Why Trust CompareForexBrokers UK

CompareForexBrokers reviews and ranks FCA-regulated forex and CFD brokers on a scored model, not a paid placement. Affiliate commission funds the site and stays out of the scoring. The site gives general information, not financial advice, and is not itself FCA-authorised.

The promise

Three commitments hold the site together. Rankings reflect tested performance, not commercial relationships. Every broker we rank is FCA-authorised, with a Firm Reference Number you can check yourself. Where a claim needs authority behind it, we cite the FCA, FSCS, FOS or the broker’s own primary documents rather than asserting it. The full picture of who runs the site and how it earns sits on the about CompareForexBrokers page.

Editorial independence

The business model is simple and worth stating plainly: we earn commission when a reader opens an account with a broker partner. That income does not move a broker up or down. A broker’s position comes from the eight-criteria scoring model, applied the same way whether or not a commercial deal exists. Partnerships are disclosed on the advertiser disclosure page, and the people who write the reviews are kept separate from the people who manage commercial relationships.

Three rules keep that independence honest:

1. Scoring first. A broker’s rank is the scoring model’s output, calculated before any commercial relationship is considered, and a partner can score poorly and rank low.
2. Criticism stays. A fair criticism remains in a review whether or not there is a commercial deal behind it, and we never remove a con to please a partner.
3. Sources over assertion. Every regulatory claim, FRN, leverage cap and FSCS figure is checked against the primary source, not copied from another site.

That separation is the safeguard that makes the rest credible. Commission rates vary between brokers, so a model that quietly favoured the biggest payout would rank brokers by what they pay us rather than by what they cost you. Ours does not. A partner can score poorly and rank low, a non-partner can score well and rank high, and a fair criticism stays in a review even when there is a commercial relationship behind it.

Our regulatory status

This is the part most comparison sites leave vague, so here it is directly. Compare Forex Brokers is not authorised or regulated by the FCA. We do not provide financial advice, personal recommendations or a regulated service. What we publish is general information about forex and CFD trading to help you compare brokers and make your own decision.

We do not claim authorisation we do not hold, and we do not carry over any “authorised representative” framing from elsewhere in the network. If you want a regulated opinion on whether a product suits you, speak to an FCA-authorised financial adviser.

How we test brokers

Scores come from a documented model, not a gut feel. The model weights eight criteria, led by trading costs at 25%, and every review rests on the same basis: a live UK account opened at the broker’s FCA entity, funded in GBP and traded. That basis supports first-hand claims about onboarding, funding and platform behaviour. The full breakdown is on the methodology page.

The basis has limits, and we respect them. Most brokers now show a tested modal spread, recorded on a live UK account in July 2026; a few whose UK spreads are dynamic or unpublished stay at the advertised rate, with source and date, and execution-latency figures are published only where our formal measurement has been run. Where a number is advertised rather than recorded, the review says so, so you can judge the evidence behind a score rather than taking it on trust.

Fact-check workflow

Nothing publishes on one person’s say-so. The author of record drafts and tests a page, then David Levy fact-checks the figures, the regulatory statements and the broker details before it goes live. Where a review names a Firm Reference Number, a leverage cap or an FSCS figure, that number is checked against the primary source, such as the FCA Financial Services Register, rather than copied from another site. What each of these protections actually covers is set out on our FCA regulation explained page.

How often we update

Broker costs, platforms and FCA permissions change, so a review is never left to age quietly. Reviews are revisited at least every 90 days, and immediately after a fee change, platform launch, an FCA enforcement action, or a change to a broker’s UK permissions. We update the substance and re-date the page when the substance actually changes, not to fake freshness.

FCA and FOS protections for UK clients

Trading through an FCA-authorised broker brings protections an offshore account does not. These apply to your retail account at any authorised broker.

• Capped leverage. Retail leverage is limited at position open, from 30:1 on major FX down to 5:1 on individual equities, under FCA PS19/18.
• Negative balance protection. Your account cannot fall below zero, so a sharp move cannot leave you owing the broker.
• Margin close-out at 50%. When account equity drops to half the margin required to keep positions open, the broker begins closing them.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service. Once you have exhausted a broker’s own complaints process, the Financial Ombudsman Service can review the dispute independently.
• FSCS cover up to £85,000. If an authorised broker becomes insolvent and cannot return client money, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers eligible claims up to £85,000 per person, per firm.

UK brokers also have to publish a standardised risk warning that includes their own percentage of retail accounts losing money, which is why you see that figure on every broker review.

Who we are

Justin Grossbard is the co-founder and head of research at CompareForexBrokers. He has traded forex since 1998 and owns the eight-criteria rating model. Noam Korbl is the co-founder and head of testing at CompareForexBrokers. He leads the spread, commission and execution testing and writes the cost and execution education content. David Levy is the head of content and fact-checker at CompareForexBrokers; nothing publishes without his sign-off. The team holds no UK financial-services credential, and we would rather state that than dress up something we do not have. Our authority rests on a verifiable trading and publication record, primary-source citation, and a testing process we document in the open.

How to push back

If a figure is wrong or a review reads unfairly, tell us. The contact page routes corrections to the same monitored inbox the team reads. Genuine errors get fixed and the page re-dated. For a regulated complaint about a broker rather than about us, FOS is the route once the broker’s own process is exhausted.