Our mission at ForexBrokers.com is to provide data-driven, unbiased reviews of online forex brokers and deliver accurate, in-depth guides covering the forex market to help traders pick an online forex broker they can trust.
As the forex world evolves, so do we; our proprietary testing methodologies and algorithms are constantly being refined, and we fact-check and audit data for our guides, reviews, and articles dynamically to ensure that our readers are getting the best, most up-to-date information. Our team collects data, tests products, and conducts research on an ongoing basis. Your trust in us, as well as the trust we have earned from the industry as a whole, is of the utmost importance to our mission and our charter as a Certified B Corporation.
Thebestforexbrokers.net Annual Reviews:
The Best Forex Brokers was created in 2020 with a simple purpose in mind: to become the world’s leading provider of in-depth, unbiased reviews of online forex brokers. In April of 2017, ForexBrokers.com published its first Annual Review.
Our editorial team produced the ForexBrokers Annual Review of the top forex brokers in the industry for six years in a row. Each year, we gathered thousands of data points, crafted tens of thousands of thousands of words of research, and delivered dozens of awards to the best online forex brokers. We’d love for you to learn more about our story.
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Our research team has collected nearly 5,000 data points and published over 180,000 words of research.
Results for the Annual Awards are unbiased and determined by our independent research. Broker Awards are bestowed based on demonstrated excellence in categories considered important to investors, traders, and consumers.
Our editorial principles have earned the trust of millions of readers; our data-driven forex broker reviews and in-depth guides have been visited by over eight million global readers (over 2.8 million in 2023 alone). Our ratings, rankings, and online broker reviews are more accurate than ever, now that our research and testing methodologies have evolved into a dynamic process.
Research and Data Leadership
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Head of Research for ForexBrokers.com (and for our sister site, BrokerNotes.co). An expert voice on the complexities of global forex trading and international regulatory agencies, Steven leads the research and testing efforts at ForexBrokers.com. He also serves as the lead writer for our online broker reviews, and is our final voice for decisions pertaining to rankings and opinion scoring.
Steven has decades of experience in the foreign exchange markets and has published over 1,000 articles covering the forex industry.
Our Editorial Principles
- If we love a service or company, we’ll tell you – no matter what.
- If we think a company or service has room to improve (or should be avoided altogether), we’ll let you know – no matter what.
- If we’ve determined that using a broker or service provider puts your money at risk, we’ll say so – no matter what.
Here are a few things that we’ll never do to make money:
- We never change our opinion of a product or service, or modify our evaluation process to gain or preserve an affiliate partnership.
- We never highlight (or deliberately conceal) a specific product or service to gain or maintain an affiliate relationship.
- We never alter our proprietary data-driven algorithms (like Trust Score) to favor an affiliate partner.
- We never share marketing revenue information or advertising campaign data with our researchers or our editorial team.
We’re proud to say that we’ve published over 180,000 words of research on ForexBrokers.com, and every one of those words was handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by a human editor. Feeding prompts into a Chatbot or generative AI application is not – and has never been – a part of the content creation process at ForexBrokers.com. Learn more by reading our generative AI policy page.
Broker Evaluations and Testing Methodologies
Broker evaluations at ForexBrokers are based on our collected quantitative data as well as the qualitative observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers.
Our evaluation process begins with a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the broker’s products and services. We examine any and all aspects of the broker’s offering that may be of interest to the broker’s customers. This includes a deep dive into all websites operated by the broker, all available content across a variety of mediums, and rigorous testing of the broker’s proprietary tools and/or software.
After we’ve completed our testing of the broker’s products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process), our expert researchers and writers begin the process of crafting opinion scores. Opinion scores are for those aspects of broker reviews that simply aren’t easily quantifiable (such as the relative complexity of a new mobile trading platform designed for beginner traders, for example).
With our quantitative and qualitative examinations of a broker’s product offerings complete, we turn our attention towards the broker’s regulatory status; this research helps us determine whether you should trust the broker to keep your money safe.
Testing Devices
All testing is conducted on modern devices that run the most up-to-date operating systems available. Our Desktop PCs run Windows 11, and we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 12.5 for trading on the go. For mobile testing, we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 12.
All testing on mobile devices is conducted via an 802.11n wireless WiFi connection; 4G connections are used when WiFi is not available. All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser.
Trust Score
Determining whether you can trust a broker with your money is one of the most difficult – and most important – distinctions you need to make when choosing a broker. The team at ForexBrokers wanted to help traders make informed, intuitive choices based on the level of trust between broker and trader. That simple idea resulted in the development of our proprietary tool, called Trust Score.
We’ve collected comprehensive data on dozens of brokers that span a wide range of regulatory environments, jurisidictions, and countries. Based on our extensive research, we’ve sorted regulatory agencies into five categories (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4, and Tier 5), with Tier 1 indicating the most stringent regulatory environment (which is good) and Tier 5 indicating regulatory jurisdictions that offer little-to-no protections for traders.
Our proprietary algorithm combines our data collection on brokers with our exhaustive research on international regulators to produce an individual Trust Score for each broker. Trust Score is a ranking from 1 to 99 (the higher a broker’s Trust Score, the better).
Click here to learn more about Trust Score.
Scoring Methodologies
Yes/No scoring
At ForexBrokers, all broker evaluations begin with a Yes/No assessment, which is based on over 100 proprietary variables that collectively inform our final ratings and rankings.
But what does that really mean?
Points are awarded for each “Yes” answer that can be assigned to each of our variables (“No” answers result in zero points). The number of points awarded for each “Yes” answer varies, depending on the significance of the variable (not all variables are graded equally; some features are considered more important than others).
Then, the total number of points earned from those “Yes” answers is divided by the number of total points possible, which results in a final “Yes/No” score (or, the broker’s Variable Score).
Opinion scoring
Next, our team of expert researchers and writers craft and assign opinion scores for each category. Opinion scores range from 1 – 10, with one being the lowest score possible (very bad), and ten being the highest (very good). Half points are used, e.g. “9.5”, so scoring isn’t restricted to just whole numbers.
Our editorial team utilizes opinion scoring to better represent those important distinctions that can’t be quantified or summarized in a “Yes/No” answer. These separate scoring systems represent our efforts to include a wide range of observations in our broker evaluations; we strive to include quantitative data as well as qualitative analysis in our ratings and rankings.
Final Scoring
To determine a final percentage score for one of our scoring categories, the broker’s Variable Score and Opinion Score are independently weighted and then combined to produce a Final Score. Weightings vary by category, depending on the complexity of the category. This Final Score is then translated to a star rating.
Commissions & Fees scoring
Scoring for our Commissions & Fees category utilizes a separate scoring rubric due to the inherent complexity of the category.
First, multiple scenarios are assessed for placing trades. For example, the average reported and/or observed spread for the EUR/USD pair. Brokers are then awarded points depending on how expensive (or inexpensive) their average spreads (in this example) are, relative to their peers.
Next, multiple scenarios are assessed for different investor types on a monthly basis, incorporating any miscellaneous account fees, alongside any active trader or VIP rates. The goal is to determine a net, “all-in” cost per trade.
Finally, all data is analyzed to determine an overall score for Commissions & Fees.