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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