Our test account started the way most beginners start: an email, a passkey, and a small transfer we were not scared to lose. We bought bitcoin through the standard Kraken app, waited on a bank withdrawal, then repeated everything on Kraken Pro to see how far the fees actually move. Kraken turns fourteen this year, and it still sells itself as the exchange for people who read the fine print before they fund an account.

The two apps, and why the choice matters

Kraken is really two products wearing one login. The default app is Instant Buy: pick a coin, type an amount, confirm. It is built for someone who has never placed a limit order and does not want to. Kraken Pro sits behind a separate sign-in flow with its own order book, margin toggle and chart layout borrowed from a decade of professional trading tools.

That split matters because the two apps do not charge the same. Instant Buy carries a flat 1% fee, rising to 1.5% on custom orders placed outside the quick-buy flow. Kraken Pro starts new accounts at 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker on the smallest volume tier, then steps down as thirty-day volume climbs: 0.22%/0.38% past $10,000, 0.12%/0.25% past $100,000, and effectively 0% maker with a 0.05% taker fee for anyone trading above $500 million a month. Almost nobody on this site's readership sees that top tier, but the mechanics tell you Kraken rewards volume, not loyalty.

What Instant Buy actually costs a beginner

We ran the same $200 purchase through both apps to see the gap in dollars, not percentages. Instant Buy took roughly $2 in fees; the equivalent limit order on Kraken Pro, filled as a maker, cost about $0.80. Over a handful of trades that difference is trivial. Over a year of weekly buys it adds up to real money, which is why we recommend anyone who plans to stick around move to Pro within their first week rather than staying on the convenience tab out of habit.

Kraken+, a subscription layer the company added on top of the standard app, waives trading fees entirely on the first $10,000 of monthly volume for major pairs. That is a genuinely useful offer for someone who buys and holds rather than trades, and it closes much of the gap with Pro for smaller accounts.

Custody, audits and the one country we could not use it in

Security is where Kraken earns the trust that keeps beginners on the platform. The exchange holds an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and has completed a SOC 2 Type 1 examination, and it offers FIDO2-compliant passkey login alongside conventional two-factor methods. Kraken also runs periodic third-party audits of its BTC, ETH and other major reserves, which independent reporting has found slightly overcollateralized in the 101 to 105% range.

None of that protected us from the one hard limit we hit: Kraken will not open an account for a New York resident. The state's BitLicense regime is the stated reason, and Kraken has not pursued that license the way it recently did in Washington state. A handful of other states lose specific features rather than the whole platform: fiat transfers are unavailable in Louisiana, Massachusetts and Utah, and crypto transfers exclude Indiana. Kraken is also fighting an SEC lawsuit alleging it operated as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, a case it disputes but has not yet closed.

Withdrawals: the fee nobody screenshots

Getting coins out is where Kraken's fee structure looks worst on paper. A bitcoin withdrawal costs 0.0002 BTC, close to $17 at recent prices, against a $0.005 BTC minimum withdrawal. Pull out $50 of bitcoin and that flat fee eats about a third of it. Ethereum withdrawals carry their own network-driven minimum. None of this is unusual among large exchanges, but a beginner moving small amounts should batch withdrawals rather than pulling funds out after every trade.

Our verdict

Kraken deserves its place as a default beginner recommendation, not because it is cheap on day one but because it does not force a choice between an easy app and a serious one later. The audits, the passkey support and the fee ladder on Pro are real advantages over exchanges that only offer one flat rate for everyone. Anyone in New York, and anyone who never intends to move past Instant Buy, should shop the 1% fee against Kraken+ or a rival before committing.