Trade Republic vs BUX Zero (2024)

Being smart about savings and making your money work are crucial steps towards long-term financial health. With the recent boom of financial technology companies, there are now numerous investment and savings platforms available for customers to choose from.

Two of Europe's most popular and fastest-growing investment platforms are Trade Republic and BUX Zero. Both "neobrokers" offer unique features and give users access to a wide range of assets to choose from, so deciding between the two might be very tough if you're not an expert in finance.

In this article, our team of fintech experts compare Trade Republic and BUX Zero, taking a closer look at their fees, investment options, security features and overall user experience. By the end of this article, you should have a clear understanding of both platforms and will be able to make an informed decision on which one is best for your investment needs.

But before we dive in, we invite you to take a look at our curated list of the best investment platforms, stock brokers and crypto exchanges and our selection of the best investment apps of the year. And now, without further ado, let's go!

The platforms look quite similar at the first glance. Of course, both Trade Republic and BUX Zero have mobile apps for iOS and Android, but only Trade Republic offers a web-based desktop interface (the design of which reminds us of the "all-in-one" investments app Bitpanda).

The account creation and identity verification process is also very similar and does not take long for either neobroker. To start your investment journey with either of the apps, all you need is the following:

• Your ID (or a residence permit)
• iOS or Android device with internet connection
• A phone number from the country you reside in
• ~5-10 minutes of your time

Both companies have been expanding their presence far beyond the home markets and are now available to residents of the following countries: Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. In addition to these, Trade Republic also welcomes customers from Luxembourg, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Estonia. Additionally, BUX has a separate platform that can be enjoyed by users in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden on top of the eight markets mentioned above.

Both BUX Zero and Trade Republic offer their users a variety of investment products, including stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. Trade Republic boasts having more than 10'100 stocks and ETFs and an ability to start with as low as €1. BUX Zero lags behind a bit, but still offers a very impressive selection of over 3'000 assets to choose from, with trades as low as €10 supported. However, BUX also offers "Thematic Investments" - essentially, curated lists of companies operating in niche spaces hand-picked by professional traders. These can definitely come in handy if you're looking to invest in, say, businesses in the Metaverse space or sustainability-first companies, but you aren't involved enough to know who the up-and-coming stars in these spaces are.

Moreover, both apps provide customers with access to fractional shares, meaning users can buy a portion of a share instead of having to buy a whole share. This is particularly useful for people who want to invest in high-priced stocks like Amazon or Tesla but would rather not commit to buying a whole share. Nice-to-have features like this are exactly why both of these apps are featured in our curated list of the best investments & savings apps for beginners available today.

When it comes to crypto, BUX Zero offers over 30 different coins to buy, sell and hold in your account, covering all of the cryptocurrencies a beginner would look into: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP (Ripple) and the BUX coin, a utility token of BUX. Trade Republic has a slightly wider selection, with just over 50 coins available to trade at this moment.

Obviously, the selection of digital assets available is not comparable to crypto-first domain experts like Kraken, one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges, or wildly popular eToro. However, for retail investor just looking to do a few trades a month to diversify their portfolio, both apps' selection would suffice.

New to the world of cryptocurrencies? Make sure to check out our "Complete Beginner's Guide to Crypto & Blockchain" and learn all you need to stop being intimidated by digital assets!

Adding to other similarities, there is a peculiar fact we just can't avoid mentioning. While BUX Zero offers a feature called "Savings Plan", Trade Republic has a feature titled... "Savings Plans"! And yes, the features are essentially the same - we covered them extensively in our detailed reviews of both BUX Zero and Trade Republic.

The short version is: you set up a schedule, pick the assets you'd want to buy each time and input the amount. A hefty and convenient way to start saving today, in just a few button taps. You can set up multiple plans with different schedules and you can withdraw your funds at any time. The only difference worth noting is that purchases of assets as part of savings plans comes at no cost for Trade Republic users.

Trade Republic currently also offers a 4% interest rate on deposits for all users, on amounts of up to €50'000 per customer, with interest paid out every month. A great way to make your money work without exposing them to risks associated with holding any assets, be it stocks, precious metals or cryptocurrencies.

When it comes to fees, both like to boast about their low (or non-existent!) commissions on trades. We compiled the up-to-date information on trading fees and other costs of BUX Zero and Trade Republic in a comparison table below.

There are a few key points to take into account that are not covered by the table above.

• BUX Zero offers US stocks free of charge (no fixed fee). However, there is a 0,35% currency exchange markup fee applied to all trades involving US shares. This means that if you buy more than €43 of any US stock, you'd actually be paying more than the €1,50 you'd be charged for trading assets traded on European markets!
• While Trade Republic does have a deposit fee, the first deposit you make incurs no costs - so make that one count!
• BUX Zero offers fee-free cryptocurrency trades for users holding over 1000 BUX tokens. This utility token currently trades at less than €0,10 per coin, so it is definitely worth it to buy some just to avoid the fees if you're serious about trading crypto on the platform.
• Trade Republic also offers a very niche and truly unique feature - placing orders by post. In addition to being inconvenient and hardly desired by users, it also costs €25,00 per order.
• BUX Zero offers "Zero Orders" - a specific type of trade that incurs no fees. We covered it in detail in our BUX Zero review.

Ultimately, the difference in fees pales in comparison with the losses users experience due to spread. These vary greatly based on whether the markets are closed or open at the time the order was placed, how volatile the desired asset is and the undisclosed specifics of each platform's inner workings.

Taking these into account, the costs these two platforms incur for the convenience they offer definitely ends up being higher compared to professional platforms like Europe's superstar stock broker DEGIRO.

When it comes to security, protection of your rights as a consumer and overall safety of your funds, both platforms have an excellent track record. This goes for both the legal aspect of your protection as a consumer as well as in terms of both companies being fully licensed, accredited and frequently audited.

BUX, the company behind BUX Zero, is a financial institution authorised and regulated by the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets. Trade Republic, on the other hand, is supervised by the Federal Bank of Germany and BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority). In both cases, customer deposits are not held by the platforms themselves, but (for additional security) are actually held in separate bank accounts at a custodian bank. These banks are reputable and well-known for either neobroker - ABN AMRO and HSBC Germany, respectively.

Customers of both platforms also enjoy an additional safeguarding mechanism - the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, which is essentially an additional layer of protection for users' funds, up to €100'000 per person. This means that even in a highly unlikely (and honestly, catastrophic!) event of these big banks failing, the European Central Bank and local regulators would still ensure all clients' deposits are safe. On top of that, if you run into a dispute with any of the platforms, you will be enjoying either Dutch or German (notoriously pro-individual) consumer protection laws.

Both BUX Zero and Trade Republic have apps with very straightforward and user-friendly interfaces that are very easy to navigate. Both platforms nailed the basics: minimal visual clutter, colorful charts and graphs that make it easy to track your investments and the information is presented in a very transparent manner.

The slight difference is that BUX Zero's platform provides beginners with a bit more context to most actions and has an overwhelming advantage over the competitor when it comes to the amounts of educational and informational content available. On the other hand, Trade Republic's app design is more minimalistic, with a focus on providing the minimal amount of information (that is still sufficient!) in a clear and concise manner. Of course, Trade Republic has a massive selling point - a desktop version of its trading platform, which BUX Zero sadly does not have.

Generally speaking, there aren't any mind-blowing and truly unique features offered by either platform, but it can be said that both excel at doing exactly what they promise, and it would take you little to no time to feel comfortable using either app. The slight differences are in no way enough to call either app a clear winner here - ultimately, it all boils down to personal preference.

One of the key factors to consider when choosing an investment platform is the quality of customer support it offers. You want to be confident that you can get sufficient help quickly and easily if you have any questions or concerns. Just like in many other areas, there are quite some similarities in customer support services provided by Trade Republic and BUX Zero.

Both companies have comprehensive FAQ-like knowledge bases, which cover an overwhelming majority of the most common questions users have. BUX Zero and Trade Republic alike offer customer support through their in-app chat features, and are available 24/7. Customers can also reach out to the support team via email (say, in case you lost access to your account), though response times may vary. It's really hard to confidently say which app does support better - during our in-house trial, each showed satisfactory results (both in response time, and in how they handled our experts' issues). The volume of online reviews analyzed by our team implies parity as well, with Trade Republic being ever so slightly ahead.

Overall, the level of customer support offered by both platforms is similar, and it ultimately comes down to the difference in handling individual cases.