Licensed Here vs BrokerChooser: Comparing Brokers vs Checking Their Licence
Two different questions before you open a trading account
Anyone about to open a brokerage or crypto account is really asking two questions. The first is "which provider is best for me?": fees, platforms, markets, how easy it is to deposit and withdraw. The second is more basic and more often skipped: "is this company actually allowed to serve customers in my country?"
The two questions need different tools. A comparison site is built to answer the first. A licence checker is built to answer the second. Mixing them up is how people end up trusting a well-reviewed brand that has no licence where they live, or ruling out a perfectly legal provider because it scored badly on fees.
This article puts two tools side by side that sit on either side of that line:
- BrokerChooser, a Budapest-based broker comparison platform that tests providers with real money and ranks them on hundreds of data points.
- Licensed Here (licensedhere.com), a licence checker that gives one verdict per brand and country for the EEA and the UK, built only from official EU registers.
We look at what each one measures, where its information comes from, how it is funded, and where it stops being useful. The short answer: they are not really competitors. Used together, they cover a gap that neither covers alone.
BrokerChooser vs Licensed Here at a glance
| BrokerChooser | Licensed Here | |
|---|---|---|
| Main question | Which broker is best for my needs? | Is this brand licensed to serve me in my country? |
| Output | Reviews, scores and "best broker" rankings, plus safety pages | One of nine fixed verdicts per brand and country, with the register entry and check date |
| What it covers | More than 100 financial service providers reviewed in depth, mainly brokers, plus safety pages for unknown or suspicious brokers | 300 crypto exchanges, brokers and payment / e-money apps |
| Geography | Global, with country-specific "best broker" pages | 30 EEA countries + the UK |
| How it rates | Analysts test with real accounts; over 600 data points across 10 areas, fees weighted at 30% | Fixed rule order applied to ESMA and EBA register data; no scoring |
| Safety assessment | 33 safety data points; only brokers regulated by top-tier regulators are featured | The whole verdict is the safety question: licence, passport, withdrawal, warning or clone |
| Business model | Free to users; may be paid when users visit partners or open and fund accounts | States it takes no referral fees and does no paid ranking |
| Main limit | Licence status is one input among many; affiliate model | Europe only; no FCA or national registers yet; no view on fees or quality |
How BrokerChooser works
BrokerChooser is a broker comparison site headquartered in Budapest, co-founded by CEO Tibor Bedő. It describes itself as a place for uncomplicated comparison of brokers, digital banks and similar providers, and it publishes reviews, head-to-head comparisons and "best broker" lists tailored to individual countries.
Real-money testing and 600+ data points
According to its methodology page, BrokerChooser analysts open live accounts and test providers with their own money. Each broker is assessed on more than 600 data points grouped into 10 areas. Fees carry the most weight: they account for 30% of the total score and make up 359 of the data points. Markets and products (72 data points) and trading platforms (52) follow. A single review takes 7 to 10 days and about 90 working hours, and reviews are refreshed several times a year. The site covers more than 100 providers this way.
That depth is the real strength. If you want to know which broker charges the least for buying US shares from Germany, or which one has the best mobile app for options, BrokerChooser has done the legwork.
Safety and regulation
Safety is one of the 10 scored areas, with 33 data points. Analysts check a broker's legal background, whether it is overseen by a trusted regulator, investor protection and other safety layers. BrokerChooser says it only features brokers regulated by top-tier authorities. Its public safety guide points to regulators such as the SEC, FCA, BaFin, ASIC and FINMA, and tells readers to verify licence numbers on the regulator's own website.
The site also runs "Is it safe?" pages for many lesser-known or suspicious broker names, a broker lookup and a free browser extension meant to flag scam broker websites while you browse.
How it is funded
BrokerChooser is free for readers. Its advertiser disclosure says it may receive compensation when a visitor goes to a partner's website, or when a user opens an account and deposits funds through its links. The disclosure lists dozens of partners, including 26 stockbrokers and 36 CFD and forex brokers. The methodology page states that brokers do not influence scoring by paying or pressuring, and that scores come only from analysts' work.
Affiliate funding is standard across comparison sites, and BrokerChooser discloses it. It is still worth knowing, because the business is built around the moment you open an account with a recommended provider.
How Licensed Here works
Licensed Here does not rank providers or say which one is cheapest. It answers whether a particular brand may legally serve customers in a particular country, and nothing else. You search for a brand, choose your country and get a verdict.
Official registers only
Every verdict is built from three EU-level registers: ESMA's interim MiCA register for crypto-asset service providers, ESMA's register of MiFID investment firms, and the EBA's register of payment and e-money institutions. GLEIF's open data is used to confirm legal entity identifiers and parent companies. There are no user reviews, no analyst scores and no opinion layer.
As of 10 November 2026, the site covered 300 brands across 31 countries, which makes 9,300 verdicts. The registers it reads listed 6,732 firms with an active licence and 189 firms flagged by ESMA for offering crypto services without authorisation.
From brand to legal entity
The tricky step is matching the name you see in an app store to the company that actually holds a licence. Licensed Here links brands to firms using the registers, the brand's own legal pages and GLEIF company-group data. An AI model helps by quoting the company names a brand's terms mention, but each quote is checked word for word against the page, and a person reviews every brand's links before they count. The AI does not decide verdicts.
Nine verdicts, in a fixed order
The site applies nine rules in sequence and stops at the first match: regulator warning, clone alert, non-compliant (ESMA's unauthorised crypto list), licence withdrawn, authorised, passported here, wrong licence, licensed elsewhere and no licence found. "Passported here" and "wrong licence" are the ones comparison sites rarely surface: a firm may be properly licensed, but not for your country or not for the service you are using.
Each verdict links to the register entry it is based on and shows the date the register was checked. Licensed Here says it takes no referral fees, does not rank firms and lists alternatives alphabetically.
Head-to-head comparison
Purpose: choosing vs verifying
BrokerChooser helps you choose between legitimate options. Its whole method is built on comparing quality: fees, platforms, products, customer service. Licensed Here helps you verify a single option. It has nothing to say about quality, and BrokerChooser has relatively little to say about country-by-country licensing for brands outside its curated list.
Edge: depends on your question. Choosing: BrokerChooser. Verifying: Licensed Here.
Depth vs breadth of firm types
BrokerChooser goes very deep on about 100 providers, mostly stock, CFD and forex brokers. Licensed Here goes shallow but wider across firm types: crypto exchanges under MiCA, investment firms and payment or e-money apps such as wallets and neo-payment services. If your question is whether a crypto exchange or payment app is authorised in Spain or Poland, Licensed Here is the more direct tool.
Edge: BrokerChooser for broker detail; Licensed Here for crypto and payment apps in Europe.
Country-level answers
BrokerChooser localises its "best broker" lists by country, which is useful for availability and local fees. Licensed Here's unit of answer is the country itself: the same brand can be "authorised" in one EEA country, "passported" into another and "licensed elsewhere" for a third. That granularity matters because a licence from one EU country only covers others where the firm has passported its services.
Edge: Licensed Here.
How "safe" is decided
At BrokerChooser, safety is an analyst assessment across 33 data points, folded into an overall score. The list of which regulators count as top-tier is not published in its methodology. At Licensed Here, safety is not a score at all: it is a rule-based classification of what the official registers say, and the rule order is public.
Edge: Licensed Here for traceability; BrokerChooser for a broader judgement that includes investor protection and track record.
Incentives
BrokerChooser can earn money when readers open and fund accounts with partners, while stating that this does not affect its scores. Licensed Here states that it takes no referral fees. Neither is automatically more honest, but the incentives are different, and readers should weigh recommendations accordingly.
Edge: Licensed Here on independence of incentives.
Unknown and suspicious names
BrokerChooser publishes many "Is it safe?" pages for unfamiliar broker names, plus a browser extension, which helps when you have been contacted by a platform you have never heard of. Licensed Here focuses on brands it has linked to legal entities, but it also reflects ESMA's list of unauthorised crypto providers and regulator warnings that name a brand's websites.
Edge: roughly even, with different coverage.
Where each one falls short
BrokerChooser
- Licence status is one ingredient, not the answer. A high overall score can be driven by low fees and a good app, while the country-specific licence question stays in the background.
- Curated coverage. In-depth reviews cover about 100 providers. Many crypto exchanges and payment apps that Europeans actually use are outside that core list.
- Affiliate funding. Disclosed, and the site says it does not affect scores, but it means the business benefits when you sign up.
- Regulator tiers not spelled out. "Top-tier regulated" is a meaningful filter, but its methodology does not publish the exact list.
Licensed Here
- Europe only. It covers the 30 EEA countries and the UK, and nothing outside them.
- UK verdicts without the FCA register. Reusing the FCA register requires the FCA's permission, so UK verdicts currently rely on EU registers alone.
- No national registers or banks. A firm holding only a national licence, such as a bank licence, will not show up.
- Broker passports are often unconfirmable. ESMA does not publish where investment firms may serve clients, so for cross-border brokers the verdict may not be able to confirm your country. It says so when that happens.
- No opinion on quality. A licensed broker with high fees and poor support still gets a clean verdict.
- Still young. 300 brands at the time of writing, with registers refreshed by hand until automatic updates are switched on.
A simple way to use both
Because they answer different questions, the most useful approach is a two-step routine:
- Shortlist with a comparison site. Use BrokerChooser to narrow the field to two or three providers that fit your budget, markets and platform needs.
- Verify each one for your country. Check every shortlisted brand on Licensed Here for your country. You want "Authorised" or "Passported here" for the service you will actually use.
- Confirm on the register. Open the register entry the verdict links to, and check that the company name and website match the provider you are signing up with.
- Check for warnings and clones. Search your national regulator's warning list and make sure you are on the real website, not a clone using a licensed firm's name.
- Only then deposit. If any step does not match, stop and ask the provider which legal entity will hold your money and under which licence.
Which one should you use?
| Your situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Comparing fees and platforms between well-known brokers | BrokerChooser | Real-money tests and hundreds of data points per broker |
| Checking if a crypto exchange is MiCA-authorised in your EU country | Licensed Here | Reads ESMA's MiCA register and answers per country |
| Checking a payment or e-money app in Europe | Licensed Here | Covers the EBA register of payment and e-money institutions |
| A platform you have never heard of contacted you | Both, then your regulator | BrokerChooser's safety pages plus Licensed Here's warning and non-compliant verdicts |
| You live outside Europe | BrokerChooser | Licensed Here does not cover non-European countries |
| You need a dated, citable answer for a complaint or a bank | Licensed Here | Every verdict cites its register entry and check date |
The bottom line
BrokerChooser is one of the most thorough places to compare brokers on cost and quality, and it backs that with real-money testing. Licensed Here does a narrower job: it tells you, from official registers and with a date attached, whether a brand is allowed to serve you where you live. The best broker in the world is the wrong choice if it isn't licensed for your country, so the licence check belongs before the deposit, not after.
Frequently asked questions
Is BrokerChooser a licence checker?
Not primarily. It is a comparison and review site that includes regulation in its safety assessment and runs safety pages for many broker names. For a dedicated per-country licence verdict, use a licence checker or the regulator's register.
Does BrokerChooser get paid by brokers?
Its advertiser disclosure says it may be compensated when users visit partner sites or open and fund accounts through its links. It states that this does not influence its scores.
Does Licensed Here tell me which broker is best?
No. It only tells you whether a brand is licensed to serve your country, for the right type of service. Use a comparison site for fees and features.
What does "passported here" mean?
The firm holds a licence from another EEA country, and the register lists your country as one where it may provide that service. It is a legitimate way for EU firms to operate across borders.
What if Licensed Here says "no licence found"?
It means none of the companies linked to the brand holds a licence in the registers Licensed Here reads. That is not proof of fraud: the firm may hold a national or FCA licence those registers don't show. Ask the provider for its legal entity and licence, and check the regulator directly.
Can I use either tool outside Europe?
BrokerChooser covers brokers globally. Licensed Here currently covers only the EEA and the UK.
Licensed Here figures are as of 10 November 2026, from licensedhere.com and its methodology page. BrokerChooser details are from its methodology page, advertiser disclosure and safety guide, and from Budapest Business Journal coverage of the company. This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
