The Cheapest Way to Buy Shares: UK 2026 Platform Fees Compared (Free Trading)

Updated for 2026 🏅

Introduction

This is a question we get asked a lot, and it’s one area in which we’ve come on leaps and bounds. More competition among brokerages means that there has never been more pressure for providers to offer competitive pricing for share purchases in the UK. 

As a result, unsurprisingly buying shares has never been cheaper in the UK. In fact, commission-free platforms now dominate. So surely they’re the cheapest, right?

Well, not quite. “Free” paradoxically isn’t always cheapest as hidden fees matter. There are different things you can get charged for: stamp duty, FX charges, platform fees and more.

This guide shows you the actual costs across all major UK platforms. Choosing the wrong one could cost you £500 / year on a £10,000 portfolio. You’ll get platform comparisons, hidden cost breakdowns and real examples to find the cheapest option for your personal situation.

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Quick Answer: What's the Cheapest Platform

Just to give you an idea, here’s a super quick overview. What is the cheapest platform? Well, the short answer is that it depends. In general, the more you’re investing and the less trades you’re making, the cheaper platforms become. 

At the beginning of your journey while you’re not investing a huge amount of money, you’ll want to choose platforms with low monthly charges: on a percentage basis, these will make up far too much of your investment to be reasonable. 

If you’re an active trader, you’ll want to optimise for low transaction fees, as you will be making more transactions than most people. 

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• For beginner investors (£100-500/month): Freetrade. £0 trading fees, free ISA & SIPP, no monthly charges. Only cost: 0.5% stamp duty on UK shares.
• For active traders (10+ trades / month): Trading 212. Completely free trading, £0 platform fees, lowest FX rate (0.15%). Perfect for frequent trades.
• For larger portfolios (£50,000+): Interactive Investor. Flat £5.99-£14.99/month beats percentage fees. A £100k portfolio costs £72/year vs £350/year at Hargreaves Lansdown.
• For international shares (US/EU stocks): Trading 212. Just 0.15% FX fee vs 0.75%-1% elsewhere. Save £32.50 on a £5,000 US stock purchase vs Hargreaves Lansdown.

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Of course, this is simplified to give you a quick glance. If that’s enough, you can stop here - if not, we’ll continue on to detailed fee breakdowns and real cost examples.

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Understand Share Dealing Fees (The Full Picture)

What makes comparisons somewhat confusing is that you’re not always comparing apples to apples. Different platforms structure their fees differently and have different names for them, making it challenging to know what you’re paying for. 

Before we compare platforms in more detail, let’s break down the types of fees and look at what you’re actually being charged for. 

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Trading Commission (The Obvious One)

‍This is the fee charged each time you buy or sell shares. These have gradually been reducing with new entrants into the market, with most platforms like Freetrade & Trading 212 now offering £0 commission on UK shares
Traditional brokers do however, often still charge these: expect to pay £4-7 / trade with Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown and others. So what does that look like in practice? Well, if you invest £500 / month into two stocks, that’s 24 trades a year. At £6.95 per trade, you’re paying £167 / year in just trading fees. So be careful, they stack up!‍

Platform/Account Fees (The Sneaky One)

‍Some platforms have ongoing fees simply for holding your investments on their platform, regardless of size or activity. This can be charged either monthly, or as a percentage of your portfolio.
Interactive Investor is an example of the former, charging £5.99-£39.99 / month for an account. This is better for large portfolios, where the flat fee is swallowed up more easily. Percentage fee accounts include AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown, and range from 0.25%-0.45%/year. These are better for small portfolios where the real £ impact is negligible. Be very wary of percentage fees - over time they can make a huge difference to your portfolio if left unchecked.

On a £50k portfolio, for example, you’d pay £71.88/year flat fee with Interactive Investor and £175/year (0.35%) with Hargreaves Lansdown. This is a £103 difference, which grows rapidly as your portfolio grows.

The breakeven point is around £20k: once your portfolio surpasses this, you’d be better off with a flat fee than a percentage fee. At £100k, the savings become dramatic: £120/year with Interactive Investor vs £350 with Hargreaves Lansdown.

‍FX (Foreign Exchange) Fees (The Hidden One)

‍When you buy non-UK shares (e.g. US or European stocks), you have to pay the currency conversion fee in order to make the purchase in whatever currency the stock is denoted in.
These generally range from about 0.15% (Trading 212) to 1% (Hargreaves Lansdown on your first £5k). This means that on say, £5,000 of Apple stock, you’d pay a £7.50 FX fee with Trading 212 or £50 with Hargreaves Lansdown! This is something people rarely check for so it’s important to remember it. In this example you would have paid an extra £42 for the exact same shares.

‍Stamp Duty (The Government One)‍

Stamp Duty is a tax that’s levied by the government on purchases of certain types of property, including shares. The government charge 0.5% on share purchases (not sales and also not on ETFs). This is inescapable and non-negotiable. A purchase of £1,000 on UK shares would cost you £5 in stamp duty. Every platform charges this equally and automatically, so there’s nothing you can really do about it.

ISA vs Non-ISA. Does it affect fees?

‍Everyone in the UK has a £20k per year ISA allowance, in which you are free to purchase stocks and shares. These are fully exempt from capital gains tax on sale and income tax on dividends, which is incredibly useful for building wealth. But what about the fees?
Well, most platforms charge the same fees whether you use an ISA or GIA (General Investment Account). There are one or two exceptions: Hargreaves Lansdown caps ISA fees at £150/year for shares (vs £200). Freetrade and some others retain their free structure into ISAs and SIPPs.
What you’ll find is that with the tax protection, any tax savings will dwarf fee differences.

So now you have some idea what exactly you’re paying for, we can move onto how the actual platforms stack up against each other.

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Platform by Platform Breakdown

1. FreeTrade: Best for Beginners

Key Fees (2026):

• Trading commission: £0
• Platform fee:
  
  • Basic: £0/month
  • Standard: £5.99/month
  • Plus: £9.99/month
• FX fee:
  
  • Basic: 0.99%
  • Standard: 0.59%
  • Plus: 0.39%
• ISA: FREE (as of Jan 2026 - this is a big change!)
• SIPP: FREE (as of Jan 2026 - this is also a change, previously required paid plan)
• Investment range: 6,500+ stocks & ETFs

Key Selling Point: This is the only platform in our list with completely free ISA + SIPP on the Basic plan. This makes it a great place to get started. It’s also one of the simpler and more intuitive platforms.

Major Drawback: There isn’t too much to complain about here, although if we’re being picky, it has higher FX fees than Trading 212 (0.99% vs 0.15%). This is relevant if you’re purchasing individual stocks abroad.

Sweet Spot: UK-focused investors, £100-£500/month, long-term buy & hold. Simple as that really!

2. TRADING 212 - Best for Active Traders

Key Fees (2026):

• Trading commission: £0
• Platform fee: £0
• FX fee: 0.15% (this is the lowest in the market!)
• ISA: FREE
• SIPP: Not offered
• Investment range: 12,000+ stocks & ETFs
• Deposit fees: First £2,000 free, then 0.7% on card deposits

Key Selling Point: Trading 212 is well known for having by far the lowest FX fees. The fact that it's completely free means it comes out easily the winner for frequent traders & buying US stocks. Take note advanced investors or those whose strategy is very active.

Major Drawback: The one drawback of Trading212 is that there is no SIPP option (pension investors must therefore look elsewhere). There is some fatigue too in having multiple platforms active so be wary of this.

Sweet Spot: Trading 212 is the best for active traders, US stock investors, or really anyone who makes 10+ trades/month.

3. HARGREAVES LANSDOWN - Best for Comprehensive Service

Key Fees (2026 - NEW PRICING from March 1):

• Trading commission:
  
  • £6.95/trade (down from £11.95!)
  • Reduces to £5.95 for 20+ trades/month
• Platform fee: 0.35%/year (down from 0.45%)
  
  • Capped at £150/year for shares in ISA
  • Capped at £150/year for shares in SIPP
• Fund trading: £1.95/trade (NEW - was free)
• FX fee: Tiered structure
  
  • 1% on first £5,000
  • 0.75% on next £5,000
  • 0.50% on next £10,000
  • 0.25% above £20,000
• ISA: No extra fee (included in 0.35%)
• SIPP: No extra fee (included in 0.35%)
• Investment range: 3,000+ funds, extensive UK/international shares

Key Selling Point: Hargreaves Lansdown has by far the best research (although note that you can use this without depositing funds into an account).

It also has the most hand-holding and a very trusted brand in the market. This is important for those who value peace of mind the highest, although this does come at a premium. It also has a huge range of investments, eclipsing the others on this front.

Major Drawback: We love it but it’s just very expensive vs zero-fee platforms (0.35% + £6.95 trades quickly adds up)

Sweet Spot: Hargreaves Lansdown is a good option for £10k-£50k portfolios, investors who value research & support and fund investors where the fees aren’t exorbitant. Once you surpass £50k the fees on a % basis become very hard to justify. If you’re planning on passing this in the near future, you’ll probably want to start somewhere else to avoid having to change providers down the line.

INTERACTIVE INVESTOR - Best for Large Portfolios (£50k+)

Key Fees (2026 - NEW PRICING from Feb 1):

• Core Plan (£5.99/month = £71.88/year):
  
  • Investment limit: Up to £100,000
  • UK/US trades: £3.99
  • International trades: £9.99
  • FX fee: 0.75%
• Plus Plan (£14.99/month = £179.88/year):
  
  • Investment limit: Unlimited
  • UK/US trades: £3.99
  • International trades: £7.99
  • Fund trades: £1.49
  • FX fee: 0.75% on first £50k, then 0.25%
  • 1 free trade/month
  • Free family accounts (up to 5)
• Premium Plan (£39.99/month = £479.88/year):
  
  • Investment limit: Unlimited
  • UK/US trades: £2.99
  • International trades: £5.99
  • Fund trades: FREE
  • FX fee: 0.25% flat
  • 2 free trades/month
  • Unlimited free family accounts
• ISA: Included in all plans
• SIPP: Included in all plans
• Investment range: 17,000+ investments across 17 global exchanges

Key Selling Point: Flat fees beat % fees on portfolios above ~£20k-£30k. This is an example of fees being particularly sensitive to portfolio size, so pay attention both to what your portfolio is worth now and what it might grow to.

Major Drawback: Interactive investor is not suitable for small portfolios (there is a £72/year minimum even on £5k portfolio). This means that for small portfolio values, the amount you’ll be paying on a % basis is just unreasonably high.

Sweet Spot: Where Interactive Investor comes into its own is in £50k-£500k portfolios, multiple account holders (family plans), or fund investors on Plus/Premium. To illustrate this point, let’s do a breakeven calculation against Hargreaves Lansdown on a £20k, £50k and £100k portfolio.

Breakeven Calculations:

• £20,000 portfolio: ii Core (£72/year) vs HL (£70/year) = roughly equal
• £50,000 portfolio: ii Core (£72/year) vs HL (£175/year) = Save £103/year‍
• £100,000 portfolio: ii Core (£72/year) vs HL (£350/year) = Save £278/year

The Best of the Rest

AJ Bell - Middle Ground Option

• Platform fee: 0.25%/year (cheaper than HL)
• Capped at: £3.50/month (ISA/GIA), £10/month (SIPP)
• Trading: £5/trade (or £3.50 for 10+ trades/month)
• FX fee: 0.75% → 0.25% tiered
• Best for: Those who want cheaper than HL but more support than zero-fee platforms

IG - For Advanced Traders

• Trading: £8/trade
• Platform fee: £0
• FX fee: ~0.5%
• Best for: CFD traders, advanced charting, experienced investors

Saxo - For Serious Traders

• Platform fee: Tiered (complex pricing)
• Trading: From £3/trade

Best for: Professional investors, international diversification, advanced tools

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