Freetrade vs eToro 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.

Aside from some hidden fees and a limited research area, eToro does a very good job. It offers a functional and easy-to-use platform, with the bonus of an excellent copy trading option as well as zero-commission stock trades. Its only other limitation is that it doesn’t offer the same breadth of investments as many of the more traditional brokers.

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, Freetrade offers better pricing than eToro 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 eToro would cost £154 per year.

12 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while eToro would cost £154 per year.

36 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while eToro would cost £154 per year.

120 trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0 per year, while eToro would cost £154 per year.

3 fund trades per year - Freetrade would cost £0.0 per year, while eToro would cost £50.0 per year.

Freetrade requires a minimum deposit of £0.0, while eToro requires a minimum deposit of £50.0. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 Freetrade charges annual custody fees of £0, while eToro charges annual custody fees of £0 (Other Fees Apply).

Freetrade offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, ETFs and Investment Trusts, while eToro offers investors access to Share Trading, CFD Trading, ETFs and Crypto Trading. Neither have Funds, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts), Spread Betting 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 eToro 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 eToro offer crypto investing.

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

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