BUX vs Trade Republic

The overview

The table below shows an overview of how BUX compares to Trade Republic on different criteria. Read on to get the full details.

BUX

Story of BUX 🇳🇱

BUX is a fast growing Dutch neo-broker and has been around since 2014. BUX, their trading app, makes commission-free investing easy and lets users invest in the companies they believe in. However, it's not an entirely free app as we'll discover below. BUX has grown rapidly and claims to have 700,000 customers across the EU and 100k in Belgium alone. Please note that BUX was acquired in December 2023 by a large Dutch bank: ABN Amro.

Fees for ETFs

Buying €1,000 of the popular IWDA ETF will be free of transaction fees if you do a "Zero Order". However, BUX is quite a rare broker in that it was one of the first to charge a service fee of €2.99 per month. The fee is automatically deducted from your account balance. If you don't have sufficient balance, they will continue charging you for a maximum of one year for €36. After this, they can delete your account.

Convenience

BUX allows you to create an "investment plan" with self-chosen asset allocation and offers fractional shares for euro-cost averaging strategies. BUX promotes trading including risky investments like cryptocurrencies. As an Italian investor, you'll receive an annual tax report from BUX. You'll have to manually take that date and input it into your tax reports. You'll have to declare your income, capital gains as well as the IVAFE (wealth tax).

Fortunately, for Belgian customers BUX handles the Belgian stock exchange transaction tax (TOB) but not the dividend tax or Reynders tax, requiring investors to manage these tax obligations. Additionally, Belgian users must declare their BUX account annually to the National Bank of Belgium.

Setting up an account

Setting up a BUX account involves a simple process of registering with an email, answering questions, and providing ID and address proof for verification. Unfortunately they don't have itsme. Users can create an account through both the BUX web and mobile platforms, but the app's interface, crowded with details irrelevant to many investors, leads to a somewhat clunky experience, particularly on mobile. BUX does not offer the option to set up business, children or joint accounts; accounts can only be individually owned.

Safety

BUX, a regulated entity in the Netherlands overseen by the AFM, has not faced issues with regulators and offers standard protections for investor. However, BUX engages in securities lending, a practice of lending stocks and ETFs to third parties, which they transparently report quarterly, but this carries the risk of insolvency where BUX might not return the lent financial instruments. To address this, they have a security structure with Stichting BUX Collateral holding collateral. Contrary to many other brokers, BUX does not engage in payment for order flow (PFOF), a practice that could compromise trade execution quality.

The full review

We've written an in-depth guide to BUX looking at the pros and cons.

Trade Republic

Story of Trade Republic 🇩🇪

Trade Republic was founded in 2015 in Munich under its original name Neon Trading. It was incubated by Comdirect Bank and is now headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Trade Republic is a "neo-broker" meaning it's modern and fresh in comparison to older brokers. They are very much like the Robinhood app but built for Europeans. They are backed by some of largest venture capital firms in the world including Sequoia. In total they have raised over €1.1bn in order to become the leading trading app in Europe and have launched in 17 countries. Trade Republic claim to have over two million customers, spread across the countries they've launched in. They launched their app in Belgium in October 2022.

Fees for ETFs

Trade Republic really is one of the cheapest options for European investors. For instance, buying €1,000 of the popular ETF IWDA by iShares, that tracks the MSCI World index, would cost only €1. This makes it an attractive proposition for putting your savings to work but there are some downsides too.

Convenience

Trade Republic offers fee-free transactions for ETF purchases through its automated savings plans, enabling fixed monthly investments with selectable investment dates. However, Trade Republic's customer support is limited, lacking phone service and relying on automated responses. If you're a Belgian investor, you must handle your own tax obligations, including the transaction tax (TOB), the dividend tax and the Reynders tax, as well as declaring their account to the National Bank of Belgium annually. The same can be applied for Italian investors where you'll receive an annual tax report from Trade Republic. You'll have to manually take that date and input it into your tax reports. You'll have to declare your income, capital gains as well as the IVAFE (wealth tax).

Setting up an account

Setting up a Trade Republic account easy requiring only a valid ID and tax residency in an EU country (and where they've launched), with account approval typically completed within a few hours. The platform allows account creation on both web and mobile though owning a smartphone is necessary. Design and information density can be challenging on Trade Republic's app particularly for buy-and-hold ETF investors. Trade Republic does not offer the option to create joint or children's accounts, restricting account ownership to individuals.

Safety

Trade Republic, headquartered in Berlin, operates under the supervision of BaFin, the German regulator, and faced scrutiny during the GameStop saga in January 2021, leading to numerous complaints but ultimately no finding of market manipulation by BaFin. While Trade Republic does not engage in securities lending, they do participate in payment for order flow (PFOF), a revenue model that has been controversial due to potential disadvantages to investors through less favourable execution prices. This practice, although scrutinised, remains operational in Germany for the time being, despite EU regulators banning PFOF by June 2026.

The full review

We suggest you read through our extensive review of Trade Republic.

Curvo: easier than a broker

Brokers push you to trade and to pick individual companies to invest in. Rather than picking individual stocks such as Amazon or Tesla, index funds are a way to buy the whole market, across all sectors and regions of the world. Essentially, you own a small portion of thousands of companies throughout the world. Instead of betting on a particular company, you are placing a bet on the global economy.

Rather than having to pick the right stocks or ETFs among the thousands available through BUX or Trade Republic, you invest in a portfolio that is tailored to you and your goals. These portfolios are composed of globally diversified index funds, meaning you earn a piece of the growth of the global economy, and they're best suited to make the most of your savings long term.

We believe that investing is an important tool for our generation to improve our financial well-being and to prepare for our future. We are building Curvo to fulfil that vision, by making good investing easy and accessible to all:

• Diversified portfolio set up for you: The best portfolio for you based on your time horizon and financial goals. Simply answer a short questionnaire and you’ll get everything set up for you.
• Automated savings plans: Through Curvo’s app you can set up a monthly contribution from €50. That means that money is automatically invested for you in your portfolio. Put your savings on autopilot!
• Fractional shares: All the money you send towards your portfolio is fully invested. No cash is left on the side.
• No TOB 🇧🇪 : Significant savings as the portfolios aren’t liable for the Belgian transaction tax (or "TOB"). This saves you between 0.12% and 1.32% for every time you buy or sell!
• Sustainable investments: Your investments focus on one guiding principle: don’t invest in companies that are considered destructive to the planet. This means that sectors like non-renewable energy, vice products, weapons and controversial companies are all excluded.
• Project yourself into the future: Through Curvo you can see how much your portfolio is expected to be worth in the future. You can answer questions like “how will increasing my monthly contribution by €50, €100 or €200 affect my long-term savings?” to give a concrete idea for the “future you”.

Learn more about all the differences between investing yourself through BUX and Curvo.

Summary

In this article we highlighted the key differences between BUX and Trade Republic, two brokers accessible to Europeans. Due to the fact that BUX has a subscription model, you need to ask if it's worth the monthly fee to invest through their app over the long-term. But cost is not the only factor to take in consideration when you’re putting your savings to work. For instance, you should also take into account the ease of use of the app and their help with taxes. The fact that Trade Republic does not help with taxes is a big hindrance for investors.