For pure UCITS ETF buy-and-hold below €100,000 monthly turnover, XTB wins on cost — 0% commission with no subscription. Scalable Capital PRIME+ at €4.99 per month becomes competitive only at roughly 5 or more trades per month, or if you specifically need automatic German tax handling and maximum savings plan flexibility. If you are based in Germany or Austria, Scalable’s Baader Bank custody is a meaningful operational advantage that changes the recommendation for that audience.

Yes. Scalable Capital uses Baader Bank AG as its custody partner. Baader Bank auto-withholds capital gains taxes, applies the Freistellungsauftrag exemption (up to €1,000 annually), and issues a standardised annual tax certificate for German clients. XTB does not offer automatic tax withholding for most EU clients — investors must declare gains manually in their local annual tax filings.

XTB supports fractional shares via manual market orders with a minimum of €10 — you can buy a partial position in any eligible stock or ETF directly. Scalable Capital does not support fractional shares on manual trades. Fractional positions at Scalable exist only inside automated savings plans (from €1), and those fractional holdings cannot be sold independently — you must liquidate the entire position to exit.

XTB pays 2.30% p.a. on EUR balances automatically — no action required. Scalable Capital pays 2.50% p.a. but only on cash actively moved to the separate Overnight Account. Both rates are variable. Scalable PRIME+ distributes cash across up to 5 partner banks, covering up to €500,000 in statutory deposit protection — a meaningful difference if you hold large uninvested balances.

Scalable Capital has more flexible savings plans: from €1, across 7 frequency options (weekly to annual), with 9 selectable execution days per month, funded via SEPA direct debit, and with an optional inflation adjustment that auto-increases contributions by a chosen percentage each year. XTB Investment Plans start from €15, allow up to 10 plans with up to 9 ETFs each, and are set up and managed exclusively in the mobile app. For pure savings plan functionality, Scalable is the stronger option.

Both are regulated by major European authorities and hold client assets in segregated accounts. XTB S.A. is regulated by KNF (Poland) and is publicly listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2016. EU clients are onboarded under XTB Cyprus (CySEC), with investor compensation up to €20,000 under the ICF. Scalable Capital Bank GmbH is regulated by BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank, with ECB banking authorisation granted in 2025. Cash deposits at Scalable are protected up to €100,000 per bank under the German deposit guarantee, and up to €500,000 across 5 banks on PRIME+. Both are operationally sound — the safety difference is in the type of protection, not in one being unsafe.