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Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers 2025

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

Interactive Brokers is my favorite foreign broker, and Swissquote is my favorite Swiss broker. Both brokers are very well known and have a good reputation.

So, it is time to compare Swissquote and Interactive Brokers in detail. In this article, I will examine their fees, features, and usability. We will also examine the user reviews for these two tools.

Best foreign broker
Best Swiss Broker
Primary Rating:
5.0
Primary Rating:
4.5
Best foreign broker
Best Swiss Broker

Swissquote

Swissquote is a Swiss broker and bank. They were founded in 1996 and have more than 700 employees. The broker itself is part of the Swissquote Group Holding SA company.

Although a Swiss company, it offers financial services to several countries. But in this article, I focus on Swiss investors.

Swissquote is a publicly traded company, meaning it must reveal its financials publicly. It is also a licensed bank in Switzerland. They currently have more than 400’000 users.

They offer access to many financial services. However, I only want to focus on the stock exchange brokerage services in this article.

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers is a broker from the United States with a presence in Europe.

They have several legal entities. You will deal with a specific entity, depending on where you are from. For instance, Swiss investors deal with the entity from the United Kingdom.

They also are a publicly traded company and a very profitable brokerage company. They have more than 1500 employees worldwide and were founded in 1978. As of 2021, they have more than 1.6 million customers.

They also offer access to a wide range of investment instruments. In this comparison, I will only focus on the stock broker part of Interactive Brokers.

Features

Draw

The most important criterion is that your broker should have all the needed features. So, we start by comparing the features of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.

While important, it is not a very difficult criterion. Indeed, most investors do not need many features. You only need a few features if you are a passive investor like me. And after that, some features are nice to have but not essential.

Both brokers give you access to the most important stock exchanges, such as the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). And they provide you with access to the biggest European stock exchanges.

You can access stocks, bonds, and ETFs with both brokers, which is probably everything most investors need. You can also access futures, options, and more advanced investments, but that only concerns a few investors.

Very importantly, both brokers will give you access to US ETFs. These ETFs are the most efficient for Swiss investors.

Both brokers will let you trade from your desktop and your mobile phone. And they both have different applications.

Both brokers will give you some interest rate on your cash deposits. However, since you should not hold too much cash, comparing the interest rates is not interesting.

We should also talk about a few advanced features. Both brokers will provide you with access to margin loans if you require leverage. Interactive Brokers allows you to buy fractional shares, while Swissquote does not have this feature. I do not think it is a big deal, but some people like to have access to fractional shares.

Both Swissquote and Interactive Brokers should have all the features you need to invest in the stock market.

Fees

Winner: Interactive Brokers

The fees of a broker are the second most crucial criterion, very close behind the first. So, we compare the fees of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.

We start with account management fees. Interactive Brokers has no custody fees of any sort. At Swissquote, you will pay 0.025% custody per quarter, with a minimum of 15 CHF and a maximum of 50 CHF. So, you will pay between 60 CHF and 200 CHF per year in custody fees. This custody fee is not cheap, depending on your account size.

And if you have more than one million CHF In your Swissquote account, you will pay an extra 0.03% management fee (on assets above a million). This will make Swissquote much more expensive for wealthy investors.

Next, we must also consider transaction fees. IB has two fee systems: tiered and fixed. I am using the tiered system because it is cheaper for small investments. If you want all the details, I have made a complete comparison of Interactive Brokers’ fixed and tiered systems.

Swissquote has only one system, with different fees for each stock exchange. On top of that, SQ has a list of so-called ETF Leaders, with a fixed cost of 9 CHF on the Swiss stock exchange and 9 EUR on European stock exchanges. However, even for ETF Leaders, you still pay the stock exchange fees on top of the 9 CHF.

Finally, Swissquote is a Swiss broker, so you must pay Swiss stamp duty. This fee is 0.075% on Swiss stocks and 0.15% on foreign stocks.

We can run a few examples:

  • 1000 CHF of CHSPI (ETF Leader): 11.75 CHF at SQ, 3.60 CHF at IB
  • 10’000 CHF of CHSPI (ETF Leader): 18.5 CHF at SQ, 9.20 CHF at IB
  • 1000 CHF of Nestlé (SIX): 5.75 CHF at SQ, 3 CHF at IB
  • 10’000 CHF of Nestlé (SIX): 37.50 CHF at SQ, 6.50 CHF at IB
  • 1000 USD of VT (NYSE): 6.5 USD at SQ, 0.35 USD at IB
  • 10’000 USD of VT (NYSE): 45 USD at SQ, 0.37 USD at IB

We can observe a few important when comparing the fees of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.

  • For ETF Leaders, Swissquote is relatively affordable but still twice more expensive than IB.
  • For Swiss shares, the difference is already more pronounced, about five times more expensive on large operations.
  • For US shares, Swissquote is much more expensive than IB, more than a hundred times.

If you want to buy something in a foreign currency, you must convert from your base currency, from CHF to USD. Interactive Brokers will charge you 2 USD per currency conversion. Swissquote will charge you 0.95% for each currency conversion.

We must compare the fees of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers for a few conversions:

  • 100 CHF to USD: 2 USD at IB, 0.95 CHF at SQ
  • 1000 CHF to USD: 2 USD at IB, 9.5 CHF at SQ
  • 5000 CHF to USD: 2 USD at IB, 47.5 CHF at SQ

For currency conversions, Interactive Brokers will generally be much cheaper than Swissquote. If you convert less than 200 CHF, IB will be more expensive than SQ. And you can even do automated conversions with IB that will be even cheaper, always cheaper than Swissquote, for small conversions.

Overall, Interactive Brokers is significantly cheaper than Swissquote. The difference will not be critical if you only invest in Swiss ETFs. However, the difference can be significant if you primarily use US ETFs.

Safety

Draw

If you invest significant money with a broker, you want your money to be safe. So, we must compare the safety and regulations of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.

We start with the regulations. Swissquote is regulated in Switzerland by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Interactive Brokers is regulated in the US by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). So, both brokers are regulated by well-respected supervisors.

Both brokers segregate the money from the customers from their main entities. So, if they default, the creditors will have no claim on the money from the customers.

In case of bankruptcy, in theory, all your assets should be safe since everything is separated from the entity itself. If one of the custody banks defaults, your cash has extra protection. For Swissquote, your cash is protected by esisuisse for up to 100’000 CHF. With IB, your cash, stocks, and bonds will be covered by SIPC for up to 500’000 USD (250’000 USD limit for stocks).

If you have a lot of cash, protection will get even better since they will use multiple custody banks, and each bank will get protection up to 250’000 USD. You need to opt for the Insurance Bank Deposit Sweep program. So, in theory, your cash is safe at IB for up to 2.5 million USD. But this should not be the case for most of my readers.

The fact that both brokers are publicly listed companies lends credibility to these two companies.

Regarding technical security, both brokers seem to be doing everything they need. I have not found any information about data leaks or security breaches. They both offer a second factor of authentication, which is extremely important.

Swissquote, being based in Switzerland, will likely be easier to deal with in case of an issue. Given the limited access to customer service, dealing with serious issues with IB may be harder.

Overall, both brokers are among the safest stock brokers available. I have significant money in my IB account and feel safe with it.

Reputation

Draw

Reputation is also an essential part of choosing a broker. This tells a lot about what users think about the services. So, we must see what users think of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.

In both cases, these brokers have an excellent overall reputation. I have never heard of massive issues with these brokers.

On TrustPilot, both brokers get similar scores: 3.3 stars for IB and 3.2 stars for Swissquote. People complain about the customer service for both services. While this is not a great sign, it is the case for almost every service I have reviewed.

People complain about the complexity of using Interactive Brokers and the high fees of Swissquote.

Good reviews indicate that people find trading with Swissquote very simple and like Interactive Brokers’ fees.

Overall, the reputation of both brokers is sound. Many people are complaining, but none of these complaints are very worrying. Overall, long-time users of both brokers are happy with it.

Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers Summary

Winner: Interactive Brokers

We can make a summary of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers:

Best broker overall
Best Swiss Broker
Primary Rating:
5.0
Primary Rating:
4.5
Extremely cheap
Very affordable
Pros:
  • Outstanding prices
  • Many investing instruments
  • Excellent execution
  • Access to US ETFs
  • Good reputation
Pros:
  • Swiss broker
  • Easy to use
  • Many investing instruments
  • Access to US ETFs
  • Good reputation
Cons:
  • A little intimidating at first
Cons:
  • Expensive to trade US shares
  • Expensive currency conversion
Best broker overall
Primary Rating:
5.0
Extremely cheap
Pros:
  • Outstanding prices
  • Many investing instruments
  • Excellent execution
  • Access to US ETFs
  • Good reputation
Cons:
  • A little intimidating at first
Best Swiss Broker
Primary Rating:
4.5
Very affordable
Pros:
  • Swiss broker
  • Easy to use
  • Many investing instruments
  • Access to US ETFs
  • Good reputation
Cons:
  • Expensive to trade US shares
  • Expensive currency conversion

We can draw a few conclusions for Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers:

  1. Interactive Brokers is significantly cheaper than Swissquote.
  2. Swissquote is slightly easier to use than Interactive Brokers.
  3. Both are good brokers with good reputations.
  4. Currency conversions are much better with IB than with Swissquote.
  5. Both brokers give you access to US ETFs.
  6. Swissquote is a Swiss broker while Interactive Brokers is a foreign broker with entities in Europe.

Conclusion

The best broker
Interactive Brokers
5.0
No custody fees

The broker you need to buy stocks and ETFs reliably and at extremely affordable prices. Trade U.S. stocks for as little as 0.5 USD!

Pros:
  • Extremely affordable
  • Wide range of investing instruments
Invest your money Read My Review

Overall, both Swissquote and Interactive Brokers are great brokers for Swiss investors.

For me, the choice between Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers boils down to a few points:

  • If you want the cheapest broker, use Interactive Brokers.
  • If you feel safer with a Swiss broker, use Swissquote.
  • If you want to trade US stocks and ETFs heavily, use Interactive Brokers.
  • If you only want to trade CH stocks and ETFs, use either of them.

I am trading mostly in US stocks and do not mind a good foreign broker, so I use Interactive Brokers. When my portfolio reaches a significantly higher (yet to be determined), I may probably also have a Swiss broker account and trade my Swiss shares with them for some diversification.

Many Swiss investors feel more comfortable with a Swiss broker. In this case, they should not think too much about using the cheapest broker. In the long run, what matters is to invest with good fees and Swissquote provides. If using a foreign broker makes you worried, do not use it.

For more information on these two brokers, read my reviews:

What about you? Which broker do you prefer?

Recommended reading

Photo of Baptiste Wicht
Baptiste Wicht started The Poor Swiss in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. Since 2019, he has been saving more than 50% of his income every year. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence and help Swiss people with their finances.
Discover Swiss Financial Secrets That Maximize Your Money!

Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!

Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide

47 thoughts on “Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers 2025”

  1. Note that swissquote charges 85 CHF for a bar coded swiss etax statement which seems extraordinary. Truewealth provides the bar coded swiss tax statement for free

    1. Fair point, but this is not mandatory, right? IBKR does not provide such a statement at all and yet we can use an annual activity statement for free without issues. Can’t we use a simple statement from SQ as well?

  2. Hi Baptiste,

    I understand that Interactive Brokers is more attractive that Swissquote (and any Swiss broker for that matter) for various reasons such as
    – Cheaper fees
    – Access to US ETFs

    But I have two questions:

    1. When does the SIPC actually matter? Is my understanding correct that due to the asset segregation this would not have an effect in case of IB going bankrupt?

    2. What are the risks of using a non-Swiss broker as a Swiss resident? I am thinking about IB not having to follow Swiss law and e.g., in case of US sanctions against Switzerland and such situations.

    Best regards,
    Gian

    1. Hi Gian,

      1) The cash is protected in cash of bankruptcy, but it should not matter much for most investors who are invested. In case of bankruptcy, it’s likely not necessary for securities. However, SIPC protection also protects in case of fraud or mismanagement by the broker, which is a protection we do not have in Switzerland.a
      2) I am not aware of any real particular risk for non-Swiss brokers.

  3. Hello! Does it play a role being a swiss resident but not a citinzen? I am from the european union, but I know that if I want to move out of Switzerland I will have to inmediately before close all my accounts and investment within swiss banks. Is it the same with swissquote

    1. Hi Judit

      Swissquote actually accepts people from many countries and so does Interactive Brokers. In this case, you should be good if you are moving abroad.
      I am not sure if there is a non-resident fee with Swissquote though.

  4. Brilliant article!

    Very well written and easy to understand, even for someone like me who is a TOTAL beginner in investing and isn’t familiar with the finance terminology (nor the term VOO which I read in your comments and googled).

    In December 2023, I opened and wired money into my 3a via your links (thank you to this TPS Blog!) and since have been reading more about investing before I start this new step!

    I have some questions on investing:
    a) As a total beginner, I’ve heard it’s easier to invest via True Wealth (robo-advisor) because after I have entered my risk profile in the system (eg. I want 100% invested portfolio, global markets), the robo-advisor will itself pick the best etfs/funds for me. Is that correct ? So it’s just like finpension/viac then as I don’t do the picking ?

    b) I could also challenge myself and go straight to InteractiveBrokers. Is the only big difference with a robo-advisor (compared to Swissqoute and IB) is that I myself have to pick the investment vehicule?

    c) I have noticed these names below keep coming on investing platforms/blogs/forums by individuals who invest, so I mention these names:
    – VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF)
    – VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF)
    – Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF
    – CHSPI ETF · iShares Core SPI® ETF (CH)

    If I choose to invest in one (or more of these vehicules) listed above, would I need to myself re-adjust something along the way if I use IB ? (compared to using TrueWealth, where depending on facts/fraud/information, the robo-advisor system would automatically stop using one vehicule and replace it by another for me)? I am trying to understand the advantage of a robo-advisor for me (being a total beginner in finance and who doesn’t want to be following market news) versus a broker like IB or Swissquote.

    Last question: do you on TPS offer any programs, 1-1 coaching on simple things/questions, or materiel we can buy, regarding investing but also in general ?

    Thank you for whoever can give me some tips and replies!

    1. Hi Rachel

      Thanks for your kind words and for using my links.

      a) True Wealth (or any Robo-advisor) is easier than DIY investing (through a broker, IB or Swissquote for instance). But True Wealth 3a is not easier than Finpension/VIAC, they both suggest a portfolio for your based on your risk capacity.
      b) Yes, you will have to pick the portfolio yourself, invest in stocks each month and do a few operations. This is not that complicated, but it requires rigour and some research.
      c) If you choose to invest in one of these (VT – Vanguard Total World – for instance) with IB, you wil have to buy shares of this ETF each month, but that’s about it. And once you want to get your money, you will need to sell shares. But since you have access to the entire stock market, you will need to trust yourself to stick to it and continue your strategy.

      As for your last question: I don’t offer any 1:1 at this point because I don’t have the time. I plan to do a detailed guide on how to invest in Switzerland through IB, which will likely be sold as an ebook. It may come by the end of the year, but depends a lot on the time I get on top of comments, emails and writing articles.

      1. Thank You Sir for your reply!

        Thank you for your article on finpension!! That was brillant timing!

        I am so eager to start investing soon, thanks to your articles! I just need some more time to do some more research and finalize the decision of which method to start with – either robo-advisor method (finpension invest for sure) or either DIY method (IB or Swissquote) as well as which strategy (if I’m using a robo-advisor) or products (if I’m doing DIY) I want to start with.

        I wish the best conditions for investing DIY were with using neon, because their app is so easy and it’s Swiss. Anyway.

        Looking forward to also seeing your ebook come to life!

      2. Thanks :)

        Good luck deciding on your next steps!
        Neon Invest is not too bad to get started but if you have a significant goal it’s not ideal.
        It is important to think about these important decisions. But you should also not fall to analysis paralysis. Investing in a good way is better than not investing at all because you are chasing the best way :)

  5. Very nice article.

    Is it good to have US ETFs (USD) or because of the conversion fees and the inflation of the dollar, we will actually lose money comparing to Swiss ETFs (CHF)?

    Best Regards,
    Theo

    1. US ETFs have many advantage: What makes U.S. ETFs so great?

      I believe it still totally makes sense to use US ETFs because of their higher returns in the long-term and their better tax efficiency.

      Also keep in mind that buying a Swiss ETF does not necessarily protect you against currency risk since most of the time the fund still holds USD but simply trades in CHF. To protect against currency risk, you need currency hedging and that itself has its disadvantages as well: Should you use currency hedging in your portfolio?

  6. Hi Baptiste,

    Thanks a lot for this great article. Nothing comes as a surprise but good to see that you share same opinion. 😀

    I have a questiom regarding a statement you did:
    ‘You need to opt for the Insurance Bank Deposit Sweep program.‘
    I don’t fully understand what this means. Can you explain what has to be done in case you plan to have bigger amounts?
    Thanks.
    Best regards,

    Ana

    1. Thanks for your kind words, Ana!

      This is an option that IB provides on your account. I have never looked into it because I don’t recommend holding that much cash in IB. But in theory, this spreads your cash over up to 10 banks instead of one, to improve your protection.
      The way I understand it, you can opt for this program in the account settings.

  7. Thanks for the comparison!

    How does it work to fill the tax statement in Switzerland: Do these providers offer a tax statement that can be referred to (like it is the case e.g. with Truewealth) or do all transactions need to be manually entered into the “list if securities”?

    1. Hi Lars,

      Both of these brokers give you a statement that has enough information for the tax office.
      I am not sure for Swissquote, but at least for IB, you have to fill all information by hand.
      Remember that TW is different in that it’s a robo-advisor, trading in your behalf while you are trading yourself with a broker account.

  8. Hi and thanks for this article.
    Do you know that taxes we must pay in Switzerland for dividends? I am staying in Bern.
    Thank you very much.

  9. Thanks for the article. At which point (size) do you think u need to open another account for diversification? Just like u mention at the very end?

  10. Very insightful article, thank you!
    I m Italian but I live and work in Switzerland.
    I would like to start investing in VOO (or similar).

    is swiss quote ok or should I use IB due to the cheaper fees? I would not get anything related to Swiss stock market.

    thank you for your help!

    1. Hi Vittorio,

      Swissquote is entirely okay, but as you said Interactive Brokers will be much (really much) cheaper for US ETFs. So, if you are okay with using a foreign broker, use Interactive Brokers. If you prefer the peace of mind of using a Swiss broken, use SQ and sleep better :)

      1. Thank you for your prompt reply!
        Much appreciated!

        I would be ok in using IB but then as u mention at the end, it seems that SQ is more “safe/secure” than IB… according to ur article, this is not true because they are both “sare and secure” correct?

        From a tax perspective, would change something?

        I would really be inclined in using IB but I don’t know what, in my mind, SQ is yes more secure…

      2. They are both safe and secure according to me.
        However, some people believe that a Swiss entity is safer for them than a foreign entity.
        For me, that’s more a matter of belief than facts.

        From tax, it would not change anything.

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