AJ Bell

AJ Bell's charging structure is percentage-based with caps, which makes it competitive for most portfolio sizes.

Platform charge:

• 0.25% per year on funds (capped at £3.50/month per account)
• 0.25% per year on shares, investment trusts, ETFs, bonds and gilts (capped at £3.50/month per account)
• Maximum you'll ever pay: £42/year per account in platform fees (see our detailed AJ Bell fee analysis)

Dealing charges:

• £1.50 per deal for regular monthly investments
• £5.00 per online share deal (or £3.50 if you made 10+ deals the previous month)
• £5.00 per fund deal
• Foreign exchange fee: 0.75% (capped)

What this means in practice: On a £15,000 portfolio split between £10,000 in funds and £5,000 in shares, with two fund deals and two share deals per year, AJ Bell estimates your annual charge at around £50.50. That's genuinely cheap.

For comparison, Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0.45% on funds with no cap, and £11.95 per share deal. On the same £15,000 portfolio, you'd pay roughly double with HL.

The current ISA allowance is £20,000 per tax year across all ISA types. The cap on platform fees is the key detail here. Once your portfolio exceeds roughly £16,800, you hit the £42/year ceiling — which means AJ Bell gets proportionally cheaper as your pot grows. For larger portfolios of £50,000+, the effective percentage drops well below 0.1%.

One thing to watch: the £5 dealing charge adds up if you're an active trader. If you're buying individual shares frequently, interactive investor's flat-fee model (with free regular investments) might work out cheaper.

AJ Bell covers every standard UK investment wrapper:

• Stocks & Shares ISA — £20,000 annual allowance, invest from £25/month, minimum opening of £250
• Lifetime ISA — £4,000/year limit, 25% government bonus (up to £1,000/year)
• Junior ISA — £9,000/year allowance, locked until the child turns 18
• SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) — up to £60,000/year including tax relief, minimum opening of £500, access from age 55 (rising to 57 from April 2028)
• Junior SIPP — up to £3,600/year including tax relief
• Ready-made Pension — a managed option for hands-off investors
• Dealing Account (GIA) — no tax wrapper, no limits
• Cash Savings — variable interest rates on uninvested cash

The SIPP is particularly strong. You get 20% tax relief automatically (40% and 45% taxpayers can claim extra through self-assessment), and the 25% tax-free lump sum is available subject to the £268,275 lump sum allowance. AJ Bell also offers a free pension finder service to track down old workplace pensions — a genuinely useful feature that most platforms charge for.

For ISA investors, AJ Bell makes it easy to open and fund an account quickly. You can hold multiple Stocks & Shares ISAs (since the rules changed in April 2024) and transfer existing ISAs in without affecting your allowance. See how AJ Bell stacks up against rivals in our ISA platform comparison.

For independent guidance on choosing between ISA types, MoneyHelper's ISA comparison is a useful starting point. If you're choosing between a Stocks & Shares ISA and a Cash ISA, AJ Bell only offers invested accounts — you'll need to look elsewhere for a Cash ISA.

This is where AJ Bell punches above its price point. You get access to:

• 4,000+ funds and ETFs across dozens of markets, sectors, and asset classes
• UK and international shares across 24 stock exchanges including the US, Japan, and Canada
• Bonds and gilts — both corporate bonds and UK government gilts
• Investment trusts — listed closed-ended funds
• AJ Bell's own funds — low-cost, managed in-house by their investment team
• Favourite funds — a curated list of funds their analysts rate for value and growth potential

The "Favourite funds" list is a solid feature for investors who don't want to sift through thousands of options. It's not as hand-holdy as Dodl (AJ Bell's simplified app for beginners), but it gives enough guidance without being prescriptive.

For those interested in building a diversified portfolio, the combination of own-brand funds, third-party funds, individual shares, and gilts means you can construct almost any portfolio strategy — from a simple global tracker to a complex multi-asset allocation.

The international dealing capability across 24 markets is broader than most competitors. Freetrade and Trading 212 mainly offer UK and US shares, while AJ Bell gives you access to Japanese, Canadian, European, and other international exchanges.

AJ Bell is ideal for:

• Mid-range investors with portfolios of £10,000–£100,000 who want good value without sacrificing range
• ISA and pension savers who want everything under one roof with low platform fees
• Regular investors — the £1.50 monthly dealing charge is hard to beat
• Fund investors — the 0.25% charge with a cap means large fund portfolios are cheap to hold
• People consolidating pensions — the free pension finder is genuinely useful

AJ Bell is NOT ideal for:

• Complete beginners — Dodl by AJ Bell or Moneybox offer simpler experiences
• Frequent share traders — the £5 per deal charge adds up; Trading 212 charges nothing
• Lifetime ISA seekers also benefit from AJ Bell's offering. Pure index fund investors on a tight budget — Vanguard's 0.15% platform fee is cheaper for small-to-medium portfolios
• Cash ISA seekers — AJ Bell doesn't offer a Cash ISA wrapper

The sweet spot is someone who's past the beginner stage, has a growing pot, and wants a platform they won't outgrow. If you're salary-sacrificing into a workplace pension and want a SIPP alongside it, or you're building up an ISA and want access to individual shares as well as funds, AJ Bell hits that middle ground well.

AJ Bell sits in a competitive part of the market — cheaper than the big incumbents, but not the absolute cheapest.

Against Hargreaves Lansdown: AJ Bell is materially cheaper on almost every metric. HL charges 0.45% on funds (no cap), £11.95 per share deal, and generally positions itself as a premium service. AJ Bell gives you 90% of the same capability at roughly half the cost. HL's edge is research depth and brand recognition — but unless you actively use their research, you're paying for something you don't consume.

Against interactive investor: ii uses a flat monthly fee (£4.99–£11.99/month depending on the plan), which makes it cheaper for portfolios above roughly £60,000. Below that, AJ Bell's percentage-based model with caps wins. ii also includes free regular investing, which is attractive for drip-feeders.

Against Vanguard: If you only want Vanguard funds, Vanguard's own platform at 0.15% is the cheapest option. But Vanguard's investment range is limited to their own products — no individual shares, no third-party funds, no bonds. AJ Bell wins on flexibility.

Against Trading 212/Freetrade: These commission-free platforms are cheapest for active share trading. But they lack SIPPs, have limited fund ranges, and the free model raises questions about how they make money (spoiler: payment for order flow and currency conversion margins).

For a full side-by-side of the top Stocks & Shares ISA platforms, see our dedicated comparison. For more on investing generally, including how to build a portfolio from scratch, visit our investing hub.

The FCA's guidance on investment platforms is worth reading if you're comparing options. AJ Bell is FCA-regulated and your investments are protected by the FSCS up to £85,000 per person if the platform fails.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. You should seek independent financial advice tailored to your personal situation before making any investment decisions. AJ Bell charges and features quoted are based on publicly available information as of March 2026 and may be subject to change.