Every review is built from structured data across ten categories, written by a named analyst and fact-checked before publication. Here is how the process works, and where its limits are.
Who runs this process
Reviews are written by Giles Thomas, edited by Rory Hughes and fact-checked by Tomislav Turčin.
The writer never signs off their own accuracy. 10 reviews are published under this methodology.
What we review
Each broker is scored out of 5 in ten categories, against documented criteria:
- Fees
- Safety & regulation
- Deposit & withdrawal
- Account opening
- Mobile app
- Web platform
- Assets
- Customer support
- Research & education
- Kenyan suitability
How we collect and verify broker data
We use broker documents, fee schedules and pricing screens. Fees and account terms are checked against the broker’s own documents, with the date shown.
Spreads, trading costs and withdrawal times come from a funded account, with the capture date recorded.
Every regulatory claim is traced to a register entry. We find the entity that would contract with a Kenyan client and check it on the register of the regulator that licenses it: the CMA for a Kenyan company, the home regulator for one abroad. The Kenyan authorities, and what each covers:
- CMA: Capital Markets Authority. Licenses and supervises online forex brokers and other capital-markets intermediaries.
- CBK: Central Bank of Kenya. Supervises banks, payment service providers and the shilling. It does not license forex brokers.
- FRC: Financial Reporting Centre. Kenya's financial intelligence unit: anti-money-laundering reporting by banks, brokers and other reporting institutions.
Which entity we tested
If one entity arranges your account while another holds your money, we say so, and we name the entity our test account was opened with.
How we score brokers
Scores are calculated, not assigned. One methodology applies to every broker in the same way, whether or not we earn a commission from it.
The overall score is a weighted mean: safety and regulation carries 23%, and the other categories share the remaining 77% equally. An untested category is left out, not scored zero.
It is calculated, never typed in, so it cannot contradict the sub-scores beside it, and there is no field in which a headline number could be adjusted for a partner. No broker pays for placement or ranking order.
Kenyan suitability feeds the overall like any other category, and is also shown on its own in each review.
- 1 Score each category out of 5
From the regulator’s register, the broker’s own documents and a funded account.
- 2 Weight safety at 23%
The other tested categories share the remaining 77% equally.
- 3 Add up and round
To one decimal place. That is the overall score, and nobody types it in.
Where the weight goes when all 10 categories are tested
- Safety & regulation 23%
- Fees 8.6%
- Deposit & withdrawal 8.6%
- Account opening 8.6%
- Mobile app 8.6%
- Web platform 8.6%
- Assets 8.6%
- Customer support 8.6%
- Research & education 8.6%
- Kenyan suitability 8.6%
Overall = Safety × 23% + Average of the other tested categories × 77%
Worked example
An illustrative broker, not a real rating: strong platforms and funding, a weak licence, and one category not yet tested.
- Safety & regulation
- 2.0 × 23% = 0.460
- Average of the other 8 tested
- 4.5 × 77% = 3.465
- Overall score
- 3.925, rounded to 3.9
- A plain average of the 9 scores would be 4.2. Weighting safety at 23% holds a weakly licensed broker to 3.9, however good its platforms are.
- Leaving the untested category out shares the 77% 8 ways, 9.6% each. Scoring it zero would give 3.5, a penalty for something we never measured.
What we have not measured yet
A measurement we have not taken is published as pending, never estimated, and the table says so. A broker’s indicative spread is not a measurement: we would rather show a gap than disguise one.
By 2 November 2026 we had funded a real account by M-Pesa at all ten brokers we rank, placed at least one trade at each and withdrawn back to M-Pesa, so deposit and withdrawal times and the KES conversion are measured everywhere, and the EUR/USD spread at nine of the ten. What is still outstanding:
- Execution quality and slippage, at every broker: one to four trades each cannot measure it, so that section stays gated.
- IC Markets: a live EUR/USD spread (our live trade was AUD/SGD).
- HFM: a spread on a standard account (we traded the promotional Shield 500).
- Pepperstone: customer support.
- IC Markets, Pepperstone and Scope Markets: their education and research, not yet reviewed.
- XM: support beyond the chat's virtual assistant.
- Phone and email support at every broker, and a shilling account at the brokers that list one.
How often we update data
Reviews are revisited on a recurring cycle, and at once when a broker’s regulatory status changes. Each figure carries the date it was checked.
How we handle affiliate partners
Affiliate status has no bearing on scores; how we earn money is set out on our how we make money page.
Limitations of our reviews
Terms vary by entity and residency, and our reviews are not financial advice, general or personal. Check the details with the broker and the regulator before you deposit.
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Frequently asked questions
How are overall scores calculated?
Do you test brokers with real money?
Does affiliate status affect a broker’s score?
Which regulators do you check?
BestForexBroker is an informational broker comparison site. We do not provide financial advice or investment recommendations, general or personal. Trading and investing involve risk, and you may lose some or all of your capital.
