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.

Both brokers sit near the top of the 2026 rankings and both run genuine no-dealing-desk pricing, so the choice comes down to a few measurable differences rather than to trust. This comparison uses AUD-denominated costs throughout, because that is what an Australian account actually pays, and it corrects a common error about which broker charges the lower commission. Every spread and speed below comes from the May to June 2026 capture.

The founding and licence rows are two different facts and are worth reading as such. IC Markets was founded in Sydney in 2007 and licensed in 2009; the gap is ordinary and neither figure contradicts the other.

Regulation and trust

Regulation is the one area where these two brokers are 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 the 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, reflecting the wider Pepperstone tier-1 regulator stack rather than any weakness in the IC Markets Australian standing. Two claims circulating about this pair are worth dismissing. 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

Here is the correction most comparisons get wrong. 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; converted to the Australian dollars the account is billed in, that 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. IC Markets captured 0.01 pips on EUR/USD and 0.15 pips across the eight-pair basket over May to June 2026; Pepperstone captured 0.10 pips on EUR/USD and 0.46 pips across the same basket. On the spread itself, IC Markets is the tighter of the two by a clear margin.

Put the two halves together and the picture is simple. 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 the 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.

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, and 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

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 measured from an LD4 VPS with network latency stripped, a difference small enough that most retail traders will not feel it.

On product range the two diverge. 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 a fixed-income requirement should be confirmed with the broker directly rather than taken from a headline count.

Swap-free accounts: the one hard split

This is the single difference on the page that decides the comparison outright rather than by degree, and it runs against the direction the rest of the table points.

IC Markets offers swap-free terms as a variant of its 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, and the eligible-country list does not include Australia. An Australian resident cannot open one whatever the global site implies.

So for a trader with a Sharia-compliant requirement, this comparison has one answer and it is IC Markets. The commission gap, the platform gap and the spread gap are all irrelevant next to a product an Australian cannot access at all.

Which should you choose

Pepperstone suits a 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 for most active Australian forex traders the combination of A$7.00 round-turn pricing and five platforms is the stronger all-round package. The full Pepperstone review carries the account-by-account detail.

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. A trader also weighing a low-cost flat-commission broker should read Pepperstone vs Fusion Markets.