Your January MetaQuotes Bill's Just In: How Much Are Brokers Paying Now?

Fazzaco revealed in December 2024 that MetaQuotes, the monopolist in global retail forex trading platforms, notified clients of license fee adjustments effective January 2025​. Initial industry projections suggested increases exceeding 20%, potentially reaching 25%. However, our recent analysis of multiple brokers' 2025 payment bills indicates actual cost increments for most existing clients remain around 10%, representing over 50% discount to initial estimates.

Most Brokers Are Only Paying 10% More

While official price lists align with market expectations - MT5 Standard (25,000 accounts) at 15,,000 / month and Enterprise (200,000 accounts) at 20,000/month - reality tells a different story.

An anonymous executive from a top-tier broker disclosed to Fazzaco that as legacy clients holding MT4 master licenses since before the 2017 price surge, their MT5 Standard migration maintained a base fee of 10,000/month pre-adjustment. The 2025 increment merely raised this to approximately 11,000/month, significantly below official rates. This confirms the actual adjustment represents less than half of projected figures. Notably, differential pricing emerges as MetaQuotes' longstanding practice, corroborated by multiple industry sources.

Pricing Mechanics: The Art of Negotiation

Industry veterans familiar with MetaQuotes' operations reveal substantial pricing elasticity. The MT4 master license, while officially priced at 100,000, typically negotiates down to 80,000, with skilled negotiators securing 70,000 deals - below the pre-2017 benchmark of 75,000.

Payment flexibility extends to 5-6 installment options. Monthly operational costs for MT4 average 2,250, comprising 1,500 platform fee plus 750 mobile access. Prior to white label restrictions, master license holders could add on unlimited white labels at 5,000 initial cost plus 1,000 - 1,500 monthly fees depending on packages.

Monopoly Under Stress

The perennial question of "breaking free from MetaTrader​" persists. Fazzaco's December survey showed 60% of brokers reluctantly accepting the adjustment. While analysts predict MT5 will surpass MT4 in market share by 2025, maintaining MetaQuotes' dominance, client dissatisfaction grows palpable.

Recent policy changes - white label limitations​, 2024 gray label prohibitions for prop firms, discontinued support for old versions​, and exclusionary charting policies - continue eroding industry trust.

At the End

The current market landscape reveals a profound industry paradox: MetaQuotes continues to wield pricing power in the trading terminal market, leveraging its historically entrenched dominant market share and user inertia. Conversely, brokers are increasingly embroiled in a tug-of-war between cost containment and technological autonomy.

Notably, as leading brokers accelerate proprietary platform development - exemplified by FXCM's Trading Station, SaxoBank's SaxoTraderGo and SaxoTraderPro, Dukascopy's JForex, ThinkMarkets' ThinkTrader, XTB's xStation, and CMC Markets’ Next Generation - competing platforms like cTrader are persistently eroding market share through gradual yet steady encroachment. This battle for supremacy over trading terminals appears poised to culminate in a genuine paradigm shift, driven by accelerating fintech innovation.