If you want to build wealth with ETFs and you keep meaning to invest “next month”, the single most useful thing you can do is take yourself out of the loop. An automated ETF savings plan does exactly that: you set it once, and a fixed sum leaves your account on a schedule and buys the fund for you, forever, until you tell it to stop. In German this is a Sparplan, and it has quietly become the default way millions of Europeans invest. After eleven years of doing this myself, I’m convinced the automation matters more than the fund you pick.
The honest short answer: for most people the best broker for an ETF savings plan in Europe is Trade Republic or Scalable Capital, because both offer thousands of savings plans with no execution fee, fractional shares, and minimums as low as €1. XTB is a strong third with its 0% investment plans up to a monthly volume cap. Interactive Brokers is the pick for larger or multi-currency portfolios, and DEGIRO, despite being a fine broker, is the one I’d not choose if a true free auto-invest is what you’re after. Below is how I’d rank them and why.
What an ETF savings plan actually is
A savings plan is a standing instruction. You choose an ETF, an amount (often anywhere from €1 to €25 up), and a schedule, and the broker debits your account and executes the purchase automatically at a set time. Because the sums are small and fixed, the broker buys fractional shares so that your €100 goes fully to work even if one share of the fund costs €95. There’s no logging in, no “is now a good time”, no clicking buy. That’s the whole point.
How we test: broker verdicts on this site follow our published broker rating methodology — real accounts, live orders and documented fee checks.
This is dollar-cost averaging (euro-cost averaging, really) turned into a system. By buying the same euro amount every month you automatically pick up more units when prices are low and fewer when they’re high, which smooths your average entry price and removes the temptation to time the market. If you want the deeper mechanics, our UCITS ETF comparison tool helps you pick the single fund to feed it.
Why automation beats willpower
The behavioural case is stronger than the mathematical one. Left to our own judgement, we invest more when markets feel calm and freeze when they fall, which is exactly backwards. A savings plan keeps buying through the scary months, when the best units are on sale. It also defeats the quieter enemy: procrastination. Money invested automatically on the 2nd of the month never sits in a current account “waiting for a better entry” that never comes. You make the decision once so your future self can’t unmake it forty times a year.
Worth reading next: the complete EUR 500 a month blueprint.
How I rank savings-plan brokers
Six things decide whether a savings plan is any good:
- Is the plan free? The execution fee on each automated purchase quietly eats small contributions. On €50 a month, even €1 per order is a 2% drag before you own anything.
- How many ETFs are eligible? A plan only helps if it covers the fund you actually want, ideally an accumulating all-world or S&P 500 UCITS ETF.
- Fractional shares. Without them your fixed contribution can’t be fully invested, and cash drags.
- Minimum per plan. Low minimums let you split across funds or start tiny while you build the habit.
- Flexibility. Weekly or monthly cadence, and the ability to pause, skip or change the amount without penalty.
- Country availability. Not every broker serves every EU country, and the fee terms sometimes differ by market.
The brokers compared
| Broker | Plan free? | Minimum | Eligible ETFs | Fractional | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Republic | Yes, no fee | From €1 | Thousands | Yes | Simplest all-round default |
| Scalable Capital | Yes, large free range | From €1 | Very large | Yes | Widest fund choice, Prime tiers |
| XTB | 0% up to a monthly volume cap | Low | Curated selection | Yes | Free plans plus a fuller platform |
| Interactive Brokers | Low cost, not zero | Flexible | Huge, global | Yes | Large or multi-currency portfolios |
| DEGIRO | No true free auto-invest | n/a | Core selection, manual | No | Manual buy-and-hold, not automation |
Treat the figures above as 2026-vintage and approximate. Providers change fee terms and eligible-fund lists often, so confirm the current details on the broker’s own page before you commit. For a broader side-by-side of platforms and their headline costs, our European ETF brokers hub is the place to start.
Fee figures in this guide are cross-checked against our EU broker fee dataset, reviewed quarterly.
Trade Republic — the simplest default
Trade Republic built its reputation on free savings plans, and it remains the one I hand to friends who just want to get going. There are thousands of eligible ETFs, plans start from €1, fractional shares are standard, and you can run weekly, twice-monthly or monthly cadences and pause or edit anytime from the app. It’s regulated as a German bank, so your account sits under proper EU supervision. If you want the click-by-click setup, our Trade Republic savings-plan guide walks through it.
Ready to open an account? You can open a Trade Republic account directly.
Scalable Capital — widest choice
Scalable is Trade Republic’s closest rival and arguably wins on breadth of free savings plans and fund partners. It offers a free tier plus paid Prime tiers that unlock extra features; for a pure monthly savings plan the free tier is usually all you need. Minimums start from €1 with fractional shares. The real question for most readers is which of the two to open, and I compared them directly in Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic.
Ready to open an account? You can open a Scalable Capital account directly.
XTB — free plans with more platform
XTB’s investment plans let you automate ETF buys at 0% commission up to a monthly trading-volume cap, above which a small fee applies. For a typical €100–€500 monthly contribution you’ll usually stay inside the free band. XTB pairs this with a fuller platform and a slick app, which suits people who want their savings plan and a bit more room to grow. I explain what sets it apart in why XTB stands out for European ETF investors.
Ready to open an account? You can open a XTB account directly.
Interactive Brokers — for size and currencies
IBKR offers recurring investments at very low cost with fractional shares and, crucially, genuine multi-currency handling and access to a vast global range of funds. It isn’t the “one-tap” experience the neobrokers give you; the interface asks more of you. But if you’re investing large sums, holding several currencies, or want US-listed and UCITS options side by side, the pennies-per-order cost model wins over time. It’s the grown-up choice rather than the frictionless one.
Ready to open an account? You can open a Interactive Brokers account directly.
DEGIRO — be honest, it’s not built for this
I like DEGIRO for cheap manual buy-and-hold, and its core-selection ETFs can be very low cost to trade. But it does not offer a true free automated savings plan with fractional shares the way the others do, so you place orders yourself, which reintroduces exactly the willpower problem automation is meant to solve. If DCA discipline is your goal, pick a broker above; DEGIRO earns its place for a different job, as I set out in the DEGIRO review.
Execution timing and the single-fund core
Two practical points people overlook. First, execution timing: most brokers run savings-plan orders in one or two scheduled windows on set days, not continuously. You don’t get to pick the exact price, and you shouldn’t try to; over decades that scheduled fill is noise. Just make sure the debit date lands a day or two after payday so the plan never bounces.
Learning ETFs the slow way?
The free 12-page Starter Kit gets you to a first, sensible portfolio faster: the 7-filter fund shortcut, the 3-question broker matrix, and the 7 costliest beginner mistakes.
Second, the single-fund core idea. You do not need ten ETFs feeding ten plans. One broad, low-cost, accumulating UCITS fund, an all-world or an S&P 500 tracker, does the heavy lifting and keeps the whole thing gloriously boring. A savings plan into a single core fund is, for most European investors, the entire strategy. Add satellites later if you must, but the core is what compounds.
One regulatory note: these neobrokers are supervised entities. Trade Republic and Scalable, for instance, fall under German oversight, and you can verify a firm’s authorisation directly from Germany’s regulator, BaFin. Checking that a platform is properly licensed before you send it money is five minutes well spent.
My verdict — what I’d do
If you want the shortest path from reading this to actually investing, open Trade Republic, set a monthly plan into one accumulating all-world ETF, and get on with your life. If you want the widest fund menu and don’t mind comparing tiers, Scalable Capital is just as good and sometimes better. Choose XTB if you’d like free plans alongside a more capable platform. Go with Interactive Brokers only if your portfolio is large or multi-currency and you value cost precision over one-tap simplicity. And if you’re already on DEGIRO, keep it for manual buys but pair it with one of the automated brokers for the disciplined monthly habit. The best broker is the one whose plan you’ll never have to think about again.
Related reading: best investing apps for beginners.
Country-specific pick: Best broker for Czech investors 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is an ETF savings plan in Europe?
A: It’s a standing instruction that automatically invests a fixed sum, often from €1 to €25 up, into a chosen ETF on a set schedule such as weekly or monthly. The broker buys fractional shares so your whole contribution is invested, and it repeats until you pause or cancel it. In German-speaking markets it’s called a Sparplan.
Q: Which broker has the best free ETF savings plan?
A: Trade Republic and Scalable Capital are the leaders, both offering thousands of savings plans with no execution fee, fractional shares, and minimums from €1. XTB is a strong alternative with 0% investment plans up to a monthly volume cap. Confirm current terms and eligible funds on each broker’s official page before opening.
Q: What is the minimum I can invest per savings plan?
A: On Trade Republic and Scalable Capital you can start from as little as €1 per plan, which lets you build the habit before scaling up. Most beginners settle somewhere between €25 and €100 a month. Because fractional shares are supported, small amounts are fully invested rather than left as idle cash.
Q: Can I pause or change my ETF savings plan?
A: Yes. On the main neobrokers you can pause, skip, resume, change the amount, or switch the schedule between weekly and monthly directly in the app, usually with no fee. This flexibility matters if your income is irregular, since you can lower the amount in tight months rather than cancelling entirely.
Q: Does DEGIRO offer an automated ETF savings plan?
A: Not in the same way. DEGIRO is a solid low-cost broker for manual buy-and-hold, but it doesn’t provide a true free auto-invest plan with fractional shares like Trade Republic, Scalable Capital or XTB. If automated monthly investing is your goal, one of those is a better fit; use DEGIRO for placing your own orders.
Q: Is dollar-cost averaging through a savings plan a good strategy?
A: For most long-term investors, yes. Automating a fixed monthly amount removes the temptation to time the market, keeps you buying through downturns when units are cheaper, and defeats procrastination. It won’t always beat investing a lump sum you already have, but as a way to invest ongoing income it’s hard to improve on.
Q: What is the cheapest way to set up a monthly ETF investment plan in Europe?
A: The neobrokers — Trade Republic and Scalable Capital — run savings plans with no execution commission on their eligible fund lists, which makes them the cheapest route for a typical EUR 100-500 monthly contribution. Interactive Brokers charges a commission per order but has far cheaper FX, so it overtakes on larger sums or multi-currency portfolios. The break-even depends on contribution size more than on anything in the marketing.
Q: Which broker suits a core-satellite strategy with fractional shares and auto-investing?
A: You need three things together: fractional execution, a savings plan that covers both your core fund and your satellites, and low enough per-execution cost that running four or five plans is not punitive. Trade Republic and Scalable Capital cover that combination on their eligible lists; Interactive Brokers supports recurring investments with wider instrument coverage but a per-order cost. Check that each specific satellite fund is savings-plan eligible before committing — coverage varies fund by fund, not just broker by broker.
Q: How do you compare ETF savings plans across European brokers?
A: Compare four things in this order: whether your chosen fund is savings-plan eligible at all, the per-execution cost, the FX cost if the fund trades in a currency other than your account’s, and the execution schedule. The first line eliminates more brokers than the fee tables do, and justETF’s savings-plan filter answers it faster than visiting each broker’s site.
Sources and further reading
- Trade Republic — pricing and fees
- Interactive Brokers — European commission schedule
- justETF — screener with broker savings-plan availability — the fastest check on whether a given fund is plan-eligible
- BaFin — Federal Financial Supervisory Authority — supervisor for the German-licensed brokers listed here
European UCITS/ETF investor with 11+ years building a global dividend and index portfolio, and founder of Financial Expert Class. I write every guide here from first-hand experience investing across EU brokers and tax regimes — not theory. More about me →