Best Stocks and Shares ISA Platforms UK 2026: Fees Compared for Every Portfolio Size

Cheapest overall (ETFs only): InvestEngine — genuinely £0 platform fee, £0 dealing on 700+ ETFs. The catch: ETFs only, no shares, no funds, no LISA. Any uninvested cash earns nothing — InvestEngine retains the interest to fund the free service. Full review.

Best free all-rounder: Freetrade — the Basic plan includes a free ISA, free SIPP, and commission-free dealing on 6,500+ stocks, ETFs, and investment trusts. FX costs 0.99% on non-GBP trades on the Basic plan. Now includes mutual funds and gilts. Full review.

Best for DIY stock pickers: AJ Bell — 0.25% platform fee, capped at £3.50/month for shares and ETFs (£42/year). Fund dealing from £1.50, shares from £5. Which? Recommended Provider eight years running (2019–2026). At the cap, a £100,000 share portfolio costs just £42/year. Full review.

Best for large portfolios (£30k+): Interactive investor — flat £5.99/month on the Core plan (up to £100,000 portfolio). At £100,000, that is £72/year versus £150 at Hargreaves Lansdown on shares or £350 on funds. One fee covers ISA, SIPP, and GIA together. FX at a flat 0.75%. Above £100,000, the Plus plan at £14.99/month includes family accounts and lower fund dealing at £1.49. Full review.

Best for beginners who want simplicity: Vanguard — 0.15% fee capped at £375/year, but with a £4/month minimum (£48/year). Below £32,000, that minimum means you pay more than 0.15%. Above £32,000, it remains among the cheapest. LifeStrategy funds require exactly one decision. 85 Vanguard funds only — but most passive investors need nothing else. Full review.

Best for premium service: Hargreaves Lansdown — platform fee of 0.35%, with share/ETF holdings capped at £12.50/month (£150/year). Fund dealing at £1.95, share dealing at £6.95 online. Regular monthly investing by Direct Debit remains free. The best app, research tools, and customer service in the UK — over 2 million clients. Full review.

Best for first-time buyers (LISA): Moneybox — the leading Lifetime ISA provider with the 25% government bonus. Only four platforms offer a LISA: HL, AJ Bell, Nutmeg, and Moneybox. Full review.

Our overall pick for most investors: AJ Bell. The 0.25% fee with a £3.50/month cap makes it competitive at every portfolio size for share and ETF investors. It offers the widest account range (ISA, LISA, SIPP, Junior ISA), covers 24 international markets, and fund dealing is just £1.50. For pure ETF investors, InvestEngine at £0 is unbeatable — but AJ Bell is the best all-rounder.

Platform fees are the single biggest drag on long-term returns. A 0.20% annual difference compounds into thousands over a decade. Here is what each platform actually costs at four portfolio sizes, verified from provider websites as of 30 March 2026:

At £20,000, InvestEngine, Trading 212, and Freetrade cost nothing in platform fees. AJ Bell charges £42/year on shares (the £3.50/month cap applies above ~£17,000). Vanguard's £4/month minimum means you pay £48 regardless. HL charges £50 on shares (£12.50/month cap doesn't bite until ~£43,000) or £70 on funds (0.35%).

The picture shifts at scale:

At £100,000, AJ Bell's share/ETF cap of £42/year is the cheapest mainstream option — cheaper than interactive investor's £72. HL's share cap of £150/year is a massive improvement on the old 0.45% (which would have been £450). But on funds, AJ Bell at 0.25% costs £250 and HL at 0.35% costs £350.

The crossover point where flat-fee platforms beat percentage-fee platforms depends on your holdings. AJ Bell's share cap kicks in above ~£17,000. Below that, you pay less than £42. Above it, £42 is fixed no matter how large the portfolio. Interactive investor's Core at £72/year beats AJ Bell on funds from about £29,000 upward (where 0.25% = £72.50).

The ISA platform market has seen more fee changes in early 2026 than in the previous two years combined.

Hargreaves Lansdown (1 March 2026): Platform fee cut from 0.45% to 0.35%. Share/ETF holdings capped at £12.50/month (£150/year). Fund dealing fee of £1.95 introduced — previously free. Share dealing at £6.95 online. Regular monthly investing by Direct Debit remains free. The fund dealing fee is a meaningful change: 12 fund trades a year now cost £23.40.

Interactive investor (1 February 2026): Entirely new pricing structure. Three plans — Core £5.99/month, Plus £14.99/month, Premium £39.99/month. One fee covers ISA, SIPP, and GIA together. FX simplified to a flat 0.75% on Core, tiered to 0.25% on Premium. Trade costs on Core: £3.99 per trade for funds, UK and US shares. Core limited to portfolios up to £100,000.

Freetrade (January 2026): ISA and SIPP now free on the Basic plan. Previously the ISA alone cost £5.99/month. Commission-free dealing unchanged. FX 0.99% on Basic, 0.59% on Standard (£4.99/month), 0.39% on Plus (£9.99/month). Now includes mutual funds and gilts across all plans.

AJ Bell: Platform fee at 0.25% with shares/ETFs capped at £3.50/month (£42/year). Fund dealing at £1.50. Covers ISA, LISA, SIPP, Junior ISA, and 24 international markets. Covers exit fees up to £500 for transfers in of £20,000+.

Vanguard: £4/month minimum fee for self-managed accounts under £32,000. Above £32,000, standard 0.15% capped at £375/year. Below £32,000, the minimum makes Vanguard costlier than AJ Bell and Freetrade.

The net effect: the gap between "premium" and "budget" platforms has narrowed. HL at 0.35% with caps is no longer twice the price of the mid-range for most portfolios. But free platforms (InvestEngine, Freetrade, Trading 212) remain unbeatable for cost-conscious investors.

The cheapest platform is useless if it does not offer what you want to invest in.

Widest range: Interactive investor leads with 40,000+ investments across 17 exchanges. Hargreaves Lansdown has comprehensive UK and international coverage with IPO access. AJ Bell covers 24 markets with 4,000+ funds and ETFs.

Narrowest range: Vanguard offers only ~85 Vanguard funds — no third-party funds, no individual shares. InvestEngine is ETFs only (700+). Moneybox offers a handful of risk-rated portfolios.

For most index investors, range barely matters. A Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% fund gives you global diversification in one holding. But if you want individual UK or US shares, sector ETFs, investment trusts, or bonds — Vanguard and InvestEngine are out.

SIPP availability: Freetrade now offers a free SIPP on the Basic plan. InvestEngine's SIPP is also free. AJ Bell charges 0.25% (capped at £10/month). HL charges 0.35% (capped at £200/year). Interactive investor bundles it into the monthly fee. Trading 212 has no SIPP.

Lifetime ISA: Only Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Nutmeg, and Moneybox offer one. If you are under 40 and saving for a first home, your platform choice narrows to four. See our LISA guide for the full rules.

For a deeper dive into how fee structures compare: Flat-Fee vs Percentage-Fee Platforms: The Exact Maths and Bestinvest vs AJ Bell.

Foreign exchange fees are the silent killer for anyone buying US or international shares. Trading 212 charges just 0.15% — best in market. Interactive investor charges a flat 0.75% on Core (0.25% on Premium). AJ Bell charges 0.75%. Freetrade Basic charges 0.99%. On a £5,000 US share purchase, that is the difference between £7.50 (Trading 212) and £49.50 (Freetrade Basic).

Cash interest: With the Bank of England base rate at 3.75% (set December 2025), uninvested cash earns meaningful interest — if your platform passes it on. Trading 212 pays interest on cash in multiple currencies. Freetrade pays 1% AER on Basic (up to £1,000), 2.5% on Standard (up to £2,000), and 3.5% on Plus (up to £3,000). InvestEngine pays nothing — it retains all interest on uninvested cash. HL retains a significant portion.

Fund dealing fees: HL's £1.95 per fund trade is a meaningful change for active fund investors. Previously fund deals were free. Regular monthly investing by Direct Debit is still free, so set-and-forget investors are unaffected. AJ Bell charges £1.50 per fund trade. Interactive investor Core charges £3.99 per fund trade; Premium gets free fund trades.

Flexible ISA: A flexible ISA lets you withdraw and replace money within the same tax year without using up your allowance. Freetrade offers this on all plans. Bestinvest offers this too. AJ Bell and Nutmeg do not — withdraw £5,000 and that allowance is gone.

Exit fees: Most platforms charge nothing to leave. Freetrade charges £17 per US holding on transfer out. Vanguard, Fidelity, and iWeb charge nothing.

Share lending: Trading 212 lends your shares by default (you keep 50% of revenue). You can opt out, but it is worth knowing. No other major UK platform does this on ISA accounts.

Under £5,000: InvestEngine (free ETFs), Freetrade (free ISA with wider range), or Moneybox (if you want a LISA or guided investing). Avoid flat-fee platforms where even £5.99/month eats 1.4% of a £5,000 portfolio. Avoid Vanguard at this size — the £4/month minimum means you pay £48/year on £5,000, which is 0.96%.

£5,000 to £17,000: AJ Bell at 0.25% costs £12.50 to £42.50/year — competitive against the free platforms once you factor in AJ Bell's broader range (LISA, SIPP, shares, funds). Fidelity at 0.35% is pricier but has excellent fund research. Vanguard at £48/year minimum is only competitive near the top of this range.

£17,000 to £100,000: AJ Bell's share/ETF cap of £42/year kicks in above ~£17,000. At £50,000, you effectively pay 0.08%. At £100,000, just 0.04%. Interactive investor Core at £72/year is competitive for fund investors. iWeb remains the hidden gem at zero annual fee with £5 per deal.

£100,000+: AJ Bell at £42/year for shares/ETFs is the cheapest mainstream option. For fund investors, ii Core at £72 still wins over HL's £350. Vanguard caps at £375/year. HL's share cap of £150/year makes it finally competitive for large share portfolios — but still 3.5x what AJ Bell charges.

For more on this, see our ISA hub and investing hub. For the full maths on flat vs percentage fees, read our dedicated breakdown.

The £20,000 <a href="/posts/isa-season-last-chance-to-use-your-20000-isa-allowance-before-5-april-2026">ISA allowance</a> for 2025/26 expires at midnight on 5 April 2026. Unused allowance cannot be carried forward — it vanishes permanently. Since April 2024, you can split contributions across multiple ISAs of the same type, so you do not have to pick just one platform.

Practical steps: open the account this week (most platforms approve within 24–48 hours), fund it, and invest. Even if you are unsure what to buy, getting cash into the ISA wrapper preserves your allowance. You can invest later.

The difference between the cheapest and most expensive platform on a £20,000 portfolio is roughly £70/year after the 2026 fee changes. That matters over decades, but it matters far less than actually using your allowance. Pick the platform that fits your investing style, fund it before 5 April, and stop deliberating.

If you're still deciding between cash and stocks & shares, read our <a href="/posts/cash-isa-rates-ranked-the-10-best-accounts-for-202526-and-what-they-actually">Cash ISA</a> vs Savings Account guide and our ISA deadline checklist. For the full rules on ISA types and allowances, see our complete ISA guide.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. You should seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. Platform fees and features can change — always verify current terms on the provider's website. All platforms listed are authorised by the FCA and covered by the FSCS up to £85,000.