We work out what every UK investment platform really costs to find who's genuinely cheapest for your pot size and how you invest, commission-free apps included.
Cheapest Investment Platforms
We work out what every UK investment platform really costs to find who's genuinely cheapest for your pot size and how you invest, commission-free apps included.
Capital at risk. Investments can go down as well as up. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change.
By Scrimpr
Updated 19 Jun 2026 There is no single cheapest investment platform. The cheapest one depends on how much you hold and how you invest. Anyone who recommends a single platform without asking those two things is guessing.
We built the most comprehensive investing fee calculator in the UK, tracking more than 30 platforms from Trading 212, Lightyear and IG to Vanguard, AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown. This page summarises which platforms are cheapest for the most common situations.
The short version
- For most people, a commission-free platform is cheapest.
- The big commission-free platforms are Lightyear, Trading 212, IG, InvestEngine, Freetrade and Prosper.
- Commission-free apps tend to be newer with fewer frills, making money via interest on your uninvested cash. IG is the established exception.
- Want phone support or a wider fund range? You’ll pay for it.
- Cheapest paid platform depends on pot size and trade frequency: small pots favour percentage fees, big pots favour flat or capped fees.
The cheapest investment platforms for most people
For most people, the cheapest investing platform is a commission-free one. These charge £0 a year in platform fees and no commission to buy or sell, whether you hold funds, ETFs or shares in a general investment account (GIA) or Stocks and Shares ISA. You will still pay any fund charges – these apply on any platform. FX on overseas trades differs between commission-free apps. Pensions vary too: some commission-free platforms don’t offer a SIPP at all, others charge an annual platform fee for it, and a few offer SIPPs free. These are usually only for growing your pension though.
Trading 212 - Platform fee
- £0/yr
- Trading fee
- Free
- FX (non-UK only)
- 0.15%
- Holds
- ETFs & shares
Trading 212 offers the widest spread of accounts of any commission-free platform: general investing, Stocks and Shares ISA, Cash ISA, SIPP and a cashback debit card.
See current offersCapital at risk. Fees may apply.
IG - Platform fee
- £0/yr
- Trading fee
- Free
- FX (non-UK only)
- 0.7%
- Holds
- ETFs & shares
IG is the most established broker offering commission-free investing, so you get free dealing from a name that has been around for decades.
Visit provider site*Capital at risk. Fees may apply.
Lightyear - Platform fee
- £0/yr
- Trading fee
- Free
- FX (non-UK only)
- 0.1%
- Holds
- ETFs & shares
Lightyear has the lowest FX fee here, so it is the cheapest place to hold US and overseas shares. For UK-only investing the cost is the same as the others, and there is no SIPP yet.
See current offersCapital at risk. Fees may apply.
* The IG link is an affiliate link that also unlocks a sign-up bonus for you. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never affects how platforms rank here. The Trading 212 and Lightyear buttons go to our own offers page, where we summarise the best welcome offers available via Scrimpr and elsewhere. We’re the only UK site that does this.
There are four more commission-free options worth knowing about, each filling a specific gap and all charging £0 a year:
| Platform | Type | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| InvestEngine | Commission-free | Ready-made ETF portfolios | Only supports ETFs. No funds or individual shares. |
| Prosper | Commission-free | Traditional funds | Newer platform |
| Freetrade | Commission-free | An alternative to Trading 212 | Fractional shares are limited to US stocks. FX 0.99%, higher than Trading 212. |
| Barclays | Commission-free | Funds via a familiar UK bank | Free dealing on funds only. ETFs and shares cost £6/trade, free with regular investing. |
Excludes the OCF (Ongoing Charges Figure), the fund’s own annual cost, because you pay it whatever platform you hold the fund on.
So how are these platforms making money? They’re not charging you a platform fee, nor are they charging for buying or selling stocks, shares or funds. But they do earn money elsewhere. They earn from currency conversion when you buy US or overseas shares, from interest on the cash sitting in your account, and from paid-for extras. They also operate as leaner businesses with modern infrastructure, without the cost of running the decades-old systems that traditional brokers maintain. None of it shows up as a headline fee, which is why a £0 platform can still cost you on the things it doesn’t advertise.
Most commission-free platforms run sign-up offers — free shares, cashback and the like. See which are live right now.
The catch with their free pensions: several (Trading 212, Freetrade, InvestEngine, Prosper) let you save into a pension but not take an income out in retirement — so near retirement you may need a platform that charges a fee but lets you take one.
The best platform for your situation
Cheapest is usually commission-free, but “best” depends on what you need. Every pick below is forced by the data, not an opinion:
| If you want… | Our pick | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A simple start | InvestEngineorProsper | Commission-free | No commission or platform fees, clean apps with deliberately focused product ranges. Easy to get started without being overwhelming. |
| Commission-free investing from a long-standing name | IG | Commission-free | Decades-old broker with free dealing on ETFs and shares. |
| Traditional funds | BarclaysorProsper | Commission-free | Both offer free dealing on traditional funds. Most commission-free apps cover only ETFs. |
| Vanguard mutual funds | Vanguard Investor | Capped % | 0.15% capped at £375/yr. Stocks the full Vanguard range. (For Vanguard ETFs only, a commission-free broker is cheaper. Same ETF, no platform fee.) |
| ETFs | InvestEngine | Commission-free | The gap over paid platforms widens as your pot grows. |
| Individual shares | LightyearorIG | Commission-free | No platform fee, with free regular dealing. |
| ISA, SIPP* and GIA all in one place | Trading 212 | Commission-free | Offers all three account types with no platform fee on any. |
| Monthly direct debit | FreetradeorInvestEngine | Commission-free | Commission-free with a real monthly direct debit from £25. |
| A large pot in an ISA or GIA (bank broker) | BarclaysorScottish Widows | Commission-free | No platform fee, with free dealing on funds (Barclays) or with regular investing (Scottish Widows). Beats the percentage-fee platforms at scale. |
| A paid platform with a familiar big-name | AJ BellorFidelityorHL | Capped % | Bigger product ranges, phone support, and decades of brand recognition. Caps at £42-£150/yr for shares depending on platform. |
| Flat fee for active trading | Interactive Investor | Flat fee | Flat fee (~£72-£155/yr depending on tier) regardless of pot size or trade volume. |
* SIPPs are a different beast. They have their own decision tree (accumulation vs drawdown, capped percentage vs flat fees at scale, and a few commission-free SIPPs that don’t support drawdown at all). See our cheapest SIPP guide for the full picture.
When a paid platform actually wins
Most of what you’ve read so far covers commission-free platforms, because for the way most people invest (drip-feed regular monthly investing, hold for years, rarely sell), commission-free wins on cost. But there are situations where a paid platform genuinely beats commission-free:
- Pension drawdown. Most commission-free SIPPs don’t support taking income, so you’ll need a paid platform from age 55 onwards. See our cheapest SIPP guide for the SIPP-specific picks.
- Phone support, wider fund range, or a familiar big name. Established platforms like Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity charge for a reason. Worth paying if the service or product range matters more to you than the absolute lowest fee.
- Trading instruments commission-free brokers don’t offer. Commission-free brokers stick to mainstream ETFs and large-cap shares. For individual gilts, corporate bonds, AIM shares, or certain investment trusts, you’ll need a paid platform with broader market access. Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell cover most of these well; Interactive Brokers is the serious DIY trader’s choice.
The cheapest paid platforms
If you fall into one of those categories above, the cheapest paid platform depends on your pot size. A 0.25% percentage fee is £25 a year on a £10,000 pot, £250 a year on £100,000 and £1,250 a year on £500,000, and it never stops growing. A flat fee stays the same whatever your pot, so it eventually wins on cost. The tables below assume a regular investor paying in monthly; an active trader should use the calculator.
Cheapest fee-charging Stocks and Shares ISA
| Platform | £20k | £50k | £100k |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax / Lloyds Share Dealing | £36 | £36 | £36 |
| AJ Bell | £42 | £42 | £42 |
| Interactive Brokers | £72 | £72 | £72 |
| CMC Invest | £84 | £84 | £84 |
| Vanguard (percentage) | £48 | £76 | £151 |
Flat-fee platforms (Halifax, Lloyds, AJ Bell’s cap) stay the same whatever your pot. Vanguard is shown to make the point: a percentage fee is cheap on a small pot and dear on a big one.
Same platform, cheaper door: Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows all run on the same Lloyds Banking Group platform, just priced differently under each brand. If you like that platform, Scottish Widows is the cheapest door in (no account fee at all, and cheaper dealing), so there is rarely a reason to pay the £36 Halifax or Lloyds version for the same underlying service.
Cheapest fee-charging SIPP
| Platform | £20k | £50k | £100k |
|---|---|---|---|
| AJ Bell Dodl (percentage) | £31 | £76 | £151 |
| Vanguard (percentage) | £48 | £76 | £151 |
| AJ Bell | £52 | £120 | £120 |
| Fidelity | £108 | £108 | £108 |
| Barclays | £125 | £125 | £125 |
The crossover in action: on a small pension a percentage platform (Dodl, Vanguard) is cheapest; on a big one a capped or flat fee (Fidelity, AJ Bell) wins. The full SIPP comparison lists every provider.
Cheapest by account type
Most platforms offer the same fees across wrappers, but not always, and the cheapest can differ:
- Stocks and Shares ISA: commission-free platforms are cheapest for ETFs and shares, and several (including Scottish Widows and Barclays) charge nothing for funds too if you invest regularly. See the ISA comparison.
- SIPP: no platform fee for accumulation, but check drawdown if you are near retirement. See the SIPP comparison.
- General Investment Account: for money outside your ISA and pension allowances. See the GIA comparison.
What to weigh beyond the fee
Cheaper is not automatically better. Before you switch, it pays to know where commission-free platforms make their money back. They tend to offer a narrower menu of investments, so check your chosen fund or investment trust is available. Many earn their keep on currency conversion, so overseas shares can cost more than they first look. And some keep part of the interest on the cash in your account, or charge extra for things like phone dealing. Whatever you choose, make sure it is covered by the FSCS up to £85,000.
How we rank, and why you can trust it
Every platform’s fee structure is held as structured data, and we recompute the cost with the same engine that powers our calculator, so the figures you read and the rankings you see always match. We update whenever a platform changes its pricing.
Two things set this apart from most “best platform” pages. First, we rank on cost you can verify, not a customer-satisfaction survey or an editor’s opinion. Second, we are not an appointed representative of any platform. We may earn a commission if you sign up through a link, but it never changes the cost ranking — results are ordered cheapest first. We also exclude fund charges (the OCF), because you pay those whatever platform you hold the fund on. Figures are estimates from each provider’s published rate card; always check the current terms before opening an account.
Work out your own cheapest platform
These tables use sensible defaults, but your pot size, monthly amount, holdings and trading habits are yours. Put your own numbers in and the ranking recomputes in front of you, with the maths shown.
Open the fee calculator →FAQs
What is the cheapest investment platform in the UK?
For a regular investor in ETFs or shares, the commission-free platforms (Trading 212, InvestEngine, Freetrade, IG, Lightyear, Prosper) are cheapest at £0 a year, at any pot size. Among platforms that charge, the cheapest depends on your pot size and how often you trade.
Is the cheapest platform the best one for me?
Usually, but not always. Check it offers the investments you want, that overseas dealing and FX costs are reasonable if you buy US shares, and that it offers drawdown if it is a SIPP you will take an income from.
Why is the cheapest platform different on other websites?
Almost always because of a hidden trading assumption. A table that assumes you trade every month will favour different platforms from one that assumes you rarely trade. We let you set your own trading frequency rather than baking one in, so the answer matches how you actually invest.
Are commission-free platforms safe?
The ones here are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and your investments are protected by the FSCS up to £85,000 per provider, the same as any other regulated platform. “Free” refers to the platform fee; they earn money through FX, cash interest or paid extras.
