Best stocks & shares Isas: Pick the right investment account

Last Updated 11:39 EST, 21 Jan 2025

Stocks & shares Isas and investment accounts reviewed in our independent regularly-updated guide

Simon Lambert is the editor of This is Money and has been a financial journalist for almost 20 years. Simon writes about everything to do with money, but has a keen interest in investing, the property market and economy. If he wasn’t doing this, he’d rather be snowboarding.

Products featured in this article are independently selected by This is Money’s specialist journalists. If you open an account using links which have an asterisk, This is Money will earn an affiliate commission. We do not allow this to affect our editorial independence.

DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS

AJ Bell

AJ Bell

Easy investing and ready-made portfolios

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown

Free fund dealing and investment ideas

interactive investor

interactive investor

Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month

eToro

eToro

Share investing: 30+ million community

Trading 212

Trading 212

Free share dealing and no account fee

Investment accounts and stocks and shares Isas

The rise of online brokers and DIY investing revolutionised buying shares, investment trusts and funds – offering investors huge savings compared to the old days of using their stockbroker, financial adviser, or going straight to a fund manager.

Online investment accounts – and now app-based investing services – have pushed down the cost of buying and holding shares, funds and trusts, with some even now offering fee-free trading and no-charge basic accounts.

Almost all offer stocks and shares Isas, a tax-free wrapper around investments that shelters them from capital gains tax on profits and dividend tax on income.

 Give your Isa or Sipp an early 2025 boost: The cashback deals that can add to your pot 

A DIY investing platform makes it easy to invest in a stocks and shares Isa, self invested personal pension, or standard trading account online and start putting your money to work. 

We explain how to decide on a DIY investment platform to invest in the full range of options: from shares, funds and investment trusts, to ETFs and direct retail corporate bonds – and why a stocks and shares Isa is essential for growing your wealth.

Check the table below for the brief details on price and features and read our full look at each investment platform and who they could be good for below. All platforms must be FCA regulated to feature here.

Investing platform and stocks and shares Isa costs

How we review investment accounts 

We have focused on two vital aspects, cost and quality. This is not a collection of all of the absolute cheapest DIY investing platforms, or an exhaustive list – these are some we think stand out for their service and that also compete keenly on price.

Almost all of these platforms offer a full range of investments and the option of standard accounts and a stocks and shares Isa. Where they don’t there is specific reason for highlighting them that we explain. 

We have picked investment accounts to suit different investors and focus on those that offer a choice of how to invest – not just funds, but also shares, ETFs and investment trusts. Each one will be better for some investors than others and you should choose depending on your needs. Remember there are plenty of others available too. 

Investment account pricing can be chiefly be split into two camps: some charge a flat administration charge, while others charge a percentage of investors’ holdings.

The former tend to always charge for buying and selling investment funds, while the latter may bundle this cost in and offer free fund dealing.

Almost all charge for buying and selling shares, investment trusts, ETFs and any other products that are not funds, but the dealing fees vary from as low as £4.95 to about £12. Some of the investing apps offer fee-free share, trust and ETF dealing.

If you plan on buying and selling regularly watch our for dealing charges, as these can also add up substantially. Lower charges for regular monthly investing can substantially cut costs. 

Why does a stocks and shares Isa matter?

The right Isa wrapper or investing account has the power to boost your investments, helping you to build a portfolio and limiting how your hard-won returns are eaten into by fees.

DIY investing platforms act as a place to buy, sell and hold all your investments and a tax-efficient wrapper around them if you choose to invest in a stocks and shares Isa.

For the sake of your long-term wealth, it pays to hold investments in a stocks and shares Isa and not lose a chunk of profits and dividends to tax – and then see the potential effect of that compound over the years. 

This has become even more important, as at the start of the new tax year on 6 April 2023, the capital gains tax-free allowance will be slashed from £12,300 to £6,000 and the dividend tax-free allowance will be cut from £2,000 to £1,000.

There is even worse news a year down the line when the capital gains tax allowance dives again to £3,000 and the dividend allowance falls to just £500.

Fortunately, investing through a stocks and shares Isa allows you to shelter investments from capital gains and dividend tax. Every tax year, all adults get a £20,000 annual Isa allowance but remember it is a use it or lose it affair and any of this amount not paid in by the end of the tax year is lost.

The rise of online brokers and their investment accounts has slashed the cost of investing and made it much easier 

Our pick of the best investment accounts

This list is in no particular order

Hargreaves Lansdown is the big gun of DIY investing. The website is packed with information from its advisers and analysts, the shares and fund data is comprehensive and there is a very handy app.

Investors pay a 0.45 per cent fee on their total fund investments up to £250,000; 0.25 per cent to £1m, 0.1 per cent to £2m and nothing above that. Shares and investment trusts also incur a 0.45 per cent charge on the entire holding, capped at £45.

Hargreaves has negotiated some reduced annual management charges from fund managers.

Fund dealing is free. Share, investment trust, corporate bond and ETF dealing costs £11.95 per trade. If you trade more than 10 times per month share-dealing costs step down. Regular monthly share and some investment trust investing is £1.50, dividend reinvesting is 1 per cent, with a £1 minimum charge and £10 maximum.

Hargreaves has its very influential Wealth 50, a range of Master Portfolios, and its Portfolio+ service to make investing progressively easier and more hands off

Hargreaves Lansdown recently announced it would remove exit fees and cut a number of its costs. 

Standard non-Isa dealing: Hargreaves’ non-Isa Vantage account carries the same charges except for removing the fee for holding shares and trusts.

Who is it good for? Those looking for an advice-rich service that is price-competitive but not the cheapest around. It does come with lots of bells and whistles, including a very good app and portfolios for easy investing. 

Our tests found Hargreaves platform easy and intuitive to use and its newly revised app is good. 

It offers a proven popular service  weighted towards funds but with access to investment trusts, ETFs, shares and the corporate bond market under one roof. [More details on Hargeaves Lansdown*]

Interactive Investor*

Interactive Investor has monthly fee plans. These start with the £4.99 per month Investor Essentials offer for those with portfolios of less than £50,000.

Above that level fees are £11.99 and £19.99 per month, for the Investor and Super Investor plans.

A £12.99 per month Pension Builder option is only available to those just holding a Sipp, otherwise the standard Investor and Super Investor charges plus £10 per month to add a Sipp apply. A Pensions Essentials plan is available for Sipps with under £50,000 in, costing £5.99 per month.

Trades in UK shares, funds and investment trusts and US shares are charged at £3.99 each. 

Investors get £3.99 of trading credit per month, which lasts for 30 days. This does not apply for Investor Essentials customers.

Trading in other international shares is £9.99, except for the Super Investor plan where they are £5.99. Dividend reinvestment is just 99p for all plans and regular…