AJ Bell vs Barclays 2024

You can invest in an extensive range of investments through AJ Bell. Charges are on the high side for those with large portfolios in mutual funds and those looking to execute one-off share deals; but its new app, called Dodl, offers much lower fees and also offers a more slim-lined and user-friendly service. Educational and research materials are strong, too.

Barclays Smart Investor offers a wide range of investments and accounts and is a good value for those with a midsize portolio who like flat fees. On the downside, it can be complicated to open an account as a non-Barclays bank customer, and you can’t buy or sell investments through the app if you don’t have a Barclays bank account.

Alongside the cost per trade, most UK online brokers also charge a monthly, quarterly, or annual management fee, which varies based on the account type and balance. Based on our thorough review, AJ Bell offers better pricing than Barclays for share dealing.

Assuming a £30,000 portfolio size, here are the total annual costs for share dealing with both brokers, given different monthly activity scenarios.

5 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £100 per year, while Barclays would cost £105 per year.

12 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £135 per year, while Barclays would cost £75 or £147 per year.

36 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £255 per year, while Barclays would cost £75 or £291 per year.

120 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £495 per year, while Barclays would cost £75 or £795 per year.

3 fund trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £0 per year, while Barclays would cost £0 per year.

AJ Bell requires a minimum deposit of £0, while Barclays requires a minimum deposit of £0. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 AJ Bell charges annual custody fees of £0 - £625, while Barclays charges annual custody fees of £0 - £525.

AJ Bell offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts) and Investment Trusts, while Barclays offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts), Investment Trusts and Advisor Services. Neither have CFD Trading, Spread Betting and Crypto Trading. Investing encompasses a wide variety of asset classes, so finding a broker that offers every investment type you are interested in is important.

Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and individual savings accounts (ISAs) are tax-advantaged savings accounts that are an important tool for many individual investors. You can read more about how these accounts operate at Gov.UK: Click here for SIPP information and here for ISA information. Our analysis finds that Both AJ Bell and Barclays offer SIPP and ISA accounts.

In our analysis of top brokers for share dealing in the U.K., we research whether each broker offers the ability to trade cash cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin and ethereum, which is still a somewhat rare offering amongst major U.K. brokers. Our review finds that neither AJ Bell nor Barclays offer crypto investing.

Our testing concluded that the website of AJ Bell is better than the website of Barclays. AJ Bell offers more functionality, is cleanly designed, and is, overall, easier to use for beginners and casual investors.

To compare the trading platforms of both AJ Bell and Barclays, we tested each broker's stock trading app. All features compared, our analysis finds that AJ Bell offers a better mobile app. Dive deeper: Best Stock Trading Apps UK.

Educational offerings are of particular importance to those who are newer to investing, and we examine the availability of several different types of educational materials in our analysis. Our research finds that AJ Bell offers traders access to Client Webinars, Client Webinars (Archived), Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement), while Barclays offers access to Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement).