The centralised exchanges we use — and what each does badly
Every exchange page on the internet lists strengths. Here is the part that usually gets left out, next to the part that gets you started.
Affiliate disclosure: the buttons are referral links — if you open an account through one, the exchange pays us a share of its fees at no extra cost to you. It changes nothing in the cards. Full policy.
Deepest order bookBinance
Pick it if You mostly trade spot on major pairs and want size to fill without moving the price.
Where it costs you Futures, margin and launchpads sit one tap from the spot screen, and none of them warn you that you are not ready.
Not in the US or the EEA · fees verified 4 Sep 2026 · Fees explained → · Demo trading → · Withdrawal fees → · vs Coinbase Advanced →
Cleanest perps screenOKX
Pick it if You have finished the spot lessons and want one clean place to learn perpetuals, with a demo for every product.
Where it costs you The screen and the docs assume you already know derivatives vocabulary. In week one you will look terms up while money is live.
Not in the US · fees verified 4 Sep 2026
Best demo accountBybit
Pick it if You want to rehearse the whole workflow — orders, stops, leverage — on a realistic screen before a single real deposit.
Where it costs you The layout makes leverage feel like the normal path, and spot depth on smaller pairs is thinner than Binance.
Not in the US · fees verified 4 Sep 2026
Referral link — we may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. The fee figures here were read on Kraken’s own schedule on 12 Sep 2026, before that relationship existed. How we are paid.
All three are centralised: they hold your coins, and for a first account that is the point. Two accounts beat one — the exchange lesson shows why it is not close.
Where you live, what you trade, how much you know
Answer these in order and the choice usually makes itself. The matcher does the same thing in five taps.
Where do you live?
A venue that cannot serve you has a fee of infinity. US: none of the three — Kraken is the one venue on this site that can onboard you (see the note under the cards), or Coinbase and Gemini, which we do not link. EEA: OKX or Bybit; Binance left on 1 July 2026 — what an EEA Binance account holder should do now. UK: no referral venue at all under FCA rules. Elsewhere: all three.
What will you trade?
Spot on BTC and ETH: depth matters most — Binance. Perpetuals, learning: Bybit’s readable screen, then OKX once the vocabulary is yours. Limit orders on spot: OKX’s 0.08% maker fee is the lowest of the three. Small amounts you will move off the venue: the trading fee is the same at all three and the withdrawal network decides the bill — which venue is actually cheapest, priced on $200 and $20,000.
How much do you know?
Never placed a trade: Bybit’s demo first — no deposit, no ID check, two weeks of journaled practice. Can explain a seed phrase and leverage checked only at open: a DEX becomes an option, for a specific job, later.
A fourth question that decides it before the other three do, if you open accounts on a phone: can your phone actually run the app? We measured all three — install size, oldest iOS, how often the screen changes, and which practice mode is really on the phone.
Regular-tier figures — the rates a new account actually pays
Read from each venue’s own fee schedule and help pages on the date shown; sources are linked on each review. VIP tiers are lower and irrelevant to a beginner.
| Regular tier · read 4 Sep 2026 |  Binance |  OKX |  Bybit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fees, regular tier | |||
| Spot feemaker / taker | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.08% / 0.1% | 0.1% / 0.1% |
| Perpetuals feemaker / taker | 0.02% / 0.05% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 0.02% / 0.055% |
| $10,000 perp round tripmarket orders — taker fee both ways | $10 | $10 | $11 |
| $10,000 perp round triplimit orders — maker fee both ways | $4 | $4 | $4 |
| Trading | |||
| Maximum leverageregular account, BTC perpetual | 125x on BTCUSDT (fewer on smaller contracts) | up to 100x on BTC | 1x to 100x on USDT perpetuals |
| Demo / practicebefore any deposit | Spot + futures, no ID check | All products, every account | $100k virtual, before ID check |
| Trust & access | |||
| Proof of reserveswhat the venue publishes | Published | Third-party verified | Hacken, 38 reports, 50 tokens |
| Not available incheck before you open anything | US · EEA (since 1 Jul 2026) | US | US |
Sources: Binance fee schedule · OKX fee schedule · Bybit fee schedule — each venue’s own fee page, read on the date shown. Compare all 20 venues we track →
The venue is worth a dollar. The order type is worth six. A $10,000 perpetual round trip is $10–$11 on market orders at any of the three, and $4 on limit orders at all of them. Learn the limit order before you worry about basis points — and remember that spread and slippage, which no fee page shows, are usually larger than both.
Put your own size in the fee calculator →Decentralised venues — no company, no support desk, nothing to undo
Everything above hands your coins to a company in exchange for an account and a way back in when something goes wrong. These do the opposite. Worth it for some jobs, reckless for others.
HyperliquidSerious toolOn-chain perpetuals L1. Leverage is checked only when the position opens — after that, you are the risk desk.
Read the profile →
AsterHandle with careSelf-custody perpetuals with hidden orders. Advertises up to 1001x, where a 0.1% move ends the position.
Read the profile →
pump.funAssume total lossAnyone can create a coin on Solana and trade it minutes later. Nobody screens anything.
Read the profile →
FOMOAssume total lossSocial memecoin trading with leaderboards — the convenience is real, so is the survivorship bias.
Read the profile →Short answer first: if you cannot yet explain what a seed phrase is and what happens when you lose it, stay on the cards above. DEX vs CEX, side by side → · The DEX guide →
Same numbers, side by side, with a verdict for each kind of reader
Binance vs Bybit
The deepest book against the best demo. Which to open first — and why it is usually both, in sequence.
Read →OKX vs Bybit
The clean screen against the readable one, for a reader learning perpetuals.
Read →Binance vs OKX
Depth or the 0.08% spot maker fee — and for EEA readers, only one is available.
Read →Binance vs Coinbase Advanced
Ten published fee tiers against a sign-in wall — and no overlap at all in the US, UK or EEA.
Read →DEX vs CEX
Who holds the keys, and everything that follows from it. Which first, which second.
Read →Numbers with a date, screens we opened, who should walk away
- Every fee carries the date it was read and a link to the venue’s own page. Could not read it without signing in? The cell stays empty — never borrowed from another site.
- We open the screens — verification, withdrawals, whitelist and anti-phishing switches, the TP/SL panel — and write down the exact labels. That is where the expensive surprises live.
- Every review names the reader the venue is wrong for. A page that only praises is a thin affiliate page.
Four things that are true of every centralised exchange
- You do not hold the keys. A balance on any exchange is a claim on that company, not coins in your wallet.
- Fees change. Do not pick a venue from a table you read once — including this one. Check your tier before it matters.
- Availability differs by country and changes. Which products, what KYC, whether it serves you at all. Our 12-country check splits it into account, local currency and derivatives.
- No venue makes you profitable. The order book matters far less than the size you choose and the stop you honour.
Then: enable two-factor authentication before the first deposit, start with money you can lose entirely, and read the curriculum before placing a trade.
Which exchange did you open your first account with? One tap — it helps the next reader see what people actually chose, not what a ranking says.
Counts come from readers of this site. They are a picture of who reads here, not a measure of which venue is better.
We review a venue by opening it — verification, withdrawals, security switches, the order form. That takes days per venue, so we pick by demand. Name the one you want.
Read weekly. We store the text you type and nothing else.
Questions people ask before choosing
Which crypto exchange should a complete beginner open first?
For most readers: practise on Bybit’s demo (no deposit, no ID check), then open Binance for a first real spot account on major pairs because its order book is the deepest. If you live in the EEA, Binance is not available since 1 July 2026 — OKX or Bybit. If you already know perpetuals, OKX. The matcher asks five questions and picks one.
Why do you not rank exchanges or give stars?
Because a ranking hides the question that matters — which venue fits what you trade, where you live and how much you know. We list the weakness of each venue instead, in one plain sentence, and name the reader it is wrong for. That is what you would want from a friend, and it is what a star cannot say.
Are the fees on this page current?
They were read from each venue’s own fee schedule on 4 Sep 2026 and the date sits next to every number. Exchanges change schedules without notice, so the date is part of the fact; your own fee page inside the account is the only number that applies to you.
Do referral links change what you write?
No. The buttons pay us a share of fees if you open an account through them, at no cost to you. A venue that stops being worth recommending comes off the site rather than getting a softer paragraph, and the venue with the most generous programme is not described more kindly.
Should I use a decentralised exchange instead?
Not for a first account. A DEX removes the company — and with it the support desk, the recovery flow and the venue watching your margin. Use one later, for a specific job, once you can explain a seed phrase and what happens when it is lost. DEX vs CEX lays it out side by side.