcome.
- Auto-conversion: 0.25% markup applied automatically when you buy/sell in a non-base currency.
- Manual conversion: €10 flat + 0.25% — rarely worth it for small amounts.
- Workaround: buy EUR-denominated UCITS ETFs (e.g., VWCE on Tradegate or Euronext Amsterdam) to avoid FX entirely.
- Invest account: 0.15% on the interbank rate — lower than DEGIRO’s 0.25%.
- Multi-currency account: hold balances in 13 currencies. No FX fee if you deposit in the ETF’s native currency.
- Dividends too: the 0.15% fee applies to every dividend paid in a different currency.
ETF selection and exchange access
If you’re building a simple 1–4 ETF UCITS portfolio (VWCE, CSPX, IWDA), both brokers have you covered. The difference matters for niche products or wider market access.
- 5,000+ ETFs across 50+ exchanges worldwide.
- Major European exchanges (Euronext, XETRA, LSE, SIX) plus US and Asian markets.
- Core Selection: ~200 popular ETFs with reduced fees on Tradegate.
- Also offers: bonds, mutual funds, structured products, options, futures — broader product range than any neobroker.
- ~2,800 ETFs across 16 stock exchanges.
- Focused on the most popular UCITS and global ETFs — covers mainstream needs well.
- All ETFs available for fractional investing and AutoInvest Pies.
- No bonds, mutual funds, options, or futures — stocks, ETFs, and crypto only (plus a separate CFD account).
- Larger stock selection: 9,000+ stocks vs DEGIRO’s 5,000+.
Automation: the real separator
If your plan is “€X every month into ETFs”, the broker that makes it painless tends to win in real life — because the months you skip cost more than any fee difference.
- No automated investing. You must log in, deposit, and place orders manually each time.
- No fractional ETF shares — leftover cash accumulates until the next deposit.
- No demo account — you go live from day one.
- Good if you like control, won’t skip months, and prefer batching 2–3 months of savings into one larger trade to minimise the €1 per-trade fee.
- AutoInvest Pies: set a target allocation, choose a schedule (weekly, biweekly, monthly), and it buys automatically.
- Fractional shares deploy every euro — no cash drag from rounding.
- Demo account: practise the interface with virtual money before going live.
- Pies can be customised or cloned from community-shared portfolios.
Which broker helps more with taxes?
Neither broker files your taxes for you. But one gives you more to work with. If you live in a country with complex investment tax rules, this difference matters more than a 0.10% fee gap.
- Issues an annual tax overview summarising gains, dividends, and positions for the year.
- You still need to manually input this into your country’s tax return.
- Caution: past errors have been reported in DEGIRO’s tax reports — always cross-check against your own records.
- In Belgium, DEGIRO handles the stock exchange transaction tax (TOB) on your behalf — a meaningful differentiator for Belgian investors.
- Does not handle dividend withholding tax, Reynders tax (Belgium), or IVAFE wealth tax (Italy) — those remain your responsibility.
- No annual tax report generated. You must track all gains, dividends, and transactions yourself.
- Transaction history is available to export from the app, but it is not formatted as a tax document.
- Does not handle TOB, dividend tax, Reynders tax, or any other country-specific obligations.
- Not available in Belgium at all — account registrations from Belgian residents are blocked.
- For Italian investors: declarative regime applies; you must manually declare all income, capital gains, and IVAFE.
| Country | DEGIRO | Trading 212 |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Available — handles TOB. Dividend tax and Reynders tax still manual. | Not available (blocked) |
| Italy | Annual report provided. IVAFE and capital gains still manual. | No report. Full declarative burden on investor. |
| Germany | Annual report provided. Kapitalertragsteuer typically withheld at source via German entity. | Annual report not provided. Declarative regime. |
| Netherlands | Annual overview provided. Box 3 calculation remains investor’s responsibility. | No report. Box 3 calculation is investor’s responsibility. |
| General EU | Annual summary available — quality varies. Always verify against records. | No tax document. Export transaction history manually. |
Securities lending and payment for order flow
Both of these revenue models affect you as an investor — one directly (your shares being lent), one indirectly (execution quality). How each broker handles them is worth understanding before you open an account.
- The default Basic account automatically lends your securities to other market participants. You receive no share of the interest.
- To opt out: choose the Custody account. You keep your assets unencumbered, but pay a higher dividend processing fee (€1 + 3% of dividend received).
- Most long-term ETF investors who are dividend-light may find Custody costs comparable to Basic in practice.
- Securities lending is opt-in only — your shares are not lent unless you actively enrol.
- If you enrol: you receive 50% of the daily interest earned when your shares are lent. Collateral is provided.
- You can opt in or out at any time from within the app.
DEGIRO receives payment from market makers for routing orders to them. This is a controversial model because it can create an incentive to route to the highest-paying venue rather than the one with the best execution price. The actual impact on individual trades is difficult to measure, but it’s a known practice at DEGIRO.
Trading 212 does not use payment for order flow. Orders are routed without a financial incentive tied to the routing decision. This does not guarantee better execution in all cases, but removes a structural conflict of interest from the equation.
Regulation and safety
Both brokers are regulated by reputable European authorities and segregate client assets. The details differ in ways that matter — particularly around cash protection and company structure.
- Regulated by: BaFin (Germany), AFM and DNB (Netherlands).
- Legal entity: flatexDEGIRO Bank AG — publicly traded on XETRA (ticker: FTK), banking license.
- Asset protection: German Investor Compensation Scheme — up to 90% of non-returned assets, max €20,000.
- Cash protection: up to €100,000 under the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme — only possible because of the banking license.
- Past regulatory issues: BaFin fined flatexDEGIRO €1.05M in 2023 for risk management shortcomings. The issues have since been addressed, but this is worth noting as part of the record.
- Regulated by: CySEC (Cyprus) for EU clients, FCA (UK), BaFin (Germany), ASIC (Australia).
- Legal entity: Trading 212 Markets Ltd — private company. No banking license for most EU clients.
- Asset protection: assets held with BNY Mellon and JP Morgan. Cypriot ICF covers up to €20,000.
- Extra insurance: Lloyd’s of London policy up to €1,000,000 for EU clients — supplements the ICF.
- Cash protection: no deposit guarantee for most EU clients (no banking license). Cash not covered beyond the ICF + Lloyd’s layer.
- No past regulatory actions from European authorities to date.
Account types
- Basic account (default): DEGIRO may lend your securities. Lower headline fees.
- Custody account: no securities lending. Higher dividend processing fee (€1 + 3% of dividend). Usually preferred for long-term investors who hold distributing ETFs.
- No ISA, SIPP, or tax-wrapper accounts for EU investors.
- Products: stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, options, futures, warrants, structured products.
- No demo account — live from first trade.
- Invest account: commission-free stocks and ETFs. Fractional shares. AutoInvest Pies. Interest on cash.
- Demo account: virtual money to practise the platform before going live.
- ISA account (UK only): tax-free wrapper, same features as Invest. £20,000 annual limit.
- CFD account: separate leveraged account — not relevant for long-term ETF investors. Keep clear of it.
- Products: stocks, ETFs, crypto. No bonds, mutual funds, options, or futures.
Who each broker fits
- Live in Belgium — only broker here that handles TOB and is available to Belgian residents.
- Want broader exchange access for niche ETFs, bonds, or options.
- Prefer a banking-backed, publicly listed broker with €100,000 cash protection.
- Are comfortable placing monthly orders manually and won’t skip months.
- Invest larger lump sums where fractional share rounding matters less.
- Want the annual tax overview as a starting point for your tax filing.
- Want the simplest recurring setup — set once, leave it running on AutoInvest Pies.
- Invest smaller amounts and want every euro deployed via fractional shares.
- Value a cleaner app experience and lower FX rate (0.15% vs 0.25%).
- Want interest on uninvested cash (~2–3% p.a.).
- Want to try a demo account before committing real money.
- Prefer a broker that doesn’t use payment for order flow.
IBKR wins when multi-currency funding matters (deposit EUR, convert once at institutional FX rates, hold USD), when you need deeper market access, or when your portfolio has scaled to a size where FX and spread costs compound meaningfully. Best-in-class FX, deepest catalogue, and you won’t outgrow it.
The trade-off: more setup complexity upfront. If you’re willing to spend two hours on account setup, IBKR saves real money at scale. See: DEGIRO vs IBKR · Trading 212 vs IBKR.
Ready to open an account?
Automate contributions with Trading 212 Pies, or go manual with DEGIRO’s broader exchange access and banking-license protection. Either way — start now, not next month.
Go deeper
Frequently asked questions
Is Trading 212 really free?
There are no explicit commissions on stocks and ETFs in the Invest account. You still pay indirectly through the 0.15% FX conversion fee when trading in a non-base currency, spreads (the gap between buy and sell price), and a 0.7% deposit fee if you deposit more than €2,000 via card or e-wallet. Always verify the latest terms on Trading 212’s official fees page.
Is DEGIRO cheaper for ETFs?
It depends on the ETF and exchange. Core Selection ETFs traded on Tradegate cost just €1 handling fee per trade, and the annual connectivity fee has been removed for that exchange. Non-core ETFs or trades on other exchanges cost around €3 per trade, and connectivity fees may apply elsewhere. Trading 212 charges €0 on all ETFs. For simple monthly UCITS ETF purchases on mainstream indexes, Trading 212 is typically cheaper in explicit fees. DEGIRO can be competitive if you stick strictly to its Core Selection on Tradegate.
Which is better for recurring monthly investing?
Trading 212. Its AutoInvest Pies let you set a schedule and amount — purchases happen automatically with fractional shares deploying every euro. DEGIRO has no automation: you must log in, deposit, and place orders manually each month. If consistency matters most, Trading 212 removes the friction that causes missed months. The cash drag from skipping even one monthly contribution typically outweighs any fee difference between the two platforms.
Does DEGIRO have fractional shares?
No. DEGIRO does not offer fractional ETF or stock shares — you must buy whole units. If VWCE trades at around €130, a €300 monthly deposit buys 2 shares and leaves roughly €40 idle. Trading 212 supports fractional shares from €1, so the full €300 gets invested immediately with no cash drag from rounding.
How does each broker handle taxes for European investors?
Neither broker files your taxes for you, but they differ significantly in what they provide. DEGIRO issues an annual tax overview summarising your gains, dividends, and positions — though past errors have been reported, so you should always verify against your own transaction records. Trading 212 provides no tax report: you must track your own gains and dividends from the exported transaction history.
In Belgium, DEGIRO uniquely handles the stock exchange transaction tax (TOB) on your behalf — a meaningful differentiator. Trading 212 is not available in Belgium at all. For Italian, Dutch, and most other EU investors, both brokers leave the tax calculation to you. Country-specific obligations like Belgium’s Reynders tax and Italy’s IVAFE wealth tax are not handled by either broker. Always confirm with a local tax adviser.
Does Trading 212 lend my shares?
Trading 212 offers securities lending as an opt-in feature. Your shares are not lent unless you actively enrol. If you do enrol, you receive 50% of the daily interest earned when your shares are lent out, with collateral provided by the borrower. You can opt in or out at any time from within the app.
DEGIRO’s default Basic account automatically lends securities — you receive none of the interest. To avoid this, choose the Custody account, which comes with a higher dividend processing fee (€1 + 3% of dividend received).
Is DEGIRO or Trading 212 safer?
Both segregate client assets and are regulated by reputable European authorities. The key difference is DEGIRO’s banking license: your uninvested cash is protected up to €100,000 by the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme — a protection that simply isn’t available at a broker without a banking license. Trading 212 is a private company without a banking license for most EU clients — cash protection relies on the €20,000 Cypriot ICF, supplemented by a Lloyd’s of London insurance policy up to €1,000,000. Both offer €20,000 in investor compensation for non-returned securities. DEGIRO was fined by BaFin in 2023 for risk management shortcomings; Trading 212 has no comparable regulatory action on record from European authorities.
Which should a complete beginner choose?
If you want the simplest invest-every-month setup with the least friction, Trading 212 is usually the easier starting point — fractional shares, AutoInvest Pies, zero commission, and a demo account make it hard to get wrong. If you prefer a traditional broker workflow, want broader exchange access, or live in Belgium, DEGIRO is a solid introduction. Both are fine — the worst outcome is spending months comparing instead of actually starting.
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.