IG vs Barclays 2024

IG is an investment platform aimed at experienced investors looking to make frequent trades on the stock market, with thousands of shares, trusts and ETFs to trade. It offers a comprehensive and easy-to-use trading platform that is used by both private and professional investors.

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, IG 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 - IG would cost £136 per year, while Barclays would cost £78 per year.

12 trades per year - IG would cost £192 per year, while Barclays would cost £120 per year.

36 trades per year - IG would cost £108 per year, while Barclays would cost £264 per year.

120 trades per year - IG would cost £360 per year, while Barclays would cost £768 per year.

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

IG 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 IG charges annual custody fees of £0 / £96, while Barclays charges annual custody fees of £48 - £500.

IG offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, CFD Trading, ETFs, Investment Trusts and Spread Betting, while Barclays offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts), Investment Trusts and Advisor Services. Neither have 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 IG 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 IG nor Barclays offer crypto investing.

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

To compare the trading platforms of both IG and Barclays, we tested each broker's stock trading app. All features compared, our analysis finds that IG 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 IG offers traders access to Client Webinars, Client Webinars (Archived), Education (Share Trading) and Education (Retirement), while Barclays offers access to Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement).