Best investment platform in the UK – Interactive Investor
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 |
ISA |
 Interactive Investor
|
 |
£0 |
£59.88 - £143.88 |
Yes |
Interactive Investor is my top choice of investment platform overall. It has low fees and a simple charging structure, excellent research and educational material, and a wide range of investment and account choices.
Account types: You can invest through a general dealing account, ISA, Junior ISA or SIPP with Interactive Investor and these can all be managed through a single log-in.
Fees: Interactive Investor’s platform charges are a flat £4.99 a month if you invest less than £50,000 through a general account or ISA, or £11.99 if you have more than £50,000. SIPP charges are £5.99 or £12.99 a month. Dealing charges are £3.99 per trade or free through regular monthly investing.
This flat-fee charging structure is best for those who already have a decent portfolio – say of more than £25,000. If you have less than this, an investment platform that charges percentage-based fees would likely work out cheaper.
Learn more about its full offering at my Interactive Investor review.
Best for small portfolios – Trading 212
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 |
ISA |
 Trading 212
|
 |
£1 |
£0 |
Yes |
If you’re relatively new to investing and only have a small amount to invest, I think Trading 212 is a great option.
Account types: The app is easy to use, and you can invest through a general account or ISA (Trading 212 was my choice for the best stocks and shares ISA provider for 2025). Trading 212 doesn’t offer mutual funds but you can invest in ETFs, which offer similar diversification potential. You can also buy individual shares if you prefer to pick your own companies to invest in. The app lets you sort ETFs and companies by theme, sector, and most popular.
One downside is that Trading 212 doesn’t offer SIPPs, so you can’t invest through a pension and benefit from tax relief.
Fees: With Trading 212 there are no dealing or management charges for holding money on the platform. You can also buy fractional shares – meaning you can buy part of a share without having to spend potentially hundreds of pounds for popular, more expensive companies. The minimum investment amount is just £1.
Cash interest: Trading 212 also pays interest of 4.9% on uninvested cash, so you can earn money through the platform even if you take your time buying investments.
Discover more about its full range of features at my in-depth review of Trading 212.
Best for investment tools and research – Interactive Brokers
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 |
ISA |
 Interactive Brokers
|
|
£0 |
£0 |
Yes |
In my opinion, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is the best investment platform in the U.K. for investment tools and research.
Research: If you like to do extensive research or analysis on investments such as stocks, IBKR offers everything you need. When logged into your account, there is a dedicated research hub where you can view company fundamentals such as analyst and ESG ratings and price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, read news articles from around the world, and create up to 50 watchlists.
You can also use an advanced market scanner to filter companies, mutual funds, ETFs, or bonds by price or other parameters such as top gainers and losers.
Fees: IBKR appeals to professional and more experienced investors but can also be a great platform for newer investors or those investing small amounts as fees can be low. It costs £3 to buy or sell UK shares or ETFs and $1 for US stocks. Thousands of mutual funds are free to trade and IBKR does not charge platform fees.
Demo account: You can open a demo account with IBKR so you don’t have to commit to investing real money straight away. Through the demo account, you’ll also get access to IBKR’s extensive research offerings and educational material — including the Traders’ Academy.
Read more about its platform and access to global markets at my full review of Interactive Brokers.
Best range of account types – Hargreaves Lansdown
| Company |
Overall Rating |
Minimum Deposit |
Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 |
ISA |
 Hargreaves Lansdown
|
|
£1 |
Up to £1,125 |
Yes |
Hargreaves Lansdown is the U.K.’s biggest investment platform for everyday investors and it’s easy to see why.
Account types: Hargreaves Lansdown is a great platform for any investor. It offers a wide range of accounts and is one of just two of the major U.K. investment platforms I reviewed to offer both Lifetime ISAs and Junior SIPPs (the other being AJ Bell).
Fees: Be mindful of high trading charges if you are looking to buy small amounts of shares or ETFs. Hargreaves Lansdown charges £11.95 per trade, so if you’re looking to invest less than a couple of hundred pounds, this will take a big chunk out of your investment straight away.
But if you have a high amount invested in shares or ETFs, Hargreaves Lansdown could work out to be very competitive on price as management charges are capped at £45 a year through an ISA and £200 through a SIPP; there are no management charges through a general dealing account.
Mutual funds: If you’re investing small amounts, opting for a mutual fund may work out best cost-wise. Mutual funds are free to invest in, and Hargreaves Lansdown charges a management fee of 0.45%. On a £500 investment, for example, this would work out at £2.25 a year. Hargreaves Lansdown also offers a range of diversified ready-made funds for investors who don’t want to build their own portfolios
FAQs
How do you choose an investment platform?
When choosing the best investment platform for you, first consider how much you have to invest. If you’re investing a few hundred pounds or less, a no-fee investment platform such as Trading 212, XTB, eToro, or Robinhood may be worth considering. Or you may want a platform that charges percentage-based fees, such as AJ Bell, Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, or Barclays.
If you have a large amount, a flat-fee provider such as Interactive Investor, Lloyds, or Freetrade may work out more cost-effective. Also, consider the available range of investment choices — some platforms don’t offer funds — and the account you want to invest through. For example, some platforms don’t offer SIPPs or ISAs, which are fantastic tax-advantaged accounts.
Trading vs. investing: What’s the difference?
Trading is more short-term and market-timing oriented, while investing focuses on the long term. Both trading and investing involve the purchase (buying and selling) of financial securities such as shares, bonds, commodities, derivatives, forex, funds, or other financial instruments that represent major asset classes. Here’s some more detail:
Investing mentality: You’re building and holding assets through all the potential ups and downs of the market, with the goal of long-term capital appreciation. You’re committing to a long-term strategy, rather than focusing on what your holdings did yesterday, last quarter, and so on. This type of investing, often referred to as passive investing, can follow simple rules-based approaches, such as putting a certain amount of money into an index fund.
Trading mentality: An active trader may be more focused on maximising returns utilising a trading strategy, scanning the markets for opportunities within various asset classes and thinking of getting in and out relatively quickly. Trading can be much more challenging to master than passive investing, with the key differences being your anticipated time horizon, risk tolerance, and market expectations. In reality, few investors outperform the market.
What UK stockbroker offers the lowest fees?
Trading 212 stands out as the U.K. investment platform offering the lowest fees. There are no trading charges or platform fees for its general investment account or ISA. The FX fee for buying overseas shares is just 0.15%, which is among the lowest of any platform we tested.
XTB and eToro are among other UK investment platforms offering low fees. Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Lloyds and Halifax can also work out very cheap depending on how much you invest and what you invest in.
If you plan to invest regularly every month, many investment platforms offer free regular investing – meaning you won’t pay any dealing charges. Platforms that offer free regular investing include Bestinvest, Barclays, Lloyds, Halifax, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor. After this, you’ll just pay any platform charge or separate fund management fees charged by the fund provider.
Which investment platform is best for beginners in the UK?
We think Trading 212 is a great choice for a beginner investor. You can buy shares or ETFs through an ISA or general investment account. The Trading 212 app and website is easy to use and you can filter shares and ETFs by the most popular, sector or most bought and sold.
There are no dealing fees or platform charges with Trading 212, so it’s possible to invest very small amounts without being stung by costs – especially as you can buy fractional shares. If buying shares in companies overseas, you’ll pay currency conversion fees. Trading 212 charges just 0.15%.
What are fractional shares?
Fractional shares allow you to own partial shares if you don’t want to commit to buying a full share that could potentially cost hundreds of pounds. Many shares in the US and UK cost more than £100. For a single share costing £100, for example, you could own half a share by spending £50 with a platform that allows fractional shares.
Not all investment platforms offer fractional shares. Those that do include Trading 212, XTB, Interactive Brokers (IBKR), Freetrade, and eToro.
Why you should trust us
Elizabeth Anderson has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. She’s written for major national newspapers, contributed to corporate reports and research, and reviewed dozens of share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISAs, and brokerage firms. Elizabeth started her career at Bloomberg and has worked for the BBC, The Telegraph, The Times and the i newspaper. She is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing. A keen investor herself, Elizabeth invests through general dealing accounts, ISAs and several SIPPs.
Steven Hatzakis is a well-known finance writer with 25+ years of experience in the foreign exchange and financial markets. He is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for Reink Media Group, leading research efforts for ForexBrokers.com since 2016. He has served as a registered commodity futures representative for domestic and internationally-regulated brokerages. Steven holds a Series III license in the US as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
All content on UK.StockBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the U.K. brokerage industry.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Click here to learn more about how we test.
How we tested
At UK.StockBrokers.com, our online broker reviews are based on our collected quantitative data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research and collect hundreds of data points while testing brokerage firms, share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISA providers, and other financial service providers relevant to U.K. investors.
Mobile testing is conducted on modern devices that run the most up-to-date operating systems available:
- For Apple, we use MacBook Pro laptops running the latest version of and the iPhone 15 running the latest version of iOS.
- For Android, we use the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra devices running Android OS 14.
All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser.
Our researchers thoroughly test a wide range of key features, such as the availability and quality of trading platforms for web, desktop, and mobile, charting, real-time and streaming quotes, and educational resources – among other important variables. We also evaluate the overall design of the mobile experience, and look for a fluid user experience moving between mobile and desktop platforms.
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