Base Markets vs XM at a glance
These two brokers get compared constantly, and it is a fair comparison to make: both are accessible to retail traders with small balances, both run MetaTrader, and both offer swap-free accounts. They differ sharply on the two things that matter most — regulatory weight and platform choice — and on one thing that only matters on this site: whether our trading signals come free.
Read the table first, then the disclosure section, because our ranking is affiliate-influenced and we would rather you know that before the recommendations than after.
Base Markets vs XM — the facts side by side
| Base Markets | XM | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rank | 1 | 3 |
| Regulators | FSC (Mauritius) | ASIC, CySEC, DFSA |
| Platforms | MT5 only | MT4 and MT5 |
| Min deposit | $0 | $5 |
| Spreads from | 0.0 pips | 0.6 pips (Ultra Low) |
| Commission account | — | Zero account, ≈$3.5 per side |
| Swap-free | Yes, on request | Yes — without widening spreads |
| Our signals free? | Yes — with a $400 deposit | No — paid subscription |
Regulation: XM is the stronger broker, and it is not close
XM is licensed by ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus) and the DFSA (Dubai). Base Markets is licensed by the FSC in Mauritius. These are not equivalent, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Tier-one regulators impose requirements that materially protect client money: segregation of client funds from company funds, minimum capital requirements, negative-balance protection for retail clients in most regions, and access to a formal complaints and compensation process. An FSC (Mauritius) licence is a real licence with real obligations — Base Markets is not unregulated and it is not a scam — but the supervisory weight behind it is lower.
If regulatory protection is your first criterion, XM is the better broker of the two. That is the honest reading of the evidence, and it does not change because Base Markets sits at rank 1 on our list. If you want to check either claim yourself, our how to verify a broker's licence guide walks through looking both up on the regulators' own public registers — and we explicitly invite you to run that check on Base Markets.
Platforms: MT5-only versus both
Base Markets runs exclusively on MetaTrader 5 — web, desktop and mobile. There is no MT4 option at all. XM supports both MT4 and MT5.
For most traders following our signals this is a non-issue: MT5 places an entry, take-profit and stop-loss natively, which is everything our calls require. It becomes decisive in one scenario — if you rely on a specific expert advisor or custom indicator written for MT4. MT4 and MT5 do not share EAs or indicators, and porting is not automatic. In that case Base Markets is simply not usable for you, and XM is.
More detail on the platform split across all five brokers is in the best MT5 brokers guide.
Costs: headline spreads versus what you actually pay
Base Markets advertises spreads from 0.0 pips with a $0 minimum deposit. XM starts at 0.6 pips on its Ultra Low account, with a $5 minimum, and offers a Zero account with near-zero spreads in exchange for commission of roughly $3.5 per side.
Compare total cost rather than the headline. A raw-spread-plus-commission account is usually cheaper at larger position sizes and more expensive at very small ones, because a fixed commission weighs proportionally heavier on a micro lot. For a small starting balance, a standard commission-free account is often the cheaper structure in practice — see how much money you need to start trading.
The $0 versus $5 minimum difference is not a real decision point. Neither figure reflects what you actually need to trade sustainably.