How do Pepperstone and Skilling stack up against each other?
The Radar Chart below highlights how the brokers stack up against each other across various metrics. The highest score a broker can receive in each area is 5.
At FxScouts, we help traders find the broker that suits their trading needs. In many cases, the best way to achieve this is to compare brokers side-by-side.
To compare Pepperstone and Skilling, we used the same factors we use when reviewing brokers: The trust and regulation of the broker, the trading platform, the costs and trading conditions, and the level of education and market analysis available at the broker.
Does Pepperstone or Skilling have a better trust and regulation rating?
Trust and regulation are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a Forex broker. Trust in the Forex trading business is almost entirely founded upon regulation. We spend many hours evaluating the safety of each broker by delving into their fine print and confirming each one of their regulatory licences on the online registers. The more top-tier authorities a broker is regulated by, the higher its trust rating.
In our comparison, we found that Pepperstone holds four Tier 1 and one Tier 2 licences, and Skilling holds two Tier 1 and no Tier 2 licences.
Is Pepperstone financially regulated?
Yes Pepperstone was founded in 2010 and is regulated by ASIC, BaFin, CMA, CySEC, DFSA, FCA and SCB.
Is Skilling financially regulated?
Yes Skilling was founded in 2018 and is regulated by CySEC, Fi and FSA-Seychelles.
Based on these findings, Pepperstone earned a higher trust rating than Skilling.
Does Pepperstone or Skilling have lower costs?
Another important aspect we consider when comparing brokers is the cost of trading. When evaluating trading costs, we always consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and the ongoing trading costs, including the spreads and commissions. When calculating trading costs, we measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit. The cost includes both the spread and any commission charged.
Not all brokers publish their trading costs, so we often open accounts and trade on their platforms to verify the spreads and commissions. Based on our reviews, we found that Skilling has overall lower trading costs than Pepperstone.
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Does Pepperstone or Skilling offer a better choice of trading platforms?
Traders want Forex brokers to offer them a choice of trading platforms, so we give brokers who offer multiple platforms higher ratings. Trading platforms we consider include MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader and proprietary mobile and web-based platforms.
In this case, Pepperstone offers support for cTrader, MT4, MT5 and TradingView and Skilling offers support for cTrader, MT4 and Skilling Trader.
Do the brokers offer copy trading?
Copy trading is a great option for beginner traders who can’t trade full-time or lack experience with Forex trading. In this case both Pepperstone and Skilling offer copy trading.
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Which broker offers a better choice of trading instruments?
A variety of CFD instruments – and a large range of CFDs for each instrument category allow traders more opportunities for profitable trading. The best brokers will have thousands of CFDs to trade, covering all these instrument categories. We found that Pepperstone offers a greater range and depth of instruments to trade than Skilling. Pepperstone offers 90 Forex pairs to trade and Skilling offers 73 Forex pairs to trade.
And what about Cryptocurrencies?
In this case, Skilling offers 57 cryptocurrencies while Pepperstone offers 30 cryptocurrencies. So if you want to trade cryptocurrencies, we advise trading with Skilling.
Which broker offers better deposit and withdrawal processes?
Although brokers may have reasonable trading fees, many traders are caught out by the high non-trading fees charged by some brokers, including deposits and withdrawals. Traders want to be able to deposit and withdraw funds quickly and cheaply. Most brokers have multiple funding methods with zero fees for making deposits, but some brokers make it more expensive and take longer to process withdrawals.
We rate brokers more highly that process withdrawals within 24 hours by multiple withdrawal methods and without charging processing fees. We found that neither Pepperstone nor Skilling charges a withdrawal fee. Overall, Skilling has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Pepperstone.
Which broker offers better educational support?
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.
Skilling has better educational support than Pepperstone. Both Pepperstone and Skilling offer educational support for more experienced traders.
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Which broker offers better market analysis materials?
To successfully predict the price movements of an instrument, traders will need access to frequent market research and analysis. We find that research and market analysis are always better when they are produced in-house and updated frequently. Third-party resources don’t show the same expertise in trading ideas, so we place a strong emphasis on frequent in-house updates. Some brokers also often offer interactive webinars where traders can learn from experts in the field.
We found that Pepperstone offers better research analysis than Skilling and that both Pepperstone and Skilling offer frequent webinars.
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Our overall Verdict on Pepperstone
With low trading costs, regulation from the world’s top authorities, fast ECN trade execution, and three of the best trading platforms, we recommend Pepperstone to traders of all experience levels and for all trading strategies.
Pepperstone’s low trading costs provide the foundation for our recommendation, including some of the tightest spreads in the industry (0.10 pips EUR/USD average on the Razor Account), low commissions, and no minimum deposit requirements.
The beginner and professional trading communities also appreciate this Australian broker for its wide trading platform selection, including cTrader, MT4, and MT5. These three platforms are considered the best in the industry and all three are further improved by Pepperstone’s range of free trading tools, such as Autochartist and the Smart Trader Toolset.
And while it isn’t the most complete, Pepperstone’s education section is well-structured, making it a good choice for beginner traders. Overall, as our highest-rated ECN broker, if you want to pay a small commission for tight spreads, you won't find much better than Pepperstone.
Our overall Verdict on Skilling
Founded in 2016, Skilling is an innovative broker with regulation from CySEC of Cyprus and Seychelles' FSA. It has four simple account options, excellent trading conditions, a broad range of tradable assets, and a great range of trading platforms. Its main drawback is the lack of educational materials, which could see beginner traders looking elsewhere for support.
Skilling's Standard Accounts require a minimum deposit of 100 EUR and have spreads starting at 0.8 pips (EUR/USD), tighter than the spreads on other brokers' entry-level accounts. On the Premium Account, spreads tighten to 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) with a commission of 6 USD (round turn), but the minimum deposit is 5000 EUR - out of reach for most beginners.
MT4, cTrader, and Skilling’s proprietary trading platform are all supported, with seamless integration provided between cTrader and Skilling’s own platform – an industry first.
Overall, Skilling is a good all-round broker with a transparent and client-centred approach that will appeal to both beginners and more experienced traders.
Which broker has the highest overall rating?
Pepperstone has an overall rating of 4.61 and Skilling has an overall rating of 4.37. For more detail please read our reviews of
Pepperstone and
Skilling.
