Plus500 review: is a simple in-house app enough for forex and gold without MetaTrader?
Plus500 is a listed, heavily regulated CFD broker with one proprietary platform and no MetaTrader, no API and no scalping. We checked costs, limits and what you give up for the tidy app.
6.6/10
Plus500 is safe by regulation and easy to learn, and that is where the praise stops. Costs are slightly above average, the platform is web and mobile only, and automated trading, scalping and hedging are not permitted. Beginners who want a clean CFD app will be content. Anyone who wants MetaTrader, TradingView or expert advisors should skip it.
Best for
Beginners who want one simple CFD app and strong regulation
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and regulated by several tier-one authorities
Clean proprietary app with a free demo account and quick onboarding
No commission on forex; cost is built into the spread
Guaranteed stop-loss orders are available for gap risk
Negative balance protection for retail clients
What does not
No MetaTrader 4/5, cTrader or TradingView access
APIs, algorithmic trading, scalping and hedging are not permitted
Research and education are thin next to the big competitors
Up to 0.7% currency conversion and a $10 fee after three idle months
Guaranteed stops cost a wider spread whether or not they trigger
Specs
Minimum deposit
$100 (some sources list €50 for certain entities)
Platforms
Proprietary WebTrader and mobile apps only
EUR/USD cost
Advertised 0.8 pip average; 0.9 to 1.3 pips seen by reviewers
Commission on forex
None, cost is in the spread
Retail leverage
1:30 majors, 1:20 gold (EU-style caps)
Inactivity fee
$10 after three months
Currency conversion
Up to 0.7%
Instruments
About 5,500 symbols, 65 forex pairs (ForexBrokers.com)
Listing
London Stock Exchange (PLUS)
Plus500 asks a fair question of its customers: do you really need MetaTrader? For a lot of people who trade EUR/USD and gold a few times a week, the honest answer is no. The catch is that Plus500 also removes several things you might not know you would miss.
What the pitch leaves out
The homepage sells speed and simplicity: "Trade intuitively on thousands of CFDs." That is accurate. One proprietary app covers forex, shares, indices, commodities and crypto derivatives, about 5,500 symbols in ForexBrokers.com's count, 65 of them forex pairs.
What is missing is stated in every serious review. Independent testers note there is no MetaTrader 4 or 5, no cTrader and no TradingView. CompareForexBrokers adds that APIs and automated strategies are prohibited, and that scalping and hedging are "not permitted". Its overall score for the broker is 58.8 out of 100, with a platform score of 2.5 out of 10 holding it back while trust scores 8.
plus500.com
ForexBrokers.com's review of Plus500, one of the independent sources behind the figures below.
Cost: fine, not cheap
Plus500 charges no commission on forex. You pay the spread. The company advertises an average of 0.8 pips on EUR/USD, and reviewers report readings from 0.9 to 1.1 pips in normal hours, widening to roughly 1.3 pips off-peak. One standard lot at 0.8 pips is about $8 round turn.
For comparison, a raw-spread account at a specialist broker can undercut that once a commission is added back. So Plus500 will not win a cost table, and nobody sensible claims it does.
The other costs are smaller but real:
Up to 0.7% on conversions when the traded currency differs from your account currency.
$10 after three months of inactivity, the shortest dormancy window among the brokers CompareForexBrokers covers.
Guaranteed stop-loss orders, which are priced through a wider spread whether or not the stop ever fires.
plus500.com
CompareForexBrokers' Plus500 review, the source for the platform limits and the inactivity and conversion fees.
Who it is actually built for
Retail leverage follows European-style caps, 1:30 on major pairs and 1:20 on gold. Plus500 also offers negative balance protection, so a gap against you cannot push the account below zero. Professional accounts go higher, to about 1:300 on forex, which is low by offshore standards.
For a beginner, this is reassuring more than limiting. The broker is listed on the London Stock Exchange and ForexBrokers.com counts seven tier-one regulators. The free demo account lets you learn the app first, and the newer +Insights and +Me tools add sentiment data and a performance dashboard.
plus500.com
FXEmpire's review of Plus500's European entity, with its sub-scores for deposits and account terms.
The gaps that matter
Research is the weak spot. ForexBrokers.com describes the video and written content as lacking depth and frequency, and notes there are no integrated news headlines. Charts do not sync between the web and mobile apps. If you like to lean on built-in analysis, you will end up opening another tab.
Gold on a one-screen platform
Gold is where the 1:20 cap bites hardest. At that ratio a position worth $20,000 needs $1,000 of margin, and a move of a few dollars an ounce is enough to matter. CompareForexBrokers rates gold spreads as competitive, at 1.20 in its table. Another reviewer, BrokerChooser, publishes separate pages for the broker's gold and EUR/USD costs, which tells you how much the number moves through the day.
In practice a simple app helps gold traders more than forex traders. There are fewer order tickets to get wrong. The same simplicity removes the chart studies, scripts and multi-window layouts a daily gold trader tends to build over time.
The test we would run before funding
Open the demo, place a trade on your usual pair at the hour you usually trade, and compare the spread shown with the advertised 0.8 pips. Then read the entity's terms for leverage and protections. Ten minutes of that tells you more than any score table.
Who should skip it
Expert advisor users. Automation is not permitted.
Scalpers and hedgers. Both are barred.
Anyone who wants to carry a MetaTrader layout from another broker. There is nowhere to put it.
Cost hunters. A raw-spread account wins on EUR/USD.
Check which legal entity you will sign with before depositing. The minimum deposit we were given is $100, but ForexBrokers.com quotes €50 for some entities, and limits, protections and leverage differ by entity.
Verdict
Plus500 is a competent, safe, plain product that knows what it is. It suits a beginner who wants a tidy CFD app and a regulated counterparty, and it frustrates anyone who has outgrown a single proprietary screen. CFDs are leveraged and carry a real risk of losing money quickly. Nothing here is personal advice.
