Trade Republic pays interest on idle cash inside the brokerage account; Scalable Capital pays 2.50% p.a. only inside a separate PRIME+ Overnight account you have to fund yourself. That one behavioural difference decides it for most people. Both are BaFin-supervised German institutions with the same €100,000 statutory deposit guarantee, both run free ETF savings plans from €1, and both are safe. Choose Trade Republic if you want one account that does everything and you live outside Scalable’s six countries; choose Scalable if you trade often enough for PRIME+ to pay for itself, or hold enough cash to want it spread across several partner banks. Rates and fees move, so the figures below carry the date they were read.
For the head-to-head verdict, read the XTB vs Trade Republic head-to-head.
New to the app? I wrote how to set up an ETF savings plan at Trade Republic.
New to this? I wrote how to set up an ETF savings plan at Scalable Capital.
Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic: the quick verdict by profile
Table of Contents
How we test: broker verdicts on this site follow our published broker review methodology — real accounts, live orders and documented fee checks.
Let me save impatient readers some scrolling. There is no single winner here, because both brokers are genuinely good. The honest answer depends on who you are. For more detail, see our guide: Trade Republic Interest on Cash 2026.
Choose Trade Republic if you want maximum simplicity in one app. It pays interest on uninvested cash directly in your account, because it is a fully licensed bank. It also charges a single, tiny flat fee for one-off trades. For a beginner or a pure phone-first saver, it is the cleaner package.
Choose Scalable Capital if savings-plan breadth and venue choice matter more to you. Its commission-free ETF savings-plan range is enormous, and it offers Xetra access alongside its core gettex venue. Meanwhile, heavier traders can pay for PRIME+ and unlock free trading above a minimum order size. The rest of this article explains how I reached that split verdict.
What each broker actually is
Scalable Capital in brief
Scalable Capital is a Munich-based neobroker and robo-advisor, supervised by BaFin alongside the Deutsche Bundesbank. It began life as a digital wealth manager. Today, however, most people know it for the self-directed broker. Custody runs through Scalable Capital Bank GmbH and its long-standing partner Baader Bank. I cover the platform in depth in my full Scalable Capital review, so here I will focus on the head-to-head.
Trade Republic in brief
Trade Republic is operated by Trade Republic Bank GmbH in Berlin, and that name matters. It holds a full German banking licence, regulated by BaFin and supervised by the Bundesbank. Consequently, your uninvested cash sits inside a licensed bank rather than a brokerage shell. The app covers stocks, ETFs, bonds, and crypto, with fractional shares throughout. I have written separately about why Trade Republic stands out for ETF investors.
Fees head-to-head, honestly
Both brokers market themselves as cheap, and broadly both deliver. Still, the structures differ in ways that matter.
Trade Republic keeps it brutally simple. One-off buy and sell orders carry a small flat external fee, illustratively around €1. Savings-plan executions carry no such fee. That is essentially the whole price list, which is part of the charm.
Scalable is cheap too, but the answer depends on your model and venue. On the FREE plan, one-off trades typically cost a small flat fee, illustratively around €0.99 on the core gettex venue. Route an order through Xetra, though, and expect a higher flat fee plus a small venue charge. On PRIME+, a monthly subscription of illustratively around €4.99 unlocks free trades above a minimum order size.
So who wins on fees? For occasional small trades, the two are near enough identical. For frequent or larger trades, Scalable’s PRIME+ subscription usually works out cheaper. Nevertheless, run your own volumes through our EU broker fee comparator, and confirm the live price lists on both official sites.
ETF savings plans compared
Here is the battleground that matters most for my readers. Both platforms offer commission-free ETF savings plans from as little as €1, executed automatically on your chosen date. Both pair those plans with fractional investing, so every euro gets deployed. For the classic monthly accumulator, either broker does the core job superbly.
The differences sit at the edges. Scalable’s eligible savings-plan universe is enormous, covering most of the UCITS ETF range. Trade Republic’s catalogue is also very large, illustratively a few thousand ETFs, yet in my experience Scalable’s list has consistently been broader. If your strategy leans on niche or newly launched ETFs, that breadth occasionally decides the matter.
On flexibility, both let you adjust amounts, pause plans, and stack multiple plans without penalty. The practical experience is therefore close to a draw, with a slight edge to Scalable on selection. If you are new to this style, my guide to automating wealth building with ETF savings plans covers the mechanics.
Cash interest: the detail most comparisons get wrong
Trade Republic pays interest on your uninvested cash automatically; Scalable Capital does not pay it in the broker account at all. Scalable’s 2.50% p.a. sits in a separate Overnight savings product on the PRIME+ tier, which you have to fund on purpose. If you will not move money around, Trade Republic wins this category outright. Here is the detail sloppy reviews get wrong.
Trade Republic pays interest on uninvested cash directly inside your trading account. Because it is a licensed bank, the euros sitting in your settlement balance earn a variable rate that tracks central-bank policy. You do not need to move money anywhere. It simply accrues.
Scalable Capital works differently. The broker account itself does NOT pay interest on idle cash. Instead, interest is available only through Scalable’s separate Overnight savings account, a distinct product you fund deliberately. Scalable’s own PRIME+ page advertised 2.50% p.a. on unlimited Overnight savings when I read it on 26 August 2026, together with deposit cover of up to 5 × €100,000 across partner banks. Both numbers move with policy and with Scalable’s commercial choices.
For context on where those rates come from: the ECB deposit facility rate has been 2.25% with effect from 17 June 2026, up from 2.00%, per the ECB’s own key interest rates table. Any broker paying materially above that is subsidising the rate to win deposits, and any broker paying materially below it is keeping the spread. That is the number to sanity-check both platforms against, rather than a screenshot from a review site.
Why does this distinction matter? Behaviour. With Trade Republic, lazy cash earns something by default. With Scalable, cash in the brokerage earns nothing until you shuttle it into the overnight account. I have caught myself with idle euros there more than once. As a result, Trade Republic wins this category for anyone who will not actively manage their cash. Verify the current rates on both sites, and remember that interest is taxable in most EU countries.
Platforms and execution: gettex vs LS Exchange
Both brokers are app-and-web operations with no desktop platform, so active traders will feel constrained on either. Within that shared limitation, the execution plumbing differs.
Scalable routes trades primarily through gettex, the Munich exchange venue, with Xetra available as a paid alternative for those who want Germany’s reference exchange. That optionality is genuinely useful for larger one-off orders, where Xetra’s deeper liquidity can justify the fee.
Trade Republic historically executes through the LS Exchange, a single venue, and has been building out its own trading infrastructure as the EU phases out payment-for-order-flow. The setup keeps costs minimal, yet you accept the price that one venue offers at that moment. Consequently, checking the spread before a one-off order matters slightly more on Trade Republic.
For monthly savings-plan buyers, honestly, this section is academic. Spreads on liquid UCITS ETFs are tight on both venues during main trading hours. For larger one-off trades, however, Scalable’s Xetra option gives it the edge.
Account tiers: FREE and PRIME+ versus one simple model
Scalable offers exactly two broker models, and only two. FREE has no monthly fee and charges per one-off trade, while ETF savings plans stay free. PRIME+ charges a monthly subscription and unlocks free trading above a minimum order size, plus enhanced cash features. There is no middle tier any more, so ignore older articles describing three plans.
Trade Republic takes the opposite approach. There are no tiers at all. Everyone gets the same account, the same flat fee, the same free savings plans, and the same in-account interest. Nothing to choose, nothing to optimise, nothing to outgrow.
Which philosophy is better? For most passive investors, Trade Republic’s single model removes a decision you did not need. On the other hand, Scalable’s PRIME+ rewards people who trade often enough to beat the subscription cost. A rough rule from my own sums: several one-off trades a month, and the maths starts favouring PRIME+. Below that, simplicity wins.
Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic at a glance
The table below condenses the whole comparison. Every figure is illustrative, so verify current terms with each broker before acting.
| Feature | Scalable Capital | Trade Republic |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | Small flat fee per trade on FREE; free above threshold on PRIME+; Xetra costs extra | Flat external fee, illustratively ~€1 per one-off trade |
| Savings plans | Huge commission-free range, from €1 | Very large free range, from €1 |
| Cash interest | None in broker account; separate overnight account only | Yes, paid on uninvested cash in-account |
| Tiers | Two models: FREE and PRIME+ | One single model for everyone |
| Execution | gettex primary, Xetra optional | LS Exchange, single primary venue |
| Fractional shares | Yes, via savings plans | Yes, throughout the app |
| Protection | BaFin; custody via Scalable Capital Bank / Baader Bank; €100k deposit guarantee | BaFin; full German banking licence; €100k deposit guarantee |
| Best for | Savings-plan breadth, PRIME+ frequent traders | App simplicity, default cash interest, beginners |
Regulation and protection
Both are safe, and for the same reason: each holds a German banking licence, is supervised by BaFin with Bundesbank oversight, and carries the €100,000 statutory deposit guarantee per person per bank. Your ETFs are not covered by that guarantee and do not need to be: securities are segregated special assets that stay yours even in an insolvency. You can look either institution up yourself in BaFin’s institute database, and the guarantee scheme itself is run by the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken (EdB).
Fee figures in this guide are cross-checked against our EU broker fee dataset, reviewed quarterly.
Trade Republic’s structural advantage is the full banking licence. Your cash is a deposit at Trade Republic Bank GmbH, covered by the German statutory deposit guarantee up to €100,000 per person. Securities are segregated custody assets and remain yours throughout.
Scalable’s setup is equally sound, just more layered. Securities sit as segregated special assets with Scalable Capital Bank GmbH and partner custodian Baader Bank. Cash falls under the same €100,000 statutory guarantee per bank. Notably, PRIME+ clients can have cash spread across several partner banks, multiplying that protection for large balances. Read the current custody documents on both sites, because these arrangements have evolved.
Availability by country
Both brokers are unmistakably German at heart, yet their footprints differ. Trade Republic has expanded across most of the eurozone and beyond. Scalable focuses on a core set: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. If you live outside those six, Trade Republic is often the only one of the pair you can actually open.
For German residents, both are fully available, and the decision rests purely on features. I rank the wider field for that audience in my guide to the best broker for German investors. Wherever you live, confirm availability on each broker’s site before planning around either.
My first-person experience with both
I have held funded accounts at both brokers for years, which is the only honest basis for a Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic comparison. My savings plans have executed reliably on both, month after month, without intervention.
The differences I feel are textural. Trade Republic’s app is the calmer of the two. There is less to configure, and the in-account interest means I never think about idle cash. Scalable, by contrast, rewards a little more engagement. I like choosing Xetra for larger orders, and its broader savings-plan list has covered a couple of niche ETFs that Trade Republic lacked at the time.
My frustrations are equally split. On Scalable, I dislike having to move cash into the separate overnight account to earn anything. On Trade Republic, I miss a proper big-screen view at quarter-end, and the research tools are thin. Neither is my only broker, and neither needs to be yours.
Who should choose which
Pick Trade Republic if you are a beginner, a phone-first investor, or someone who wants one simple account with interest on cash by default. It is the better set-and-forget package, and the flat fee structure means you never think about tiers. Pair it with the discipline in my ETF dollar-cost averaging guide and you have a complete accumulation system.
Pick Scalable Capital if savings-plan breadth, Xetra access, or frequent trading describes you. PRIME+ genuinely pays for itself once your one-off trade count climbs. Likewise, larger cash holders may value the multi-bank deposit protection on the top tier.
See also: Trading 212 pies.
And if you truly cannot decide? Opening both costs nothing. Nobody says you must be monogamous with brokers, and our European ETF brokers hub shows how the whole field compares.
Common mistakes when comparing Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic
First, people assume Scalable’s broker account pays interest like Trade Republic’s does. It does not; idle cash there earns nothing until moved to the overnight product. Second, investors subscribe to PRIME+ while only running savings plans, paying monthly for free trades they never place. Third, some choose a broker over a promotional interest rate. Headline rates fade, but platform habits last for decades. Fourth, one-off orders get placed at odd hours when spreads widen. Finally, readers outside Scalable’s six core markets waste time on a broker they cannot open. Avoid these errors, and either platform will serve you well.
Key takeaways
- Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic has no absolute winner; the right choice depends on your investor profile.
- Both are BaFin-supervised German neobrokers with free ETF savings plans from €1 and fractional investing.
- Trade Republic pays interest on uninvested cash in-account; Scalable pays interest only via its separate overnight cash account.
- Scalable runs two models, FREE and PRIME+; Trade Republic has one simple account with a flat ~€1 external trade fee, illustratively.
- Scalable executes on gettex with optional Xetra; Trade Republic uses the LS Exchange.
- Trade Republic suits beginners and app-first savers; Scalable suits savings-plan maximalists and PRIME+ frequent traders.
- Fees and rates change often, so verify current terms on scalable.capital and traderepublic.com.
FAQ
Q: Which is cheaper, Scalable Capital or Trade Republic?
A: For occasional small trades they are nearly identical. For frequent or larger trades, Scalable’s PRIME+ usually works out cheaper. Verify current pricing on both sites.
Q: Does Scalable Capital pay interest on uninvested cash?
A: Not in the broker account. Interest is available only through Scalable’s separate overnight cash account, illustratively around 2.50% per annum recently. Rates change, so check scalable.capital.
Q: Does Trade Republic pay interest on cash?
A: Yes. As a licensed German bank, it pays a variable rate on uninvested cash directly in your account. The rate tracks central-bank policy and is taxable.
Q: Which has more free ETF savings plans?
A: Both offer very large commission-free ranges from €1. In my experience, Scalable’s list is the broader, though both cover the mainstream UCITS universe comfortably.
Q: Are both brokers safe and regulated?
A: Yes. Both operate under BaFin supervision with Bundesbank oversight. Securities are segregated assets, and cash carries the German deposit guarantee up to €100,000 per bank.
Q: What are Scalable’s account tiers?
A: Exactly two broker models exist: FREE, with pay-per-trade pricing, and PRIME+, a paid subscription unlocking free trades above a minimum order size. There is no middle tier.
Q: Does Trade Republic have account tiers?
A: No. Everyone gets the same account with the same flat fee, free savings plans, and in-account cash interest.
See also: traderepublic://securities-account-transfer.
Q: Which countries can use each broker?
A: Scalable serves Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Trade Republic covers most of the eurozone and beyond. Confirm your country on each site.
Q: Can I buy fractional shares on both?
A: Yes. Trade Republic offers fractional investing throughout the app, while Scalable delivers fractions primarily through savings plans. Either way, your full contribution gets invested.
Q: Can I use both brokers at once?
A: Absolutely, and many investors do. A common setup runs savings plans on one platform and uses the other for its cash account or niche ETFs. Opening both costs nothing.
See also: Interactive brokers automatic ETF investing.
Q: At Scalable Capital, who actually holds my money — Scalable or Baader Bank?
A: Both, in different roles. Scalable Capital Bank GmbH holds the account, and Baader Bank acts as partner custodian for securities; on PRIME+, cash can additionally be spread across several partner banks, which is how Scalable advertises deposit cover of up to 5 × €100,000. It is not a case of one firm replacing the other — your securities are segregated special assets in either institution’s books, so neither firm’s creditors can reach them.
Q: What happens if Trade Republic goes bust?
A: Your ETFs and shares are segregated custody assets, not part of the bank’s balance sheet, so an administrator hands them back or transfers them to another broker. Cash is different: it is a deposit at Trade Republic Bank GmbH and is protected up to €100,000 per person by the German statutory scheme run by the EdB. Anything above that in cash is an unsecured claim, which is a reason not to park six figures of cash at any single broker.
Q: Trade Republic, Scalable Capital or Revolut — which should I pick?
A: For a long-term ETF portfolio, the two German brokers. Both are full banking-licence institutions supervised by BaFin, both run free ETF savings plans, and both give you a German tax report. Revolut’s investing arm is a different proposition — convenient if you already bank there, but a narrower ETF range and no German tax reporting, which matters if you are resident in Germany.
Sources read 26 August 2026: BaFin institute database for the licences, EdB for the €100,000 deposit guarantee, ECB key interest rates for the 2.25% deposit facility rate effective 17 June 2026, and Scalable’s own PRIME+ page for the 2.50% Overnight rate. Fees and rules change — verify current terms with each broker.
Related reading: Best broker for Polish investors 2026.
See also: scalable capital portugal.
Worth reading next: Best broker for french investors.
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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 →