Review: DEGIRO (Stock Broker)

DEGIRO, an Amsterdam-based European stock broker, was founded in 2008 and started offering online brokerage services to retail investors in 2013. Nowadays, it boasts an impressive +265% new accounts opened year-on-year, gaining an impressive +52% total users in a span of 12 months. Regulated by one of the most reputable European authorities and successfully defending its positions as Europe's up-and-coming fintech superstars, the company managed to grow to a pan-European status, currently serving investors in 18 countries and processing more than €75 billion a year in transactions at stock exchanges worldwide.

But is DEGIRO a good choice for a small-to-mid scale retail investor in 2024? Our team set out to investigate, bringing in three digital finance and banking experts, who each got "hands-on" with the platform and assessed it. In this review, we summarized their feedback and we'll be guiding you through the various pros and cons DEGIRO has, reviewing the fee schedule, assets available and more, so you can make an informed decision yourself.

With a mission of making investing accessible to everyone who wants to act smart and shape their financial health themselves, DEGIRO looks to solve an intricate issue of making a complex investment product be simple enough to ensure adoption across the mass market while remaining powerful enough to attract a more advanced investor. With more than 86 international awards under their belt, here is how DEGIRO's take on solving this works (or does not!) in your favour.

DEGIRO provides its users a one-stop shop access to more than 50 exchanges across 30 countries. The upside of their coverage compared to other European brokers is a wide range of exchanges available in North America (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX included next to the Toronto Stock Exchange) and Asia and Oceania (Australian Securities Exchange, and the stock exchanges of Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore). Of course, London SE is included as well, with continuous trading available to users.

The fees and cost structure at DEGIRO changes quite a lot during the turbulent expansion period, thus we urge our readers to familiarize themselves with the official and up-to-date pricing document of DEGIRO before committing to trading on the platform. However, it is worth noting that the recent changes to the platform's pricing in certain areas (for example, fees on purchasing shares of companies listed on most European stock exchanges) actually decreased the price for platform's users. Needless to say, this approach is a breath of fresh air for an industry full of cash flow-negative startups casually increasing their prices as the companies mature.

Update: As of 15.05.2023, DEGIRO's pricing changed - each order involving stocks traded on US or Canadian exchanges now incurs a €1 handling fee (up from €0). While it is an inconvenience for DEGIRO users, this is still a very minor amount that's ahead of the market. On the plus side, a new "Core Selection" was added, containing ETFs that could be traded at no cost, however, ETFs that are not part of it will still be charged as they previously were.

DEGIRO offers a wide range of securities and products to invest in. Among these are governmental bonds, stocks, options and futures, ETFs and other funds as well as the structured products for a more sophisticated investor.

A bond is a fixed income financial product that allows an investor to lend money to an issuing entity, usually governments or corporations. In return, the buyer of a bond (the lender) typically receives regular payments, called coupons, until the issuer repays the principal, also known as the face value or par value, on the maturity date. The standard fee for executing a bond purchase/sale is set at €2,- per transaction, which is a pretty low fare compared to offers by the competition.

We've already mentioned a wide array of exchanges available to DEGIRO users. Fees on UK stocks start at £1,75, EU stocks start at €3,90 (with NL/BE fees significantly lower at €2,0 per transaction), but what is interesting is that the stocks traded on the US exchanges are free of fees! The choice is not yet remarkable when it comes to overseas exchanges, but the surprisingly low (or absent) trading premiums are an excellent argument for trying out DEGIRO today. In total, the broker provides access to an impressive range of over 40'000 stocks for its users.

DEGIRO allows its users to trade a wide range of ETFs trading on 19 major exchanges, with over 200 ETFs being completely transaction cost-free. Prices for funds not included in the "core selection" are set at an industry-leading €2,0 per trade. The ETF collection stands at over 4000 available at the moment!

Due to their relatively high risk and above-average complexity as a product, options are best utilized by somewhat experienced investors. Options fee is €0,75 per contract, regardless of country. The same fee applies to futures contracts.

For experienced investors, DEGIRO offers a category of structured products. These include a broad range of financial instruments - for example, turbos, warrants and certificates. These products are typically issued by a third party (usually banks) and some of them even offer a built-in leverage. Trading these assets is deemed to be a "complex product for experienced investors", so you would need to complete a simple quiz to prove that you are, in fact, knowledgeable enough, before you can actually trade.

DEGIRO can definitely be considered an up-and-coming success story on track to becoming a key player in the European broker exchange market, thanks to its low fees, a wide and ever-expanding choice of securities available for trading as well as having a surprisingly responsive customer service. A prime example of Dutch accuracy and integrity combined with an inherently European transparency which occupies a very specific, yet populous niche of investors who are confident in their ability to navigate the investment market without solutions like bunq's "Easy Investments" or insanely beginner-friendly BUX app, yet not exactly at a full-time trader level.

With the only downsides one might experience being a lack of Open API (although that would only really impact those more tech-savvy) and a lack of proper localization (and despite the English translation not being perfect yet, the advantages of DEGIRO make it well-worth it to suffer through a rough learning curve), it's safe to say an average retail investor would not regret (both experience-wise and financially) diversifying their platform portfolio to trial out the Dutch fintech superstar.