When it comes to evaluating Brokers and Broker's trading platforms, you need to break your question into two parts:
Evaluating a Broker - thisshould be a prerequisite to evaluating their trading platforms. Don't fall in love with a trading platform before you evaluate the broker. The industry is littered with scam artists interested in only taking your money.
I would highly recommend reading through the Broker reviews on this site and others. Narrow down your list of brokers to evaluate by looking at their track record with others. If they are reputable, it will be reflected in the Broker reviews.
Once you have selected a few reputable brokers, then download their trading platforms and familiarize yourself with their features. Some platforms are designed for click-in/click-out trades while others are better aligned for setting up trades in advance. Some platforms have great charting platforms while others are marginal. Some platforms have their own programming API or language which may or may not be of interest to you. Some platforms have better reporting capabilities than others.
The bottom line is that you need to evaluate each platform of the reputable dealers you are interested in trading with. Each of us have our own biases and like or dislike different platforms and features. You have to make a decision of what works best for you. Don't choose a platform because someone else said it is great. Evaluate it and decide for yourself.
Last, keep in mind that some trading platforms will work differently with practice accounts than they do with live accounts. I remember using a reputable dealer's platform for a practice account and everything worked flawlessly. In real life, when I went to a live account with them, it behaved completely different. This is their way of luring you in so they can take your money.
