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Skip to content In contrast to returns, fees are always guaranteed. In the Online Broker Comparison Switzerland you will find the most favourable securities custody account in the Swiss broker comparison.
In this broker comparison Switzerland you will learn what the best Trading Platform Switzerland in our test and what you should definitely look out for in trading platforms throughout Switzerland.
The Swiss Broker Comparison is not limited to national borders, but also includes international brokers, which are also accessible to us Swiss.
Brokers in comparison:
| Swissquote | Degiro | Saxo Bank | FlowBank | Postfinance | Interactive Brokers | Migros Bank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Fees & Costs | - Order fees from CHF 5 for shares and ETFs - Custody fees CHF 20 - CHF 50 per quarter | - Order fees from CHF 5 + CHF 1 - Custody fees free of charge | - Order fees 0.08% or at least CHF 3 of the order volume (Classic) - Custody fees 0.22% (Classic) or max. CHF 10 / month | - Order fees 0.1% or at least CHF 6.5 for international investments. Free of charge for CH investments. - Custody fees 0.1% per year (max. CHF 50) | - Order fees from CHF 6 incrementally up to a maximum of CHF 300 - Custody fees CHF 72 / year (credited as trading credit. Expires annually). | - Order fees 0.1% or min. CHF 10 - Custody fees free of charge | - Order fees flat rate CHF 40 - Custody fees 0.23% or at least CHF 50 |
| What does an ETF purchase cost for CHF 10,000? | from CHF 9 (selected ETFs) | from CHF 1 (selected ETFs) | CHF 8 | CHF 10 (free of charge for CH investments) | CHF 30 | CHF 5 | CHF 40 |
| Swiss deposit guarantee up to CHF 100,000 |  | | | | | ||
| Special advantages | - Savings plans - Very wide range of products from stocks, ETFs, options, cryptocurrencies etc. - Interest on cash deposits | - Very cheap - Wide product selection - Intuitive user interface | - Extremely low trading fees - Test demo account - Interest on cash deposits | - Favorable order fees | - Custody fees are donated as trading fees | - No custody fees - Very reasonable order fees | - Flat order fee becomes favorable for large trades |
| Disadvantages | Trading user interface for beginners takes some getting used to at first | - No share entry possible in the name register - securities loan | - No savings plan function | - Product selection still small, but growing | - Negative interest from CHF 250,000 | - No Swiss deposit insurance. Customer service difficult to reach. | - Account opening not yet fully digitized / takes a long time |
| Promotion? | Voucher for CHF 200 trading fees and selected ETFs at a discount | Voucher for CHF 100 trading fees | Voucher for CHF 200 trading fees | - Trade CH shares free of charge - 1 share free of charge from CHF 1,000 deposit | Custody fees given as trading fees | - | - |
| Schwiizerfranke Rating |  |  | |  |  | |  |
| View test report | View test report | View test report | View test report | Visit PF | Visit IB | Visit MB |
Not all criteria are clearly measurable in the trading platform comparison, but fees are. They should not be the only selection criterion and yet they are very central. Let me say at the outset: Every provider charges fees somewhere.
Online brokers are usually not honorary and fees are often very creatively accommodated in the financial industry to make comparison difficult. Fair providers display fees and costs clearly and transparently.
Order fees Examples:
Order fees: Let's assume you buy international ETFs worth CHF 1,000 per month:
Order fees are incurred each time securities are bought or sold. Flat fees (as with Migros Bank) can be very expensive for newcomers with small amounts and very inexpensive for wealthy customers.
Percentage order fees are common and often associated with a Fixed fee combined (e.g. CHF 9 + 0.05%). In order to make favourable share and ETF purchases, you should consider fees on a percentage basis.
Example: CHF 9 flat fees are not necessarily cheap. If your investment is only CHF 100, you will pay a percentage of 9% fees! In this case, an investment larger than CHF 1'000 would be cheap, because you then pay only as 0.9% fees. So save longer or invest less often to save on flat order fees.
Overview of the annual Custody fees with increasing deposit sizes.
| Depotgrösse: | CHF 30'000 | CHF 50'000 | CHF 100'000 | CHF 250'000 | CHF 500'000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Degiro | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 |
| Interactive Brokers | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 | CHF 0 |
| FlowBank | CHF 40 | CHF 50 | CHF 100 | CHF 200 | CHF 200 |
| Saxo Bank | CHF 66 | CHF 110 | CHF 120 | CHF 120 | CHF 120 |
| Migros Bank | CHF 69 | CHF 115 | CHF 230 | CHF 575 | CHF 1'150 |
| Postfinance | CHF 72 | CHF 72 | CHF 72 | CHF 72 | CHF 72 |
| Swissquote | CHF 80 | CHF 100 | CHF 100 | CHF 150 | CHF 200 |
Custody fees usually depend on the size of your custody account. This is how the custody account fees are calculated by the individual providers:
Custody fees are ongoing costs that are incurred by most online brokers. In the above case, these are very inexpensive everywhere, especially as the portfolio value increases. The foreign brokers Degiro and Interactive Brokers have no custody account fees and Postfinance gives them away as trading fees (which, however, expire annually).
Inactivity fees are especially mean, as they penalize you if you don't initiate an order. You are thus forced to pay fees - either in the form of order fees or the inactivity fee. None of the above providers have inactivity fees for retail accounts.
By the way, the selection of online brokers in this comparison would be even larger, but for some of them their inactivity fee combined with other criteria led to their exclusion.
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Online brokers and Swiss trading platforms are not always special User-friendly. This is due to the fact that professional traders need different tools and features than an investor who simply wants to buy and hold a few shares.
Some of the above providers have therefore developed different "Interfaces", i.e. surfaces. Also Swiss Mobile Trading Apps are partly available and therefore offer you as a customer full flexibility.
Since personal condition The fact that the rating has a strong influence here and is difficult to measure, no rating should confuse you. Since there is no such thing as the best broker for everyone, you will find a preselection here and can compare the best brokers.
Important in this day and age for many users is the digitalization and simplicity of opening a securities account. Swissquote, Saxo Bank, Degiro and FlowBank are probably the easiest/fastest in terms of account opening. Since Interactive Brokers are from the USA, there are far more questions for you here. Migros Bank and VZ can be considered the best in terms of digitalisation and paperless banking. Account opening However, direct customer contact may be part of the strategy here.
Returns and user-friendliness are of little help if your money is suddenly gone. In the broker account comparison in terms of security and deposit protection, there is not necessarily a perfect solution, but personal feelings count.
If Finma regulation with Swiss deposit insurance, up to CHF 100,000 is an absolute must for you, it is.
As info: A Deposit protection always applies at Cash, i.e., cash deposits. Securities (shares, ETFs, etc.) are always protected indefinitely, as they do not slip into the loss mass in the event of insolvency.
So, if a broker protects only CHF 20,000, but you do not deposit higher cash amounts with the broker, this will not be a problem for you.
If a broker engages in securities lending, he can temporarily lend your securities to third parties via a right of use and thus generate additional income.
Securities lending is mostly found with the very cheap online brokers, because they also have to earn money somewhere.
The subject is debatable, but in our comparison of the best brokers in Switzerland, securities lending is rated negatively. In extreme cases, this can result in additional risk for you.
From the selection above, only Degiro engages in securities lending, such as explained in more detail here will be. Other providers offer securities lending as an option, but we would advise against this.
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As you have seen in the online broker comparison Switzerland, there is no one perfect broker. Rather, you should ask yourself what is important to you: probably low Fees? Certainly a user-friendly User interface? High Safety standards? A broad Product range?
The most popular and leading Swiss online broker is Swissquote. Swissquote's offer is certainly attractive, but not the cheapest everywhere. You can find favourable conditions at Saxo Bank or FlowBank, for example. The exact However, fees always depend on your usage behaviour.
This broker overview is only intended as a guide. Compare which fees are charged by your personal investment behaviour and which provider you suits you best.
Feel free to share your personal assessment in the comments and let us know which online broker suits you!
If you are looking for a broker comparison Robo Advisor comparison, take a look at the big Robo Advisor Comparison on!
Thanks to the Internet, thousands of online brokers are available to us worldwide.
In Switzerland, we have the Swiss franc as our home currency, which is why Swiss nationals in most cases leave the reasons listed here should urgently invest in francs.
This broker comparison Switzerland focusses on the best online brokers for the Swiss.
For the sake of clarity, we only list the best brokers from our experience reports.
An important, good broker has been forgotten or a new offer is on the market? Be sure to let us know in the comments or by e-mail! Thank you for your support!
Cash.ch has quite high fees for investors with small assets.
With minimum custody account fees of CHF 100 and flat-rate trading fees of CHF 29, Cash.ch's fees tend to be in the upper price segment.
Although Finanzen.net Zero's offer is inexpensive, like many foreign brokers' offers, it is not denominated in Swiss francs, but in euros at Baader Bank in Germany.
For the Swiss, this is a reasons listed here does not make sense.
Furthermore, Finanzen.Net Zero does not currently offer a single Swiss ETF (such as SPI or SMI). There are also hurdles with regard to taxes that have not yet been resolved.
We spoke to the provider and were told that they are working on it. However, the solution is not yet of interest to the Swiss.
"Intelligent people learn from the mistakes of others".
We have compiled our top selection for you from all our tests and experience reports:
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Disclaimer: There is no investment recommendation or advice on Schwiizerfranke.
32 Responses
Hi, Eric,
Clever overview, thank you very much! I would also like to comment on IA if you buy US traded securities, the fees are even lower. However, the foreign currency accounts and fees are the best, making it very efficient in combination with US ETFs. The only disadvantage is the taxation of dividends and the refund of withholding tax for private individuals. Deposit protection is even higher under US law. There's also something for referring friends.
Hi Marc,
thank you for your positive feedback 🙂
The lack of Swiss deposit protection is an issue for many. With ETFs domiciled in the USA, you should definitely be careful with taxes, this is where the US inheritance tax comes into play, but you certainly know the issue. Just don't let the favourable fees lead you in the wrong direction.
Hi Eric
Thanks for the comparison!
Swissquote's custody account fees do not state that the amount is capped at CHF 200 per year, i.e. the maximum. Not bad compared to many other providers (but unfortunately still 4x more expensive than Fow Bank).
In this respect, a comparison of e.g. half a million or more would also have been interesting 😉 Perhaps you could add one?
Many greetings
Oliver
Oliver
Hi Oli,
Thanks for the idea 🙂 I have now added a table for comparing custody account fees for different custody account sizes.
Hello, Eric,
Thank you for the report and your work.
Regarding Interactive Brokers: I am always debited CHF 5 per order (no matter how many shares I buy)... The report says 0.1%.
Accordingly, I have also decided to stop saving my CHF ETFs every month, preferring to save more favourably every quarter.
Greetings
Hello Alessandro,
Correct, at least for Swiss securities the minimum price of CHF 5 is applied. For other countries, the situation is different again - quite complex and confusing. In the table we have looked at an "international purchase", so we have simply left it at 0.1%.
Why is DBK Bank not suitable for a custody account for Swiss people? They have excellent conditions, low fees and with wise you can avoid the exchange fees very well;-)
Many thanks for your feedback
if you live in switzerland and want to stay in switzerland long-term, your income and expenses will be in francs.
This would expose a custody account abroad (in euros or USD, for example) to unnecessary currency risk. Specifically, the euro has lost around 50% in value against the franc over the last 40 years. So a euro custody account would have been rather awkward for the Swiss ...
Hello
As far as I know, Flowbank allows you to trade shares and ETFs on the CH stock exchange free of charge. And at Swissquote the fees are only for orders =< 500.- at 5.-. ...
Hello Rolf,
Correct, FlowBank is currently running a promotion where Swiss securities can be traded without commission. More about this in the FlowBank test report.
Swissquote is also running a special promotion for the selected "ETF Leaders", which can be traded at special conditions.
Could you add your opinion on Finanzen.net? Thank you very much for your great research work and shared expertise!
Hello Eva,
Thanks for your feedback and the tip 🙂
The current priority is not on Finanzen.net Zero, because investments there are made in euros. This is not ideal for the Swiss.
That's why the time for test reports is currently flowing into other, more relevant offers. Perhaps there will still be a report on this in the future.
Thank you for your understanding!
If you're already digging up an article from last year, it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring the figures up to date.
Postfinance has reduced its fees from 90.00 / year to 18.00 + VAT / quarter.
The brokerage fees for your example with the 10,000 trade have fallen to 30.00
Just my two cents
Hello Alain
this was probably because your browser saved the page in the cache in the old version. Delete your history once, then the current numbers should appear 🙂
The article was updated some time ago to reflect the new Postfinance fees.
Hello everybody
Saxo Banke is another online broker that you have forgotten in the comparison.
It lowered its fees in January and is probably one of the cheapest in Switzerland.
Flowbank would be another one.
Greetings Philipp
Hello Philipp
thanks for your comment 🙂
A new version of the Saxo Bank comparison is coming soon!
In addition to Saxo Bank, there are of course countless other brokers that we test. As soon as a broker has been analysed in detail and makes it into the top ranks, it will also be listed here.
Thanks for the in depth analysis. It is odd Saxo is not here. The costs seems considerably cheaper than the others more or less. I got an email from ZH branch the other day. Maybe I am wrong, but have a look...
Hi Dirk
here we checked on Saxo Bankback in the days. The fees were quite high back then. Ive heard that the costs went down, will check it soon!
According to the general terms and conditions, DEGIRO has a deposit guarantee of 100,000 euros.
Correct. Above we talk about the Swiss deposit guarantee - Degiro does not have this.
An update would be great. The list does not contain the 5 cheapest providers. I don't know what to make of this...
The providers must be reputable and have fair fees (for beginners and not only from a volume of 20k per trade) -> Which providers are still missing in the test in your opinion?
DKB is unfortunately also missing...
Hello Tom, for space reasons not all (thousands of) brokers can be included. DKB (Deutsche Kreditbank) is also not suitable for most Swiss people.
Thank you for your understanding 🙂
cash.ch is missing
There are several other providers. For space reasons, not all are in the table.
Cash.ch has rather high fees for investors with small assets. With at least CHF 100 custody fees and flat trading fees of CHF 29, they are rather in the upper price segment.
Swissquote is only noticeably cheaper than cash.ch for very small amounts. Above 10k, swissquote becomes more and more expensive. At cash.ch, however, the data protection regulations are a disaster and therefore a NoGo, which is why it is completely OK not to include cash.ch in the list.
The following applies to both providers: The interest rates of 0.0 or 0.1% are a cheek. In addition, the progressive interest rates at swissquote piss me off.
To DeGiro:
The fee-free ETFs are usually not traded in Switzerland. For example, the popular VWRL ( Euronext Amsterdam ) adds 0.25% exchange fee and EUR 2.50 annually for activity on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, FlatexDeGiro is very good.
just my two cents
Regarding IB, I can report the following experience:
- Fee model can be changed to staggered. Thus, the purchase of a Swiss share in the currency CHF costs only: ~3-4 CHF!
From purchases over 10'000.- I would leave the preset fixed price of 10.- set
- The deposit guarantee is 500'000.- USD and not only 250'000.- USD.
Thanks for the hint with the staggering! Purchases for over 10k are of course not possible for all and large volumes/deposits become cheaper with some brokers.
Deposit insurance is 250k on cash (Source)
An update of the table would be appropriate here, especially for IB.
The fees are much lower, not at 10.- per purchase, and no minimum amount of 10'000.- has been required on the deposit for 2 years.
Thank you for pointing out the update at IB. The table is now updated 🙂