You can trade with as little as $2.50 which is an amazing way to learn the ropes of trading without losing much. Only a $50 minimum deposit required here and the visuals are very kind to the eye as it is very plain - their forex platform is made to enable you to easily understand the online forex trading market, even if it is your first attemp at trading. The best out of all the sites for tools, information charts etc. They have cutting edge software with very few crash reports. The demo account is one of the best, and overall it is one of the market leaders, however customer service issues remain apparent. Maximum leverage of 1:400 means you wont blow your own bank either.

They charge you for overnight positions so long term traders look elsewhere, unless you want to turn it into a futures contact (agree to sell it at a specified date). This can only be done on the same day you make that trade and can be a good system and they won't charge you for it either.

Easy Forex have a freeze button which supposedly freezes the rate when you click it for several seconds (a very unique feature) however from personal experiences when the market is highly volatile (a day traders dream) the freeze button does not work and can be frustrating.

For the kind of trader looking for a mid length trade (10 minutes -7 hours) Easy Forex is for you. They offer good customer service on low spreads on popular markets (EUR/USD) and no hidden charges. When you withdraw money you have to wait about 4 days for it to arrive back to your bank account. Overall a good option. Easy site navigation, easy to control trade, move up stop loss etc.

Currencies and commodities only. Very good free live charts. Newbies beware, the minimum leverage is 1:200 which means you need at least £150 to put on a trade. IF you're looking for low leverage use ETORO-(see above).

Gnu Trade (pronounced 'noo trade') was launched last year to great success- you can trade the FTSE or the BUND, currency pairs or anything you please. A unique feature is the potential for play money traders to make real cash by attracting a real money player to back them. They also operate as a stockbroker so if you ever fancied trading shares then this is your best bet. It's a very impressive site and a must for any risk taker! Detailed guides are provided to help beginners, while a live chat area allows you to share tips with other members.

By concentrating on customer satisfaction, Forex Yard has an edge over its rivals. For beginners, the team at Forex Yard will take you through every step of using their trading platform regardless of your skill level. ForexYard implements a corporate research and analysis section which provides the firm's customers with daily, analysis and reports on the currency market. The SuperMini Account requires a minimum deposit of $100, ForexYard is a fully automated online broker and voice or phone trading is not allowed. Forex yard go 'beyond the norm' to provide you with up to date technical analysis and live feeds. All support staff at Forex Yard are seasoned experts with a background in finance and trading. Top site.

Only a $100 deposit is required thus AvaFX is beginner and student friendly. Nonetheless it is let down by bad customer service and reported withdrawal problems- although our own experiences have been fine. It has a good demo account giving you 21 days to try out their $100,000 practice account and their advanced trading tools with dozens of currency pairs. A downside is that the data and information feeds are of poor readable standard. Whichever Forex platform you chose you should always have your own source of market information (Meta Trader, Bloomberg, Reuters etc). Overall not a bad trading platform at all. Trade the FTSE for just £2. AvaFX is more than UK friendly.

Best for long term traders (more than one day i.e. 12 hours) and Islamic traders because Marketiva is a "swap-free" forex broker meaning that rollover (or swap interest) isn't applied to any positions held overnight in line with Sharia Law. It offers a unique forum which enables plenty of discussions and much can be learnt here. It is the most internationally friendly too with support staff in several different languages. However there's no phone support which for any trader can be a nightmare. This is its biggest drawback.

Great for mobile phone trading. They provide a daily market update via email and via the trading platform which includes fundamental trading points and some broad trading ideas. However as there are no demo accounts and poor withdrawal options we would awalys choose Easy Forex over Finexo. For 'Scalpers' (very short term traders) this is unaccommodating. On the plus side they do offer low spreads (your only charges will be the spreads). Forex and Share CFDs only. Pretty standard spread prices.

Having no phone support is the only downfall of 'Forex Web Trader'. There is no download, a user can trade from any computer using their secure login name and password. Like all the other sites reviewed here, there are no hidden fees. 'Forex Web Trader' is fast and accurate, you can trade on the road with your phone and there are low spreads on most currency pairs.