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We’re giving this one to Nutmeg. It’s much easier – their experts handle all the investing for you, whereas with Moneybox, it’s all up to you. There’s better options out there for investing and pensions, like Moneyfarm and PensionBee.
Keen to start saving or already got stacks of cash and want a new place to invest? Nutmeg and Moneybox are both good options, but they’re not quite the same.
Moneybox is what we call a budgeting app. It helps you save more than you normally would (if at all), by rounding up your spare change when you spend money (it's connected to your bank account). It then takes this cash and saves or invests for you on their app, after you decide which investments you’d like.
Nutmeg was one of the first ‘digital wealth managers’ in the UK. They handle all of the investing for you with their team of experts – you simply add one-off payments or make regular monthly payments. It’s a bit more sophisticated than Moneybox, and more suited to those already investing but want experts to handle it for them (you’ll need at least £500 to open an account).
However, with both, there are better options out there. For instance with budgeting apps, there’s Chip¹, which doesn’t just round up your spare change but automatically works out how much you could be saving each month – meaning you can normally save a lot more than Moneybox. And has a cool savings account where you could win £10,000 every month. Here’s our Chip review to learn more, and the full range of best budgeting apps.
With digital wealth managers, Nutmeg doesn’t fare too well against other options out there. We recommend Moneyfarm. It has a much better track record of investing, it’s cheaper, and you get free expert advisors to speak to if you like. We’ve reviewed Moneyfarm vs Nutmeg (and also Moneybox vs Moneyfarm). Here’s the Moneyfarm website¹ to learn even more and get started.
Still want more info on Nutmeg vs Moneybox? Let’s dive in.
Nutmeg and Moneybox are both mobile apps, on both Apple and Android, although you can also use Nutmeg on their website, which is pretty handy.
The apps themselves are good, and have great ratings – in fact, pretty much rated the same.
Moneybox has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Apple, and 4.3 on Android.
Nutmeg has a rating of 4.7 out of 5 on Apple, and 4.4 on Android.
The difference between them though, is that with Moneybox you have to make all the investment decisions yourself, which isn’t the easiest, or even a good idea if you don’t know much about investing! You’ll then need to monitor the investment performance and make any changes over time, which can add unnecessary time and stress.
With Nutmeg, their experts simply handle the investments for you, all you need to do is select which investment account you’d like to use (more on that below).
So, we’re giving this round to Nutmeg – it’s much easier. Although Nutmeg wins, it's a distant second when you compare it to Moneyfarm¹.
Winner: Nutmeg
When it comes to investing in the UK, there’s lots of different account options. We won’t get into the benefits of each one here, but here’s what both Nutmeg and Moneybox offer:
That’s pretty much the full range of investment account options you can get! Well done to both. We can’t really pick a winner out of these two here then, let's call it a draw.
Oh by the way, if you are looking to only save for a pension, we recommend checking out PensionBee¹, they only focus on pensions and make them super easy. Here’s our PensionBee review too – and if you want more options, check out the best personal pensions.
Winner: it’s a draw!
We rate Moneyfarm 5 stars – it’s managed by experts, a great investment record, cheaper and you get free advice.
Once you’ve decided which investment account you want to invest in, you’ll now need to decide where your money is actually invested.
With Nutmeg, you have 4 options:
You’ll also then need to pick a ‘risk level’, from low to high (don’t let the word risk put you off). If it's a higher risk level, you’ll have bigger ups and downs in the short-term, but the aim is to grow your money over the long-term. With lower risk, the aim is slow and steady growth over time.
The basic rule is, if you need the money in the short-term then go for a lower risk. If you are happy to save it over a long-term then choose a higher risk, you'll probably make a lot more money.
Moneybox is a bit different, you have a range of investment funds to choose from (a group of investments all combined into one).
These funds range from investing in companies across the world, or just UK companies, or things like only healthcare companies or only tech companies.
You can also buy individual stocks and shares (a tiny portion of the company, meaning you become an owner) – but only US companies, so companies like Amazon and Apple.
The range isn’t that big in general, especially when compared to other investment platforms, and some others are much cheaper. If you’re only looking to make your own investment decisions, check out the best investment platforms.
Overall then, we’re giving this one to Nutmeg. Although more options with Moneybox might sound good, if you’re not a professional investor, there’s a higher chance you might make mistakes and lose money. With Nutmeg, their experts manage it all for you.
Winner: Nutmeg
We’re big fans of socially responsible investing here at Nuts About Money. And we hope you are too!
With Nutmeg, there’s one option. So, you’ll just pick that if you want to invest responsibly. However, the investments within the portfolio aren’t the strictest in terms of meeting the recognised standards (called ESG standards – environmental, social and governance).
And more importantly, Nutmeg is actually owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the biggest banks in the world, but also one of biggest investors in fossil fuels. Which is really not cool. So we don’t count Nutmeg as being socially responsible at all.
With Moneybox, as you make the investment decisions yourself, you’ll need to find investment funds that are socially responsible. There's 10 options on the platform, so not too many, and they’re not really known as being the best out there for impact on the world.
But overall, we’ll have to give this one to Moneybox, as we can’t call Nutmeg a responsible investor.
If you only want to invest responsibly, we recommend checking out our favourite Moneyfarm and their socially responsible portfolio¹. It’s 100% compliant with ESG standards, and goes much further!
Winner: Moneybox
When it comes to the fees, the structure is quite similar, first you’ll pay a management fee directly to either Nutmeg or Moneybox, which is a percentage of your total investments, and then you’ll also pay fees on the investments themselves.
It can get quite a bit complicated with fees, so here's the end result – the winner is Nutmeg, it’s a bit cheaper and simpler to understand too (plus they have expert investors).
With Nutmeg, the management fee is:
Although if you pick the cheaper ‘fixed allocation’ option, this reduces to 0.45%.
And then you need to add the investment fees of 0.30%. So, overall you’ll be paying 1.05% per year.
With Moneybox, they have an additional fee first, which is a £1 per month subscription fee. Which is actually quite expensive if you don’t have much money saved. For instance if you have £500 saved, that’s 2.4%!
And then you’ll pay 0.45% per year on the total of your investments. (If you have over £100,000 saved in a pension, this reduces to 0.15% on anything above that.)
Then depending on which investments you choose, you’ll pay a fee which ranges from 0.12% to 0.77%. It’s unlikely you’ll have all your money in the cheapest option, so let's take the average to compare, which is 0.45%.
And if you want to buy stocks and shares, it’s an extra 0.45% as a foreign exchange fee, everytime you buy.
So that’s 0.90% on average with Moneybox, plus any fees for stocks, plus the £1 fee – which even if you have £5,000 saved is still 0.24% per year. That gives a rough total of 1.14% per year, but ultimately depends on which investments you have.
Overall, there’s not a huge amount in it, but we’re giving this one to Nutmeg. It’s slightly cheaper and much simpler to understand. Plus, their experts handle the investments for you, which adds a lot of value.
Winner: Nutmeg
We like to look at customer reviews to get a good indication of the customer service and overall customer satisfaction. To do this we use the popular reviews website, Trustpilot.
Nutmeg has a score of just 3.6 out of 5, from over 1,000 reviews. That’s low compared to others. There’s a lot of complaints about the bad investment performance and bad service, although the app itself gets good reviews.
With Moneybox, they have an excellent rating of 4.5 out of 5, from over 1,000 reviews. There’s a lot of reviews about the Lifetime ISA and how it’s helping people save for their first home, but good reviews on the app itself.
There’s a clear winner here – Moneybox.
Winner: Moneybox
Overall then, it’s a pretty close one, but we’re giving it to Nutmeg.
With Nutmeg, their experts handle all the investing for you, you don’t need to do a thing. Just add your money.
With Moneybox, it’s all up to you. You make the investment decisions. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, it’s probably not the best idea.
Plus, Nutmeg actually comes in a bit cheaper, even with experts managing your money.
They both have Lifetime ISAs to help you save for your first home (25% bonus), which is great, and this is where most of the good customer reviews come from (there’s not many Lifetime ISAs out there). But if you don’t want a Lifetime ISA, we wouldn’t recommend using either. There’s better options out there.
We recommend Moneyfarm¹ for investing (and pensions), alongside PensionBee¹ for pensions. You really can’t go wrong with both, they provide great service, and you can speak to expert advisors. Plus, they’re both cheaper than Nutmeg and Moneybox!
We rate Moneyfarm 5 stars – it’s managed by experts, a great investment record, cheaper and you get free advice.
We rate Moneyfarm 5 stars – it’s managed by experts, a great investment record, cheaper and you get free advice.
We rate Moneyfarm 5 stars – it’s managed by experts, a great investment record, cheaper and you get free advice.
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.
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
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 rate Moneyfarm 5 stars – it’s managed by experts, a great investment record, cheaper and you get free advice.