Freetrade vs Capital.com 2023

Freetrade's commission-free model allows trading of fractional shares with a user-friendly mobile trading app, and the educational offering is of good quality. Research and range of investments are limited, however, and its online trading platform is still in beta and not available to all customers.

Although previously better known for its CFD trading platform, Capital.com has branched out to offer direct investing and trading in shares. They offer the lowest fees on our in-depth analysis with zero commissions and no “hidden” charges either. Although this is clearly attractive to many investors and particularly more active traders, the limited offering of investment options and the absence of a web-based or desktop trading platform means that Capital.com falls short for any investor or trader looking for the complete package.

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, Capital.com offers better pricing than Freetrade 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 - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while Capital.com would cost £0 per year.

12 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while Capital.com would cost £0 per year.

36 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while Capital.com would cost £0 per year.

120 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while Capital.com would cost £0 per year.

3 fund trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0.0 per year, while Capital.com would cost £0.0 per year.

Freetrade requires a minimum deposit of £0.0, while Capital.com requires a minimum deposit of £0.0. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 Freetrade charges annual custody fees of £0, while Capital.com charges annual custody fees of £0.

Freetrade offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, ETFs and Investment Trusts, while Capital.com offers investors access to Share Trading, CFD Trading and Spread Betting. Neither have Funds, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts), 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 Freetrade offers traders access to SIPP and ISA accounts, while Capital.com offers traders access to neither of these 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 Freetrade and Capital.com offer crypto investing.

Our testing concluded that Capital.com is better for research than Freetrade. Capital.com offers more research options, including research reports, articles, and analyst ratings.

To compare the trading platforms of both Freetrade and Capital.com, we tested each broker's website, trading platform, trading tools and stock trading app. All features compared, our analysis finds that Freetrade offers a better share dealing platform and Freetrade 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 Freetrade offers traders access to Education (Share Trading) and Education (Retirement), while Capital.com offers access to Client Webinars, Client Webinars (Archived) and Education (Share Trading). Neither have Education (Funds).