Is Freetrade now the best platform for UK investors?

Account overviews

Plan	Stocks & shares ISA	SIPP	FX fee	Interest on uninvested cash
Basic (free)	✅	✅	0.99%	1% up to £1,000
Standard (£59.88 per year)	✅	✅	0.59%	2.5% up to £2,000
Plus (£119.88 per year)	✅	✅	0.39%	3.5% up to £3,000

FX fee comparison on shares

Broker	ISA FX fee
Freetrade	0.99%*
Trading 212	0.15%
Lightyear	0.10%
AJ Bell	0.75%** + £5 per trade
Hargreaves Lansdown	1%**
Fidelity	0.75%** + £7.50 per trade
Vanguard	Fund only platform, no FX
InvestEngine	Fund only platform, no FX

A fresh look at Freetrade

Freetrade was founded in 2016 with the goal of making investing simple and accessible for everyone. Since then, it's grown to host over 1.6 million users, helped along by its clean, beginner-friendly app and commission-free trading.

However, hidden behind all that simplicity were some frustrating realities: a paywall for ISA access, high FX fees, and a surprisingly unfinished web app you had to pay to use.

Since being bought out by investment giant IG in 2025, however, the platform has been steadily rolling back restrictions and sharpening its offer to better compete with the rest of the market.

In 2025, Freetrade made stocks & shares ISAs available on its free Basic plan. Before this change, you'd be paying £5.99 a month just to access the ISA. If you were only investing £100 a month, that's an almost 6% fee before you've even bought a fund.

Over the course of a year, that means you'd have been handing over nearly £72 in fees on just £1,200 of investment.

So, making access free was a very welcome move in the right direction. 

Now, Freetrade has gone further still. From 22 January 2026, customers on the Basic (free) plan can open a SIPP and trade gilts and mutual funds – all without upgrading.

That combination gives Freetrade a genuine edge most platforms can't match...

Account types and fund choices: how Freetrade stacks up

Platform	Stocks & shares ISA	SIPP	GIA
Freetrade	✅	✅	✅
InvestEngine	✅	✅	✅
Prosper	✅	✅	✅
Trading 212	✅	❌	✅
Lightyear	✅	❌	✅

Platform	ETFs	Mutual funds	Gilts	Shares	Ready-made portfolios	Fractional shares
Freetrade	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
InvestEngine	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Prosper	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
Trading 212	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Lightyear	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌

As you can see, Freetrade doesn't just cover the full range of investment accounts – it now also offers a broader spread of investment options and supports fractional shares, which some low-cost rivals such as Lightyear still don't do.

The ability to trade mutual funds and gilts is especially notable for a neobroker. In the past, investors have typically had to turn to more traditional platforms – and accept higher fees – to invest in these assets.

On the Basic plan, just like its closest rivals, Freetrade doesn't charge any account or trading fees. The only place you'd potentially be able to invest for cheaper is Prosper, because they offer fund fee rebates on a small selection of ETFs.

For hands-off investors, Freetrade also lets you pick from a selection of three ready-made portfolios, ranging from conservative to adventurous, built from Vanguard LifeStrategy funds.

Platform experience

The Freetrade brand had a bit of a facelift a couple of years back, with an updated look and feel that was rolled out across their Android and iOS apps in 2025. It still maintains its clean aesthetic and great functionality that makes browsing and investing extremely simple for people of all experience levels.

After a bit of exploring, you can do everything you'd expect from an investment app, from placing trades to viewing popular funds to exploring across sectors.

Despite being around for nearly a decade now, Freetrade only launched their web interface in 2022.

Even then, it was still in the Beta phase, and only available for Plus users. It was something we made a point of grumbling about in a previous review. Now, it's open to all users, and includes all of the same functionalities that you'll find on the app.

Basic plan users now also have access to advanced order types, including limit, stop and triggered orders.

Investment choice

Freetrade offers access to over 6,500 stocks and funds.

That's fewer than Trading 212's 13,000 but far more than InvestEngine's ETF-only lineup of around 850. It also beats Hargreaves Lansdown's 4,000 options and leaves Vanguard's 88 options looking positively minimalist. 

For most investors - especially those just getting started - Freetrade's selection easily covers the essentials without drowning you in choice.

Where Freetrade falls (slightly) short

Hefty FX fees

FX fees come into play whenever you buy investments priced in a different currency.

On Freetrade's basic plan, this is 0.99%. This can be reduced if you opt for the Standard or Plus plans, where FX fees are 0.59% and 0.39%, respectively.

This tier-based benefit doesn’t offer much value here, as even the Plus account's 0.39% fee isn’t the most competitive.

By comparison, Trading 212's FX fee is 0.15% across the board, and Lightyear's is 0.10%.

Interest on uninvested cash

Users across all plans can earn interest on uninvested cash – a feature only offered by a handful of other brokers.

However, to benefit from this, you would of course need to have cash sitting idle in your investment account, which isn't exactly what it's designed for.

At the time of publishing this review, the interest rates are:

• 1.00% on the Basic (free) plan up to £1k
• 2.5% on the Standard (£4.99/month) plan up to £2k
• 3.5% on the Plus (£9.99/month) plan up to £3k.

For free users, investors will get a higher interest rate with the likes of Trading 212, who currently offer 4.05%.

While interest on cash is a nice bonus, it's likely not the main concern of investors whose goal is to keep their money in the market. 

And with the government looking to put a stop to "cash-like" products inside investment accounts, who can say if this will even be relevant in the future?

Analysis tools reserved for paid users

Finally, Freetrade withholds some data available on different funds and shares for paid users only. This mainly applies to analyst ratings and estimates, which is a feature that basically gives you a vibe check on how experts are feeling about a particular stock or fund. 

Again, unlikely to be a big deal for long-term investors, or if you're putting your money into something like an index fund you intend to hold for the foreseeable future.

Tiered customer support

Customer support on Freetrade remains divided by plan. Only Plus subscribers get access to "priority" service, while Basic and Standard users have to make do with bog-standard "basic" support.

Freetrade says priority support means faster response times, a dedicated team, longer hours (6am–9pm), and in-app chat.

They don't make it particularly clear how this differs from basic customer service, but there are plenty of ways to get in touch with them through email and there is an AI chat function in the app.

Standard and Plus plans remain affordable for large balances

If you really wanted a higher rate of interest on your uninvested cash or a reduced FX fee, you might consider opting for Freetrade's Standard or Plus plans.

This option can still be fairly cost-effective for larger sums.

If you're investing in ETFs priced in GBP (£) within the UK, and your investment balance has a value of £125,000, you’d be paying Freetrade an effective annual fee of 0.05% on the Standard plan (£59.88). This shrinks to 0.01% when investing £500,000 in the same way.

Plan	£5,000 in ETFs	£125,000 in ETFs	£50,000 in ETFs
Basic (free)	0%	0%	0%
Standard (£59.88 per year)	1.2%	0.05%	0.01%

This is lower than the likes of Vanguard, where you’d pay 0.15% (capped at £375), and much lower than competitors like Hargreaves Lansdown (0.45% on the first £250,000, then 0.25% up to £1m).

The question would be whether it's really worth it, when you can find both lower FX fees and higher rates of interest on uninvested cash elsewhere.

💡If you're shopping around for brokers, give our broker comparison tool a try

Our verdict on Freetrade in 2026

Freetrade's decision to make its stocks & shares ISA free on the Basic plan – alongside opening up SIPPs, mutual funds and gilts – firmly puts it in the conversation for best all-round investment platform in the UK.

It's a rare combination of genuinely low costs, broad account choice and investment flexibility, without the usual pressure to upgrade.

There are still a few small trade-offs. FX fees remain higher than some rivals, and interest paid on uninvested cash is on the low side. But for long-term investors – particularly those investing regularly rather than trading frequently – neither is likely to make a meaningful dent in overall returns.

Top it all off with a clean, intuitive app and a well-designed desktop platform, and the appeal becomes even clearer. Freetrade keeps the focus firmly on investing, without the clutter, noise or feature overload you'll find elsewhere. This makes it especially well-suited to investors who value simplicity, transparency and staying the course.

Disclaimer: we are an affiliate of Freetrade and have genuinely used their service when investing. We decided not to include affiliate links in this review. Our opinions are never impacted by affiliate referrals – brokers offer far bigger commissions than Freetrade do. Read our advertising disclosure for more information.

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