How to find the best stocks and shares ISA

Investing can make your money grow over the long term, and with a stocks and shares ISA, any dividends or gains will be shielded from the taxman.

The 25 highest-value ISAs in the UK are all stocks and shares ISAs. They hold a combined £274.4 million, according to HMRC figures obtained by investing platform InvestEngine via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

In comparison, the top 25 highest-value cash ISAs are worth £16 million, suggesting investing can help you build more wealth compared to holding cash savings.

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But with so many types of stocks and shares ISAs on the market from a variety of brokers, how do you decide which provider to sign up with?

In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to find the right one for you.

What is a stocks and shares ISA?

A stocks and shares ISA allows savers to invest in shares, funds, investment trusts and bonds with no tax on any gains or income from assets held in the account.

Everyone over the age of 18 who is a UK resident for tax purposes can open a stocks and shares ISA and invest up to £20,000 each tax year (6 April to 5 April) in it – as long as you don’t use all of your ISA allowance elsewhere (for example by saving in a cash ISA).

Should you open a stocks and shares ISA?

To find the best stocks and shares ISA for you it’s important to think about your financial goals and how long you are investing for.

Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Bestinvest, says: “A stocks and shares ISA is more appropriate for those with long-term financial goals, such as saving for a child’s education or supplementing retirement income.

“This is because when you are investing in the financial markets, you typically need a time horizon of at least five years to give your portfolio enough time to ride out any short-term volatility.”

You don’t have to go back far for examples of market volatility – stocks plummeted in April 2025 following US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, with the S&P 500 falling by 9% between 2 April and 21 April, before rebounding 10% between 21 April and 2 May.

Markets also struggled following the conflict in the Middle East which started on 28 February 2026, the S&P 500 falling by 3.6% between 27 February and 18 March.

If you’re investing with a view to withdrawing funds after five years, you may want to invest more in less risky assets, like bonds. The potential returns could be less than with equities but the risks of losing money are lower.

If you’re thinking of investing for longer than this, you can afford to take more risk with your money by investing more of it in equities – the risk of loss is higher than bonds, but the potential returns are also higher over the longer term.

For example, according to analysis by Darrow Wealth Management, between 1997 and 2024, the S&P 500 returned 9.7% a year on an average. The US Aggregate Bond index returned 4.1%. Both reflect total returns, which includes dividend income.

As you get closer to the date you want to retire and therefore nearer to cashing in some of your investments, you may want to reduce the amount you are invested in equities and invest more in lower risk assets, like bonds. This lessens the chances of the value of your investments being wiped out when you need them to fund your retirement.

How to find the best stocks and shares ISA

Once you’ve decided on your investment goal and time horizon, you can start looking at whether you want to do the investment picking for your stocks and shares ISA yourself or get a fund manager to do it for you.

Ready-made portfolios vs DIY investing

DIY investors can choose their own investments, spending time doing research and selecting assets that match their attitude to risk and monitoring the performance themselves. You'll be able to build your own portfolio, typically choosing from individual shares, funds, bonds, ETFs, and investment trusts.

AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, and Bestinvest are some examples of DIY investment platforms where you can build your own stocks and shares ISA.

Or you can choose to invest in a fully managed portfolio, sometimes referred to as a ‘ready-made portfolio’.

In these off-the-peg investment portfolios, a portfolio manager will build a diverse portfolio of assets, typically tailored to different levels of risk and then periodically adjust and rebalance the mix. So you could choose from lower risk (often called something like ‘cautious’) to medium risk (‘balanced’) or higher risk (‘adventurous’).

Wealthify and Moneyfarm are examples of investment platforms that will allow you to invest in a ready-made stock and shares ISA portfolio. They are sometimes called ‘robo-advisers’ because they automate parts of the investment process.

Many investment platforms offer both DIY and ready-made options. Which one is best for you depends on how much time and effort you want to put into managing your stocks and shares ISA. If you want more control, DIY could be for you. If you’re happy to just ‘invest and go’, ready-made might be better for you.

Compare ISA providers

We look at the fees and charges of some of the most popular DIY and managed stocks and shares ISAs platforms.

Figures correct as of 17 March 2026

What’s the minimum amount I can invest in a stocks and shares ISA?

Most stocks and shares ISAs have minimum deposit amounts to open them, but some are fairly low.

Bestinvest’s stocks and shares ISA has a minimum initial deposit of £50, for example. You can open a stocks and shares ISA with Hargreaves Lansdown from £100 or with a direct debit from £25 per month. Fidelity, however, starts at £1,000.

People don’t have to deposit lump sums to be able to invest in an ISA, they can make regular contributions either on an ad hoc basis or through regular deposits – such as on a monthly or quarterly basis.

A simple way to do this is to set up a regular savings scheme. Someone wanting to maximise their ISA allowance in full could set up a monthly direct debit of £1,666, which adds up to just under £20,000 over the course of 12 months.

We look at lump sum vs regular investing in a separate piece.

Bestinvest’s Haine says: “By investing every month, investors benefit from pound‑cost averaging.

“Rather than committing a lump sum at a single price point — such as during a perceived dip — they buy smaller amounts at regular intervals, regardless of the market level at the time. This helps cushion the impact of volatility over the short to medium term.”

How can I withdraw from a stocks and shares ISA?

To withdraw from a stocks and shares ISA, you need to sell down your investments. This process usually takes three to seven days and is easy to do online via your investment platform or using your provider’s app.

But remember not all stocks and shares ISAs allow “flexible withdrawals”.

What are flexible withdrawals?

A flexible withdrawal means you can withdraw money from the ISA and then return that cash to your ISA without it impacting the current year’s £20,000 allowance.

“Flexible withdrawals'' can be returned within the same tax year and they can only go back into the same flexible ISA they were withdrawn from – not another ISA, even if that ISA is also flexible.

When an ISA isn’t flexible, any withdrawals you make won’t be added back to your annual allowance, so you won’t be able to return those withdrawals. Effectively, you lose that part of your allowance.

For example, if you put £10,000 into your ISA and then decide to withdraw £5,000 in the same tax year, your remaining ISA allowance will differ depending on whether your ISA is flexible or not.

If your ISA is not flexible, your annual allowance won’t reflect the withdrawal. Although you have only £5,000 in your ISA now, your remaining allowance is still £10,000 (rather than £15,000). Effectively, you have lost £5,000 of your annual allowance.

Are stocks and shares ISAs worth it?

Stocks and shares ISAs provide a number of benefits that make them seriously worth considering for investors, or savers who want to become investors.

They can offer a route to generate more than a cash ISA, although capital is at risk with investing. The average stocks and shares ISA fund experienced a growth of 11.22% between February 2025 and February 2026, according to Moneyfacts data. In contrast, the Moneyfacts average cash ISA rate returned 3.48% between the same dates.

There are also tax benefits. Filing a self-assessment tax return can be a cumbersome process, particularly if you need to add in investment income or capital gains – which can be quite laborious to calculate.

With income or gains on investments held within an ISA totally tax-free, there’s no need to declare it on a return, making the process that little bit simpler.

Those opting for an investment ISA don’t need to panic if they need more time to make an investment selection. They can simply store their money initially as cash and then make their investment choices later.

Bestinvest’s Haine says: “If someone opens or tops up an ISA in the dying moments of the tax year, that is rarely the right time to map out a considered investment strategy aligned to their long-term financial goals.

“The key priority is simply getting the cash into the ISA before the deadline so that it counts towards the current year’s allowance. Once the money is safely inside an ISA, the investor can make their investment decisions at their own pace.”

Remember investing puts your money at risk – you could get back less than you put in.