Which platform should you use?
I’ve conducted a vigorous review of over 25 investment websites (or “platforms” as they are called). My review looks for platforms that:
- Provide a broad range of low-cost funds — the most important factor
- Charge low fees — the second-most important factor
- Allow you to set up tax-efficient investments through ISAsAn Individual Savings Account — a tax-efficient account for saving or investing, up to an annual allowance. and SIPPsA Self-Invested Personal Pension — a type of pension that lets you choose your own investments. — the third-most important factor
Click here to see the process I used to judge the platforms.
Scroll down the page to see the reviews of all 25 platforms in descending order.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name changed its pricing schedule recently, earning its place at the top of the tree according to my analysis for simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios. It covers all eight of my model portfolio asset classes and charges no platform or trading fees. Yep, none. The only fees you pay are the Ongoing Charges FigureThe yearly cost of running a fund, shown as a percentage of your money invested. The fund charges this automatically — the platform doesn’t. which work out at roughly £19 a year for smaller portfoliosI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £157 a year for larger portfoliosI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. That’s a very attractive offering.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name gets the “8 out of 8” recognition for fund range but only offers one of the low-cost funds in my selection for the asset class, Alternatives: Property funds. But it does offer plenty of funds in the other seven asset classes I use. Total fees are among the cheapest for both smallerI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and largerI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year. portfolios at around £20 and £168 a year respectively. Another very solid offering.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
You’d be forgiven for expecting a platform called Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name to charge a lot and encourage too much buying and selling. In fact, it’s a really good offering. It covers all eight asset classes using ETFs only (no mutual funds) and charges no platform or dealing fees. The only cost to the investor is the Ongoing Charges FigureThe yearly cost of running a fund, shown as a percentage of your money invested. The fund charges this automatically — the platform doesn’t.. That matches the cheapest platform I’ve reviewed at £19 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and is even a mite cheaper at £156 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. That’s the lowest of any platform I’ve reviewed. You can set up both a SIPP and an ISA here. The one thing that kept it from the top spot was its charging when you deposit money using anything other than a direct bank transfer. I understand why they do that — it costs them card fees and they have to run anti-money-laundering checks. But I’d rather they didn’t charge it.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 13 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name deserves credit for a genuinely simple, easy-to-use website. On top of that, it offers a decent selection of low-cost funds, working out at roughly £89 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £357 a year for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year. — in stark contrast to several of its fellow banking-sector platforms.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 12 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name covers all eight asset classes, but the website experience isn’t great. I used the “screener” to find which funds are available. The results seemed limited, so I did a few searches for individual funds using their ISINs. This revealed a good range of low-cost funds, working out at roughly £55 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £427 a year for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. However, the pricing structure itself is opaque — what I could fathom is that it’s not terribly competitive.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name covers all eight asset classes in full with fees that are comfortably below average. A smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. would incur a total cost of around £87 a year, while a larger oneI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year. would be in the region of £224. This is a solid offering with nothing in particular to get excited about, and that’s no bad thing.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name offers fewer low-cost Global Corporate Bonds funds than most rivals but still manages to cover all eight of my simple, low-cost, diversified model portfolios’ asset classes. Total fees and costs run a little high for smaller portfoliosI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. at roughly £137 a year and £410 a year for larger onesI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. All in all, it’s another solid platform with a good offering.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Improved offerings from other platforms in the past couple of years have pushed Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name off the top spot of my ratings. It continues to cover all eight asset classes in depth, easily allowing every one of my model portfolios to be built. Total fees are middling for smaller portfoliosI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. at roughly £124 a year and climb to around £627 a year for larger portfoliosI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. It needs to keep an eye on its fee structure if it’s not going to be left behind.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name covers all eight asset classes in depth. However, total fees run above average, costing roughly £179 a year for smaller portfoliosI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and around £573 a year for larger onesI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. What is worth recognition is this platform’s shift from a complacent, over-priced, actively-managed-only offering to one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use platforms, a process that was launched around 15 years ago. It’s a big ship, and whoever’s steering it now has done well to turn its UK retail offering around.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name has what appears to me to be the broadest coverage of funds among UK platforms. However, it’s expensive and I’ve always found its pricing to be convoluted and semi-hidden. A smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. charges a total cost of around £183 a year, while a larger oneI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year. costs around £828 a year. Aside from the costs, I’d like it to be less shouty about its own recommended fund list, which seems to have more to do with making money for itself than growing its customers’ investments.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name’s range of low-cost funds is limited. Most of what it offers does not pass my cost tests. Where I could find qualifying funds, fees were relatively high. Total fees are roughly £149 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and a massive £1,242 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. You can invest through an ISA or a SIPP, but with those fees, why would you?
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 11 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name offers a good range of funds but charges too much. An annual 0.30% fee starts from a minimum of £60 and a maximum of £600, way more than the more competitive alternatives. A SIPP account also attracts an admin fee if your combined balance is under £30,000. On top of that, they hit you for transferring funds out or withdrawing money.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name covers just three of the eight asset classes needed to build my low-cost, diversified portfolios here. It has commission-free dealing but the platform fees are complicated compared to other platforms; you pay either a 0.25% annual fee or a flat £5.99 a month with its premium tier, whichever is cheaper for your portfolio size. Total fees work out at roughly £66 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £220 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. The first 12 months are free on either plan, but that quickly becomes irrelevant. The other major drawback, aside from lack of fund choice, is that you can’t set up a SIPP. It’s an apparently simple offering but not one that meets my criteria.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 11 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name throws a lot of money at marketing, including incentivising people to promote it. As a result, you’ve probably seen it advertised all over the place and even ‘recommended’. I can’t recommend it, firstly because it promotes high-risk trading that’s akin to gambling for most long-term retail investors. Secondly, because you can’t open a SIPP. And, thirdly, because its ISA is run by Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name which means I can’t construct any of my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
What would this platform’s own founder, a pioneer of low-cost index investing, say now if he saw it today? The UK platform only offers its own funds as far as I could see. There are around 70 available, not counting ready-made portfolios (which I don’t like because they tend to charge too much in fees and don’t adopt the overall market view of the future that I’ve emulated with my model portfolios). What’s more, it’s missing two of the eight asset classes required to build all of my simple, low-cost, diversified model portfolios (namely, Global Government Bonds and Alternatives: Property). It gets worse — some of its cheapest funds do not appear in search results; you can only find them by searching for their ISIN directly. Others appear to have been removed from public view entirely. Fees are charged at roughly £77 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £645 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. You can invest through an ISA or a SIPP, but I’d look elsewhere.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name’s offering is fairly opaque. It insists on pitching to you before you can find out what’s on offer in full. I managed to find a tiny range of expensive funds on its website that would not allow me to create my own simple, low-cost, diversified portfolio. There’s an ongoing platform fee of 0.25% which works out at around £75 for a smaller portfolio before other charges are added on, and £625 for a £250,000 portfolio before other fees are added (such as the annual £180 charge for having a SIPPA Self-Invested Personal Pension. A tax-efficient way to invest for retirement.). This platform appears to be an add-on service for folk who turn down its expensive, managed service. In short, it doesn’t appear to be aiming at folk who want to keep things simple and inexpensive.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name only offers ready-made portfolios, so you can’t build any of my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios. It charges 0.35% a year as its platform fee, which combines with other charges to total around £105 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and £875 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. A further drawback is that you cannot set up a SIPP. You can invest through an ISA, but I want to keep the costs down and the choice up — this one does things the other way around.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name is a managed investment service which I don’t like because I can’t set up my simple, low-cost, diversified funds that emulate what the market in general is anticipating. And, as is so often the case with “managed” or “give us your money and we’ll decide” offerings, the fees are much too high. Its passive-portfolio fees run to around 0.62% a year in total, on its own figures. The platform fee is tiered and falls slightly for larger portfolios. Total fees work out at roughly £186 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and a colossal £1,550 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. It trades on offering an apparently simple solution. It might be simple. It’s definitely expensive.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 11 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name splits its offering in two: one service that’s cheap for smaller portfolios but funds-only, and another that adds ETFs but isn’t competitive unless you’re investing a lot. It’s a confusing structure. It’s also missing one of my eight asset classes, so you can’t build all of my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios. Finally, they don’t offer a SIPP but they do charge to withdraw funds.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name doesn’t include any low-cost funds from my UK Corporate Bonds list, which scuppers the construction of many of my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios. Of the 36 funds available in the ISA, only a handful qualify as low-cost. Just 12 of those funds can be held in the SIPP. It charges a hefty 0.45% a year as its platform fee. Total fees work out at roughly £135 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and a painful £1,125 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. It offers an ISA and a SIPP, but at those prices, I think not.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name is another managed investment service that prevents you from creating any of my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios. Its all-in management fee is 0.60% a year. Fees are charged at roughly £180 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and an eye-watering £1,500 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. Like other managed services on this list, it’s growing your money for its own benefit. Find a more competitive alternative.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 11 days ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name demands that you open an account before they’ll tell you what funds are available. That’s a big red flag for me. You shouldn’t have to commit to something before you know what you’re committing to. It smacks of a provider that just wants to target customers in the hope that they won’t compare what’s available elsewhere. As a result, it gets a zero score for fund range. It does offer a SIPP and an ISA, but with what?
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: 2 weeks ago.
This is another offering that purports to be simple but is, in my opinion, expensive and confusing. You can’t build my simple, low-cost, diversified portfolios with Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name, and its pricing is confusing. The cheapest ISA-eligible plan costs £3.99 a month. It charges a 0.45% annual fee, minus a 0.15% rebate. That rebate goes into a separate cash account when it would be better re-invested in the ISA. Higher plans lower the fee but raise the subscription, up to £14.99 a month on the top plan. Costs do not fall in a predictable way as you move up. On the entry plan, fees are charged at roughly £207 a year for a smaller portfolioI’ve averaged the cost for a £10,000 portfolio including eight trades a year and a £50,000 portfolio including 16 trades a year. and a whopping £1,375 for a larger portfolioI’ve assumed a £250,000 portfolio including 32 trades a year.. So, it’s both confusing and expensive.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: more than 12 months ago.
Reasonable fund selection but a painful user experience. From what I could see, and I spent A LOT of time trawling through the website, Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name only includes peer/competitor funds when Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name itself doesn’t provide a similar product. Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name’s products tended toward the expensive. If you have the patience and tenacity, you can go through the tedious process of getting to the fund selection and searching for the funds you want. I could not get the website to return any results for ISINs or full fund names. I had to keep abbreviating the name before sifting through the funds. At the end of this online torture, I found that Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name does have a half-decent fund selection. But add in the mediocre pricing that gets less competitive the more you invest, why bother?
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name
Last reviewed: more than 12 months ago.
Join or Login to Reveal Platform Name more or less failed across the board of my needs. It offers a limited range of expensive funds, requires the user to set up an account to see what funds are on offer, and does not offer a SIPP. It offers “Over 1,000 funds” of which around 820 charge more than the maximum 0.20% OCF I look for on most of the funds included in my low-cost portfolios. The platform fees are average.