Last updated: January 2026
Our Core Principle: We Come to You, Anonymously
Brokers do not reach out to us and pay to be reviewed. We find them, sign up using a standard personal account with no disclosure of our affiliation, and experience exactly what a regular trader experiences. We then verify every claim against regulatory databases, published fee schedules, and platform tests before publishing a single word. Our ratings reflect what we actually found — not what a broker told us we would find.
Our 8-Stage Review Process
Broker Selection and Initial Screening
We identify brokers based on market prominence, user search demand, regulatory standing, and trader community discussion. A broker is included in our research pipeline regardless of whether it has any commercial relationship with us. Our first filter is basic: does the broker hold an active licence from a recognised financial regulator? Unregulated entities are flagged and excluded from full review, though they may appear in our scam broker coverage.
Anonymous Account Registration
A member of our research team opens a live account using their personal details, with no disclosure of their affiliation with Forex Brokers Verified. This ensures we experience the standard onboarding process — the same KYC requirements, verification timeline, document requests, and onboarding communications that any ordinary trader would receive. We document the entire process: time to open, documents requested, quality of initial communication, and any friction encountered.
Regulatory Licence Verification
We independently verify every regulatory licence the broker claims to hold. We go directly to the regulator's official public registry — the FCA Financial Services Register, ASIC Connect, CySEC's online register, the NFA's BASIC system, and equivalents — and confirm the licence number, status (authorised, registered, or revoked), and the scope of permissions. We do not accept the broker's own claims about regulatory status at face value. If a claimed licence cannot be verified independently, we report that discrepancy.
Spread and Fee Data Collection
We collect live spread data on major forex pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY) and key instruments across multiple sessions — the London open, the New York session, and the Asian session — to capture spread behaviour at different liquidity levels. We record typical spreads, minimum spreads, and spread widening during major news events. We also collect the complete fee schedule: commissions per lot, overnight swap rates for long and short positions, deposit and withdrawal fees, inactivity fees, and currency conversion charges. All fee data is sourced from the broker's own published schedule and verified against the live account.
Platform and Execution Testing
We place real trades on the live account and measure execution quality: order fill time, slippage on market orders, requote frequency, and platform stability. We test on desktop (MT4, MT5, cTrader, and any proprietary platform), web browser, and the broker's mobile app on both iOS and Android. We evaluate the charting tools, order types available, alert functionality, and the quality of the mobile experience. Platform crashes, disconnections, and any other technical issues during the testing period are recorded.
Customer Support Assessment
We contact customer support multiple times through different channels — live chat, email, and phone where available — with a range of question types: account queries, technical issues, and fee clarification requests. We measure first-response time, resolution time, accuracy of responses, and the quality of communication. We test support at different times of day and, where relevant, in multiple languages. Support is tested anonymously as a standard account holder.
Deposit and Withdrawal Testing
We make a real deposit and, critically, we test the withdrawal process. Withdrawal reliability is one of the most important factors for traders — and one of the most commonly misrepresented by brokers. We request a withdrawal and measure the actual processing time from request to funds received, verify that no unexpected fees were applied, and document the overall experience. Any friction, delays beyond the stated timeframe, or unexplained deductions are reported in full.
Scoring, Writing, and Publication
All data collected across the seven stages is entered into our standardised scoring framework. Scores are assigned across ten categories — Business Scope, Trading Costs, Platforms, Customer Support, Regulation & Safety, Account Types, Deposit & Withdrawal, Mobile Experience, Educational Resources, and Research Tools — each weighted by importance. The final rating out of 10 is a composite of these category scores. The review is then written by the analyst who conducted the testing, reviewed by a second team member for accuracy, and published. We include both our findings and our direct trading experience in every review.
Our Scoring Framework
| Category | What We Measure | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation & Safety | Licence quality, fund segregation, negative balance protection, compensation scheme eligibility | High |
| Trading Costs | Spreads, commissions, overnight swaps, hidden fees — all measured live | High |
| Trading Platforms | MT4/MT5/cTrader availability, execution quality, stability, mobile apps | High |
| Customer Support | Response time, accuracy, channel availability, multilingual support | Medium |
| Business Scope | Company history, financial stability, global reach, client numbers | Medium |
| Account Types | Range of accounts, minimum deposits, leverage options, Islamic accounts | Medium |
| Deposit & Withdrawal | Methods available, processing speed, fees, withdrawal reliability | High |
| Mobile Experience | App quality on iOS and Android, feature parity with desktop | Medium |
| Educational Resources | Webinars, courses, market analysis quality and frequency | Low |
| Research & Tools | Economic calendar, signals, trading tools, third-party integrations | Low |
Review Update Policy
Broker reviews are updated when material changes occur — including changes to regulatory status, significant changes to fee structures, platform migrations, or new findings from our ongoing testing. We also conduct full re-reviews on a rolling 12-month schedule for our most-read broker pages. The "Last updated" date on each review reflects the most recent substantial update to the core content, not minor copy corrections.
Independence from Commercial Relationships
We have affiliate agreements with some of the brokers we review. Our methodology is the same regardless: we open an anonymous account, collect the same data points, and apply the same scoring framework. Affiliate status does not result in higher scores, more prominent placement in organic review rankings, or positive bias in our written findings. Brokers with affiliate agreements that have received poor scores or critical coverage include cases where we identified issues with withdrawal processing, regulatory concerns, or misleading marketing claims. We consider this non-negotiable for maintaining reader trust.
For full details of how our commercial relationships work and what they do and do not affect, see our Advertising Disclosure.
Our Review Team
Reviews are conducted and written by analysts with hands-on forex trading experience. Our team includes former traders, compliance professionals, and financial technology specialists. All team members are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest before working on a specific broker review. Full team profiles are available on our Team page.
Questions About Our Methodology?
If you spot an error in a broker review, believe data is outdated, or want to understand how a specific score was derived, contact us at support@forexbrokersverified.com. We take accuracy challenges seriously and investigate all credible reports.