The best crypto exchange in Europe, measured by cost

For us, the best crypto exchange is the one that leaves you with the most crypto for your euros, after every fee. That is the only thing we measure. Which platform that is depends on what you buy and how, so the table above is a snapshot for one common case: €100 from your euro balance. For your own purchase, run the comparison.

What "best" means on this page

• Lowest total cost. We count the payment fee, the trading fee, any markup the platform publishes for its app, and the price you actually get from its order book or public price. The platform that gives you the most crypto ranks highest.
• Nothing else is scored. No points for design, the number of coins, sign-up bonuses or brand. We do not rate platforms on safety or service, because we cannot measure those the way we can measure cost.
• Licensed platforms only. Every platform in the table holds a MiCA licence that we checked in ESMA's register. See the overview of MiCA-licensed exchanges.
• Nobody pays for a position. The ranking is calculated, not sold.

How the table is built

We run our comparison for a €100 purchase paid from a euro balance, for each of these 11 coins: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Litecoin, Chainlink, Polkadot and Avalanche. For each coin we note which platform gave the most crypto, and the total cost on each platform. The table then shows how often each platform came out cheapest and its average total cost, with the time of the data.

We do this twice, because the simple app and advanced trading are different products with different fees:

• Simple app: the one-tap buy button, where the price often includes a markup.
• Advanced trading: your own order on the platform's trading screen, against its order book.

A platform can only come out cheapest for a coin if it offers that coin in euros and we had fresh prices for it at that moment. A platform that does not publish the markup in its app cannot be ranked in the simple-app view, because we would have to guess the cost. Our method explains all of this in detail.

Why the answer depends on your purchase

The table answers one question. Change any of these and the cheapest platform can change too:

• The coin. Order books are deeper for some coins than for others, and some platforms charge different fees per coin. Bitpanda, for example, publishes a fee of 0.99% for bitcoin and 1.49% for most other coins.
• The amount. A larger order eats further into the order book, so the average price rises. A platform with a thin order book can be competitive at €100 and expensive at €10,000.
• How you pay. Card fees differ a lot between platforms, from nothing extra to several percent of your amount. From a euro balance there is usually no payment fee at all, but depositing the euros may have cost something.
• Simple app or trading screen. On the same platform, the two can cost very different amounts. Bybit EU, for example, publishes a markup of 1.30% or 1.80% for its One-Click Buy, depending on the time, while its standard spot trading fee for new customers is 0.25%.
• The moment. Prices and order books move all the time, which is why every result carries a timestamp.

So the platform that is cheapest for €100 of bitcoin from your balance in the app may not be the cheapest for €1,000 of solana by card on the trading screen.

What else to look at besides cost

Cost is what we measure, but it is not the only thing that matters when you choose a platform. Questions worth checking for yourself:

• Licence and company. Which legal company would you have your contract with, which regulator supervises it, and has it notified your country? Our MiCA overview covers all three.
• Coins. Does the platform offer the coins you want, in euros? The comparison tells you when a coin is not available on a platform.
• Payment methods. Can you pay the way you want: card, SEPA bank transfer or something else? What does a deposit cost?
• How you buy. Do you want a simple buy button, or are you comfortable placing your own orders on a trading screen? The trading screen is often cheaper, but you choose the order type and price yourself.
• Getting your money out. What does it cost to withdraw euros, or to send crypto to a wallet of your own? Those fees are not in our comparison.
• Support. In which languages and through which channels can you reach the platform if something goes wrong?

We do not recommend a platform. These are questions to help you decide for yourself.

Nobody pays for a place

The ranking is based only on how much crypto you get. Commissions never change the order, and at the moment there are no affiliate links on PlatformCrypto.eu at all. If that changes, the links will be labelled. Read our affiliate disclosure and how we compare for the details.

Looking for an alternative to a platform without an EU licence? See Binance alternatives in Europe.