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 A$0 minimum deposit. IC Markets wins on the tighter raw EUR/USD spread, measured at 0.01 pips over May to June 2026, and on a wider share CFD range. Both hold ASIC licences and both score highly on the 2026 rankings, Pepperstone at 98 and IC Markets at 90.

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. Every cost below is stated in AUD because that is what your Australian account actually pays, and the comparison corrects a common error about which broker charges the lower commission. The spread and speed figures come from our May to June 2026 capture, so you are looking at the same data I would use to pick one.

The founding and licence rows are two different facts and worth reading separately: IC Markets was founded in Sydney in 2007 and licensed in 2009, a gap that is ordinary and neither figure contradicts the other. What I would take from the pair is that you are dealing with a broker that predates the 2013 ASIC product intervention regime by a solid margin, not a recent entrant bolted onto a licence.

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

This is the correction most comparisons get wrong, and the one that directly changes what you pay per lot. 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. Pepperstone is therefore the cheaper of the two on commission, by A$2.00 a lot. Many competitor articles state the opposite because IC Markets often advertises a US$3.50 per-side rate that looks lower on the page; convert that to the Australian dollars your account is billed in and the rate is A$4.50 per side. The AUD figures here come from the cost dataset behind these pages, not from the headline US rate.

Raw spread runs the other way, and IC Markets returns a number I would call genuinely sharp. In Noam Korbl’s May to June 2026 capture, IC Markets recorded 0.01 pips on EUR/USD and 0.15 pips across the eight-pair basket, while Pepperstone recorded 0.10 pips on EUR/USD and 0.46 pips across the same basket. On spread alone, IC Markets is the tighter of the two by a clear margin.

Put the two halves together and I see a simple picture. Pepperstone is cheaper on commission, IC Markets is tighter on spread, and on an AUD account Pepperstone usually wins the all-in on the majors once both parts of your cost are counted. The margin is narrow, so a scalper trading EUR/USD almost exclusively may still prefer the rawer IC Markets spread, while most other traders come out ahead on Pepperstone. I would check your own pair’s typical spread against the basket figures before letting the headline commission difference decide it for you.

Platforms

Platform choice is the clearest Pepperstone advantage. It runs MT4, MT5, cTrader, native TradingView on the Razor account and its own proprietary web and mobile platform, the broadest stack in this coverage. IC Markets offers MT4, MT5 and cTrader, a strong line-up for algorithmic and depth-of-market trading, but without native TradingView execution or a proprietary platform of its own. A trader who charts on TradingView or wants a lighter in-house app will notice the gap; a trader who lives inside MetaTrader or cTrader will find the two brokers broadly comparable.

Markets and execution

Measured execution is close, and both brokers deliver genuine no-dealing-desk, raw ECN-style pricing. The measured fills put Pepperstone at 28ms and IC Markets at 32ms, both from an LD4 VPS with network latency stripped. That 4ms difference is small enough that most retail traders will not feel it, and you are unlikely to either. I would call the execution a draw for any holding period longer than a few seconds.

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 98, 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 0.01 pip EUR/USD capture is the tightest 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.