Best online brokers in Canada for 2024

Sometimes you get what you pay for. At least, that’s what you hope. Even if you are a conservative or passive investor, paying a few extra dollars (or pennies!) per trade may be worth it if the service includes access to free education, analyst recommendations, and tools and resources, such as unlimited real-time quotes and in-depth data. 

The best commission online brokers category is based on 14 broad areas of criteria, each containing multiple factors, derived from the four main Surviscor pillars of experience (desktop, mobile platform, commissions and fees, service levels) through the review of 75 individual experiences. In terms of commissions and fees, Surviscor uses two investor profiles: one with five to nine trades per month, and the other with 10 to 33 trades per month. 

Unfortunately, the marketing messages at commission online brokers can be misleading. Unfortunately, the marketing messages at online brokers can be misleading. At $0 commission firms, they highlight their obvious price advantage but typically leave out the compromises, such as missing functionality with TD Easy Trade or poor foreign-exchange rates at Wealthsimple Trade. Meanwhile, commission online brokers may have hidden costs like ECN fees and unavoidable market-data platform costs or even reduced service coverage. The reality is that you can’t escape the marketing messages whereby each firm says it’s the best firm for you. 

Gold – Questrade

Questrade is our choice for best commission online broker for 2024, scoring 167 points. As mentioned above, year after year, Questrade’s ECN fees and market-data costs can become troublesome if you are not aware of how they work. But once you understand them, you can avoid them or maximize their value.   

In a tightly contested race, Questrade gets the nod over TD Direct Investing due to TD Direct Investing’s glaring shortcomings in commissions and account experiences. Otherwise, the two firms can seesaw back and forth on areas of greatness and concern, as they are both well ahead of the other commission firms. 

Would you like more information on Questrade’s individual investor experiences to better understand the whole picture of what you are paying for? Surviscor’s likes and dislikes of Questrade’s investor experiences can help.

Silver – TD Direct Investing

TD Direct Investing is our next-best commission online broker choice, scoring 160 points. No matter what type of investor you are, you can’t go wrong with TD Direct Investing, and if you are willing to use our TD Easy Trade hack of taking advantage of the 50 free trades per year, your cost per trade should decrease significantly.

TD Direct Investing provides good overall investor experiences across its traditional digital platforms, and it boasts a good number of resources that can help customers grow into successful self-directed investors.     
Would you like more information on TD Direct Investing’s individual investor experiences to better understand the whole picture of what you are paying for? Surviscor’s likes and dislikes of TD Direct Investing’s investor experiences can help.