Heads up:Trading real money is risky โ€” most beginners lose money. Practice on a free demo first; only risk money you can afford to lose.
BrokersGuide

Best MetaTrader 4 (MT4) brokers

Regulated brokers offering the classic MT4 platform โ€” the biggest ecosystem of tools and expert advisors. Free demos included.

2 regulated brokers ranked for this, each with a free demo. Rankings reflect our editorial criteria โ€” verify the details before you deposit.

Top rated

XM

#1
4.3

Beginner-friendly with generous education and micro accounts.

  • Start from just a few dollars
  • Excellent free education & webinars
  • Micro lots keep position sizes (and risk) small
Demo / min
$5
Spread from
0.6 pips
Leverage
1:1000
BeginnersTiny depositsLearning
Regulated by:CySEC ยท ASIC ยท FSC
Open free demoRead full review โ†’

Forex/CFDs are leveraged products. Most retail accounts lose money.

FxPro

#2
4.4

Established multi-regulated broker with pro-grade execution.

  • No-dealing-desk execution
  • Multiple platforms incl. MT4, MT5 and cTrader
  • Strong, long-standing multi-jurisdiction regulation
Demo / min
$100
Spread from
0.6 pips
Leverage
1:2000
Serious tradersMulti-platformRegulation
Regulated by:FCA ยท CySEC ยท FSCA ยท SCB
Open free demoRead full review โ†’

CFDs are complex instruments with a high risk of losing money rapidly.

What "best" actually means here

MetaTrader 4 is ageing, no longer actively developed, and still the most widely supported trading platform in the world. It survives on one thing: an enormous ecosystem of Expert Advisors, custom indicators and community scripts built up over nearly two decades.

If you're not running robots or specific community indicators, MT5 does everything MT4 does and more. Choose MT4 for the ecosystem, not out of habit โ€” and be aware you're picking a platform its own maker has stopped developing.

What we weigh

  • MT4 available on the account type you'd open, with EAs permitted rather than restricted
  • VPS options or low-latency hosting if you intend to run an EA around the clock
  • Execution model โ€” ECN/no-dealing-desk matters more for automated strategies
  • Whether the broker is steering new clients to MT5, which tells you how long MT4 support will last

Check these yourself before depositing

  • Confirm automated trading is actually allowed on your account type before buying or building an EA.
  • Backtest on the broker's own historical data, since spreads and gaps differ between brokers.
  • Run any EA on demo for several weeks โ€” most strategies that look profitable in a backtest aren't.

The trade-off nobody advertises

You're choosing a platform in maintenance mode for the sake of its add-ons. That's a reasonable trade if you use them, and a bad one if you picked MT4 because it's what a YouTube tutorial used.

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Free ยท no deposit ยท most beginners lose money trading real funds