Detailed comparison of all fees, features, and suitability — updated for 2026.
Comdirect is the better choice for Full-Service Bank Customers, while Trade Republic wins for Beginners. Which one suits you depends on your strategy — the detailed comparison below shows every difference.
| Metric | Comdirect | Trade Republic | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order fee per trade | 9.90 € | 1.00 € | 8.90 € cheaper at Trade Republic |
| 10y savings plan cost @ €100/month | 1.188 € | 0 € | 1.188 € cheaper at Trade Republic |
| Interest on €10,000 cash (1 year) | — | 3.25 % = 325 € | +325 € more at Trade Republic / year |
| Free ETF savings plans | 150 | 2.200 | +2.050 more at Trade Republic |
| Available exchanges | 1 | 1 | identical |
| BMInsider rating | 3.7/5 | 4.3/5 | +0.6 at Trade Republic |
All fees, products, and platform features compared side-by-side. The "Winner" column shows which broker leads in each category.
| Feature | Comdirect | Trade Republic | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fees & Costs | |||
| Order Fee | 4.90€ + 0.25% (min 9.90€) | 1€ per Order | Trade Republic |
| ETF Savings Plan Fee | 1.5% | 0€ | Trade Republic |
| Account Fee | 0€ (with activity) / 1.95€/Month otherwise | 0€/Year | Tie |
| Minimum Deposit | 0€ | 0€ | Tie |
| Interest on Cash | 0% | 3.25% | Trade Republic |
| Product Range | |||
| Stocks | Tie | ||
| ETFs | Tie | ||
| Crypto | Trade Republic | ||
| Options | Comdirect | ||
| CFDs | Tie | ||
| Fractional Shares | Trade Republic | ||
| Number of Exchanges | Alle deutschen + internationale Börsen | LS Exchange | Tie |
| Platform & Tools | |||
| Mobile App | Tie | ||
| Desktop Platform | Comdirect | ||
| Demo Account | Comdirect | ||
| Security & Regulation | |||
| Regulated by | BaFin | BaFin | Tie |
| Deposit Protection | 100.000€ | 100.000€ | Tie |
| Founded | 1994 | 2015 | Tie |
| Overall Rating | |||
| Rating | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Trade Republic |
Depending on your strategy and experience, one broker fits better. Here's how to decide:
Low barriers, simple app, demo account and no hidden costs — perfect to get started.
More about Trade Republic →Low per-order fees, many trading venues and derivatives access — important if you trade regularly.
More about Trade Republic →Free savings plans, interest on cash and no custody fee — what matters when you buy & hold.
More about Trade Republic →Comdirect is a full-service bank with comprehensive securities offerings. For investors who want everything from one provider.
Particularly suitable for: Full-Service Bank Customers, Derivatives Trading, Experienced Investors.
Trade Republic is a German neo-broker with extremely low fees (€1 per trade) and free ETF savings plans. Ideal for beginners and savings plan investors.
Particularly suitable for: Beginners, Savings Plan Investors, Mobile-First.
Comdirect is a 30-year-old full-service direct bank (subsidiary of Commerzbank since 2020), offering a Girokonto, Tagesgeld, ETF-savings plan, options, certificates, and full Eurex access — all wrapped in a heavy desktop-first interface designed for the 2010 retail investor. Trade Republic is the 2015-vintage mobile-first neo-broker: one app, €1 per order, 3.25 % interest on cash, no Girokonto, no real desktop client.
This comparison is rarely about "which broker is better" — it is about whether you want a banking relationship or a trading utility. If you are migrating from Comdirect because of fee fatigue, the migration question is "do I lose anything besides the higher trading fees?" The honest answer below.
You want a Girokonto + depot + Tagesgeld at the same bank. Comdirect is a real Direktbank — IBAN starting DE, full SEPA/SCT/Instant payment integration, Visa Debit, ATM access via Cash Group. Trade Republic offers a Visa Debit but is not a current account in the traditional sense; salary deposits and standing orders work but feel layered on. For someone who wants one bank for paycheck, savings and investing, Comdirect remains a coherent product.
You actively trade options on European underlyings. Comdirect offers full Eurex access — DAX/Bund options and futures, single-stock options on European names, structured certificates from 30+ issuers. Trade Republic offers none of this; closest substitute on TR are Knock-Out-Zertifikate but with sparse issuer support.
You want all German Regional-Börsen + international direct. Comdirect routes to every German exchange (Stuttgart, München, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Tradegate, Quotrix), plus US NYSE/Nasdaq direct, plus Wien, plus Six Switzerland. Trade Republic only has LS Exchange — for any non-DAX-40 stock the price difference matters.
You value research + analyst coverage in one client. Comdirect's Live-Trading-Plattform integrates Reuters, Morningstar, Stockstreet research and analyst targets directly in the order ticket. Trade Republic offers basic charting and earnings dates but no integrated research stack.
You want German telephone customer service. Comdirect operates a German call center 24/7 with experienced staff. Trade Republic is chat-only with no phone support — a structural problem when something goes wrong on a 6-figure position.
You are cost-sensitive on small/medium orders. Comdirect charges 4.90 € + 0.25 % with a 9.90 € minimum — meaning every order under ~2 000 € costs 9.90 €, period. A €500 trade carries ~2 % round-trip in commission alone. Trade Republic charges €1 flat, regardless of size. For a €100 monthly buy, Comdirect eats 9.9 % of the trade as commission; on TR it is 1 %. Over 10 years of monthly €100 buys, the gap is ~€1 070 in TR favor.
You hold idle cash in the broker. Trade Republic pays 3.25 % p.a. on EUR balances up to €50 k, credited monthly. Comdirect pays 0 % on the depot Verrechnungskonto. On a €15 k buffer, that is ~€487/year for free at TR — Comdirect requires you to actively shift the cash to their separate Tagesgeld product (currently lower rate and limited promotions).
You want fee-free ETF savings plans on hundreds of ETFs. Trade Republic offers €0 savings-plan execution on >2 000 ETFs from €1 minimum. Comdirect savings plans cost 1.5 % of every execution outside the action-promo ETFs (a list that rotates quarterly), with €25 minimum per plan. For a 3-fund Bogleheads setup, the cost gap over 10 years is ~€450–€600 in TR favor.
You want native crypto exposure. Trade Republic supports ~50 cryptocurrencies natively. Comdirect does not offer spot crypto — only ETP-wrapped vehicles like Bitcoin-ETN.
Germany — both steuereinfach. Comdirect and Trade Republic both withhold 25 % KESt + 5.5 % Soli (= 26.375 % effective) plus optional Kirchensteuer at source. Both apply the Sparerpauschbetrag automatically once Freistellungsauftrag is filed. Loss carry-forward is per-broker — splitting between Comdirect and TR means a manual Verlustbescheinigung at year-end if you want to combine.
Austria — Comdirect is austriakonform via Comdirect Austria; TR is not. Comdirect Austria has historically operated as an austriakonformer Broker, withholding the 27.5 % KESt at source automatically — no FinanzOnline reporting needed for ordinary trades. Trade Republic in Austria functions as a non-austriakonformer Broker: every transaction must be self-reported via FinanzOnline (Anlage E1kv). Note: Comdirect closed its standalone Austrian retail offering in 2022; existing Austrian customers retained their accounts but new sign-ups go through Commerzbank Austria.
Vorabpauschale 2026: Both apply Vorabpauschale on January 2 and debit the Verrechnungskonto. Both expect ~0.5–1 % of accumulating ETF position value in cash at year-end to avoid forced partial sale.
Quellensteuer on US dividends: Both file W-8BEN; the standard 15 % US withholding is creditable against German KESt automatically. Both issue annual Erträgnisaufstellungen.
Reporting niceness: Comdirect issues a paper-style Steuerbescheinigung that traditional Steuerberater prefer; Trade Republic issues PDFs with all required entries but in a more compact format. For complex returns (Anlage KAP-INV with split foreign components), Comdirect documents are easier to hand off.
Profile: 1 monthly ETF savings plan at €100, 4 manual one-off purchases per year at €500 each, average €5 000 idle cash buffer.
| Item | Comdirect | Trade Republic |
|---|---|---|
| 120× savings plan execution (1.5 %) | €180 | €0 |
| 40× manual orders (€9.90 min) | €396 | €40 (€1 each) |
| Venue fees (40× ~€2) | €80 | €0 (LS in price) |
| Depot fee (assume active = waived) | €0 | €0 |
| Cash interest (€5 k × 10 y × rate) | €0 | +€1 625 (3.25 %) |
| Net 10-year cost | €656 | −€1 585 |
The €2 241 difference is roughly 22 % of the original €10 000 capital — meaningful enough to alter long-term outcome materially. For this profile, Trade Republic dominates economically.
The Comdirect case becomes competitive only when (a) you trade options or futures (where TR has no offering at all), (b) you trade large illiquid orders where regional-exchange routing saves more in spread than the fee gap, or (c) you place a high subjective value on the Girokonto + telephone-support bundle. None of those arguments are pure economics.
Pick: Trade Republic. €0 savings plan, €1 manual orders, 3.25 % cash, native crypto, app-only flow makes onboarding trivial. Comdirect would charge ~€100/year in savings-plan + manual fees alone — meaningful drag at this contribution rate. There is no economic argument for Comdirect at this size.
Pick: Open Trade Republic in parallel, do not close Comdirect immediately. Move the active trading + savings plan to TR for the cost win. Keep Comdirect for the Girokonto + emergency Eurex access if you ever want to write covered calls on European names. This dual-broker setup is what most experienced DACH retail investors actually run.
Pick: Comdirect (or upgrade to Interactive Brokers / Flatex). Trade Republic does not support options. For occasional Eurex strategies plus retention of a German tax-simple environment, Comdirect remains relevant. For more than 3 options trades per week, Interactive Brokers becomes economically superior despite the steeper learning curve.
Pick: Trade Republic. Native 50-coin crypto offering, Visa Debit with cashback, 3.25 % cash, savings plans on stocks/ETFs/crypto in one app. Comdirect cannot match the consumer-facing breadth at this product depth.
Answers to the most common questions about Comdirect vs Trade Republic.
For order fees, Trade Republic leads at 1€ pro Order, while Comdirect charges 4.90€ + 0.25% (min 9.90€). Note: with CFD brokers, spreads add hidden cost — the lower nominal price isn't always cheaper overall.
Comdirect is regulated by BaFin, Trade Republic by BaFin. Both fall under EU oversight. Deposit protection: Comdirect 100.000€, Trade Republic 100.000€.
For German/Austrian customers, language, BaFin regulation and tax-simple status often matter most. Check the 'Regulated by' and 'Languages' rows — DACH-focused brokers usually have the edge.
Trade Republic offers free ETF savings plans from 1€. If a savings plan matters to you, that's a clear edge.
Both are covered under their home regulator's deposit protection. Comdirect: 100.000€, Trade Republic: 100.000€. Securities are held in segregated accounts and protected in case of broker insolvency.
Trade Republic leads on cash interest at 3.25%. Watch the conditions — some brokers require a paid plan or cap the amount.
Both offer native mobile apps with good app-store ratings. Which is better depends on your needs — try both with a demo account if available.
A second broker makes sense when one offers features the other lacks (e.g. options, crypto, more exchanges). A full switch is only worth it if the cost difference or missing features are significant.
Sign up with the broker that fits your strategy. Both are regulated and offer a demo account to test risk-free.
