You pretty much get what you pay for about anywhere you go. All of these places provide services etc. and need to make their money or cover expenses somewhere. To be honest I can't imagine any of them have much to gain servicing a 500$ account. There has to be some kind of benefit in it for them to make it worth doing. Have you spent much time paper trading?....that might be a good place to start so you can become familiar with the difficulties with having a small account.