For most German investors in 2026 the answer is Trade Republic or Scalable Capital: both run free Sparplan execution across effectively their whole ETF range, from €1 a month, with German tax settled at source. Choose ING or comdirect instead if you want the Depot at a full bank, or if you need a Junior Depot in a child’s name — the one thing the neobrokers still do not offer. Everything after this paragraph is the detail behind that.
If you invest from Germany, you have something most European investors quietly envy: the free ETF Sparplan. Nowhere else can you put €25 or €500 a month into a broad index fund, automatically, with no execution fee, from a choice of thousands of ETFs. German brokers turned the savings plan into a loss-leader years ago, and the price war never ended.
The short answer up front: for most German investors in 2026, the decision comes down to Trade Republic or Scalable Capital. Both offer enormous free Sparplan ranges, €1 minimums, fractional shares and automatic German tax handling. Trade Republic is the simpler product; Scalable gives you more control. ING and comdirect matter if you want your Depot at a full bank, and they win on one point I’ll get to: the Junior Depot. I’ll go through each broker, then finish with what I’d actually do. For more detail, see our guide: Trade Republic Ireland.
What a German ETF Sparplan actually gives you
A Sparplan is a standing order for fund purchases: you pick an ETF, an amount and a schedule (usually the 1st or 16th of the month), and the broker buys automatically. Three things make the German version unusually good.
How we test: broker verdicts on this site follow our published broker testing checklist — real accounts, live orders and documented fee checks.
First, cost. At the neobrokers, savings-plan executions are free across effectively the whole ETF range, not just a promotional shortlist. Buying €200 of an MSCI World ETF twelve times a year costs nothing beyond the fund’s own TER.
Second, fractional shares. Your full €150 gets invested even if one share of the ETF costs €112, so no cash sits around waiting to add up to a whole share. For more detail, see our guide: Trade Republic Interest on Cash 2026.
Third, and this is the underrated one: tax automation. Every German broker withholds Abgeltungsteuer (roughly 26.4% including solidarity surcharge, before church tax), applies your Sparer-Pauschbetrag of about €1,000 per year via a Freistellungsauftrag, and calculates the Vorabpauschale on accumulating funds each January without you lifting a finger. Run your portfolio through a foreign broker and all of that lands in your own tax return instead. It’s the strongest practical argument for keeping a long-term Sparplan at a domestic broker.
Trade Republic: the minimalist Sparplan machine
Trade Republic built its entire product around the savings plan, and it shows. Thousands of ETFs are available as free Sparplans, minimums start at €1, execution is fractional, and the app strips away almost everything else. One-off trades cost a flat €1 order fee; plan executions cost nothing. For more detail, see our guide: Trade Republic vs DEGIRO.
Ready to open an account? You can open a Trade Republic account directly.
Two things I like beyond the headline. Trade Republic now holds a full German banking licence, which simplified the old three-partner-bank custody setup, and it pays interest on uninvested cash at a rate tracking the ECB deposit rate, up to a cap (the rate and cap move, so check the current figures in the app). For a saver who keeps a small cash buffer next to their plan, that’s a genuinely useful extra.
The trade-offs are real but narrow. Execution runs through LS Exchange rather than Xetra, order types are basic, and anyone wanting research tools or a second market view will feel boxed in. For a set-and-forget monthly plan into one or two world ETFs, none of that matters much. I’ve written a full walkthrough in my Trade Republic ETF savings plan guide, and covered custody and regulation in my Trade Republic safety review.
Scalable Capital: free plans plus the Prime tiers
Scalable Capital plays the same game with more layers. On the free tier, ETF savings plans are also free across a huge range, from €1, with fractional execution via gettex. One-off trades cost around €0.99 unless you upgrade.
Ready to open an account? You can open a Scalable Capital account directly.
The upgrade is the interesting part. Scalable’s paid Prime tier (roughly €5 a month, verify current pricing) bundles unlimited free trading, interest on cash and portfolio tools. If you only run savings plans you don’t need it, the free tier already does everything a Sparplan investor requires. But if you also trade individual positions regularly or want the higher cash interest, the maths can work out.
Scalable has also been migrating customers from its historical Baader Bank custody onto its own banking infrastructure, so it’s worth checking in the app which entity actually holds your cash and securities. I go deeper on that in my Scalable Capital safety review.
Against Trade Republic, Scalable is the tool for people who want a bit more: better desktop experience, more order types, price alerts. The full Scalable vs Trade Republic comparison covers the head-to-head in detail.
ING and comdirect: the full-bank alternative
The neobrokers get the headlines, but Germany’s direct banks quietly matched much of the offer. ING made ETF savings plans free across its whole range, with minimums from €1. comdirect (Commerzbank’s brand) runs a large list of free promotional Sparplan ETFs, with a percentage fee (around 1.5% of the executed amount) on funds outside that list, so fund choice matters more there.
Why accept a clunkier app from a bank? Three honest reasons. Your Depot, Girokonto and emergency savings sit under one roof with a big-bank service organisation behind them. Execution typically routes through Xetra or comparable venues. And, crucially for parents: both offer a proper Junior Depot in the child’s name, which neither Trade Republic nor Scalable reliably offered at the time of writing (a moving target, so check current availability). If investing Kindergeld for your kids is the goal, I’ve covered the options in my Junior Depot guide for Germany.
Trade Republic vs Scalable Capital vs the banks: the comparison
All figures are 2026-vintage and approximate; conditions change often in this market, so verify on the provider’s own price list before opening an account.
| Feature | Trade Republic | Scalable Capital | ING / comdirect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Sparplan ETFs | Thousands, near-full range | Thousands, near-full range | ING: all free; comdirect: large free list, ~1.5% otherwise |
| Minimum per execution | €1 | €1 | €1 (ING) / low double digits |
| Execution venue | LS Exchange | gettex (Xetra optional for trades) | Xetra and comparable venues |
| Fractional shares | Yes | Yes | Yes, within savings plans |
| Interest on cash | Yes, near ECB deposit rate (capped) | Yes, best rates on paid tier | Separate savings products |
| Junior Depot | Not established (verify) | Not established (verify) | Yes, both |
| German tax automation | Full (Abgeltungsteuer, Vorabpauschale) | Full | Full |
| Best for | Pure set-and-forget savers | Savers who also trade and tinker | One-bank households, parents |
Execution venue and taxes: the details people worry about too much (and too little)
LS Exchange and gettex vs Xetra
The standard objection to neobrokers is execution quality: LS Exchange and gettex are smaller venues than Xetra, and spreads can widen outside Xetra’s core hours. For a monthly savings plan this is close to irrelevant. Executions happen during regular trading hours on liquid ETFs, where these venues track reference-market spreads, and any residual difference on a €200 purchase amounts to cents. For large one-off orders, a limit order on Xetra during mid-morning liquidity remains the cleaner habit.
Fee figures in this guide are cross-checked against our EU broker fee benchmarks, reviewed quarterly.
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The tax edge over foreign brokers
A German broker withholds your Abgeltungsteuer, applies your Freistellungsauftrag and settles the Vorabpauschale for you in January; a foreign broker leaves all three to you and your Anlage KAP. For 2026 that Vorabpauschale is calculated from a Basiszins of 3.20%, set by the Federal Ministry of Finance in its BMF-Schreiben of 13 January 2026 and published in the Bundessteuerblatt. §18 of the Investmentsteuergesetz then takes 70% of that — so 2.24% of your fund’s value on 1 January — as the Basisertrag, capped at the gain the fund actually made that year.
In money: €10,000 in an accumulating equity ETF on 1 January 2026 produces a Basisertrag of €224. The 30% Teilfreistellung for equity funds leaves €156.80 taxable, and at 26.375% (Abgeltungsteuer plus Solidaritätszuschlag) that is €41.36 of tax, debited from your cash balance in January 2027 — and nothing at all if the fund did not rise by at least €224, or if the amount fits inside your Sparer-Pauschbetrag. The domestic broker does that arithmetic; you do not. Current-year rates are published by the Bundesministerium der Finanzen.
The bigger deal is what all four of these brokers share: they are German-regulated institutions, supervised by BaFin, that settle your taxes at source. The Vorabpauschale on accumulating ETFs, the 30% Teilfreistellung on equity funds, the offsetting of gains and losses across your Depot, church tax if applicable, all of it happens automatically. If you’ve ever filled in an Anlage KAP by hand for a foreign broker, you know what that convenience is worth. It doesn’t replace personal advice, and edge cases belong with a Steuerberater, but for a plain ETF Sparplan the domestic brokers make German tax essentially invisible.
My verdict: which Sparplan broker I’d pick
If you want one recommendation: open the account at Scalable Capital or Trade Republic, set up a monthly plan into one accumulating all-world ETF, and stop thinking about it.
Pick Trade Republic if your investing life is a savings plan and nothing else. It’s the cleanest pure Sparplan product on the market, and the cash interest is a nice bonus on your buffer.
Pick Scalable Capital if you expect to do more than save: individual trades, a desktop workflow, price alerts, possibly the paid tier once your activity justifies it. It’s the account you’re less likely to outgrow.
Pick ING or comdirect if you value having everything at one bank, or if you’re opening a Junior Depot for a child, where the neobrokers still leave a gap. If you stick to free-plan ETFs, the fee difference is small enough that convenience can legitimately win.
And whichever you choose, remember the broker is the least important variable. The savings rate and the fund choice do the compounding; the wider German broker landscape, including the neobrokers’ smaller rivals, is in my guide to the best brokers for German investors.
Your country’s share: the free EU dividend tax calculator by country shows what a distribution is worth after domestic tax, from Germany’s Sparer-Pauschbetrag to Ireland’s 38%.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Which broker has the most free ETF savings plans in Germany?
A: Trade Republic and Scalable Capital both offer free savings-plan execution on effectively their entire ETF range, several thousand funds each. ING also made its whole ETF Sparplan range free. In practice all three cover every mainstream index fund you’d want, so range is rarely the deciding factor anymore.
Q: Is an ETF Sparplan at Trade Republic or Scalable Capital really free?
A: The execution is free, yes, there’s no order fee on savings-plan purchases. You still pay the ETF’s own TER (built into the fund price) and cross the bid-ask spread on the execution venue. Those costs exist at every broker; the neobrokers have simply removed the transaction fee layer.
Q: Do German brokers handle the Vorabpauschale and Abgeltungsteuer automatically?
A: Yes. All German-regulated brokers calculate and withhold Abgeltungsteuer, apply your Freistellungsauftrag up to the Sparer-Pauschbetrag (€1,000 per person, €2,000 for jointly assessed couples), and settle the annual Vorabpauschale on accumulating funds directly from your cash balance each January — for 2026, 70% of a 3.20% Basiszins, so 2.24% of the 1 January value, capped at the year’s actual gain. With a foreign broker you must declare all of this yourself in your tax return.
Q: What is the minimum amount for an ETF savings plan in Germany?
A: At Trade Republic, Scalable Capital and ING you can start from €1 per execution thanks to fractional shares. Realistically, anything from €25 a month is a sensible starting point, and you can raise, lower or pause the plan at any time without cost.
Q: Is execution on LS Exchange or gettex worse than on Xetra?
A: For small monthly savings-plan purchases of liquid ETFs, the difference is negligible, these venues track reference-market spreads during Xetra hours and the cost gap is measured in cents. For large one-off orders it’s still good practice to use a limit order on Xetra during core trading hours.
Q: Can I open a Junior Depot at Trade Republic or Scalable Capital?
A: No — and this is the one place where the full banks still win outright. Neither neobroker offers a Depot held in the child’s own name; ING, comdirect and Consorsbank do. That distinction is worth real money, because a Depot in the child’s name uses the child’s own Sparer-Pauschbetrag (€1,000) and their own Grundfreibetrag on top, so a modest children’s portfolio can run effectively tax-free for years, while the same fund inside a parent’s Depot is taxed at the parent’s 26.375%. The trade-off is legal, not commercial: the money legally belongs to the child from the moment it is paid in, you cannot take it back, and at 18 they control it. If that is acceptable, open the Junior Depot at a full bank and keep your own Sparplan wherever it is cheapest.
Q: Which ETF should go in a child’s Sparplan?
A: The same broad, accumulating, Irish-domiciled world tracker you would buy for yourself — a horizon of 15 or 18 years is exactly the case a single all-world fund is built for, and it removes the temptation to pick a theme that looked good in the year the child was born. Accumulating matters more here than usual, because reinvested distributions inside the fund do not consume the child’s allowances year by year.
Q: What is the best way to DCA into the market from Germany?
A: A Sparplan on a fixed date each month, set once and left alone. Monthly is the sweet spot: weekly execution multiplies spread crossings for no benefit, and quarterly leaves more cash sitting idle. Do not try to time the execution day — across long horizons the day of the month is noise, while missing contributions because you were waiting for a dip is not. Raise the amount when your income rises rather than trying to make up for lost time later.
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 →