Reposting from a fellow Reddit user /u/bampii, who I think did an excellent job listing out the known PROs and CONs of the top contending exchange sites for crypto trading. Let's face it, the exchanges are all nightmares. With downtimes, lack of customer support, technical glitches, and lack of accountability, we as traders have to be extremely careful in how we handle our hard-earned investments.
Take a look at what bampii put together. If you have any comments, feel free to add them below. List any you don't see here!
https://www.coinbase.com
PRO: Good user interface and easy purchases. Instant buy options with certain debit cards. Initially starts at $500 USD instant buy limit, after 30 days it goes up to $2000 USD.
CON: Slow, lots of downtime recently, only offers 3 coins. Not sure if it's a Coinbase issue or bank issue, but there may be unsuccessful deposits even if debit card is verified and used previously. There have been other users/reddit posts about this.
https://poloniex.com
PRO: Fast trades, offers coins some other exchanges don't.
CON: Unavailable balances (e.g. right now STORJ), can be expensive, very bad customer service (unanswered tickets). Lots of community distrust.
https://www.coinclerk.com
PRO: One-stop solution to buy a researched and diversified crypto portfolio without several exchanges and wallet. Also low fees from what I've heard plus excellent interface.
CON: In closed beta right now and will launch by invitation only to ensure service quality. (Saw the platform at an event a few weeks ago and would really love to get in.)
https://bittrex.com
PRO: Fast trades, offers coins some other exchanges don't. Customer service replies but it takes quite some time.
CON: Some downtime recently and login issues reported.
https://www.gdax.com
PRO: Professional setup for trading, pretty easy to use.
CON: Verification can take long, owned by CoinBase (dealbreaker for some).
https://www.kraken.com
PRO: Pretty good community rep (some complaints), interface works well.
CON: I read about withdrawal issues, which makes me nervous. Also, support totally overloaded, it can take weeks or months to get help, that sucks.
https://www.bitfinex.com
PRO: Leveraged trading options (I wouldn't recommend touching that, but there you go). Good volume.
CON: Customer support not great at times, had at least one hack I've heard of where they socialized the losses to all users, boo. Fees are mediocre.
https://gemini.com
PRO: Ability to purchase crypto before full completion of bank deposit/wire. Once Gemini gets enough information on the desposit/wire you can buy cryptocoin but there's just a temporary hold on that amount for withdraw. This really helps if you're trying to buy the coin quick.
CON: Only has BTC & ETH. Only USD deposits. Some comments below say that accounts have been locked and funds are locked, not good if true.