InvestEngine

Every fee claim below comes directly from InvestEngine's costs page, verified July 2026.

Platform fees — all zero:

• ISA: £0 — no annual fee, no setup fee, no withdrawal fee. The gov.uk ISA rules allow up to £20,000 per tax year.
• SIPP: £0 — identical deal. HMRC pension tax relief rules mean your contributions get 20-45% tax relief on top. Minimum to open: £100.
• General Account: £0
• Business Account: £0
• Managed Portfolios: 0.25% per year — currently unavailable to new clients (the dedicated managed portfolios page returns a 404 as of July 2026)

Dealing fees: £0 on all trades for DIY portfolios. Commission-free, no minimum.

ETF costs (every platform has these):

• DIY portfolios: depends on which ETFs you pick, starting from 0.03% per year
• Managed portfolios: average ETF charge of 0.12% per year, plus spread costs averaging 0.07-0.08% per year

Transfers: £0 to transfer in. Plus a tiered bonus of up to £5,000 for transferring existing investments — with a 12-month minimum investment period. InvestEngine now supports in-specie transfers from most major providers, meaning your ETFs can move across without being sold.

The hidden cost — uninvested cash: InvestEngine does not pay interest on cash sitting in your account. They retain it. With the <a href="/posts/the-boe-just-held-at-375-for-the-sixth-straight-month-your-466-fixed-rate-is-a">Bank of England base rate at 3.75%</a> (source: <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp">BoE</a>, unchanged since December 2025), your idle cash represents a meaningful revenue stream for InvestEngine — and an opportunity cost for you. Trading 212 pays interest on uninvested cash; InvestEngine turns it into their business model instead.

This isn't hidden — it's disclosed transparently. But the stakes are higher at 3.75% than they were at near-zero rates. £1,000 sitting uninvested for a month at a 3.75% equivalent rate is roughly £3 in foregone interest. Over a year, that's £37.50. Over a decade, with compounding, it's real money. Activate AutoInvest or deploy cash quickly. With gilt yields above 5%, cash sitting idle anywhere is more expensive than it looks.

InvestEngine publishes a comparison assuming £20,000 annual ISA contributions, invested monthly into 5 ETFs at 7% annual growth. The numbers, updated with data accurate as of March 2026 (latest available from InvestEngine's comparison):

A few things have shifted since our last review. Fidelity has moved to a tiered structure starting at 0.20%, making it more competitive at the lower end — but the gap to InvestEngine remains substantial. AJ Bell remains the most expensive option for ETF investors in this scenario, losing £14,405 to fees over two decades.

These aren't theoretical numbers. They're the compound cost of platform fees on real money. Every pound that goes to a platform fee is a pound that isn't compounding for you. The flip side: if you hold cash idle at InvestEngine instead of somewhere that pays interest, you're paying a different kind of fee — one that doesn't show up in this table.

Source: InvestEngine costs comparison, data as at 23 March 2026. Assumes £0 starting portfolio, £1,666.67/month into five UK ETFs, 7% growth per annum. Platform fees only — excludes underlying ETF charges.

InvestEngine offers four account types. That's it. No Cash ISA, no Lifetime ISA, no Junior ISA. The platform has chosen depth over breadth, and the question is whether that suits you.

Stocks & Shares ISA — flexible ISA (withdraw and replace in the same tax year without losing your allowance). The gov.uk ISA guidance confirms the £20,000 annual limit. For the full rules, see our ISA hub or read about flexible ISAs in detail.

Personal Pension (SIPP) — tax relief on contributions at 20-45% depending on your tax band. UK residents aged 18-75. Accessible from age 55, rising to 57 from 2028. Minimum opening balance: £100. Only personal contributions accepted — no employer contributions yet. Tax relief is claimed at basic rate automatically; higher-rate taxpayers must claim the extra via self-assessment.

General Investment Account (GIA) — for investing beyond your tax-free wrappers. Gains above the £3,000 annual CGT allowance are taxable. Dividends above the £500 allowance taxed at your marginal rate.

Business Account — for UK limited companies and LLPs wanting to invest surplus cash in ETFs. A genuinely unusual offering at zero cost.

What's missing matters. No Junior ISA means parents saving for children need AJ Bell or Fidelity. No Lifetime ISA means first-time buyers wanting the 25% bonus need to look elsewhere — our Lifetime ISA deadline guide explains that opportunity. No Cash ISA means you can't hold your emergency fund and investments with the same provider.

What you can invest in: ETFs only. Over 860 ETFs from 20+ providers including iShares (BlackRock), Vanguard, Invesco, Xtrackers, JP Morgan, Amundi, HSBC, L&G, and more. Filter by asset class, provider, accumulating vs distributing, currency-hedged, and ESG criteria. A small selection of Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) is also available.

Fractional investing from £1 means proper diversification is possible even with small amounts. Combined with Savings Plans (weekly, fortnightly, or monthly automated investments) and AutoInvest, the platform makes drip-feeding into a diversified portfolio genuinely painless.

Managed options — the caveat: Managed Portfolios cost 0.25% per year but remain closed to new clients as of July 2026. LifePlan portfolios (risk-rated from cautious to aggressive) are the alternative for those who want guidance without picking ETFs themselves.

Three features set InvestEngine apart from other zero-fee platforms like Trading 212:

Portfolio look-through shows exactly which companies, sectors, and regions you're exposed to across your entire portfolio. Own three global trackers? The look-through reveals you're 65% US tech without realising it. This transparency is surprisingly rare among consumer platforms — most just show you a list of holdings, not what they actually mean in aggregate.

One-click rebalancing lets you set target weights for your ETFs and rebalance with a single tap when allocations drift. No manual selling and buying. No spreadsheet calculations. The feature is genuinely useful for maintaining a disciplined asset allocation — something most investors say they'll do but rarely get around to.

Savings Plans and AutoInvest automate regular contributions so your money gets invested without intervention. AutoInvest is particularly important here — since InvestEngine keeps your uninvested cash interest, minimising idle cash is how you avoid the platform's one hidden cost. Set it and forget it.

The app holds 4.8 stars on the App Store (6,150+ reviews) and 4.6 stars on Google Play (1,040+ reviews). Trustpilot scores 4.7 from 3,825 reviews. Support is email-only (support@investengine.com), with a claimed 2-hour response time during operating hours (Monday-Friday 5:30am-11pm, weekends 7am-10pm). No phone support as standard, though they say they can accommodate it on request.

One operational detail worth knowing: InvestEngine batches orders once daily. For buy-and-hold investors this is irrelevant. For anyone wanting intraday execution, it's a deal-breaker. Be honest about which camp you're in.

vs Vanguard: Vanguard charges £4/month or 0.15% (capped at £375/year). On a £50,000 portfolio, that's £75/year versus £0. Vanguard restricts you to its own funds; InvestEngine gives access to 860+ ETFs from 20+ providers. InvestEngine wins on both cost and choice. But Vanguard's brand, scale, and the simplicity of 'just buy LifeStrategy' shouldn't be dismissed — for investors who don't want to think about ETF selection, Vanguard's managed approach has real appeal.

vs Trading 212: Both offer commission-free investing, but Trading 212 adds individual shares and — crucially — pays interest on uninvested cash. If the BoE base rate stays at 3.75%, that interest differential is worth roughly £37.50 per year per £1,000 of idle cash. Trading 212 also offers a Cash ISA. The trade-off: Trading 212's ETF tools (rebalancing, look-through, Savings Plans) are less sophisticated. If you want shares and ETFs with interest on cash, Trading 212 wins. For pure passive ETF investing, InvestEngine's tooling is more polished.

vs Freetrade: Freetrade offers a free ISA and SIPP plus individual shares, mutual funds, and gilts. Broader range, but InvestEngine's automation and rebalancing tools are superior for passive ETF portfolios. See our detailed Freetrade review for the full comparison.

vs AJ Bell: AJ Bell charges 0.25% (capped at £3.50/month) plus £5 per trade. Much broader investment range — shares, funds, investment trusts, bonds. Over 20 years, InvestEngine saves you £14,405 according to InvestEngine's own comparison. For an ETF-only portfolio, the cost case for InvestEngine is overwhelming. For anything broader, AJ Bell's range justifies the fee.

vs Hargreaves Lansdown: HL charges 0.35% (capped at £12.50/month) with free ETF dealing. The 20-year gap stands at £7,465 from InvestEngine's figures. HL's advantage is breadth, research quality, phone support, and 40 years of trust. Some investors will happily pay £7,465 over 20 years for that — and that's a perfectly rational choice.

vs Interactive Investor: ii charges £5.99/month (rising to £39.99/month on their Premium plan). For portfolios above £100k, ii's flat fee can work out cheaper than percentage-based competitors. But for ETF portfolios under £100k, InvestEngine's zero fee is unbeatable.

vs Fidelity: Fidelity has moved to a 0.20%-0.35% tiered fee (capped at £7.50/month), making it cheaper than it was — but still not free. Fidelity's strength is its fund range and research. For an ETF-only investor, the cost gap to InvestEngine remains £9,082 over 20 years.

Use InvestEngine if you are:

• A passive investor buying global index trackers and holding them for years
• Cost-conscious and want every penny working in your ISA or SIPP
• Happy with ETFs only — you don't need individual shares or funds
• A regular investor who'll use Savings Plans and AutoInvest
• Building a portfolio from small amounts (fractional shares from £1)
• A business owner wanting to invest company cash in ETFs at zero cost
• Consolidating old pensions — free transfers from most major providers, with in-specie support

Look elsewhere if you:

• Want individual shares — try Trading 212 or Freetrade
• Need a Junior ISA for your children — AJ Bell or Fidelity offer these
• Want a Lifetime ISA for the 25% bonus — not available here
• Want interest on uninvested cash — Trading 212 pays it
• Need phone support as standard — email-only won't cut it for you
• Prefer managed portfolios — the managed option is closed to new clients
• Want real-time trading — InvestEngine batches orders once daily
• Need everything under one roof — shares, funds, investment trusts, and bonds in one account
• Want employer pension contributions — only personal contributions accepted

The cash interest question deserves its own conversation. At 3.75% base rate, leaving £5,000 uninvested for a year costs you roughly £187 in foregone interest. Over a decade, that's serious money. The solution is simple — AutoInvest — but it requires discipline. If you know you'll let cash sit, Trading 212's interest-paying model may actually leave you better off despite the absence of dedicated ETF tools.

InvestEngine (UK) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 801128). Client funds are held in segregated accounts at trusted UK banks and custodians — your money never mixes with InvestEngine's own funds. Investments are protected up to £85,000 per eligible person under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. For details on how UK investment protection works, see the MoneyHelper guide to investing.

A note on how InvestEngine funds the free model, since this generates understandable questions: revenue comes from interest retained on uninvested client cash, joint marketing arrangements with ETF providers, and operational efficiency from a lean, digital-only structure. Some ETF issuers pay InvestEngine fees for joint marketing — but the platform states these arrangements do not influence product placement or portfolio construction. It's worth reading that disclosure on their website directly.

The FSCS protection applies to cash held in your account. It does not protect against investment losses — the value of your ETFs can and will fluctuate.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. You should seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions.