Why demo account quality is not just about duration
Most comparisons stop at "how many days does the demo last." That is the least useful question. A demo account only teaches you something transferable to live trading if its spread, execution speed and slippage simulation closely resemble what you will actually get once real money is on the line.
A demo that gives you instant fills at a fixed, unrealistically tight spread teaches you to expect conditions that vanish the moment you go live — which is a genuine risk, because traders who learn on an unrealistic demo can be caught off guard by real slippage during their first live trades.
Demo account comparison across our 5 brokers
| Broker | Demo duration | Reset policy | Platforms available | Conditions mirror live? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone | Unlimited / renewable | Reset or reopen anytime | MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView | Yes — live pricing feed |
| Capital.com | Unlimited / renewable | Reset or reopen anytime | Native app, MT4, MT5, TradingView | Yes — live pricing feed |
| ActivTrades | 30 days, renewable | Reopen on expiry | ActivTrader, MT4, MT5 | Close — simulated feed |
| XM | Unlimited, 30-day inactivity reset | Auto-resets after inactivity | MT4, MT5 | Close — simulated feed |
| Base Markets | Unlimited | Reset on request | MT5 only | Close — simulated feed |
What 'realistic demo conditions' actually means
Three things separate a realistic demo from a toy one: spread behaviour (does it widen during news and low liquidity the way a live account does, or stay artificially fixed), execution speed (near-instant fills regardless of order size teach false confidence), and slippage simulation (whether the demo ever fills you at a worse price than requested, as live markets genuinely do around news events).
Brokers that route demo orders through the same pricing engine as live accounts — rather than a separate, simplified simulator — give you a materially more honest picture of what trading with them will actually feel like.
- Spread widening during news: realistic demos show it, simplified ones often don't
- Execution speed: instant fills on every size is a red flag for unrealistic simulation
- Slippage: a demo that never slips you is teaching a habit that live markets will punish
- Starting balance: less important than the above three — most demos default to $10,000–$100,000, which is adjustable on request at every broker we list
How to reset a demo account, by broker
| Broker | How to trigger a reset | Limit on resets |
|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone | Request via client portal or reopen a fresh demo | None stated |
| Capital.com | Reset balance from within the app settings, or reopen | None stated |
| XM | Auto-resets after roughly 30 days of inactivity, or contact support | None stated |
| ActivTrades | Reopen a new 30-day demo once the current one expires | None stated |
| Base Markets | Contact support to reset the balance on request | None stated |
Best for realistic conditions: Pepperstone and Capital.com
Pepperstone and Capital.com stand out because both route demo trading through the same live pricing infrastructure used by real accounts — under FCA, ASIC and CySEC regulation in both cases. That means spread widening, execution speed and slippage on a Pepperstone or Capital.com demo genuinely resemble what a live account experiences.
Pepperstone offers the widest demo platform choice of any broker we list: MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView, all demo-enabled, with 0.0-pip Razor-style spreads reflected in the simulation. See the Pepperstone review.
Capital.com offers demo access on its native app, MT4, MT5 and TradingView. See the Capital.com review.
Unlimited-length demos: Base Markets, XM, ActivTrades
Base Markets runs an unlimited MT5-only demo, resettable on request — a fit for anyone who wants to practise the exact platform they would trade live on, with no MT4 option in either mode.
XM offers an effectively unlimited demo that auto-resets after roughly 30 days of inactivity — log in occasionally and it stays open indefinitely, on either MT4 or MT5.
ActivTrades issues a 30-day demo that is freely renewable once it expires, across its own ActivTrader platform plus MT4 and MT5 — useful if you want to test its proprietary interface, not just MetaTrader.