Scalable Capital

Broker Review · Updated September 2026

Scalable Capital Review (2026):
FREE vs PRIME+, fees and who it fits

4.0/5 QuantRoutine rating

Fees verified August 2026 against official pricing pages — see our methodology

Scalable Capital Bank GmbH is a BaFin-licensed German credit institution running one of Europe’s deepest ETF savings plan catalogues, with executions at zero cost from €1 on every plan. Single trades cost a flat €1.99 on Xetra and gettex whichever plan you hold — which means the €4.99 monthly subscription no longer buys a cheaper order, and the case for it now rests entirely on its feature set, its lower crypto spread and how it distributes your cash.

Dark wood infographic reviewing Scalable Capital, with sections on what the broker is, how it works, account options, fees, investment choices, and key pros and cons, alongside Scalable Capital platform-style visuals and a summary of who the broker suits best.

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you sign up through them. This does not affect our reviews or recommendations — we only feature products we genuinely believe are useful for investors. This site provides educational content only, not personalized investment advice. Investments can lose value and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and for confirming the tax and legal rules that apply in your country.


TL;DR

✅ Best for
  • Savings plan investors — executions cost €0.00 on every plan, from €1 per plan.
  • German residents who want withholding handled at source rather than filed manually.
  • Investors who want one flat, plan-independent per-trade price: €1.99 on Xetra and gettex on either plan, at any order size.
  • Anyone who wants a separate 2.60% p.a. call-money account alongside the brokerage, at a licensed German bank.
  • PRIME+ subscribers holding large cash balances, who get distribution across Scalable and partner banks for up to 5 × €100,000 of statutory cover.
⚠️ Watch out for
  • PRIME+ does not reduce the published per-order price — both plans pay €1.99. You are buying features and cash distribution, not cheaper trades.
  • A currency conversion markup exists in the binding contract and its size is published nowhere.
  • You cannot close the account until the depot is empty — and the plan fee keeps running until it is.
  • Scalable Wealth is available only to clients in Germany and Austria.
  • Fractional holdings come only from savings plans, and a position holding fractions must be sold in full.
  • Scalable has told users that withdrawal availability can be reduced for up to eight weeks after Instant or direct-debit deposits.

Scalable Capital at a glance

€0.00
Savings plan execution
€1.99
Per trade, Xetra & gettex
€4.99
PRIME+ per month
2.60%
Overnight account p.a.
€0.00
Custody per year
€0.00
Securities transfer out

What is Scalable Capital?

Founded in Munich in 2014, Scalable Capital runs a self-directed broker and a separate discretionary managed product. It reports more than one million clients, over €50 billion on the platform and over 700 employees, with offices in Munich, Berlin, Vienna and Milan.

🏦 The Broker

Self-directed trading in stocks, ETFs, ETCs and other ETPs, crypto ETPs, bonds, funds, derivatives and ELTIFs. Securities are held in custody at Scalable Capital Bank GmbH. Two plans are offered, FREE and PRIME+.

🤖 Scalable Wealth

A legally separate business relationship, and contractually discretionary portfolio management — Scalable manages the assets on your behalf, rather than you placing orders. Entry from €20 a month or a €1,000 one-off. Scalable’s help centre states it is available only to German and Austrian clients.

🔒 One entity, six countries, no local subsidiaries

Scalable Capital Bank GmbH, Seitzstraße 8e, Munich, registered at Amtsgericht München under HRB 217778. BaFin granted the permission; BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank are named as the competent home-state authorities. The client documents state expressly that Scalable does not act through any tied agent.

Services are provided cross-border under freedom of services, without a physical branch, into France (AMF), Italy (Banca d’Italia and CONSOB), the Netherlands (AFM), Spain (CNMV) and Austria (FMA). Because it is one entity rather than five subsidiaries, the same contract governs everywhere — the German text binds residents of Germany and Austria, the English text binds everyone else, and both sit inside the same document.

💼 How Scalable Capital makes money — in its own words

Three sourced points, all from Scalable’s own binding documents, which together tell you more than any speculation about order routing.

  • Inducements are received, and you contractually waive the right to have them handed over. The Special Terms allow Scalable to accept transaction-, volume-, inflow- and holdings-dependent distribution and trail commissions from product providers — and clause 13.5 records the client’s agreement that Scalable may keep them, contracting out of the default rule that would require them to be passed on. Amounts are disclosed once a year and may be determined across the client base rather than per trade.
  • Scalable names its own cost motive for its venue set. The execution policy states the choice of venues “allows Scalable Capital to reduce its expenses and costs” in order to keep total cost low for the client. It also discloses a conflict arising from its own turnover interest as a liquidity provider at execution venues and in fixed-price dealing.
  • One of the venues is partly its own. Scalable’s newsroom states it has operated the European Investor Exchange jointly with the Hanover Stock Exchange since 2024, and describes market-maker integration and multilateral matching of client orders inside the spread.

For an investor placing monthly savings plan contributions, the practical impact of all three is small. For anyone trading frequently or in size, the point worth holding onto is that Scalable co-operates one of the venues its orders reach, and discloses a commercial interest in the venues it uses.


FREE vs PRIME+ — what €4.99 a month actually buys

Savings plans are free on both plans and every single trade costs €1.99 on both plans. A subscription does not buy a cheaper order, so the only question worth asking is whether the extras are worth the fee to you.

FREE — no recurring fee
  • Savings plan executions €0.00, from €1.
  • Per trade on Xetra and gettex: €1.99, any size.
  • PRIME ETFs from Amundi, iShares, Vanguard and Xtrackers: €1.99, the same as any other trade.
  • Crypto ETP spread surcharge 0.99% on executed volume.
  • Instant deposits 0.99%. Credit at 4.49% p.a., variable.
  • Cash distributed across Scalable, partner banks and qualifying money market funds.

Best if you invest through savings plans or trade occasionally. Neither costs you a cent more here than on the paid plan.

PRIME+ — €4.99/month, billed monthly in advance
  • Savings plan executions €0.00, from €1.
  • Per trade on Xetra and gettex: €1.99 — the same price as FREE.
  • Crypto ETP spread surcharge reduced to 0.69%.
  • Instant deposits 0.69%. Credit at 3.49% p.a., variable.
  • Cash distributed across Scalable and partner banks, for up to 5 × €100,000 of statutory cover.
  • Unlimited price alerts, unlimited portfolio groups, security comparison, Smart Predict orders, free duplicate document dispatch.

Best if you hold a large cash balance, trade crypto ETPs, use Instant deposits or borrow against the portfolio.

There is no per-order break-even to calculate. Most write-ups of Scalable still frame the paid plan as something that pays for itself after a certain number of trades a month. On the published schedule that arithmetic does not exist: FREE and PRIME+ both pay €1.99, so no volume of trading recovers the €4.99. Judge the subscription on the crypto spread, the Instant and Credit rates, the cash distribution and the feature list — or don’t buy it.
One footnote on the plan lineup. Scalable’s binding client documents still price a third broker plan, PRIME, which appears neither on the fee page nor in the in-app plan switcher — Scalable’s help centre describes switching between FREE Broker and PRIME+ Broker only. No Scalable source states whether PRIME can still be held, or by whom. Treat the lineup as two plans in practice.

Full fee schedule

Pricing reflects Scalable Capital’s fee schedule effective 1 September 2026. Every fee row on Scalable’s own fee page carries the same rider: product costs, spreads, crypto fees and/or inducements may additionally apply.

Trading and savings plan costs

Item FREE PRIME+
Per trade, Xetra and gettex €1.99 €1.99
PRIME ETFs — Amundi, iShares, Vanguard, Xtrackers €1.99 €1.99
Savings plan execution, per plan from €1 €0.00 €0.00
Crypto ETP spread surcharge 0.99% of executed volume 0.69% of executed volume

Plan, account and cash

Item FREE PRIME+
Recurring plan fee €0.00 / month €4.99 / month, monthly in advance
Securities account management (custody) €0.00 €0.00
Cash account management €0.00 €0.00
Front-end loads (e.g. funds) €0.00 €0.00
Deposits by transfer or direct debit €0.00 €0.00
Deposits via Instant 0.99% of the first €5,000 0.69% of the first €5,000
Securities transfer, in or out €0.00 + third-party costs €0.00 + third-party costs
Broker clearing cash 0% p.a. 0% p.a.
Overnight account (separate account) 2.60% p.a., variable 2.60% p.a., variable
Credit — variable borrowing rate, charged quarterly 4.49% p.a. 3.49% p.a.
Currency conversion Rate + undisclosed markup Rate + undisclosed markup

Services the fee page does not cover

These four lines come from Scalable’s price and services list — the binding contractual fee schedule — rather than from its marketing fee page. They apply on both plans.

Item Charge
Exercise of derivatives, conversion or subscription rights €9.99 + third-party costs
AGM entry ticket €9.99 + third-party costs, incl. VAT
Change of depository, country or custody type €24.99 + third-party costs
Withdrawal, inactivity, account closing No line anywhere in the schedule
💱 The currency markup nobody publishes

Section E VI of the price and services list is unambiguous: foreign currency turnover is converted into euros at the prevailing buy or sell rate plus a surcharge or minus a discount, and the conversion may be performed by Scalable or by a third party such as an intermediate custodian.

The size of that markup does not appear in the client documents, on the fee page or in any Scalable press material. Scalable’s claim that euro-denominated trading on its venues removes additional currency costs is a statement about venue selection — it means no conversion arises on the trade itself. A dollar dividend, a foreign corporate action or a coupon still gets converted, and still carries the markup.

⚡ Instant deposits are an overdraft, not just a fee

The percentage is charged on the first €5,000 of the deposit and every further euro is free — so it is a cap on the amount charged, not a threshold above which deposits become free. An €8,000 Instant deposit on PRIME+ costs 0.69% of €5,000, which is €34.50, not zero.

Underneath it, the Special Terms let Scalable accept and execute purchase orders against direct debits that have not reached their value date, and state plainly that the clearing account “may be (further) overdrawn” as a result. Scalable has said in customer support replies that withdrawal availability can be reduced for up to eight weeks after a direct-debit or Instant deposit, to guard against chargebacks. That is Scalable’s stated practice rather than a contractual term — but if you fund an account and expect immediate access to the cash, plan around it.


The savings plan catalogue — and the fine print on it

Executions cost €0.00 on every plan, from €1 per plan. This is the strongest thing Scalable offers a long-term investor and the reason most of its clients are there.

📊 What you can put on a plan
  • More than 2,700 ETFs. Scalable’s help centre lists ETFs, shares, crypto ETPs and funds as the eligible classes.
  • Crypto ETP plans still carry the spread surcharge — 0.99% on FREE, 0.69% on PRIME+ — so “free savings plans” is not true of every instrument.
  • Unlimited plans from €1, with no maximum savings rate stated anywhere — but only one plan per security.
  • Monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual, on nine execution days a month. Scalable currently publishes the count; the dates it has published are the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd and 25th.
  • Optional inflation uplift of 2%, 3%, 5% or 8% per year, applied pro rata after each execution.
⚠️ Four constraints the marketing skips
  • Five banking days. Scalable’s help centre states that adjustments made fewer than five banking days before an execution may not be applied until the following one. The same lead time governs funding the account ahead of a plan.
  • Timing is not guaranteed. The Special Terms state that savings plan timing and execution depend on tradability and available balance, and “cannot be guaranteed and are not assured.”
  • Fractions are one-way. They can only be acquired through plans, never bought directly — and a position containing fractions can only be sold in full. You cannot sell the fractional part on its own.
  • The fractional leg runs on EIX. Scalable’s execution policy points fractional savings-plan trading at the European Investor Exchange, and permits it to restrict fractional trading to particular venues.
🔍 A clause worth understanding before you rely on best execution

Where a savings plan or automatic reinvestment can only execute at one of the offered venues, the Special Terms state that the client’s order always includes the instruction to use that venue. Read that against the execution policy, which says a client venue instruction takes precedence over the policy and that following it discharges the best-execution duty even where the policy would have produced a better result. So single-venue savings-plan execution is contractually framed as client-instructed — and the instruction is deemed rather than given. You never type it. This is a mechanism, not a scandal, but it is worth knowing it exists.

🌍 Scalable’s own ETF: the Scalable MSCI AC World Xtrackers UCITS ETF

Launched in December 2024, ISIN LU2903252349, created with Xtrackers by DWS with Scalable advising on portfolio construction and replication.

  • Index: MSCI All Country World — more than 2,600 large and mid-cap companies across 23 developed and 24 emerging markets, roughly 90% of global investable market coverage.
  • Replication: hybrid. Physical for European indices, synthetic for US and less liquid markets. Scalable and DWS describe it as the first ETF worldwide to combine the two.
  • TER: 0.17% p.a. is the regular figure. Scalable’s own pages have carried a temporary waiver below it, so check the level currently in force before buying.
  • Costs beyond the TER: no upfront fee and no performance fee.

0.17% is competitive against established ACWI trackers rather than dramatically cheaper, and the fund has a short track record. As with any fund, the issuer key information document is the document to read before buying — not the distributor’s product page.


Cash interest, and where your money actually sits

The broker clearing balance earns 0% on both plans. The yield product is a separate account, and the arrangement behind it is more interesting than the rate.

🏦 The Overnight account — 2.60% p.a.
  • 2.60% p.a. variable, on unlimited balances, on both FREE and PRIME+.
  • No minimum deposit. Accrued daily, credited monthly and compounding.
  • A separate account used for saving, not for payment processing, applied for as part of the customer contract — it has to be opened and funded, it is not your trading balance.
  • Balances available 24/7 in real time. One account per child on children’s accounts.
  • Scalable’s own footnote: interest and distribution vary with market rates, capacities and conditions.
🛡 Deposit protection
  • Statutory scheme: Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken (EdB).
  • €100,000 per depositor per credit institution, paid out in euros within seven working days.
  • On PRIME+, Scalable states cash is distributed across up to five banks for up to 5 × €100,000 of statutory cover, plus additional cover through banks in a voluntary scheme.
  • The four partner banks are named in Scalable’s document centre: Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Continental Europe S.A., Münchener Hypothekenbank eG and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale. Each has its own depositor information sheet.
📋 What the contract says, as opposed to the headline

Scalable prices cash distribution as a plan difference on its own fee page: on FREE, balances sit across Scalable, partner banks and qualifying money market funds; on PRIME+, across Scalable and partner banks. But Scalable’s own footnote closes both limbs the same way — each is also possible as the sole safekeeping method. Concentration in a single trustee bank or a single money market fund is therefore possible on either plan, and no balance threshold appears anywhere. The binding Cash Management terms say the same thing in longer form: every client instructs Scalable to hold funds in one or more omnibus trust accounts and/or with one or more qualifying money market funds, distribution reflects available capacities, conditions and client activity, and “differs from client to client”.

Three further clauses are worth knowing. Client trust balances are not segregated from each other. They are held separately from Scalable’s own funds, which protects against Scalable’s insolvency and improper use — but Scalable then defines what segregation between clients would have achieved, and states it does not apply. Money market fund balances sit outside WpHG protection. Because they are held to UCITS standards, Scalable states they are not covered by the protection standards of the German Securities Trading Act or the WpDVerOV. And trust balances cannot be disposed of directly — there is no right to a direct transfer of trust balances to a reference account.

The list of partner banks is a website artefact governed by an eligibility test in the contract, not a contractual schedule. It can change without a contract amendment.

One more line item with no published number. The cash-account schedule carries a Verwahrentgelt — a safekeeping charge on cash balances — as a contractual line, with the rate deferred to the website or the apps. No Scalable page we could locate states a rate, and none states that it is currently nil. It sits alongside the credit interest rate as a figure the contract declines to fix. Do not read the absence of a published rate as a guarantee that there is no charge.

Where your securities are held

Scalable Capital Bank GmbH is the executing and custodian entity in the current client documents. How your holdings are actually kept depends on where the security is domiciled, and the two cases are legally different.

🇩🇪 German securities

Held with Clearstream Banking AG in collective safe custody (Girosammelverwahrung). You acquire co-ownership — Miteigentum — of the collective holding. This is the stronger of the two positions.

🌍 Foreign securities

Normally held in the security’s home market or the country of purchase, with the client receiving a credit in a securities account — a Gutschrift in Wertpapierrechnung. The custody country is shown on your depot statement. This is a claim against the custodian rather than direct co-ownership.

No custody fee, but third-party custody costs are passed on. Securities account management is priced at €0.00 in the binding schedule. Costs charged by third-party custodians — Scalable names ADRs and commodity notes as examples — are passed through to you and are not quantified anywhere. Scalable may also appoint intermediate brokers and discharges its best-execution duty by careful selection of them; that same mechanism is what allows a currency conversion to be performed by an intermediate custodian rather than by Scalable.

German withholding at source — and what non-residents actually get

Worth separating two things that get conflated in most comparisons: withholding tax at source, and producing a tax report. German residents get the first. Everyone else may get the second.

🇩🇪 German tax residents
  • Without an exemption order, Scalable withholds 25% Kapitalertragsteuer plus the 5.5% solidarity surcharge, and church tax where applicable.
  • An exemption order (Freistellungsauftrag) can be filed up to €1,000 for an individual or €2,000 for married couples and registered partners. It has to be submitted — it is not applied by default.
  • One order applies across all your Scalable business relationships, and a joint order cannot be split across both accounts.
  • An annual Jahressteuerbescheinigung is issued where tax-relevant transactions occurred, normally delivered to the customer mailbox by end of April of the following year — posted by mail instead if the portfolio has been terminated or you hold both Broker and Wealth.
🌍 Non-German tax residents
  • German withholding at source does not apply. You declare your own gains under local rules.
  • But the client documents do state that Scalable may arrange suitable reports of tax-relevant capital income for a tax year, using a service provider where appropriate, at no additional charge, delivered to the customer mailbox.
  • That is discretionary language — “may”, not “will” — and Scalable gives no warranty as to content, accepting liability only for careful selection and instruction of the provider.
  • Country guides: Germany · France · Italy · Spain.
The distinction that matters: a broker that withholds at source removes a filing obligation. A broker that produces a report does not — it just makes your own filing easier. For a German resident, Scalable does the first. For a French, Italian, Spanish or Dutch resident, it may do the second, and the tax return remains yours to complete.

Venues, order types and what users actually report

⚙️ Venues, orders and execution
  • Three execution venues in the client documents: the European Investor Exchange (Börse Hannover), gettex (Börse München) and Xetra (Deutsche Börse). Orders may also execute OTC, which you consent to in the contract.
  • Order types: Limit, Stop, Stop-Limit, Market, Take-Profit and Stop-Loss.
  • Market orders are sell-side only. A buy without a limit automatically receives a safety limit at a maximum of 5% above the last ask.
  • Limit, Stop and Stop-Limit are valid for 360 days per Scalable’s website; the contract’s own default is validity until the specified trading day, with an extension power published on the website.
  • OCO orders are not offered — Scalable states this explicitly.
📱 What users report

Scalable holds a 4 out of 5 TrustScore across roughly 6,500 Trustpilot reviews — a solid score for a retail broker rather than an outlier in either direction.

The recurring themes in the negative reviews are consistent: support response times on complex issues, delays in receiving annual tax documents during peak season, and confusion over withdrawal availability after deposits. Positive reviews cluster on the interface, the savings plan setup and the Overnight account rate. Support runs through the app and the web Support tab, with email for anyone without account access — Scalable does not publish a general support telephone number, and states that requests submitted through the app are prioritised.

One clause that bears on every number you see in the app. Scalable expressly draws attention to the fact that price data shown in the client area are indicative and non-binding quotes — and that estimated order value, position valuations and anything calculated from them rest on those quotes. Quotes come from third parties such as execution venues and data providers, and Scalable accepts no liability for their accuracy, completeness or currency except for wilful or grossly negligent breach. The cost you see before confirming is an estimate.

Where Scalable Capital is available — and where Wealth is not

The Broker and Scalable Wealth have different footprints, and the gap matters more than the broker footprint does.

Country Broker Scalable Wealth German withholding at source
🇩🇪 Germany Yes Yes Yes
🇦🇹 Austria Yes — passported to the FMA Yes Not stated
🇫🇷 France Yes — passported to the AMF Not available No
🇮🇹 Italy Yes — Banca d’Italia and CONSOB Not available No
🇪🇸 Spain Yes — passported to the CNMV Not available No
🇳🇱 Netherlands Yes — passported to the AFM Not available No
📌 On the Wealth column

Scalable’s help centre states directly that a client opens a Broker account first and can then add a Wealth portfolio, “only available for german and austrian clients”. Its French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch country sites each carry a matching not-yet-available line against the Wealth product. Those are “not yet available” statements, which is Scalable signalling intent, so it is worth checking before ruling it out permanently.

🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸🇳🇱 Outside Germany and Austria?

You get the Broker, without the managed product and without withholding at source. Worth comparing against DEGIRO, where the Core Selection — every ETF, ETC and ETN listed on Tradegate — costs €1.00 all-in per trade, being €0.00 commission plus DEGIRO’s €1.00 handling fee. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply. The trade-off is real: DEGIRO has no recurring savings plans at all, and deals in whole shares only.

Open DEGIRO →

Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic

The closest comparison, and the one most readers are actually making. Both are German-licensed banks running savings-plan-first brokers.

Scalable Capital Trade Republic
Subscription €0.00 FREE · €4.99/mo PRIME+ No subscription tier appears in its price and services list
Single order €1.99 on Xetra and gettex, both plans, any size €1 settlement flat rate — charged once per trading day on partial fills
Savings plan execution €0.00 on every plan The €1 settlement flat rate does not apply to savings plans
Savings plan minimum €1 per plan, no stated maximum €10 per execution, €10,000 maximum
Cash on the brokerage balance 0% — the 2.60% sits in a separate Overnight account Interest must be activated in the app; blocked balances earn nothing; any headline rate includes a discretionary top-up terminable on two weeks’ notice
Cash protection EdB statutory scheme, €100,000 per depositor per institution “A statutory compensation scheme in the European Union” — no scheme name and no limit published in its documents

The short version: Scalable is cheaper on small recurring contributions because of the €1 plan minimum against Trade Republic’s €10, and it publishes a named deposit scheme with a stated limit where Trade Republic does not. Trade Republic is now cheaper on single orders — €1 against €1.99 — and its per-trade cost does not depend on which plan you hold either. Full breakdown in the Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic comparison →


What it costs to leave — the part no fee table shows

There is no closing fee. There is a mechanism, and it is the single most useful thing in Scalable’s client documents.

✅ The good news, and it is genuine
  • Securities transfer is priced at €0.00 in the binding schedule, plus any third-party costs. The line is direction-neutral, so it covers transfers out as well as in.
  • The exhaustive fee schedule contains no withdrawal charge, no inactivity charge and no account-closing charge.
  • No minimum contract term on any product. You may terminate at any time with no notice period; Scalable must give two months.
  • Ordinary cancellation carries no penalty. The compensation clause that circulates online is a 14-day withdrawal right, under which already-executed orders are recalculated at FREE broker rates — not a cancellation penalty.
⚠️ The precondition, which is the real friction
  • Cancellation is only possible once you have sold every security in the depot or transferred it to a depot held elsewhere. You cannot close an account that still holds stock.
  • If Scalable cancels, you must empty the depot before the notice period expires.
  • If securities remain after termination, Scalable may sell them, giving one month’s notice unless notice is pointless — expressly including where you have finally refused to sell or transfer. The costs of that sale are borne by you.
  • And you keep paying the base fee of your last active plan until the depot is fully wound up — taken from the clearing account, by direct debit, or from any other account you hold with Scalable.
Put together: a PRIME+ customer who stops using the account without emptying the depot keeps being billed €4.99 a month indefinitely, and can be charged the costs of a forced liquidation. It is not a fee, so it appears in no comparison table — but it is a real cost of exit, it is in the binding contract, and it is a good argument for switching to FREE before you walk away rather than after.

Who Scalable Capital fits — and who it doesn’t

Good fit
  • Investors contributing small amounts monthly — €1 per plan with zero execution cost is hard to beat.
  • German residents who want withholding handled at source rather than filed manually.
  • Anyone who wants pricing they do not have to think about: one price, both plans, any order size.
  • Investors holding significant idle cash who want a 2.60% call-money account at the same licensed German bank.
  • Anyone who wants a named statutory deposit scheme with a stated limit sitting alongside the brokerage.
Not a good fit
  • Active traders paying €4.99 a month expecting cheaper orders — the subscription does not reduce the per-trade price.
  • Cost-focused single-order investors, who can trade for less elsewhere in Europe.
  • Investors receiving significant foreign-currency income, given an unpublished conversion markup on every euro of it.
  • Anyone outside Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
  • Anyone who needs to sell part of a fractional position, or wants fractional lump-sum purchases outside savings plans.
  • Investors who need broad non-German exchange access — Scalable offers three venues.
The one-line verdict

For an investor who contributes monthly and rarely places single orders, Scalable is still close to the cheapest way to do it in Europe, and the plan you choose barely matters. For anyone placing single orders, the picture is weaker than the marketing suggests — €1.99 a trade is no longer a standout price, and the €4.99 subscription does nothing to lower it.


Ready to open an account?

Start on FREE, set a savings plan running from €1, and only move to PRIME+ if you want the lower crypto spread, the cheaper Instant and Credit rates, the cash distribution or the extra features — it will not make your trades cheaper. If you want wider European exchange access instead, DEGIRO is the closer fit, at the cost of no savings plans and whole shares only.



Frequently asked questions

How much does a trade cost on Scalable Capital?

€1.99 per trade on Xetra and gettex, on both the FREE and the PRIME+ plan, at any order size. PRIME ETFs from Amundi, iShares, Vanguard and Xtrackers are priced the same €1.99 as anything else. Savings plan executions are a separate line and cost €0.00 on every plan, from €1 per plan. Product costs, spreads, crypto fees and inducements can apply on top of all of these, which is a rider Scalable attaches to every row of its own fee page.

Is the FREE plan or PRIME+ better at Scalable Capital?

FREE has no recurring fee. PRIME+ costs €4.99 a month, billed monthly in advance, and it does not reduce the published per-order price: both plans pay €1.99 per trade. What the subscription buys is a lower crypto ETP spread surcharge of 0.69% rather than 0.99%, Instant deposits at 0.69% rather than 0.99%, a lower variable borrowing rate on Credit, a cash distribution across Scalable and partner banks giving up to 5 × €100,000 of statutory deposit cover, and the feature set of unlimited price alerts, unlimited portfolio groups, security comparison, Smart Predict orders and free duplicate document dispatch. Investors who use savings plans exclusively pay nothing for execution on either plan and gain nothing from upgrading unless they want those extras.

Are ETF savings plans free on Scalable Capital?

Savings plan executions and automatic reinvestments cost €0.00 on every plan, from €1 per plan. Product costs, spreads and the crypto ETP spread surcharge still apply, and the crypto surcharge applies to plan executions too. Three limits are worth knowing. Only one savings plan can be set up per security. Fractional holdings can only be acquired through savings plans, cannot be bought directly, and a position containing fractions can only be sold in full rather than fraction by fraction. And Scalable’s help centre states that adjustments made fewer than five banking days before an execution may not be applied until the following execution.

Which countries is Scalable Capital available in, and where is Scalable Wealth available?

Scalable Capital Bank GmbH is a single German legal entity with no local subsidiaries and no tied agents. It provides services cross-border under freedom of services, without a physical branch, to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria, with the AMF, Banca d’Italia and CONSOB, the AFM, the CNMV and the FMA notified under the European passport. Scalable Wealth, the discretionary managed product, is narrower: Scalable’s help centre states that a Wealth portfolio is only available for German and Austrian clients, and its French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch country sites each carry a matching not-yet-available line.

Does Scalable Capital handle German taxes automatically?

For German tax residents, yes. Without an exemption order Scalable withholds 25% Kapitalertragsteuer plus the 5.5% solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax. An exemption order can be filed up to €1,000 for an individual or €2,000 for married couples and registered partners; one order applies across all Scalable business relationships and a joint order cannot be split across two accounts. It has to be submitted, it is not automatic. An annual tax certificate is issued where tax-relevant transactions occurred, normally delivered to the customer mailbox by the end of April of the following year. For clients tax-resident outside Germany, the client documents state Scalable may arrange suitable reports of tax-relevant capital income at no additional charge, using a service provider where appropriate, with no warranty as to content. That is reporting, not withholding.

How does Scalable Capital pay interest on cash?

The broker clearing balance earns 0% per year on both plans. The yield product is the separate Overnight account, a call-money account paying 2.60% per year variable on unlimited balances with no minimum deposit, accrued daily and credited monthly, on both FREE and PRIME+. Deposit protection is statutory through the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken at €100,000 per depositor per credit institution, paid out within seven working days. Where the balance sits differs by plan: Scalable’s own fee page shows FREE balances distributed across Scalable, partner banks and qualifying money market funds, and PRIME+ balances across Scalable and partner banks for up to 5 × €100,000 of statutory cover. Scalable’s footnote closes both limbs the same way, stating each is also possible as the sole safekeeping method — so concentration in one bank or one money market fund is possible on either plan, and no balance threshold appears anywhere.

Does Scalable Capital charge a currency conversion fee?

Yes, a markup exists, and its size is not published anywhere. Section E VI of Scalable’s price and services list states that foreign currency turnover is converted into euros at the prevailing buy or sell rate plus a surcharge or minus a discount, and that the conversion may be carried out by Scalable or by a third party such as an intermediate custodian. No figure appears in the client documents, on the fee page or in any Scalable press material. What Scalable does say is that trading euro-denominated on domestic and international venues removes additional foreign currency costs on the trade itself, which is a claim about venue selection rather than about the conversion charge. Foreign currency turnover that does arise, such as a dollar dividend or a foreign corporate action, is converted with a markup.

What does it cost to leave Scalable Capital?

The securities transfer line in the binding fee schedule is €0.00 plus any third-party costs incurred, and it is direction-neutral, so it covers transfers out as well as in. The exhaustive fee schedule contains no withdrawal, inactivity or account-closing charge. The real friction is not a fee. Under the Special Terms for the Broker, cancellation is only possible once the customer has sold or transferred out every security in the depot. Until the depot is wound up the customer keeps paying the base fee of their last active plan, which Scalable may take from the clearing account or by direct debit. If securities remain after termination Scalable may sell them, and the costs of that sale are borne by the customer.

What is the Scalable MSCI AC World Xtrackers UCITS ETF?

It is a UCITS ETF launched in December 2024, ISIN LU2903252349, created with Xtrackers by DWS, with Scalable advising DWS on portfolio construction and replication. It tracks the MSCI All Country World Index, holding more than 2,600 large and mid-cap companies across 23 developed and 24 emerging markets. Scalable and DWS describe it as the first ETF worldwide to use hybrid replication, physical for European indices and synthetic for US and less liquid markets. The regular total expense ratio is 0.17% per year, and Scalable’s own pages have carried a temporary waiver below that figure, so check the current level before buying. As with any fund, the issuer key information document is the document to read before buying, not the distributor’s page.


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