eToro

The eToro homepage still leads with "£0 Commission on stocks. Unlimited trades. No management fees, ever." The published fee schedule still lists $1 or $2 per stock trade depending on the exchange, charged when you open and when you close. Both pages are live as of 14 August 2026. The contradiction has survived the summer.

Here's what you can actually rely on:

• ETFs: genuinely £0 commission. It applies to manual trades, CopyTrader allocations and Smart Portfolios alike. No caveat beyond the market spread.
• Stocks: $1–$2 per side, plus 0.5% Stamp Duty Reserve Tax on UK-listed shares. eToro's fee page lists Stamp Duty Reserve Tax at 0.5% and notes it's a UK government levy, not an eToro charge. A £5,000 FTSE 100 purchase costs roughly £27 in commission and duty before you've made a penny.
• Crypto: 1% each way for most people, tiered down for Platinum and above (more below).
• FX conversion still applies when you buy USD-denominated assets from a GBP account, with the rate varying by location, payment method and Club tier. Recurring investment deposits get free conversion.

The pattern is consistent. eToro's ETF pricing is the best in the UK retail market — better than Trading 212, InvestEngine, or any traditional broker. Its stock pricing is average. Its crypto pricing is fine for convenience and poor for active trading. The homepage advertises the ETF story and hides the rest. Assume the fee schedule is the document that binds.

The biggest correction to the summer's coverage: eToro has not launched an in-house ISA. The ISA page is unambiguous — "Open an eToro ISA, powered by Moneyfarm", with funds held by MFM Investment Ltd and covered by FSCS up to £85,000 across all Moneyfarm brands. Moneyfarm, not eToro, is the regulated entity behind the wrapper (FCA number 629539), while eToro (UK) Ltd itself is FCA-authorised under reference 583263.

What has changed is choice. The wrapper now offers three products:

• DIY Stocks & Shares ISA — self-select from 1,000+ UK, US and EU stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds. This is the meaningful upgrade: you can hold individual shares inside an eToro-branded ISA rather than only Moneyfarm's managed model.
• Managed ISA — Moneyfarm builds and rebalances a diversified portfolio matched to your risk profile.
• Cash ISA — a Qualifying Money Market Fund with a boosted rate, positioned as a cash-equivalent.

The catches remain. Transfers are sold and moved as cash, not in-specie — your existing holdings get liquidated, which can crystallise gains and take you out of the market for days. CopyTrader, crypto and CFDs are not available inside the wrapper; the DIY ISA is plain buy-and-hold share and ETF dealing. And the allowance is the standard UK ISA limit for 2026/27 — £20,000, unchanged from last year.

The honest framing: eToro's ISA is a Moneyfarm ISA wearing an eToro badge, now with a better fund range. That's a genuine improvement over the old managed-only version, and worth a look if you want Moneyfarm's custody alongside your eToro GIA. It is not the "direct ISA" the summer headlines claimed. If you want a fully in-house, low-cost S&S ISA, our ISA comparison hub and platforms like Vanguard or AJ Bell remain the cleaner comparison.

The single best piece of news in this refresh: the $10-a-month inactivity fee is gone for UK clients. eToro's fee page now lists "Inactivity fee: Free", and the S&S ISA FAQ confirms the inactivity fee "does not apply to clients of eToro (UK) Ltd residing in the UK who are under FCA regulation." That was the most punitive charge in UK retail investing; its removal is a genuine win for long-term holders.

Other changes worth logging:

• Crypto fees are now tiered. Bronze, Silver and Gold members pay a flat 1% per position. Platinum pays 0.95% down to 0.10% as monthly volume climbs; Platinum+ and Diamond get 0.90%–0.10% and 0.85%–0.10% respectively. The homepage's "from 0.3%" is only true at $1M+ monthly volume for Platinum and above — most people still pay 1%.

• Crypto transfers cost 2% when you move assets to the eToro Money crypto wallet; selling crypto from that wallet costs 0.6%–1% depending on tier.
• Withdrawals: free from a GBP local account; $5 from a USD account with a $30 minimum. Free conversion on recurring investment deposits is a small but real perk.
• Stock lending still defaults you in, and eToro still keeps half the revenue after a 15% facilitation charge. The worked example on the fee page — 2,000 Tesla shares at $350, lent at 1% for 112 days — nets $8.26 a day for you and the same $8.26 for eToro.

None of these individually moves the needle; together they change the cost-of-ownership picture for a casual UK investor from "cheap but with traps" to "cheap, with fewer traps than in May."

CopyTrader remains the feature no FCA-regulated UK competitor replicates at scale. The mechanics are unchanged: pick a Popular Investor, allocate at least $200, and their trades mirror into your account proportionally — free of any extra fee beyond normal dealing costs. You can copy up to 100 investors at once, and the CopyTrader page still includes a $100,000 demo account for dry runs.

The marketing on returns is aggressive — homepage examples show 24-month returns of 46% to 60% for featured Popular Investors. Treat those as survivorship bias, not a forecast: the platform surfaces its best performers for a reason, and past performance is explicitly "not an indication of future results."

Smart Portfolios need a $500 minimum and carry no management fee, spanning 65+ thematic, target-date and core allocations built with Franklin Templeton, BlackRock and ARK. The newer Alpha Portfolios add an AI-managed layer that adjusts to market conditions — a step beyond a static robo-advisor allocation.

Then there's the wider AI push: Agent Portfolios (an AI agent trades a dedicated sum within boundaries you set), Tori (a chat assistant that answers portfolio questions and can place trades), and the eToro App Store (third-party market monitors and research apps). None of it has a track record long enough to evaluate. It's either the future of retail investing or a gimmick that underperforms a plain index fund — and you can't tell which yet. Before you hand an AI your money, compare the FTSE 100's yield and valuation against the S&P 500.

For a platform whose edge is social rather than price, this is the right bet. Trading 212 wins on cost; eToro is the only one betting on community and AI as the differentiator.

eToro's DNA is CFD broking, and the risk hasn't changed. Contracts for Difference let you trade leveraged exposure to stocks, indices, commodities, forex and crypto; the FCA forces CFD providers to publish the share of retail accounts that lose money, and that number typically runs above 70%. Spreads of 0.15% (stocks and ETFs) and 1% (crypto) are charged on open and close, plus overnight financing. For a long-term investor this is a wealth-destruction machine, not a feature — check the trade confirmation screen and make sure the position says "real", not "CFD."

Stock lending deserves the same look-before-you-leap. It's on by default; you opt out, you don't opt in. The revenue split — eToro keeps 50% after a 15% facilitation cost — means the platform earns as much from lending your shares as you do. Your ownership rights persist, but so does the counterparty risk if a short-seller fails, mitigated rather than eliminated by collateral. If you don't want your Tesla lent out to people betting against it, turn it off.

Stock Margin is the newest wrinkle: borrow from eToro to buy shares you then own outright, at 0.15% commission each way plus overnight interest on the borrowed amount. It's cleaner than a CFD — you own the underlying — but it's still debt to buy equities. The tax-efficient answer for most UK investors remains contributing more to an ISA or pension rather than paying interest to amplify a position.

Use eToro if you want one place for commission-free ETFs, social copying, crypto and AI experimentation — and you're willing to live with the platform's CFD-first heritage and marketing that runs ahead of the fee schedule. The removal of the inactivity fee kills the old "set a calendar reminder" objection, and the DIY Moneyfarm ISA means you can finally tax-wrap a self-selected portfolio without leaving the eToro ecosystem.

Look elsewhere if:

• you want a broad range of funds, investment trusts, or bonds outside a Moneyfarm wrapper;
• you need a SIPP — eToro still has no pension product;
• you trade US shares heavily and don't want FX conversion on every leg;
• you want fee certainty — the homepage and the fee schedule still disagree on stock commissions.

eToro in August 2026 is cheaper and more honest than it was in May, but it is not a different company. The direct ISA never launched; what launched is a better Moneyfarm ISA wearing eToro's name. The £0 commission claim is still only true for ETFs. The inactivity fee is genuinely gone. If you can hold those three facts in your head at once, you can use eToro well. If you want a platform that never makes you check, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor still trade a little clarity for a little more cost — and MoneyHelper's comparison tool is the neutral way to benchmark the rest.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. You should seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. The rates, allowances, and product details cited are correct at the time of writing but can change without notice. Investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future.