We researched 30+ regulated forex brokers that offer MetaTrade 4 platform to South African traders. Here's our rating based on 8+ factors.
Any broker, be it one dealing in Forex or in any other instrument, offers a platform to trade on. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is one such well-known trading platform which is quite popular among forex traders.
Today, MT4 is the most used forex trading platforms, with almost 40% of global retail FX trading volume on MT4 brokers. Most forex brokers offer Metatrader to its clients, but not all brokers have the same trading fees, support, safety features.
We researched the popular regulated forex brokers in South Africa that offer MT4 platform with good trading conditions, and checked them for our 8+ trust factors checklist. Here’s our top list.
Here are the 8 Best MT4 brokers in South Africa as per our research
Below we have compared the features of each MT4 broker, one by one, staring with Hotforex.
Let’s look into the important comparison points of Best MT4 brokers in our list including: spread & other fees, global Top tier regulation(s), account minimum, trading conditions, and 8 other factors.
Ranked #1 MT4 Broker in South Africa
Tickmill is a reputed Metatrader based forex broker that is well regulated. So we consider them safe for traders in SA.
Tickmill offers only Metatrader 4 platform with all 3 trading accounts which they offer. They are regulated by FSCA, FSCA & CySEC, so we consider them safe for CFD & forex trading.
Tickmill’s MT4 platform is available on desktop, webtrader & mobile app. Tickmill’s MT4 can be customized, and you can set trading alerts along with advanced technical analysis and 50+ indicators, EAs.
The minimum deposit required to open an account at Tickmill is $100 with both Pro & Classic accounts. The Pro account is the preferred account type because the fees with this account type is very low. On average their spread is as low as 0 pips for forex, plus $4/ Standard lot (both sides). But they don’t support ZAR accounts through.
They offer trading on 62 forex pairs, but their other instruments are limited to 23 other CFDs only. They offer support via Live Chat & Emails.
Tickmill Pros
Tickmill Cons
read our Tickmill review
Ranked #2 MT4 Broker in South Africa
Hotforex is our recommended choice of brokers that offer MT4 trading platform. They are regulated by FSCA, so trading with them is considered safe.
Hotforex provides MT4 as the trading platform with all its accounts. They are regulated and licensed under multiple Top Tier regulators including FSCA, FCA (UK), CySEC.
Their MT4 platform is available on desktop, web & mobile. They offer standard Metatrader, with all features like news, EAs, multiple time frames, scalping & hedging supported on their platform.
However, when it comes to choosing an account, HotForex provides nine different types of accounts, with various options for different trading styles. The minimum deposit required to open an account is R70 (for ZAR accounts) or $5. Their trading fees is low in comparison with most other brokers. And their trading conditions are quite fair, with quick trade execution.
Hotforex provides trading in multiple instruments: Forex, CFDs on commodities, bonds, metal, energies, shares and indices. And their customer support is also good with quick live chat, email support & local phone number.
HotForex Pros
HotForex Cons
Ranked #3 MT4 Broker in South Africa
Exness is one of the leading forex brokers in South Africa. They too are a Metatrader only forex broker. They are authorized by FSCA, so we consider them to be safe for traders in SA.
Exness offers the option to choose between MT4 & MT5 during choosing of your trading account during signup. They offer this option with all their trading accounts.
The minimum deposit for account opening at Exness for their Standard MT4 account account is $1 The average spread for major like EUR/USD is 1 pips with this account type. They also support ZAR account currency option.
The trading instruments at Exness are quite higher compared to other Metatrader based CFD brokers. Exness offers 100+ currency pairs & 1000+ other CFDs. But the support at Exness is not the best as per our tests, their Live chat has hold time of few minutes, and their Email support is also not the quickest.
Exness Metatrader Pros
Exness Metatrader Cons
read our Exness review
Ranked #4 MT4 Broker in South Africa
XMZA is operated by a licensed FSP ‘Key Way Financial (Pty) Ltd’. The broker offer MT4 platform with all their account types.
The MT4 platform at XM is available on all devices including desktop & mobile app. You will get the MetaTrader download link after your account is opened at XM.
XMZA has 3 account types for forex traders. The account minimum is $5 (R70) with all the account types. But the overall spreads are lowest with Ultra-Low account. The typical spreads for EUR/USD are 0.7 pips (variable spreads) with this account type, but there are no extra commissiobs per lot.
You can trade CFDs on 55 currency pairs on XM’s MT4 platform. They also offer CFD trading on commodities, indices, stocks, metals & cryptos under every account type, but with variable charges.
XM Metatrader Pros
XM Metatrader Cons
read our XMZA review
MetaTrader is a trading platform offered by many forex brokers. MT4 was developed and released by MetaQuotes in 2005.
MetaTrader platform has two versions, the older and most popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and the newer and updated version MetaTrader 5 (MT5). Both the versions are trusted and highly used world over by traders for their features.
Due to its popularity, many forex brokers offer it. MetaTrader has features like Expert Advisors (EAs), custom indicators, scripts, charting, technical analysis tools, news feeds, alerts, ability to record and maintains archives. Overall, the interface is fast & quite easy to use for both beginner & advanced traders.
How do you check whether the broker offers Metatrader of not? This is actually quite simple.
Almost all forex brokers list the available trading platforms on their website. Normally the brokers will have a section in their menu called ‘Platforms’.
For example, Tickmill has created a page & link on their website’s menu for their trading platforms.
Similarly, all other brokers have similar pages where you can check the available platform. Or you can directly ask the broker’s chat support if you can’t find this information.
Plus, it is always a good practice to signup with the broker’s demo account, and then download their Metatrader platform to get used to all the features that they offer.
If you are a beginner trader, then Metatrader 4 is probably the best & easiest to understand platform out there. It an optimal and ideal solution for all traders for algorithm trading, manual trading or even copy trading.
1. Wide Usage: MT4 has very wide usage, so there is with extensive documentation & help available on this platform. For Automated traders, the availability of help of MQ4 codebase and articles supported by its developer, MetaQuotes Software Corp. is a good thing. Plus, there are lots of already available scripts, written over the years by many developers.
Plus, due to its high usage, it has lot of educational assistance, the historical data can be archived and the test trading can be done with historical data.
2. Access: MT4 platform is available in Windows operating system, Android and even iOS devices. So you can access it on any device.
3. Multiple features: Some of the special features of MetaTrader are charting tools, support for signals, copy trading, multiple order types, automated trading, back testing and optimizing expert advisors, support for VPNs and cloud for automated trading.
Technical charting tools are available to help you understand the market and also helps to take a calculated risk.
4. Expert Advisors: MT4 has Expert Advisors as a tool, which are basically algorithms used for trade monitoring and action purpose. These algorithms work on specific set parameters and helps a trader in taking better decisions on trade strategies.
Many developers & traders have built their EAs on MT4 for automated trading.
5. Free Demo available at most brokers: MetaTrader is offered by brokers for free. Hence, there is a lot of scope for the beginners to try and understand the tool at no extra cost. It is feasible for both the retail traders and professional traders.
6. Access to Help: Because MetaTrader is a very popular platform, widely used by retail forex traders, you will find a lot of help on its usage. Also, if you want to build custom algos, you will be able to find a lot of resources related to their language & how to import etc.
This can be helpful in comparison, if you are using a relatively unknown platform, which may not exist in the future. You can run you custom trading algorithms on MT5 from MT4 with some help. Also, there are hosting providers & brokers that offer servers for hosting MetaTrader based bots.
You should consider a range of factors when choosing a MetaTrader based forex Broker.
While almost all the forex brokers offer MetaTrader platform, not all of them are good for South African traders. Even the unregulated brokers offer MetaTrader platform but these brokers are high risk for traders.
Compare the factors like protection of your funds (are your funds safe with the broker in case the broker goes out to business), the fees that you will be charged, the trading features & conditions (like ZAR Account, Negative Balance Protection, Minimum Deposit, Demo Account), available instruments, funding & withdrawal methods, customer support.
The most important consideration is the protection of your funds. This can only be guaranteed if you are trading with a FSCA regulated forex broker that are licensed to operate in South Africa. All other factors aside, never choose or trade with a broker that is not regulated, as you could end up losing your money if the broker is a scam.
Most of the FSCA regulated CFD brokers offer MetaTrader platforms (MT4 & MT5). These include Tickmill, HotForex, Exness, FXPro etc.
Do your due diligence, check all the accounts that each broker is offering. Calculate the ‘total fees’ that you will be charged (including the spread + commissions + overnight holding costs + any other non-trading costs), and check what is the withdrawal time & terms. Is it easy to withdraw funds?
You should give preference to licensed forex brokers that have a local office in South Africa & also offer ZAR base currency accounts. The latter would mean that your trading costs would be lower as there would not be extra currency conversion charges.
Also, you should check whether the forex broker accepts payments via local bank transfers through EFT or not. For example, Exness does support local bank transfers in South Africa, and local traders can deposit & withdraw in ZAR.
Below is the screenshot from their website which indicates their funding & withdrawal conditions for local bank transfers. You should see the deposit time & minimum required.
Remember to only signup with a regulated broker that offers MetaTrader platform, and avoid unregulated brokers.
| MT4 Broker | Regulation(s) | EUR/USD Fees | Max. Leverage | Minimum Deposit | Forex Trading Platform(s) | Start Trading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tickmill Metatrader | ASIC, CySEC | 0 pips on average with Pro account + $4/Standard Lot commission | up to 1:500 | $100 | Metatrader 4 | get started |
| Hotforex | FSCA, FCA, CySEC | Average spread of 1.2 pips with Premium account. Raw spread with Zero account. | up to 1:1000 | R70 ($5) | MT4 for PC, Mac, Android, iOS, and webtrader. | get started |
| XM Broker | ASIC, CySEC | 0.8 pips on average with Ultra Low account | up to 1:888 | $5 | Metatrader 4 for all devices | get started |
| Avatrade | FSCA, ASIC | Fixed spread of 0.9 pips | up to 1:400 | $100 | MT4 for web, mobile devices, | get started |
| Tickmill | FCA (UK) | Spread from 1.6 pips with Classic account. Raw floating spread + commission with Pro account. | 1:500 | $100 | MetaTrader 4 for all devices | get started |
| IC Markets | ASIC, CySEC regulated. FSCA (applied) | On average 1.1 pips with Standard account. | 1:500 | $200 | MT4 & MT5 for all devices. Plus cTrader. | get started |
| FXTM | FSCA, FCA, Cysec | 2.0 pips on average with Standard account. | 1:1000 | $5 | Multi device support on MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5. | get started |
Most of the forex brokers in South Africa offer MetaTrader 4 trading platform. These 3 brokers are the best for MT4 platform according to our reviews:
To download the MT4 platform offered by the broker, you need to signup with the broker that you want to choose.
You can open a demo account or a live account. After opening the account, most brokers generally send the MT4 platform details on your registered email. You can use the sent details to download MetaTrader & start trading.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is a platform offered by most forex brokers. This platform is developed by Metaquotes Software company.
MT4 is the most popular forex trading platform in terms of global usage & net trading volume. It is estimated that as high as 40% of the global forex trading volume is based on MT4 based brokers.
MetaTrader 4 is a very easy to use platform with support for multiple devices including webtrader, mobile app for iOS & Android, desktop platform. The platform includes multiple charting tools, EA support, multiple time frames, news feed & lots of other features.
Exness & HotForex have low spreads for most currency pairs with their Pro & Zero Spread account types.
On average, the typical spreads for GBP/USD with Pro account at Exness is 0.5-0.7 pips during most of the days. This is much lower that typical spreads of 1.6-2 pips for GBP/USD at most other forex brokers.
There are so many MT4 based forex brokers that are regulated with FSCA including: Hotforex, ForexTime and FXCM.
Most of the FSCA regulated brokers offer multiple trading platforms like MT5, cTrader, proprietary platform – so you have choices. The lowest deposits is with Hotforex of R70, then ForexTime $10 (both brokers have Micro Accounts). The lowest spread on MT4 platform with spread only accounts for majors as per our comparison is offered by Exness, HotForex, Avatrade & OctaFX.
Trading CFDs is risky. Your capital is at risk.
Disclosure: We earn a commission if you Sign Up with a broker through referral links in this review. This helps us cover the expenses for running the website.
Tickmill is the #1 MT4 FX Broker
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