Detailed comparison of all fees, features, and suitability — updated for 2026.
ING is the better choice for Full-Service Bank Customers, while Scalable Capital wins for Active Traders. Which one suits you depends on your strategy — the detailed comparison below shows every difference.
| Metric | ING | Scalable Capital | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order fee per trade | 9.90 € | 0.99 € | 8.91 € cheaper at Scalable Capital |
| 10y savings plan cost @ €100/month | 1.188 € | 0 € | 1.188 € cheaper at Scalable Capital |
| Interest on €10,000 cash (1 year) | — | 2.60 % = 260 € | +260 € more at Scalable Capital / year |
| Free ETF savings plans | 0 | 2.400 | +2.400 more at Scalable Capital |
| Available exchanges | 5 | 2 | +3 more at ING |
| BMInsider rating | 3.5/5 | 4.2/5 | +0.7 at Scalable Capital |
All fees, products, and platform features compared side-by-side. The "Winner" column shows which broker leads in each category.
| Feature | ING | Scalable Capital | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fees & Costs | |||
| Order Fee | 4.90€ + 0.25% (min 9.90€) | 0.99€ or flat rate from 4.99€/Month | Scalable Capital |
| ETF Savings Plan Fee | 1.75% | 0€ | Scalable Capital |
| Account Fee | 0€/Year | 0€ (Free) / 4.99€/Mo (Plus) / 9.99€/Mo (Premium) | Tie |
| Minimum Deposit | 0€ | 0€ | Tie |
| Interest on Cash | 0% | 2.6% (Plus/Premium) | Scalable Capital |
| Product Range | |||
| Stocks | Tie | ||
| ETFs | Tie | ||
| Crypto | Scalable Capital | ||
| Options | Tie | ||
| CFDs | Tie | ||
| Fractional Shares | Scalable Capital | ||
| Number of Exchanges | Xetra, Frankfurt, Direkthandel | gettex, Xetra | ING |
| Platform & Tools | |||
| Mobile App | Tie | ||
| Desktop Platform | Tie | ||
| Demo Account | Tie | ||
| Security & Regulation | |||
| Regulated by | BaFin | BaFin | Tie |
| Deposit Protection | 100.000€ | 100.000€ | Tie |
| Founded | 1991 | 2014 | Tie |
| Overall Rating | |||
| Rating | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Scalable Capital |
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 Scalable Capital →Low per-order fees, many trading venues and derivatives access — important if you trade regularly.
More about Scalable Capital →Free savings plans, interest on cash and no custody fee — what matters when you buy & hold.
More about Scalable Capital →ING offers securities trading as part of its full banking service. For customers who want checking and brokerage under one roof.
Particularly suitable for: Full-Service Bank Customers, Casual Investors, Savings Plan.
Scalable Capital offers a flat-rate model from €4.99/month for unlimited trades. With Xetra access and free savings plans, a good choice for active investors.
Particularly suitable for: Active Traders, Savings Plan Investors, Beginners.
ING (formerly ING-DiBa, 9M+ German bank customers) and Scalable Capital (founded 2014 in Munich, ~600k+ depot customers) are two different answers to the same German retail question: how do I open a depot at a BaFin-regulated provider with reasonable cost? ING bundles a depot into its broader bank product (Girokonto, Extra-Konto, Hypothek). Scalable runs a focused two-tier broker model — Free at €0.99/trade, PRIME+ at €4.99/month for €0 commission on every gettex/Xetra order.
Like ING vs Trade Republic, the migration question for an existing ING customer rarely is "should I leave ING entirely" — it is "should I keep my Girokonto + Extra-Konto at ING but move my actual investing to Scalable?" The answer depends on trading frequency, cash buffer, and whether you trade options.
You want a Girokonto + depot at the same bank. ING is a real Direktbank — Girokonto with the famous Extra-Konto for savings, full SEPA/Instant integration, Visa Debit, ATM access. Scalable offers a depot bundled with a cash account, but it is not a Girokonto in the traditional sense. For users who want one bank for paycheck + savings + investing, ING remains coherent.
You value German telephone customer service for everything. ING runs a German call centre with experienced staff for both banking and depot questions. Scalable's support is chat-first; phone support has shorter hours.
You hold large cash balances >€50 k. Scalable PRIME+ pays ~2.6 % p.a. on idle cash up to a tier limit. ING's Extra-Konto has no equivalent cap at the standard 1.5–1.75 %, plus periodic promotional rates higher. For €100 k cash buffers, ING's volume-uncapped rate often comes out ahead despite the lower base rate.
You're a low-frequency investor (1–4 orders per year). At this trading volume, Scalable PRIME+ is overkill (the subscription cost outweighs the savings) and Scalable Free's €0.99 advantage over ING's €9.90 minimum is small in absolute terms (~€36/year). The bundled banking experience tilts the choice toward ING for users who already use it.
You want German Direktbank-grade KYC + branch-equivalent customer protection. ING's regulatory and consumer-protection footprint is among the largest in German Direktbank-land. Scalable is well-regulated but a younger institution with less brand history.
You trade more than 6 manual orders per month. Scalable PRIME+ at €4.99/month gives €0 commission on every gettex/Xetra order — break-even at 6 orders versus the €0.99 pay-per-trade Free tier. ING stays at €4.90 + 0.25 % with €9.90 minimum. For 8 orders/month, Scalable PRIME+ saves €711/year (8 × 12 × €9.90 minus the €60 PRIME+ subscription).
You want fee-free ETF savings plans on hundreds of ETFs from €1. Scalable offers €0 savings plans on >2 000 ETFs from €1 minimum. ING savings plans cost 1.75 % per execution. For a 3-fund Bogleheads setup at €100/month, the cost gap is ~€600 over 10 years in Scalable's favor.
You want crypto + fractional shares + Eurex options in one BaFin-regulated broker. Scalable supports crypto and fractional shares plus options on European indices. ING does not offer any of these.
You want a modern, fast, mobile-first interface. Scalable's app and web client share design language and update simultaneously. ING's app is functional but designed primarily around banking, with the depot feeling secondary.
You want Xetra + gettex routing automatic best-execution. Scalable's order ticket lets you choose between gettex and Xetra at the order level. ING routes primarily to Xetra and Frankfurt; Direkthandel options are available but require explicit selection.
Germany — both steuereinfach. ING and Scalable both withhold 25 % KESt + 5.5 % Soli (= 26.375 % effective) plus optional Kirchensteuer at source. Both apply Sparerpauschbetrag automatically once Freistellungsauftrag is filed. Loss carry-forward is per-broker.
Austria — neither austriakonform. Both ING and Scalable require self-reporting via Anlage E1kv on FinanzOnline for Austrian residents. KESt at 27.5 % must be tracked manually. Both issue annual Erträgnisaufstellungen, but neither hand off automatic withholding to the Austrian tax authority. For Austrian investors, neither broker offers an operational advantage on this dimension.
Vorabpauschale 2026: Both apply Vorabpauschale automatically on January 2 by debiting the cash account. Both expect ~0.5–1 % of accumulating ETF position value in cash at year-end.
Quellensteuer on US dividends: Both file W-8BEN; the standard 15 % US withholding is creditable against German KESt automatically.
Reporting niceness: Both issue paper-style Steuerbescheinigungen acceptable to traditional Steuerberater. ING's documents may be marginally easier to hand to an older Steuerberater workflow given the Direktbank brand recognition; for digital-first Steuerberater the difference is irrelevant.
Sparerpauschbetrag splitting: A practical observation. If you split your Sparerpauschbetrag (€1 000 single) between two brokers, you must either set €500/€500 splits or live with the suboptimal default. Most users do not split and instead allocate the full €1 000 to the broker with the highest dividend income.
Profile: 1 monthly ETF savings plan at €100, 6 manual one-off purchases per month at €500 each, average €5 000 idle cash buffer.
| Item | ING | Scalable PRIME+ |
|---|---|---|
| 120× savings-plan execution (1.75 %) | €210 | €0 |
| 720× manual orders €500 | €7 128 (€9.90 minimum each) | €0 |
| Venue fees (40× ~€2) | €80 | €0 |
| PRIME+ subscription (10 yrs × 12 mo) | €0 | €598 |
| Cash interest (€5 k × 10 y on Extra-Konto) | +€875 (1.75 %) | +€1 300 (2.6 %) |
| Net 10-year cost | €6 543 | −€702 |
The €7 245 difference is enormous — almost half the original capital — driven primarily by the per-order commission gap at this trading frequency. For a 6-orders-per-month profile, Scalable PRIME+ is structurally the only economical answer.
Reduce trading to 1 manual order per month and the comparison shifts: ING costs ~€520 over 10 years (12 × 10 × €4.34 incremental cost over Scalable's €0.99) plus the Extra-Konto cash advantage roughly closes the gap. At low trading frequency, the ING bundled-banking story is competitive on net cost.
Note: this comparison assumes the user actively moves cash to ING's Extra-Konto for the 1.75 % rate. Most ING customers do not — they leave cash in the depot Verrechnungskonto where it earns 0 %. Under that real-world assumption, the gap widens by ~€875 in Scalable's favor.
Pick: Scalable Free. €0 savings plans on >2 000 ETFs from €1, occasional €0.99 manual orders. ING would charge €100/year+ in savings-plan + manual fees alone — meaningful drag on small contributions.
Pick: Scalable PRIME+. The flatrate breaks even at 6 orders. ING's €9.90 minimum is structurally too expensive at this frequency.
Pick: Keep ING for the bank, move investing to Scalable. ING's banking competitive position remains intact. The depot is structurally outclassed by Scalable. Open Scalable Free or PRIME+ for the depot side; Depotwechsel-Service migration is free.
Pick: Hybrid setup — ING Extra-Konto for cash beyond €50 k, Scalable PRIME+ for the depot + first €50 k cash. Scalable's 2.6 % rate is capped at a tier limit, ING's Extra-Konto is uncapped at 1.5–1.75 %. For very large cash balances, ING wins on volume; for the active-trading + reasonable-cash combo, Scalable PRIME+ still leads.
Pick: Neither. Use Comdirect, Flatex, or IBKR. Neither ING nor Scalable offer Eurex options. For users who explicitly need options, look elsewhere.
Answers to the most common questions about ING vs Scalable Capital.
For order fees, Scalable Capital leads at 0.99€ oder Flatrate ab 4.99€/Monat, while ING 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.
ING is regulated by BaFin, Scalable Capital by BaFin. Both fall under EU oversight. Deposit protection: ING 100.000€, Scalable Capital 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.
Scalable Capital 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. ING: 100.000€, Scalable Capital: 100.000€. Securities are held in segregated accounts and protected in case of broker insolvency.
Scalable Capital leads on cash interest at 2.60%. 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.
