Freetrade

Pricing is unchanged since IG Group closed the acquisition in mid-2025 — and unchanged since our last refresh in July. Source: Freetrade's pricing page, verified 13 September 2026.

Basic — £0/month

• Accounts: ISA, Junior ISA, SIPP, GIA — all at £0
• Dealing: £0 commission on all trades
• FX fee: 0.99% on non-GBP trades
• Cash interest: 1% AER on up to £1,000 uninvested cash
• Customer service: Standard

Standard — £4.99/month (annual, £59.88/year) or £5.99/month rolling

• Same accounts as Basic
• FX fee: 0.59%
• Cash interest: 2.5% AER on up to £2,000
• Customer service: Standard

Plus — £9.99/month (annual, £119.88/year) or £11.99/month rolling

• Same accounts as Basic
• FX fee: 0.39%
• Cash interest: 3.5% AER on up to £3,000
• Customer service: Priority, enhanced stock fundamentals, free same-day withdrawals, early access to beta features

Every plan includes commission-free access to 8,600+ stocks, ETFs, investment trusts, mutual funds, gilts and UK Treasury bills. US fractional shares are available on all tiers. Extended-hours trading and automated order types — recurring orders, limit orders and stop losses — are standard.

The upgrade maths is simple and worth doing properly. Standard charges £59.88 a year but cuts the FX fee by 0.40 percentage points. It pays for itself once you trade more than about £15,000 of US or European stocks a year (0.40% × £15,000 = £60). Plus cuts FX by a further 0.20 percentage points for an extra £60 a year, so it only makes sense above roughly £30,000 of annual non-GBP volume.

Three platforms. All claim to be free. All three are FCA-authorised and FSCS-protected (up to £85,000 for investment claims). The difference is where each one actually makes money — and that difference decides which platform is cheapest for your portfolio.

Who wins at what:

UK-only, multi-account investor: Freetrade wins. A £0 ISA + £0 SIPP + £0 JISA combination with zero fund-holding charges and direct gilt access has no equivalent. Trading 212 has no SIPP or JISA; InvestEngine has a SIPP but no JISA, no mutual funds and no individual stocks.

US stock trader: Trading 212 wins decisively. Its 0.15% FX fee is 6.6× cheaper than Freetrade Basic's 0.99%. On £20,000 of US exposure traded once a year, that's £30 on Trading 212 versus £198 on Freetrade Basic. If US stocks are more than about 20% of your portfolio, Freetrade's FX economics don't work.

ETF-only, long-term holder: InvestEngine wins on pure cost. Zero fees, zero FX drag — all 630+ ETFs are GBP-denominated. You give up individual stocks, mutual funds, gilts and a Junior ISA, but for a five-fund ETF portfolio held for 20 years the cost advantage compounds.

Annual cost, £50,000 portfolio (40% US, £20,000 traded once/year):

The maths is unambiguous: if you hold US stocks, Trading 212 is cheaper. If you don't, Freetrade Basic is genuinely free — and delivers more account types than any competitor.

IG Group Holdings plc, a FTSE 250 constituent with over £1.12 billion in annual revenue, paid £160m all-cash for Freetrade in a deal announced January 2025 and completed mid-2025. Freetrade had been structurally loss-making — a £39.8m loss on £15.6m revenue in FY2022 — and only reached EBITDA-positive shortly before the acquisition closed. IG's balance sheet removed the existential risk overnight.

Twenty months post-acquisition, here's what has actually happened:

Safety held up. Freetrade Limited (FCA reference 771281) operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of IG Group. That is a fundamentally different risk profile from a venture-backed startup burning £40m a year. FSCS investment protection covers claims up to £85,000 per person — separate from the £120,000 deposit protection at banks, and unchanged.

Pricing stayed put. IG has not touched Freetrade's pricing structure. The £0 Basic tier, the three-plan ladder and the FX fee levels are all identical to pre-acquisition. IG runs its own commission-free platform with a spread-based model; the two brands target different segments, and IG consistently frames Freetrade as its mass-market growth engine rather than a cost-synergy target.

Product accelerated. Post-acquisition, Freetrade added mutual funds, direct gilt access, UK Treasury bills, a Junior ISA on all plans and ready-made portfolios — all on the free Basic tier. The investment universe expanded from roughly 6,500 to 8,600+ instruments, and the user base passed 1.6 million.

What IG hasn't done: launch a Lifetime ISA. The 25% government bonus on up to £4,000 a year remains the single biggest product gap for first-home buyers and retirement savers under 40.

The risk worth watching is that IG eventually harmonises pricing across its platforms. In September 2026 there is still no sign of it. Freetrade's pricing is identical to what it was under independent ownership, and the product is better.

All four account types are available on every plan, including Basic at £0.

Stocks & Shares ISA. Flexible — you can withdraw and replace within the tax year without losing your £20,000 ISA allowance. Most platforms don't offer flexibility; InvestEngine and Trading 212 ISAs are non-flexible. That matters if you might need to access cash temporarily: withdraw £5,000 in March, put it back in April, and your allowance is intact. The ISA holds the full 8,600+ universe. Freetrade won Which? Recommended Provider (March 2026) and three Boring Money Best Buy awards: Best for Low-Cost ISA, Best for Share Traders and Best for Value for Money.

Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). £0 account fee on Basic, with 20% tax relief claimed automatically from HMRC (higher-rate taxpayers claim the rest through self-assessment). The SIPP supports the full investment universe. The structural weakness is at retirement: Freetrade only supports Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum (UFPLS) withdrawals at £240 each, with no flexi-access drawdown. The normal minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 in 2028. If you're approaching retirement, plan to transfer your SIPP to a provider offering full drawdown before you need income. For accumulation, the zero-cost structure is hard to beat — our pensions hub compares the alternatives.

Junior ISA (JISA). Available on all plans including Basic, with the full investment universe and the £9,000 annual JISA allowance for 2026/27. No other zero-fee platform combines a free JISA with a free ISA and free SIPP.

General Investment Account (GIA). £0 account fee, £0 dealing commission. Useful for investments above the ISA allowance. Capital gains tax applies on gains above the annual exempt amount of £3,000 for 2026/27, and the dividend allowance is £500 — see our tax hub for the full rules.

The Lifetime ISA gap. Freetrade doesn't offer a Lifetime ISA. If you're saving for a first home with the 25% government bonus, you need a different provider — Dodl by AJ Bell offers one at a 0.15% platform fee. No fee saving compensates for missing a 25% government bonus on up to £4,000 a year.

On 23 June 2026, HMRC confirmed that interest earned on cash held inside a stocks and shares ISA will be taxed at 22%, as part of a reform package that also caps cash ISA contributions at £12,000 a year for under-65s. The changes take effect from April 2027 — they are not yet in force.

Why it matters for platform choice. Freetrade pays modest interest on uninvested cash — 1% AER on up to £1,000 (Basic), 2.5% on £2,000 (Standard) and 3.5% on £3,000 (Plus). Once the 22% tax bites, those become 0.78%, 1.95% and 2.73% net — £7.80, £39 and £81.90 a year at the caps. The amounts are small enough that the tax shouldn't drive your platform decision.

But the change reinforces a point that was already true: an investment platform is not a savings account. If you're holding large cash balances, a dedicated Cash ISA or high-interest savings account is the right tool, not the cash sweep inside your S&S ISA — our savings hub tracks the best rates.

1. Zero fund-holding charges across all accounts. Most platforms charge 0.25%–0.45% a year just to hold mutual funds — on top of the fund's own OCF. On a £50,000 fund portfolio that's £125–£225 a year extracted in perpetuity. Freetrade charges nothing, on any plan, including Basic. No competitor combines this with a free ISA, SIPP and JISA.

2. Direct gilt and Treasury bill access at zero cost. Freetrade is the only zero-fee platform offering direct gilt and UK Treasury bill purchases — not just gilt ETFs — at no dealing commission and no custody charge. For investors who want to build a gilt ladder, that's unique at the free price point. Trading 212 and InvestEngine don't offer direct gilt access at all, and with UK borrowing costs still elevated, gilts remain relevant to UK portfolio construction.

3. The flexible ISA as standard. Most platform ISAs are non-flexible: withdraw £5,000 mid-year and you've permanently lost £5,000 of allowance. Freetrade's ISA is flexible by default. Among the three free platforms, only Freetrade offers this. It's the difference between accessing your money and permanently shrinking your tax shelter — one of several reasons our ISA hub rates it so highly.

Freetrade was named Which? Recommended Provider (March 2026) and won Best for Low-Cost ISA, Best for Share Traders and Best for Value for Money at the 2026 Boring Money Best Buy Awards. Awards aren't a reason to pick a platform, but they confirm the product has matured from its scrappy startup days.

1. The 0.99% FX fee on Basic. This is the structural issue. The fee is embedded in the exchange rate rather than shown as a separate line item, which is what makes it easy to miss. Trading 212 charges 0.15% — 6.6× less. Even Freetrade Plus at 0.39% is 2.6× Trading 212. If your portfolio has meaningful US or European exposure, the upgrade path helps (Standard at 0.59% breaks even around £15,000 of annual non-GBP volume), but Trading 212 still wins on price for US-heavy investors.

2. SIPP withdrawals are UFPLS-only at £240 each. For a pension in the accumulation phase the SIPP is excellent. For anyone drawing an income, £240 per withdrawal is expensive and the absence of flexi-access drawdown is a real limitation. Plan the transfer out before you need income.

3. Transfer-out friction for US holdings. Transferring out costs £17 per US holding. A diversified US portfolio of 20 positions means £340 just to leave. UK holdings transfer free.

4. Research is thin. Compared with Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell, Freetrade's research, screeners and analysis tools are basic. The Plus tier adds enhanced fundamentals, but it's still not a research platform.

5. No Lifetime ISA. The 25% government bonus is worth up to £1,000 a year and Freetrade simply doesn't offer the wrapper. That's a hard disqualifier for first-home buyers under 40 who should be prioritising a LISA.

For context on where savings rates sit today, the Bank of England has held Bank Rate at 3.75% through the summer. For independent guidance on choosing a platform, see MoneyHelper's investing resources — and our investing hub for the full comparison.