DEGIRO vs Trade Republic.
DEGIRO or Trade Republic for a monthly index buy? The same pattern priced through both price sheets, the protection behind each, who does your tax paperwork, and what leaving costs. Side by side, verified, verdict-free.
Every figure verified against the brokers’ own price sheets: July 2026. Fee schedules reprice mid-year. If that date looks old, check the price sheet before acting.
The same buy, both bills
| Measure | DEGIRO | Trade Republic |
|---|---|---|
| The bill this year | €12 | €0 |
| Twenty years of it | ≈ €441.43 | ≈ €0 |
The example pattern: €300 a month, no pot, a euro-listed fund. Your pattern is different: run yours through The Broker Bill
Where they differ
| Dimension | DEGIRO | Trade Republic |
|---|---|---|
| Available in | 29 countries, on its published list | 18 countries, on its published list |
| The monthly buy | €1 · manual order | €0 · savings plan |
| Conversion | 0.25% | — · euro funds only |
| Savings plan | manual, whole units | automatic · fractions |
| Protection | German Investor Compensation Scheme: 90% up to €20,000 (securities shortfalls) | German EdB: 90% up to €20,000 (securities shortfalls; segregation first) |
| The cash | Uninvested cash sits in a personal Cash Account at flatexDEGIRO Bank SE: €100,000 German deposit guarantee. The bank pays 0% on it, part of how the cheap trades get paid for. | Cash is distributed among partner banks (Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, HSBC among them): €100,000 guarantee per bank; amounts beyond that can sit in liquidity funds, where no deposit guarantee applies. |
| Does your taxes in | — | Germany, Italy, Spain |
| The exit | Transfer out €20 per position, plus external costs. | Outbound in-kind transfers supported (the receiving broker's form starts it); no fee published. Ask before you fund. |
Where they match
- Recurring €0/yr
The honest notes
DEGIRO
The old default of European index investors — today a branch of a German bank, serving most of the EU from a single entity. Its appeal is a cheap flat handling fee on a core list of ETFs; its limits are structural: no savings plans and no fractional shares, so every month means logging in and buying whole units by hand, and the cheap list runs through a single trading venue. It pays nothing on your idle cash; that's part of how the cheap trades get paid for. Fits someone who doesn't mind ten manual clicks a month and wants broad, cheap market access from almost anywhere in the EU.
DEGIRO: the fine print
flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, Dutch branch trading as DEGIRO: German bank, BaFin; AFM/DNB in NL
ETF Core Selection: €1 handling fee per trade on 1,000+ ETFs (all via Tradegate), no fair-use restriction, manual orders only. Any other exchange: €3 plus a €2.50-a-year connectivity fee.
No automatic investing and no fractions. Its own pages say so plainly. Every month is a manual order, in whole units.
Uninvested cash sits in a personal Cash Account at flatexDEGIRO Bank SE: €100,000 German deposit guarantee. The bank pays 0% on it, part of how the cheap trades get paid for.
No native withholding anywhere: a free annual report and the filing is yours; transaction taxes are passed through at source.
Transfer out €20 per position, plus external costs.
Trade Republic
A German bank inside an app, and the smoothest version of this site's pattern where it operates: savings plans execute free, fractions from a euro, and idle cash earns the central bank's rate. In its biggest markets it also does the tax paperwork natively — the rare app where April doesn't arrive with homework. The caveats: euro-only, app-first, and its whole execution model was rebuilt days after the PFOF ban. Manual orders now carry a small settlement fee, and the repricing may not be finished. Available in seventeen-ish countries; the list moves.
Trade Republic: the fine print
Trade Republic Bank GmbH, Berlin: German bank, BaFin + Deutsche Bundesbank
Savings plan: free execution (a €1 settlement fee applies when you sell); manual orders €1 best-price / €2 on a chosen exchange, since July 2026.
The core product: free savings plans from €1, fractional; change, pause or cancel free.
Cash is distributed among partner banks (Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, HSBC among them): €100,000 guarantee per bank; amounts beyond that can sit in liquidity funds, where no deposit guarantee applies.
Withholds natively in Germany, Italy and Spain; France gets the fee-free PEA; elsewhere you file from its annual report.
Outbound in-kind transfers supported (the receiving broker's form starts it); no fee published. Ask before you fund.
No affiliate links: no broker pays me, and none of them knows it's on this page. The order is arithmetic, not sponsorship.
Education, not advice. Fee schedules change and brokers reprice. Check the current price sheet before you open anything. Which broker suits you also depends on your country and your tax situation; I'm not a licensed adviser, happily.
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