Trading 212 vs AJ Bell 2023

Trading 212 offers low-cost trading without lots of bells and whistles. Though tools, research and investments are limited, its user-friendliness and pricing may be an attractive option for the beginner trader.

AJ Bell Youinvest offers a mediocre trading platform and decent research tools, including in-house articles and videos. Ultimately, AJ Bell struggles to deliver value in the UK market against brokers that offer a better platform at a lower price point.

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, Trading 212 offers better pricing than AJ Bell 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 - Trading 212 would cost £0 per year, while AJ Bell would cost £82.5 per year.

12 trades per year - Trading 212 would cost £0 per year, while AJ Bell would cost £161.4 per year.

36 trades per year - Trading 212 would cost £0 per year, while AJ Bell would cost £400.2 per year.

120 trades per year - Trading 212 would cost £0 per year, while AJ Bell would cost £636 per year.

3 fund trades per year - Trading 212 would cost £1.0 per year, while AJ Bell would cost £0.0 per year.

Trading 212 requires a minimum deposit of £1.0, while AJ Bell requires a minimum deposit of £0.0. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 Trading 212 charges annual custody fees of £0 (Other Fees Apply), while AJ Bell charges annual custody fees of 0.25% (max £3.50/ month for shares).

Trading 212 offers investors access to ISA, Share Trading, CFD Trading and ETFs, while AJ Bell offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts) and Investment Trusts. Neither have Spread Betting, Crypto Trading and Advisor Services. 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 Trading 212 offers traders access to ISA accounts, while AJ Bell offers traders access to 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 Trading 212 and AJ Bell offer crypto investing.

Our testing concluded that Trading 212 is better for research than AJ Bell. Trading 212 offers more research options, including research reports, articles, and analyst ratings.

To compare the trading platforms of both Trading 212 and AJ Bell, we tested each broker's website, trading platform, trading tools and stock trading app. All features compared, our analysis finds that Trading 212 offers a better share dealing platform and Trading 212 offers a better stock app for mobile trading.

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 Trading 212 offers traders access to Education (Share Trading), while AJ Bell offers access to Client Webinars (Archived), Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement). Neither have Client Webinars.