Pepperstone excels at spread betting and professional trading, especially across forex and commodities. Capital.com is a great stock and ETF broker with a fantastic proprietary platform and structured beginner education. But which is better? Let’s explore.
Which is the Better Broker for UK Traders: Capital.com vs Pepperstone?
Capital.com and Pepperstone have more in common than people might think. They both offer spread betting, CFD trading and professional accounts that include generous rebates. They are also some of the best algorithmic brokers in the UK, which is especially useful in the age of AI.
However, there are some core differences when it comes to spread pricing, platform offerings and account types that Uk traders need to be aware of.
Let’s dive in.
Quick Answer
Choose Pepperstone if you are looking for low-cost trading as a professional or at high volume, multiple potential platform options and simple algorithmic trading.
Choose Capital.com if you are looking for an API & AI-enabled broker that offers a wide range of stock, ETF and complex derivative instruments and a brilliant proprietary platform.
1. Key Features Comparison
| Pepperstone VS Capital.com | 
First | 
Second | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulation | FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia) | FCA (UK) | |
| Trading Platforms | Proprietary Platform, TradingView, MT4, MT5, cTrader | Proprietary Platform & MT4, TradingView | |
| Minimum Deposit | £0 | £0 | |
| Spreads | Starting from 0.0 pips on Razor Account | No public commitment but c. 0.7 pips | |
| Spread Betting | Yes | Yes | |
| Range of Assets | 2,700+ | 5,500+ | |
| Education Resources | Articles, Market Analysis & videos | Articles, Market Analysis, videos & eBooks | |
| Customer Support | 24/5 via live chat, phone, and email | 24/5 via phone, chat, and email | |
| Funding Options | Credit/Debit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer | Credit/Debit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer | |
| Inactivity Fee | No inactivity fee | No inactivity fee | |
| Visit Pepperstone | Visit Capital.com |
2. Fees and Spreads
Capital.com Spreads
Capital.com does something that almost no other broker does in the industry. They do not commit to public minimum spreads. Unlike IG or CMC, which commit to 0.5 and 0.6 pips minimum spreads on forex, respectively, Capital.com provides no such guarantee. We tested Capital.com extensively in our Capital.com review and for this comparison, and we found their EUR/USD spreads (usually the lowest-spread pair) average around 0.7 pips.
For their commodities like Gold CFDs, Capital.com charges 0.5 points, which is relatively high. For comparison, SpreadEx’s spreads are 0.3 points, and most other brokers hover around 0.3 points as well.
Capital.com is not the cheapest broker by any stretch; in fact, relative to IG, CMC Markets and SpreadEx, they are quite expensive across core instruments.
So how does this compare to Pepperstone?
Pepperstone Spreads
Pepperstone has three spread costs you need to consider. Their Standard Account, their Razor Account, and their Spread Betting account all have differing spread costs. The cheapest of the lot is their CFD Razor Account, where forex spreads start from 0.0 pips and have a commission of £2.25 round trip, so £4.5 in total per lot. This cost structure is best for high-volume trading or professionals who need fast execution at a low-cost, this is also great for scalpers.
However, the one most practical for everyday UK traders is their spread betting account. Spreads on their spread betting account start at 0.5 pips on EUR/USD (see below). Essentially, this is 0.2 pips lower than Capital.com in practical trading terms.
However, if you compare Pepperstone’s Standard Account (their CFD account), spreads start at 1 pip, which is higher than Capital.com’s. So traders must use either the Spread Betting account or the Razor account to get better spreads.
For shares, Pepperstone is actually one of the cheapest stock CFD brokers available to UK traders.
Their fees start at 0.07% for Australian CFDs, and for UK CFDS they start at 0.1% – so significantly cheaper than most brokers, Capital.com included.
Also, notably, when comparing Gold CFDs, Pepperstone’s spread costs are significantly lower than Capital.com’s. Pepperstone’s Gold spreads on a Razor account start at 0.08 points; on their spread betting account, they start at 0.1 points; and on their standard account, they start at 0.19 points. All of which are significantly lower than Capital.com’s 0.5 points.
Verdict:
Capital.com is more expensive overall. Pepperstone offers lower spread costs for commodities such as Gold, as well as lower costs overall across most forex instruments with both its Razor account and Spread Betting account types.
3. Trading Platforms
Capital.com’s Platform
Capital.com has a fantastic proprietary platform. It’s one of the best platform experiences of any major broker. Their onboarding is quick and easy to use; instrument navigation is simple (see below), and it makes you think… why have i been using other platforms?
However, they do have a distinct lack of alternative platform options. They integrate with TradingView and MT4. That’s it. Three platforms: TradingView, MT4 and their own platform. You might think that this puts Capital.com at a disadvantage when it comes to algorithmic trading. In fact, it’s the opposite. Capital.com is one of the only brokers to offer an MCP connection and full API access.
Overall, they might lack other platform options, but if your broker offers MCP & API access, do you even really need other platforms?
Pepperstone Trading Platforms
Pepperstone offers cTrader, TradingView, MT4, MT5, and the Pepperstone Platform (see below). Pepperstone offers 5 platforms to Capital.com’s three platforms.
If you are looking for a platform to use or are a fan of a particular platform like cTrader (like we are at Trading Brokers) then Pepperstone ensures you have that option available. Great.
However, their proprietary platform lacks the polish that Capital.com has, and there are no MCP or API connectors for advanced algorithmic trading.
You can build algorithmic strategies across TradingView, MT5, MT4 and cTrader, which is brilliant. But if you are looking for a platform with finesse that also offers you a chance to build a truly AI-powered or algorithmic bot, then Capital.com would be the best bet.
Verdict:
Pepperstone has more options so if you are just starting out, then Pepperstone is the place to go to explore platform options. However, Capital.com offers a better overall platform experience, and offers more algorithmic trading options with MCP connectors and API’s which is better for more advanced traders.
4. Range of Tradable Instruments
Capital.com’s Asset Range
Capital.com has a fairly large range of tradable instruments: over 5,500+. During our testing, we actually found them to have a wide range of minor and exotic options, like CHF/ZAR (see below) and other minor pairs that only a few select brokers, like CMC Markets, offer – which was a great surprise.
Capital.com claim 120+ forex pairs, 65+ commodities and 35+ indices. In reality, from our testing, it’s far more than the purported minimums – we found a huge range of forex pairs to trade.
Surprisingly, we also found a frankly huge range of stock and ETF options (see below for Greggs and British Land as UK stocks).
Pepperstone Asset Range
Pepperstone offers 2,700+ instruments across spread betting and CFDs. It’s made up of major, minor, and exotic forex pairs, commodity CFDs, share CFDs, and indices.
Pepperstone offers 1,000+ share CFDs, and whilst Capital.com doesn’t share the number of share CFDs they offer, from our testing, the vast majority of Capital.com’s instrument variety seems to be comprised of share and ETF CFDs.
Verdict:
Both brokers offer fantastic instrument options for different types of traders. Pepperstone’s 2,700+ instruments better suit forex and commodities trading, given its focus, and its ETF range is more limited than Capital.com’s. Capital.com would be better for stocks and ETF trading.
5. Regulation and Security
Capital.com Regulation
Capital.com is a regulated broker here in the UK. Its FRN (firm reference number) is 793714. You can check their details at the FCA Firm Checker.
Pepperstone Regulation
Pepperstone is also regulated by the FCA. Their FCA reference number (FRIN) is 684312. They are a well-established broker founded in 2010 in Australia.
Verdict:
Both brokers are solid in terms of security & FCA-regulated.
6. Spread Betting & Pro Accounts
Capital.com Pro & Spread Betting Accounts
Professional accounts
Capital.com has two main accounts for professionals. The first is a zero-leverage account called 1X, which is similar to CMC Spectre, albeit CMC Markets actually does this under spread betting, so it’s much more tax-efficient than Capital.com’s 1X account.
The other is an actual professional account, which, as of October 2026, offers a £10,000 joining bonus based on their terms and conditions (see below). The professional account offers rebates of 2% on equity that hasn’t been committed as margin, low margin requirements starting at just 0.2% and a refer-a-friend programme that offers some great additional incentives.
Spread Betting Account
Capital.com offers a spread betting account on 5000+ instruments. However, the pricing is the same as their CFD account, with no spread discount. This differs to Pepperstone who offers discounts on their spreads for spread betting vs CFD trading.
Pepperstone Spread Betting & Pro Accounts
Professional Accounts
Pepperstone’s professional account also offers rebates calculated as a percentage of their commission or spread x the volume of trades you make.
It doesn’t currently offer welcome deals or bonuses for traders as of writing, but they do offer another account type, the Razor account, that offers low commission-based pricing if you don’t qualify for a professional account. This makes Pepperstone flexible from beginners (who may prefer a spread betting or Standard CFD account) to semi-professional (Razor account option could work well with 0.0 pip spreads) and professionals who qualify for a profesional tier.
Capital.com has no such structure, with only the 1X account and professional account options.
Spread Betting Account
Pepperstone offers a spread betting account, which notably lowers the spread costs compared to its Standard CFD account. Minimum headline spreads drop by 50% (1 pip vs 0.5 pips on EUR/USD), so this is a fairly large incentive for UK traders to choose Pepperstone as their preferred spread betting broker.
Notably, when comparing Capital.com’s spreads (the CFD spreads and spread betting spreads are the same) with Pepperstone’s spread betting spreads. Pepperstone comes out as the cheaper option.
Verdict:
Pepperstone offers a better spread betting account, with significantly lower spreads, even lower than Capital.com’s tested spreads across both CFD and spread betting accounts. Pepperstone also has a semi-professional account of sorts with their Razor account (see Pepperstone vs Axi for a full ‘Professional vs Razor account’ comparison), whereas Capital.com doesn’t have this option.
7. Educational Resources
Capital.com Education
Capital.com has fairly comprehensive beginner information & education. They have a YouTube channel with over 283,000 subscribers (i think that’s the largest channel we’ve reviewed). It features videos on ‘how to trade’ – essentially information on technical analysis and how to analyse markets. The same channel also features Market Analysis (called Market Lens).
Their ‘How To’ YouTube content was last updated 3 years ago (2023), whereas their ‘Market Lens’ / Market Analysis content was updated 3 days ago; essentially, they offer frequent market analysis but relatively infrequent beginner content.
The same thing applies to their main site, where the content on their ‘Learn’ sections (see below) is a bit dated, formal and text-heavy.
But it does provide guidance for beginners looking to start trading with detailed technical analysis courses, information about different trading styles, and even trading psychology.
Ultimately, Capital.com provides decent educational material for beginners across their YouTube and main site, albeit a bit dated, but their market analysis remains consistent and fresh.
Pepperstone Education
Pepperstone also has a fantastic YouTube channel (1k subscribers), and even a dedicated UK version of this channel called PepperstoneUK (see below). Essentially, this is a great place to get UK-specific trading strategies on spread betting, London-session trading and more.
Their main site also features regularly updated market analysis and trading guides (see below). However, their trading guide content is not as well-structured as Capital.com. If you are looking for a learning guide then choose Capital.com’s main site or Pepperstone’s UK YouTube Channel.
Verdict:
They are equal in educational content. If you are looking for a structured learning guide, then choose Capital.com’s main site or Pepperstone’s UK YouTube Channel.
FAQ’s
1. Which is better for forex trading?
Pepperstone is better for Forex trading. Pepperstone has lower spread costs on its Spread Betting and Razor accounts than Capital.com. Capital.com has more instrument variety with 5,500+ instruments vs Pepperstone’s 2,700+ instruments. However, Capital.com’s instrument list is primarily made up of stocks and ETFs. Both offer a range of minor and exotic pairs and Pepperstone ultimately offers lower costs across majors and minors with their Razor account.
2. Which is better for professional traders?
Pepperstone is better for professional (FCA-eligible) traders as well as semi-professional traders. They offer a Razor account, which is great for high-volume trading, as well as a dedicated professional account type with rebates. Capital.com offers a more attractive £10,000 welcome bonus in 2026 but offers only the professional account and a 1X account, which is similar to CMC Spectre but doesn’t have the tax-free spread betting advantage of CMC Spectre.
3. Which is better for stock trading?
Capital.com is better for stock trading. Pepperstone offers hundreds of stock CFD instruments, but Capital.com offers thousands of stock CFD and ETF instruments. Capital.com overperformed in our testing for UK share CFDs featuring a much broader range.
3. Which is better for beginners?
Both are good for beginners, but Capital.com offers a more structured learning environment and an easy-to-use native proprietary platform with simple onboarding that feels nicer overall. Pepperstone offers more variety for beginners, with more platform integration options, but fundamentally falls short on structured education and native platform quality.
4. Which is cheaper overall?
Pepperstone is significantly cheaper than Capital.com across most major instruments if you choose the spread betting or Razor accounts. If you select Pepperstone’s CFD trading account, then spreads are typically higher than Capital.com’s.
5. Which is better for UK traders?
Pepperstone is a better broker overall, with dedicated educational material for UK traders on their YouTube, a lower fee for their spread betting account than for their CFD trading account (an attractive incentive!), and multiple platform integrations. Capital.com remains the better platform though; if you are using their native proprietary platform, then that is a fantastic place to trade, but it comes with higher spread costs across most major instruments, with no UK-specific spread betting discount.
Final Verdict
| Criteria | Winner |
|---|---|
| Fees and Spreads | Pepperstone |
| Platforms | Capital.com |
| Asset Range | Capital.com |
| Regulation and Security | Tie |
| Spread Betting & Pro Accounts | Pepperstone |
| Educational Resources | Tie |
Pepperstone and Capital.com are roughly equal across a lot of key criteria, but Pepperstone excels in spread cost, spread betting and professional trading with a wide range of integration options.
Capital.com offers more instruments, a better native platform with AI integration options and a wider range of instruments to trade, notably stocks and ETFs.
£10 Minimum Deposit
Best for Forex
Pepperstone is a Melbourne-based broker that offers an excellent range of assets in the financial trading markets, including CFD's for commodities, shares, ETFs and more.
73.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading on margin with this provider.
Who Should You Choose?
Choose Capital.com if you want the following:
- A fantastic desktop platform and mobile application
- Structured beginner education
- A wide range of stocks and ETFs
- AI trading options
Choose Pepperstone if you want:
- More platform variety
- Lower spread costs
- Professional & spread betting accounts
For UK traders, Pepperstone offers the best combination of low spread betting & professional trading costs, more platform options, UK-specific educational material and a variety of forex instruments. But if you are looking to trade stock CFDs on a great native platform, then Capital.com remains a fantastic choice.
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