HotForex vs Exness – Which MT4 Forex broker suits you better?

In a rapidly advancing world of finance and trading in general, remaining as a competitive company is extremely tough. Especially, when it comes to a market as complex as the Forex industry. Being the largest financial market ever both in terms of parties involved and the trading volume, Forex maintains its popularity throughout the years. Even more, if we were to believe the official data of credible sources, it is now much more trendy than it has ever been. The developing regions which lacked the resources to supply the demand on Forex are now actively participating in trading. The increasing demand for Forex trading has also pushed the number of brokerage firms way up.

With hundreds of Forex brokers to choose from the traders are in an eternal struggle to identify the best among them. We constantly hear the questions regarding the quality of some of the most popular brokers. That is why we provide extensive research and review on Forex broker comparisons. These comparisons serve as a guide to numerous traders to find what they are looking for and decide which of the Forex brokers is the most suitable option for them. Before reading the review below, we suggest that you get introduced to the basic Forex terminology and get an idea of what your future plans in Forex trading will look like.

HotForex and Exness are two experienced Forex brokers serving millions of Forex traders in almost every corner of the world. Their services are considered to be exceptional as the multiple industry awards suggest that these two brokers have obtained throughout the past few years. Despite the fact that both of them are high-quality brokers, they are not universally suitable and appropriate to all kinds of strategies, trading goals, trading budgets, and risk tolerance of certain traders. That is why we seek to find the different features of these two brokers and recommend cooperating with them in various situations and scenarios.

Which broker offers better spreads and fee structure, Exness or HotForex?

The cost of trading Forex is not as high as it has been several decades ago. In the past, you had to be part of the elite society of the traders or someone from the group had to nominate you to join the community. You would have to pay the membership fee, as well, and be physically present on the trading days. A lot has changed since then. You can start trading Forex whenever you want and with literally any amount you desire. However, the topic of cost-efficient trading in Forex remains highly popular and that is why we begin our review by describing various fees and cost structures that HotForex and Exness charge their clients with.

Usually, the most common fee types that you will find with the Forex brokers are commissions, spreads, and minimum deposit requirements. Of course, there are rollover or swap fees applicable to overnight positions (you are exempt from these fees if you are a day trader or hold an Islamic account), withdrawal fees, even though most of the leading brokerages do not charge for it, and administrative costs. However, in our case, such fees are either minimal or do not exist at all. Therefore, we will exclude them from our review for the moment. For detailed information on swap fees, you can visit the official websites of Exness and HotForex brokers and visit the page of trading accounts, conditions, or broker fees.

Commission Fees

Commissions were the primary tools for generating revenue for brokerage firms in the past. However, as the competition grew among the brokers in the Forex market, more and more brokers switched to offering a commission-free trading experience. They still remain a significant part of the brokers’ business model, however, they have become much more infrequent nowadays. Both Exness and HotForex mainly operate without commission charges. In most cases, there are no commission fees payable by the customers. However, it still depends on the trading account type that the client chooses to register with the broker.

Exness has numerous live trading account types. Many of these account types come with certain benefits and these benefits cost commissions. There are only two account types with the Exness broker that involve commission rates. These accounts are Raw Spread Account and Zero Account. Due to the fact that the accounts provide extremely tight spreads on Forex products, the traders with these account types need to pay commissions starting from 3.5 US dollars. The commission will change according to the trading volume on the accounts.

HotForex changes its commission rates according to both account types and the trading assets. The Forex products can be traded without commissions except for a special account type that provides spreads on Forex instruments starting at 0.0 pips. This account type is a Zero Spread account. The rest of the account types propose less tight spreads and therefore operate commission-free. However, certain financial instruments, such as cryptocurrencies are subject to commission fees. The crypto assets charge the commissions starting at 1 US dollar.

Spreads

For those brokers who operate without commissions, the spreads are the primary sources that drive the revenue of the company. Therefore, whenever you see ultra-tight spreads or special Zero spread accounts with the brokers you should remember that there will be commission charges. Otherwise, commission-free trading usually comes at a cost of less flexible spread offerings from the brokers’ side. You should always compare the spread provided by the broker to the market standard or average. If your broker offers spreads that are higher than the market average you should probably find an alternative brokerage firm.

Apart from the special accounts that we mentioned – Zero Spread account for HotForex and Raw Spread and Zero accounts for Exness that offer spreads from 0.0 pips, these two brokers also have below market average spread offerings. Exness trading conditions in terms of spreads are a bit more favorable than for HotForex. On the rest of the accounts of the Exness broker, clients can access Forex assets with spreads from 0.3 on Standard and Standard Cent accounts and 0.1 for Pro accounts. Whereas, HotForex offers spreads from 1 pip on average for most of the account holders which is slightly below the market average.

Minimum Deposit Requirements

How much are you willing to invest in Forex trading at the very beginning? that is the question that you should answer before choosing the broker. There will be some of the Forex brokers that will require at least a 100 USD deposit from you in order to register and activate the real trading account with them. Or, there will be a specific account type with extremely favorable conditions and suitable terms for your trading goals that will be rather expensive. If you are looking for cheaper Forex brokers to start trading with then Exness and HotForex both satisfy your requirement.

These two brokers differentiate between the minimum deposit requirement according to two criteria. The Exness Forex broker will propose different requirements according to the payment method with which you choose to deposit your funds in your trading account. For example, if your preferred deposit method involves Tether, Bitcoin, Neteller, WebMoney, Skrill, or internal transfer, then the minimum deposit requirement is just 10 US dollars. However, keep in mind that Tether and Bitcoin transactions may take up to 72 hours, whereas the rest of the mentioned deposit methods offer instant credit. Choosing Perfect Money as a payment solution will cost you 50 USD as a minimum deposit requirement, whereas depositing through a bank card lowers the requirement down to 3 US dollars.

In contrast to Exness, HotForex Forex broker actually sets different requirements for different real trading account types. You could either start trading with simply 5 US dollars or get premium conditions with the minimum requirement of 500 US dollars. The cheapest start that you can get with HotForex is on the Micro Account with a minimum deposit of 5 USD. A premium account of the broker requires a 100 US dollar investment. Both Zero Spread and Auto accounts come with the minimum deposit requirement of 200 US dollars. Whereas the PAMM Premium Account will demand a 250 US dollar deposit and an HFCopy will request either 100 USD or 500 USD based on which profile you choose – for a Follower or for a Strategy Provider.

Trade Forex commission-free with HotForex

Which broker provides better trading platforms, Exness or HotForex?

Most of the Forex brokers that provide high-quality and above-average performance in their fields will actually provide competitive and trustworthy trading platforms. The most obvious and the most popular choice for these brokers are MetaTrader platforms. MetaTrader platforms have been enjoying the attention of the Forex traders for a while now and most probably they will remain as the best software for trading Forex in history. The reason is that, for example, MetaTrader 4 was built specifically for Forex traders and for trading the Forex instruments. It comes with an incredibly detailed charting system, the seamless execution speed of the trades, and multiple advanced features that allow traders to conduct various market analyses, gather necessary data on the Forex market, and execute the trades in a reliable way.

Both Exness and HotForex are dedicated to providing the best possible experience for their customers. Therefore, these two brokers support the above-mentioned favorite choice of Forex traders – MetaTrader platforms. They provide both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 with the latter one being a bit recent compared to the original MT4 software. Without any modifications, these platforms would have to be accessed from the desktops of the users only. Therefore, they would need to be downloaded and installed on the PC of the traders. In order to simplify the whole ‘getting started in Forex’ procedure, the brokers started introducing different versions of these platforms.

Clients of Exness and HotForex can use original MetaTraders on their desktops or go for WebTrader and mobile trading applications. These alternative versions come with the same set of features as the desktop versions but are instead much easier to access. WebTrader can be opened from any web browser, which requires no downloading and installing. But it still remains as the highly advanced and reliable trading terminal. Similarly, mobile trading apps are the perfect on-the-go trading solutions. Both Exness and HotForex support apps that are compatible with IOS and Android systems.

Get your free MT4 account with HotForex

Which broker has better safety features, HotForex or Exness?

HotForex and Exness are multi-award winner brokerage firms. They have both received awards for being the most transparent and trustworthy Forex brokers, which essentially includes providing the top safety features for the traders. However, we should not rely on the awards only and examine the security and privacy matters in greater depths. When we assess the reliability of the broker in relation to the safety of the funds of the client we usually consider the regulations of the broker, insurance, and various protocols, such as the negative balance protection.

These two brokers are highly regulated within multiple jurisdictions across the globe. They both hold over four licenses from the regulatory authorities and can operate in almost every region of the world. The brokers also incorporate the negative balance protection, which guards the financial resources of the clients with the broker. Negative balance protection means that the positions of the traders cannot enter the negative area and the positions will be automatically stopped as soon as they reach zero. The main difference between HotForex and Exness is the fact that HotForex is insured with over 5,000,000 EUR against all kinds of errors, frauds, and other Force Majeure situations that the traders cannot anticipate. Unfortunately, Exness does not hold insurance.

The regulatory bodies authorizing both Exness and HotForex are the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom (FCA), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa (FSCA), and the Financial Services Authority in Seychelles (FSA). HotForex Forex broker is further registered with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), whereas the Exness broker holds authorization from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The license and registration numbers of the brokers with respective regulatory authorities can be looked upon the official websites of the brokers, or directly within the database of the regulatory bodies.

Which broker provides better bonuses, HotForex or Exness?

Bonuses, trading contests, and loyalty programs play are significant parts of the brokers’ profiles. Usually, the beginner traders will prefer the broker which provides more generous promotional programs even if the other broker with no bonus offers has incredible trading conditions and exclusive platforms. That is why some of the top Forex brokers will focus on providing competitive promotional campaigns to encourage the newcomers in Forex trading to remain with the broker. HotForex runs multiple promotional programs since the day of its establishment, whereas clients with Exness have limited options and can access only one type of bonus scheme, which is a 10% deposit bonus activated at the moment of an initial investment with the broker.

The promotions of HotForex include the following campaigns:

• 100% supercharged bonus – deposit bonus, profit withdrawable
• 30% rescue bonus – bonus during loss-making, non-withdrawable
• 100% credit bonus – deposit bonus, profit withdrawable
• trading contests – cash prizes, gadgets, VIP trips, exclusive account benefits
• loyalty program – multiple tiers, special points exchangeable to cash

Claim your HotForex no deposit bonus

Exness vs HotForex – Which one is a better broker overall?

Once again, there is no single universal broker that would suit every kind of trader’s needs, goals, budget, and demands. Therefore, depending on what you are looking for either of these two brokers might be a perfect fit for you. If your primary concern is the trading conditions, such as spreads on trading assets then Exness could be your broker of choice. On the other hand, if you are seeking for special encouragement to start trading with fewer risks then HotForex will assist you with various promotional campaigns to double up your trading capital and to guard you against loss-making to some extent. You could also choose the broker according to your country of residence. Double-check on the brokers’ website if they have any specific geographic restrictions. If not, it is better to choose the one which has authorization from your local regulatory body or the main authority in your region.

FAQs on Exness vs HotForex

How reliable is Exness?

Exness is a highly reliable Forex broker that holds multiple licenses from the top-tier market regulators. The broker is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom (FCA), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa (FSCA), and the Financial Services Authority in Seychelles (FSA).

Is HotForex a good broker?

HotForex is one of the most experienced and recognized brokers worldwide. It is regulated by five different financial authorities and operates in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. The broker offers access to hundreds of financial markets with competitive trading conditions, flexible spreads, and an opportunity for commission-free trading.

Is HotForex a South African broker?

HotForex is not a South African broker, however, it is authorized to conduct the business in South Africa. The broker holds a license from the main South African market regulator – the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). HotForex is registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines with the registration number 22747 IBC 2015.