Interactive Investor vs eToro 2024

The standout feature at Interactive Investor (ii) is its low flat-rate fees. Other investment platforms typically favour percentage fees for fund investing, although more brokers are now opting for flat fees. Our view is that Interactive Investor is a great platform for any investor, offering a wide range of investments for cheap prices on the whole.

eToro offers a wide range of assets and instruments and is well-known for its ‘social trading’ approach. It has among the lowest fees and best mobile app experiences of brokers we tested in the U.K., and offers a great starting point for those new to stock trading. Our analysis finds it better suited to short-term traders than long-term investors.

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, eToro offers better pricing than Interactive Investor 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 - Interactive Investor would cost £79.83 per year, while eToro would cost £0 per year.

12 trades per year - Interactive Investor would cost £59.88 / £107.76 per year, while eToro would cost £0 per year.

36 trades per year - Interactive Investor would cost £59.88 / £203.52 per year, while eToro would cost £0 per year.

120 trades per year - Interactive Investor would cost £59.88 / £538.68 per year, while eToro would cost £0 per year.

3 fund trades per year - Interactive Investor would cost £0 per year, while eToro would cost $50 per year.

Interactive Investor requires a minimum deposit of £0, while eToro requires a minimum deposit of $50. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 Interactive Investor charges annual custody fees of £59.88 - £143.88, while eToro charges annual custody fees of £0.

Interactive Investor offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts) and Investment Trusts, while eToro offers investors access to ISA, Share Trading, CFD Trading, ETFs and Crypto Trading. Neither have 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 Interactive Investor offers traders access to SIPP and ISA accounts, while eToro offers traders access to 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 eToro offers crypto investing, while Interactive Investor does not.

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

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