Interactive Brokers vs Questrade compared

Interactive Brokers
Questrade
Key differences
We took 8 criteria of our comparison (fee, account opening, customer service, markets&product, research, trading platform, deposit&withdrawal) and listed the angles with the greatest difference here below.
  • Fees score
    4.4
    /5
  • Trading platform combined score
    3.6
    /5
  • Customer service score
    4.3
    /5
  • Fees score
    3.5
    /5
  • Trading platform combined score
    4.4
    /5
  • Customer service score
    5.0
    /5
Recommended for
  • Equity
    5
    /5
  • Beginners
    4
    /5
  • Equity
    4.3
    /5
You can open an account in United States
You can't open an account in United States
Top 5 brokers
Based on your country, these brokers are great matches for you.

Basic data of broker

Overall score
4.9

Recommended for Traders looking for broad market access and a professional trading environment

Best online broker

Overall score
4.5

Recommended for Traders and investors focusing on the Canadian and US markets

Country of origin
Broker's country of establishment

USA

Country of origin
Broker's country of establishment

Canada

Fees

Fees score
4.4
Fees score
3.5
Fees summary
BrokerChooser's qualitative summary on the broker's prices

Low trading and non-trading fees, free stock and ETF trading for US customers

Fees summary
BrokerChooser's qualitative summary on the broker's prices

Low trading and non-trading fees, low stock and ETF fees

Stock and ETF fees

Forex fees

Fund fees

Bond fees

Options fees

Futures fees

Crypto fees

CFD fees

Non-trading fees

Deposit and withdrawal

Deposit and withdrawal score
3.0
Deposit and withdrawal score
2.7
Number of base currencies
How many account currencies you can choose from

23

Number of base currencies
How many account currencies you can choose from

2

Deposit type

Withdrawal type

Account opening

Account opening score
3.2
Account opening score
3.5
Account opening fully online
Account opening fully online
Minimum deposit
The minimum amount you have to deposit for using the account
$0 for non-margin client accounts, $2,000 for margin accounts. (A margin account is where you trade with borrowed money, also known as leverage.)
*

$0

*
Minimum deposit
The minimum amount you have to deposit for using the account
$1,000 minimum deposit
*

$1000

*
Time to open account
BrokerChooser estimation on time needed to access account after all documents are provided by customer

1-3 days

Time to open account
BrokerChooser estimation on time needed to access account after all documents are provided by customer

1 day

Required documents
Documents required for opening an account

Proof of identity: national ID / passport / driver's license Proof of residency: bank statement / utility bill / driver's license / credit card statement

Required documents
Documents required for opening an account

Proof of identity: national ID / driver's licence plus social insurance number for Canadians / tax identifier number for internationals

Trading platform

Web platform score
3.8
Web platform score
3.8
Mobile platform score
3.5
Mobile platform score
4.8
Desktop platform score
3.8
Desktop platform score
4.3

Markets and products

Markets and products score
5.0
Markets and products score
4.5
Stocks
Stocks are available
Stocks
Stocks are available
Fractional shares
Fractional shares are available
$1 is the minimum for US stocks, while there is no minimum for EU stocks
*
*
Fractional shares
Fractional shares are available
ETFs
ETFs are available
ETFs
ETFs are available
Forex
Forex is available
Forex
Forex is available
Funds
Funds are available
Funds
Funds are available
Bonds
Bonds are available
Bonds
Bonds are available
Options
Options are available
Options
Options are available
Futures
Futures are available
Futures
Futures are available
Crypto
Crypto is available in any form (e.g. as a CFD or ETF)
Futures, ETN, Paxos
*
*
Crypto
Crypto is available in any form (e.g. as a CFD or ETF)
CFDs
Any CFD is available, e.g. stock CFD or commodity CFD
CFDs
Any CFD is available, e.g. stock CFD or commodity CFD
CFD disclaimer

Disclaimer: 60.0% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

CFD disclaimer

Disclaimer: 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Research, education

Research score
4.3
Research score
4.8
Charting quality

Great

Charting quality

Great

Education score
5.0
Education score
4.0
Demo account
Demo account

Customer service

Customer service score
4.3
Customer service score
5.0
Phone
You can reach the broker by phone
Phone
You can reach the broker by phone
Live chat
Live chat is available
Live chat
Live chat is available
Email
Email support is available
Email
Email support is available
24/7 availability
At least one customer support channel, i.e. live chat, phone or email, is available even on the weekend
24/7 availability
At least one customer support channel, i.e. live chat, phone or email, is available even on the weekend

Security

Investor protection amount
The protection amount depends on the country where you opened your account. In the US, forex trading and commodity-related contract (e.g. futures or options) are generally not covered.

£85k or $500k (up to $250k for cash) in the UK depending on the assets you hold; $500k (up to $250k) in the US; €20k (IB Ireland & Luxembourg) or €100k (IB Central Europe) in the EU, CAD 1 million in Canada; HKD 500k in Hong Kong

Investor protection amount
The protection amount depends on the country where you opened your account. In the US, forex trading and commodity-related contract (e.g. futures or options) are generally not covered.

CAD 1 million

Investor protection
Amount of the investor protection provided by the broker
£85k or $500k (up to $250k for cash) in the UK depending on the assets you hold; $500k (up to $250k) in the US; €20k (IB Ireland & Luxembourg) or €100k (IB Central Europe) in the EU, CAD 1 million in Canada; HKD 500k in Hong Kong
*

$500k (up to $250k on cash) to US clients. Check the description to see all protection.

*
Investor protection
Amount of the investor protection provided by the broker

CAD 1 million

Banking background
Whether the broker has a banking background
Banking background
Whether the broker has a banking background
Listed on stock exchange
The broker is listed on a stock exchange
Listed on stock exchange
The broker is listed on a stock exchange
Foundation date

1977

Foundation date

1999

Country of regulation
Which countries' regulators oversee the broker

USA, Ireland, UK, Hungary, India, Australia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore

Country of regulation
Which countries' regulators oversee the broker

Canada

Interactive Brokers

For detailed information and hands-on experience, read our review of this broker.

Questrade

For detailed information and hands-on experience, read our review of this broker.

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

Interactive Brokers's service is slightly better than Questrade's and a comparison of their fees shows that Interactive Brokers's fees are slightly lower than Questrade's.

Account opening takes about the same effort at Interactive Brokers compared to Questrade, deposit and withdrawal processes are about the same quality at Interactive Brokers, while customer service quality is somewhat lower than Questrade's.

Our experts rated the trading platform of Interactive Brokers as somewhat worse than the platform of Questrade, found that clients have access to slightly more markets and products with Interactive Brokers, while Questrade provides somewhat better research and education.

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