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If you’re after alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown, check out InvestEngine - it’s completely fee-free but limited to ETFs. eToro stands out for its excellent and commission free trading platform, Interactive Investor caters to portfolios over £30,000, while Moneyfarm provides expert-managed, hands-off investing.
Hargreaves Lansdown is a great traditional stock broker, but is it the right option for you? Could there be alternatives? Yes, yes there are alternatives!
Hargreaves Lansdown is the most popular broker in the UK – and by quite a distance, with over 1.9 million customers looking after 155 billion pounds. It’s often the first choice for many people, as it’s trustworthy with a great reputation and solid history.
And it’s a hard investment platform to move away from, it has a huge range of investment options and investment account options (such as a Stocks & Shares ISA and personal pension). Learn more about a General Investment Account vs ISA.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best, it’s actually one of the most expensive broker out there. And when it comes to investing, Hargreaves Lansdown fees can add up fast. Let’s take a look at the alternatives:
Here’s the cheapest alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown:
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Free welcome bonus from £20 to £100
InvestEngine is great for investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). That’s all they do – and they're very good at it.
It's so low cost, there's in fact no InvestEngine fees at all (to make your own investments).
And for the experts to manage your investments, it's only 0.25% per year.
There's a great range of ETFs (over 700), and the app is pretty great too.
eToro is one of the best investment platforms out there - and is by far the most popular, with over 30 million customers.
Why? eToro is very low cost (commission-free stocks), easy to use, and has lots of awesome trading features. There's also a community of other traders to learn from and even copy.
It’s also got the largest range of assets to trade and invest in – including stocks, ETFs, crypto, CFDs, currencies and commodities (such as gold).
Get £100 free trades
Interactive Investor is a popular investment platform with a flat fee, making it a cheap option if you have over £30,000 of investments. There’s a huge range to choose from, their website and apps are great and their customer service is excellent.
We've reviewed and rated the best investment platforms in the UK.
If you don’t regularly buy and sell investments (trade), or manage your own portfolio – perhaps you just let Hargreaves Lansdown invest your money for you with their ready-made portfolios. Well then, you’ve got plenty of options for alternatives where the experts handle everything for you, there’s no need to use a stock broker like Hargreaves Lansdown, you can save money on fees, and potentially get a bigger investment return too.
Here’s the best options:
We've reviewed and rated the best investment platforms in the UK.
Moneyfarm is a great option for saving and investing (both ISAs and pensions). It's easy to use and their experts can help you with any questions or guidance you need.
They have one of the top performing investment records, and great socially responsible investing options too. Plus, you can save cash and get a high interest rate.
The fees are low, and reduce as you save more. Plus, the customer service is outstanding.
Free welcome bonus from £20 to £100
InvestEngine offers a very low cost way to manage your savings - and their experts handle everything. It's just 0.25% per year (account fee).
The track record is great, and you can manage everything on your mobile (if you want to).
There's a low minimum investment of £100, and you'll be able to save and invest within a tax-free Stocks & Shares ISA too, so your money can grow faster.
You can also make your own investments alongside, and all for free (ETFs only).
Hargreaves Lansdown are good overall, they’re fairly easy to use and the customer support is great, but the fees are expensive. There’s no harm in trying other platforms to see what you think!
By the way, you don’t have to have just one investing account, you can use as many investment platforms as you like.
You’ll have to pay Capital Gains Tax on your profits, but only if they exceed £3,000 within a tax year (April 6th to April 5th the following year).
So there we go, there’s our best alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown – all really great platforms. Let’s have a quick recap:
If you’re just interested in buying investment funds (ETFs), then InvestEngine¹ is for you – it's completely fee free, with a good range of funds.
If you’re just looking for short term trading – check out eToro¹, it’s commission free and a great platform. Plus you can copy other people’s trades.
And if you’ve got a slightly bigger portfolio than average (over £30,000), then you can benefit from some of the cheapest fees around with Interactive Investor¹ and their fixed fee option.
If you want the experts to handle things for you, there’s some great options. Our favourite is Moneyfarm¹, which handles everything for you for a great fee.
And we’ve got a lot more options for you too, if you’d like to do a bit more research. Check out our best investment platforms UK, best investment apps UK and best trading platforms UK. Oh, and if you're looking for a pension – here's the best private pension providers UK.
Happy investing!
We've reviewed and rated the best investment platforms in the UK.
Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.
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We're experts in all things investing, with many years of combined experience writing and talking about investing and trading. Some of our team were top financial advisors. We understand and love helping people learn more about both short term trading and investing for the long term – investing can be a great way to grow your money over time.
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We've reviewed and rated the best investment platforms in the UK.