Pepperstone vs IC Markets (2026)

Pepperstone vs IC Markets: the verdict

Pepperstone wins on the broader platform stack, the lower AUD commission of A$7.00 round turn and the lower all-in cost, 0.61 pips on EUR/USD against 0.74 in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture. IC Markets wins on the tighter raw EUR/USD spread, measured at 0.11 pips in that capture, and on a wider share CFD range. Both hold ASIC licences and both score highly on the 2026 rankings, Pepperstone at 93 and IC Markets at 88.

Two brokers sit near the top of the 2026 rankings, and both run genuine no-dealing-desk pricing. I would narrow the decision to a few measurable differences rather than trust. The trading costs below are stated in AUD because that is what your Australian account actually pays, though IC Markets’ website deposit figure is quoted in US dollars. The spread figures come from our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, so you are comparing both brokers on one consistent dataset.

The founding and licence rows answer different questions: IC Markets was founded in Sydney in 2007 and licensed on 2 July 2009, a gap that is ordinary and neither figure contradicts the other. I would keep those establishment facts separate from ASIC’s CFD product-intervention order, which took effect on 29 March 2021 and sits on top of the licensing and client protections that already applied. Longevity describes the firm’s history, not the strength of your account’s protections.

Regulation and trust

Regulation is the one area where I find these two brokers hardest to separate. Pepperstone Group Limited holds ASIC AFSL 414530, granted in 2013 and held continuously since, and operates from Melbourne. IC Markets trades as International Capital Markets Pty Ltd under AFSL 335692, current since 2 July 2009, and remains Sydney-based and Australian-owned. Each belongs to AFCA and each segregates retail client money at an Approved Australian Bank, so your statutory protections are identical: the 30:1 leverage cap on major pairs, mandatory negative balance protection, a 50% margin close-out and access to the ASIC register to confirm either licence directly.

The trust sub-scores sit close, with Pepperstone at 9 and IC Markets at 8. The gap reflects the wider Pepperstone tier-1 regulator stack rather than any weakness in the IC Markets Australian standing. Two claims circulate about this pair that I would want you to read with the ASIC framework open beside them. A client-fund protection of 100,000 dollars is not an Australian protection and attaches to neither broker here; the cover that applies is the ASIC framework above. Any 500:1 leverage figure belongs to a wholesale-client account that forfeits those retail protections, never to the standard retail offer.

Fees and spreads, measured

The commission comparison directly changes what you pay per lot, so it is worth stating precisely. On an AUD account, the Pepperstone Razor commission is A$3.50 per side, or A$7.00 round turn, while the IC Markets Raw Spread account charges A$4.50 per side, or A$9.00 round turn, a A$2.00 difference per standard lot on the published rate cards. Pepperstone is therefore the cheaper of the two on commission. IC Markets also advertises a rate for US dollar accounts, but that is a separately stated currency tariff, so it must not be described as an exchange conversion into its AUD account rate. In my view the practical step is simple: check which currency your account is billed in before comparing headline rates.

Raw spread runs the other way, and IC Markets returns a number I would call genuinely sharp. In Noam Korbl’s 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, IC Markets recorded 0.11 pips on EUR/USD and 0.29 pips across the eight-pair basket, while Pepperstone recorded 0.12 pips on EUR/USD and 0.36 pips across the same basket. On spread alone, IC Markets is the tighter of the two on both measures, though the EUR/USD gap is a narrow one.

Pepperstone’s all-in EUR/USD cost is 0.61 pips in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, about A$8.76 per standard lot round turn, against 0.74 pips, about A$10.53, at IC Markets, and the eight-pair all-in goes the same way at 0.93 pips against 1.03. Pepperstone wins both because its lower commission is worth more than IC Markets’ tighter raw spread. The eight-pair figure converts each pair’s commission at that pair’s own pip value, so it is a measured all-in price for the basket rather than an estimate. I would still check the typical spread and commission on your own pairs before letting the headline commission decide, because your mix can move the result either way.

Platforms

Pepperstone still holds the broader platform stack. It runs MT4, MT5, cTrader, native TradingView on the Razor account and its own proprietary web and mobile platform, the broadest line-up in this coverage. IC Markets offers MT4, MT5 and cTrader, a strong line-up for algorithmic and depth-of-market trading, and it does provide TradingView trading: its cTrader integration executes from inside the TradingView interface on the Raw Spread account, at US$3.00 per US$100,000 traded per side. What IC Markets lacks is a proprietary platform of its own. A trader who charts on TradingView can use either broker; a trader who wants a lighter in-house app alongside the charts will notice the difference. TradingView’s 2025 Broker Awards named Pepperstone “Best in Forex and CFD” for Australia and gave IC Markets the “Social Champion” spotlight award. TradingView says its awards reflect popularity among its users, so read them as a signal of user sentiment rather than a verdict on either broker.

Markets and execution

We hold no execution measurement for IC Markets and publish no cross-broker latency ranking, so this comparison makes no execution call between the two brokers.

Product range is where the two diverge, and I would let the share CFD catalogue make the call for you. Pepperstone leans into forex, indices, commodities and a solid set of share CFDs, while IC Markets carries a wider share CFD selection alongside the same core forex and index markets. Neither publishes a bond range worth quoting, so if you need fixed income, confirm it with the broker directly rather than relying on a headline count.

Swap-free accounts: the one hard split

The single difference on the page that decides the comparison outright rather than by degree runs against the direction the rest of the table points. The swap-free split is the one hard gate I cannot see a way around for an Australian resident.

At IC Markets you can get swap-free terms as a variant of Standard and Raw Spread pricing, with a flat-rate holding fee charged in place of overnight swaps. Pepperstone does run a swap-free account on Standard pricing, carrying a US$100 per standard lot administration charge on forex and metals once a position passes five days, but the eligible-country list does not include Australia. As an Australian resident, you cannot open one whatever the global site implies, and that single restriction locks you out of the product entirely.

So for a trader with a Sharia-compliant requirement, the only answer is IC Markets. Whatever the commission gap, platform gap or spread gap says, none of it matters next to a product you cannot access as an Australian at all. I would stop reading the comparison at this paragraph and open the IC Markets account.

Which should you choose

Pepperstone suits the trader who wants the widest platform choice, the lower AUD commission and the flexibility of a A$0 opening balance. It is the top-ranked broker for 2026 at a score of 93, and I would send most active Australian forex traders there for the A$7.00 round-turn pricing and five platforms. The full Pepperstone review carries the account-by-account detail, and I would read it before you fund anything.

IC Markets suits a trader whose single most important cost is raw spread, or who needs a swap-free account, or who values an Australian-owned ECN founded in Sydney in 2007 and ASIC-licensed since 2009. Its 0.11 pip EUR/USD figure in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture is the tighter of the pair, and its wider share CFD range suits traders mixing equities with forex. The IC Markets review covers the Raw Spread account in full, and the lowest spread forex brokers guide shows where each sits against the wider field. If you are also weighing a low-cost flat-commission broker, read Pepperstone vs Fusion Markets.