Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to get us out of cash and make us a nation of investors to help boost our wealth and the wider UK economy. But for curious savers new to the world of investing, knowing the what, why and how of getting started can be the first hurdle. A good place to enter the investing world is to find the right investment platform for beginners.
Investment platforms, also known as fund supermarkets, let you choose from a range of investments, including funds, shares and bonds.
Some investment platforms are aimed at investors who have financial advisers and others cater for investors who are ‘self-directed’, or prepared to make the decisions on their own.
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If you have a financial adviser, they will choose a platform for you. But self-directed “DIY” investors will find there are more than 30 investment platforms to choose from.
If you’re still weighing up investing vs saving our article can help. Our beginners guide on how to invest is also a must-read.
Best investment platforms for beginners in the UK
1. Bestinvest – Best for coaching support
Starting any new project can feel like stumbling around in the dark. Bestinvest stands out for making its experts available to anyone who needs them to help shine a light on investing.
The platform provides free investment coaching (worth up to a few hundred pounds if you sourced it separately) with its qualified financial planners. This makes it perfect for beginners who want some support while starting out.
A free 45-minute coaching session is open to anyone who needs help or information on financial planning or investment goals – whether you’re an existing Bestinvest client or not. As well as this hands-on guidance, Bestinvest provides educational content to help with investment research and executing trades.
The only downside is Bestinvest is quite expensive compared to other platforms. Bestinvest charges an investment platform fee of 0.5% per year on funds under management, capped at £125 per quarter, and typically £9.95 per trade. This is higher than other investment platform options on the market. There may also be extra fees for ISA accounts and some fund purchases.
2. eToro – Best for social trading features
eToro is an easy-to-use investing app that could be one to consider for newer investors mainly because of its copy trading feature, which allows beginners to mimic the strategies of more seasoned, successful investors.
This useful tool makes learning the ropes of investing easier – because you’re taking cues from those with more experience – and is designed to help chip away at the intimidation factor that can haunt novice investors yet to make their first independent trades.
In terms of cost, eToro doesn’t charge any fees for opening an account, nor does it have monthly maintenance fees. It also doesn’t charge a commission for most trades.
There are a bunch of other fees to watch out for though – like the $5 (around £4) withdrawal fee when you want to access your money, the currency conversion fee of around 0.5% for pounds sterling to US dollars (the base account currency), and, most punishing of all, the $10 (around £8) a month after 12 months with no login activity fee. So this is not an ‘invest and forget’ account.
3. Moneybox – Best for micro-investing and the ‘nudge factor’
Moneybox makes investing simple for first-timers by enabling ‘round-ups’, automatically investing small sums of spare change from everyday transactions by rounding them up to the nearest pound and investing that small, rounded up portion. This can help beginners build up investment habits without really even having to think about it.
You can start with just £1 and only need to choose between three diversified starting options – Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous. These options are made up of a range of diversified tracker funds, with different risk levels and asset allocations for each option.
The app is easy to navigate and simple to use. A downside is the platform fee of 0.45% (£45 on an investment of £10,000), which is more expensive than some competitors.
4. Freetrade – Best for zero commission trades
Freetrade’s no-fee trading model means beginners can invest across 6,500+ UK, US and European stocks and exchanged traded funds (ETFs) without worrying about losing money to commissions, making it especially appealing for investors who want to maximise their returns from small amounts. Other platforms charge anywhere between around £4 and £12 per trade.
On Freetrade’s free basic account there is a foreign exchange (FX) fee of 0.99% on trades not made in pounds sterling, and you get 1% interest on up to £1,000 of uninvested cash. The FX fee reduces, and the interest rate rises, if you plump for one of the paid accounts, which also allows you to invest in funds.
Freetrade’s ISA is what’s known as flexible, meaning you can withdraw and replace money during the tax year without impacting your annual ISA allowance, currently £20,000.
5. AJ Bell Dodl – Best for overall low fees
For beginners, AJ Bell attempts to “take the fear out of investing”, with an investment app called Dodl. If offers access to themed investments as well as major shares, allowing investors just starting out to pick from pre-set themed portfolios or major stocks, helpful for those without experience in fund or stock selection.
Dodl charges an attractive 0.15%, less than the AJ Bell’s main investment platform. On portfolios under £40,000, 0.15% is hard to beat.
Dodl is a pared-down offering compared to AJ Bell’s main investment platform, but arguably this keeps things nice and simple for beginners who may not need to be confronted with thousands of investment options. Its choices still includes eight ready-made investment portfolios, 29 themed investments and 75 popular UK and US shares.
Most support is app-based or via online content, so those seeking in-person advice or more comprehensive coaching may prefer another platform with more hands-on guidance.
6. Vanguard – best for simplicity and low costs for larger investors
Vanguard’s investment platform is no-frills and it used to be priced accordingly as the cheapest on the market. However, its fee structure changed in 2025, meaning if you are a small DIY investor, it probably isn’t the right option for you anymore.
Vanguard now charges £4 a month on amounts under £32,000, up to a maximum of £48 per year. If you have £1,000 in your account, that is equivalent to 4.8% – which is very high. Previously, this investor would only have had to pay 0.15% (or £1.50 per year).
The account fee for sums above £32,000 is 0.15%, up to a maximum of £375 per year, meaning Vanguard is still a competitive option in terms of price for those with larger sums to invest.
Allowing investments in just 86 Vanguard funds, it’s limited. But Vanguard’s LifeStrategy and Target Retirement Fund ranges are essentially ready-made portfolios and popular with investors on other platforms too.
There’s a tool to help you choose funds, which starts by asking six questions to help the platform understand your attitude to risk. If you need extra help, Vanguard also offers a Managed ISA and pension with ‘guidance from real human experts’ at a cost of 0.15% a year.
The £4 monthly fee does not apply to Vanguard’s Managed ISA and pension accounts, making them a good option for those with smaller account balances.
7. Interactive Investor – Best for easy-to-understand fees
Arguably beginner investors should prioritise platforms with clear pricing, easy account setup, access to ISAs for tax-efficient investing and educational tools. Interactive Investor fulfils all of these criteria – but investors with smaller sums should beware they will be paying a high price.
The firm is best known for flat fees in pounds and pence. For investors with up to £50,000, its Investor Essentials plan costs £4.99 a month, while its Pension Essentials charges £5.99 a month. On a portfolio of up to £50,000, these would be £59.88 and £71.88 a year, respectively.
This means the plan can work out very expensive for smaller investors. An ISA investor with £1,000 would find themselves paying an effective annual fee of almost 6%. However, flat fees can offer good value for money for those with significant sums. Someone with £40,000 would find themselves paying just 0.15%.
Once you go above £50,000, you move to the Investor Plan, at £11.99 a month, and the Pension Builder plan, which is £12.99 monthly. The big advantage is these fees stay the same as your portfolio grows, making it great value for bigger portfolios. The platform does charge extra for trading (buying and selling) investments, but you can make free regular monthly investments.
For beginner investors, Interactive Investor recommends six low-cost ‘Quick-Start’ funds with different risk levels and sustainable options and has launched its Managed ISA portfolios. But if you’re ready to start learning beyond this, there’s an enormous amount of educational content and ideas and a good app.
How do investment platforms work?
Investment platforms are just a digital way of holding and accessing all of your investments online. You go onto your investment platform, often via a mobile app, to buy, sell and monitor your holdings, including shares, bonds and investment funds.
Typically an investment platform will allow you to hold your investments in their ISA and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) – which are both good options as any gains you make grow in them free of income tax or capital gains tax. There will also be a general investment account, but you’ll be taxed on your profits in that one.
There’s usually lots of educational content provided for free on investment platform websites that you can use to help guide your decisions about where to invest even before you sign up as a customer. So it’s perfectly possible to visit one platform to get some investment ideas, and then use another platform to buy and sell your chosen investments.
What to look for in an investment platform
Product and investment range
You should consider the product and investment range, alongside the cost of investing. Some people might feel a good app is essential. Others might focus on customer service rankings too. If that's you, then Trustpilot is a good place to check these out.
Tax wrappers
Although you might not need all the tax wrappers when you’re starting out, it could be important to have them available as you progress with your investments.
It’s important that an investing platform offers an ISA and SIPP wrapper. If you’re under 40, the Lifetime ISA may be important to you. Parents might want the option of Junior ISAs too.
Our stocks and shares ISA guide looks at tax-free benefits in more detail.
Type of investing platform
Platform suitability also depends on your level of confidence. Are you a “do it for me” customer, who would like guidance to make your choice? Or do you want to learn to do your investing by yourself?
Investing fees
Most investment platforms operate on a “percentage fees” charging model, where the platform charges a certain percentage of your investments held on the platform each year, usually broken down into monthly payments. A minority of platforms charge fixed fees, specified in pounds and pence. On top of this, there may be transaction charges for buying and selling certain investments.
Don’t underestimate the importance of charges. Even small differences in fees can make a big difference to the outcome over a 25-year investment career due to the compounding effect.
For example, imagine you invest a lump sum of £20,000 and plan to add £200 a month to this. If your platform charges 0.25%, over 25 years, with average investment growth of 6% a year, the fund would be worth £211,970 (per the financial education website CandidMoney.com). But with a platform that charges 0.45%, your fund would be worth £204,487. That’s a difference of £7,483.
On larger investment sums, the effect is magnified and could be the difference between you retiring in comfort or not.
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