Best Stocks and Shares ISA Platforms UK July 2026: Fees Compared for Every Portfolio Size

Cheapest overall (ETFs only): InvestEngine — £0 platform fee, £0 dealing on 700+ ETFs. The trade-off: ETFs only, no individual shares, no funds, no Lifetime ISA. For a pure ETF portfolio, it is unbeatable at every balance.

Best mainstream platform for share and ETF investors: AJ Bell — 0.25% platform fee, capped at £3.50/month (£42/year) on shares and ETFs. This cap means AJ Bell is the cheapest mainstream platform for any share investor with more than £17,000 invested. Fund investors pay 0.25% uncapped on the first £250,000, then 0.10% on the next £250,000, and nothing above £500,000. Share dealing costs £5.00 (or £3.50 if you made 10+ deals the previous month).

Best fund investor platform: Interactive investor — flat £5.99/month Core plan covers ISA, SIPP, and GIA together at £71.88/year. This beats percentage-fee platforms for fund investors above £29,000. The Plus plan at £14.99/month adds free Junior ISAs, five free family accounts, and one free monthly trade — outstanding value for families.

Best free all-rounder: Freetrade — the Basic plan (£0/month) now includes a Stocks & Shares ISA, SIPP, and Junior ISA, plus commission-free trading on 8,200+ stocks, ETFs, funds, and gilts. The catch: 0.99% FX fee on non-GBP trades and only 1% interest on up to £1,000 of uninvested cash. For UK-only investors who trade infrequently, this is the best deal in British investing.

Best for beginners and guidance: Hargreaves Lansdown — 0.35% platform fee (capped at £12.50/month for shares/ETFs). HL's real edge is its research, app quality, customer service, and 500+ discounted funds. The new Cash ISA at 4.3% (launched 3 July 2026) makes HL a credible one-stop shop: S&S ISA and Cash ISA under one login. For investors who want hand-holding and don't mind paying a premium for it, nothing competes.

Budget pick for small portfolios: Trading 212 — zero platform fee, zero dealing charges. 0.15% FX fee is the lowest in the market. The trade-off: the Invest and ISA accounts are share-dealing accounts only — no SIPP, no Junior ISA, no Lifetime ISA. But the cost stacking is genuinely remarkable for a UK ISA: £0 platform + £0 dealing + 0.15% FX = the closest thing to free share dealing in an ISA wrapper.

A 0.20% annual fee gap on a £50,000 portfolio costs £100 a year. Over 20 years at 7% growth, that compounds to roughly £4,400 lost to fees. Platform fees matter more than most investors think — and the difference between the cheapest and most expensive mainstream platform on a £100,000 portfolio is about £300/year.

Here is what each platform actually charges at four portfolio sizes, verified from provider websites as of July 2026:

The story at £20,000 and £50,000 is the same for share investors: AJ Bell's £42 cap, ii's £72 flat fee, and HL's £150 cap define the three tiers. InvestEngine, Freetrade, and Trading 212 sit at £0.

Fund investors face different maths. Funds at AJ Bell have no cap: 0.25% on the first £250k. At £50,000 in funds, AJ Bell costs £125/year — more than ii Core at £72. At £100,000 in funds, AJ Bell costs £250, ii Plus costs £180, and HL costs £350 (0.35% uncapped on funds). For pure fund investors, ii's flat fee wins decisively above £29,000.

The cap is what matters. AJ Bell caps share/ETF fees at £42/year. HL caps at £150/year. That £108 difference is the cost of HL's research, customer service, and brand. Whether it is worth it depends on how much you value those things — but the number itself is unambiguous.

The UK platform market saw more fee changes in early 2026 than in the previous two years combined. Here is where things stand in July 2026.

Hargreaves Lansdown (1 March 2026): Platform fee cut from 0.45% to 0.35%. Share/ETF holdings capped at £12.50/month (£150/year). Fund dealing now costs £1.95 — previously free. Share dealing £6.95 online, regular monthly investing by Direct Debit remains free. Junior ISA is free — no account charge, no dealing charge. The new Cash ISA at 4.3% launched on 3 July 2026, making HL the only major platform to offer both S&S ISA and Cash ISA at competitive rates under one roof. Read our full Hargreaves Lansdown review for complete fee analysis and our verdict.

Interactive investor (early 2026): Simplified into three plans — Core (£5.99/month), Plus (£14.99/month), and Premium (£39.99/month). All plans cover ISA, SIPP, and Trading Account together. The Core plan caps portfolios at £100,000 before compulsory upgrade to Plus. Fund trades dropped to £3.99 on Core, £1.49 on Plus, and free on Premium. The Plus plan's five free family accounts and free Junior ISAs make ii the standout choice for households investing together. Read our full interactive investor review for our complete assessment.

Freetrade (latest update early 2026): The big change — SIPP and Junior ISA are now included on the free Basic plan. Mutual funds and gilts are new additions across all plans. Standard (£4.99/month) drops FX to 0.59% and pays 2.5% on uninvested cash up to £2,000. Plus (£9.99/month) drops FX to 0.39% and pays 3.5% on up to £3,000.

AJ Bell: Unchanged since our last review. 0.25% with the £3.50/month cap on shares and ETFs remains the benchmark mainstream price. Fund dealing at £1.50 is the cheapest per-trade fund cost among major platforms.

What hasn't changed: InvestEngine remains genuinely free for ETFs with no dealing fees. Trading 212 remains free for shares and ETFs with the lowest FX in the market (0.15%). Vanguard's platform fee (0.15%, minimum £4/month) is unchanged but makes it uncompetitive below £32,000 where the minimum floor bites.

The 2026/27 tax year brought a quiet but significant change: dividend tax rates increased. The basic rate rose to 10.75% (from 8.75%) and the higher rate to 35.75% (from 33.75%). The dividend allowance remains £500.

This changes the platform comparison maths in a way most fee tables ignore.

A higher-rate taxpayer with a £50,000 portfolio yielding 3.5% (roughly the FTSE 100 yield) receives £1,750 in dividends. Inside an ISA: £1,750 tax-free. Outside an ISA: £500 allowance, then 35.75% on the remaining £1,250 = £447 tax. That is £447 a year the platform fee debate entirely misses — more than the annual platform fee on every provider discussed here.

For basic-rate taxpayers, the hit is smaller but not zero: £1,750 in dividends outside an ISA costs £134 in tax after the £500 allowance. Still enough to cover AJ Bell's £42 annual fee three times over.

The upshot: platform choice matters, but ISA wrapper choice matters more. If you are holding dividend-paying investments outside an ISA in 2026/27, you are paying HMRC more than you would pay any platform — by a factor of three to ten. Opening any S&S ISA beats not opening one. For more on how dividend taxation has evolved and what it means for your portfolio, see our guide to UK dividend tax in 2026/27. Choosing the right platform is optimisation; skipping the ISA wrapper entirely is a tax mistake.

The arithmetic makes the case: prioritising ISA contributions as early as possible in the tax year is the rational move. The £20,000 ISA allowance for 2026/27 is available from 6 April. Every month your investments sit outside the wrapper is a month of avoidable dividend tax.

Headline platform fees get all the attention. The real cost differences live in the fine print — and they are larger than most investors realise.

Foreign exchange fees are the biggest hidden cost for anyone buying US or international shares. Trading 212 charges 0.15% — best in the market. Freetrade Basic charges 0.99%. AJ Bell charges 0.75% on the first £10,000, dropping to 0.25% above £20,000. HL charges 0.99% on the first £10,000, dropping to 0.20% above £25,000. Interactive investor's FX varies by plan: 0.75% on Core, tiered 0.75%/0.25% on Plus, 0.25% on Premium.

On a single £5,000 US share purchase, the FX cost difference between Trading 212 (£7.50) and Freetrade Basic (£49.50) is £42. One trade wipes out a full year of AJ Bell's platform fee.

Uninvested cash interest is the next biggest hidden line item. InvestEngine pays zero — it retains all interest to fund its free service. Freetrade Basic pays 1% on up to £1,000 (£10/year maximum). AJ Bell and HL pay modest rates on cash balances. Interactive investor pays competitive rates on GBP, EUR, and USD. If you keep significant cash in your account between trades, ii or Freetrade Plus (2.5% on £2,000) may offset some of their platform fees.

Dealing costs add up for active traders. Someone making six share trades a month on HL pays £500/year in dealing charges alone. On Trading 212 or Freetrade: £0. On AJ Bell with the frequent trader rate (£3.50/deal, triggered after 10+ deals in the previous month): £252/year. On ii Core: £287/year. For active traders, commission-free platforms are dominant — the dealing savings dwarf any platform fee difference.

Transfer-out fees are now largely extinct among the platforms covered here. For investors consolidating old ISAs, our ISA transfer guide covers the tax implications of moving between providers. AJ Bell does not charge exit fees and covers up to £500 of your old provider's exit fees on transfers above £20,000. ii charges nothing to transfer in or out. HL charges nothing to transfer out. Freetrade and Trading 212 charge nothing to transfer out. The days of £25-per-holding exit penalties are over for mainstream platforms.

Regular investing is free on every platform covered: AJ Bell, HL, ii, Freetrade, Trading 212. If you invest monthly by Direct Debit, your dealing costs are zero regardless of platform — which neutralises one of the biggest cost differentiators for buy-and-hold investors.

Platform choice changes as your portfolio grows. Here is the clearest map we can draw at July 2026 prices.

Under £5,000: Freetrade Basic (free ISA, SIPP, JISA, full investment range) or Trading 212 (free, lowest FX at 0.15%). InvestEngine if ETFs-only. Avoid flat-fee platforms — ii Core at £71.88/year eats 1.4% of a £5,000 portfolio. Avoid Vanguard: the £4/month minimum floor means £48/year on £5,000, which is 0.96%.

£5,000 to £17,000: AJ Bell at 0.25% costs £12.50–£42.50/year. Still cheaper than ii Core's £71.88. Freetrade and Trading 212 remain free — the question is whether you value AJ Bell's research, customer service, and platform quality at £42/year. For most investors in this range, free platforms win.

£17,000 to £100,000 (shares/ETFs): AJ Bell's £42 cap kicks in at £16,800 and stays flat. This is the sweet spot where AJ Bell dominates the mainstream comparison — cheaper than HL (£150 cap) by £108/year and cheaper than ii Core (£71.88) by £30/year. If you hold funds rather than shares, ii Core at £71.88/year beats AJ Bell's uncapped 0.25% on funds at any portfolio above £29,000.

£100,000+ (shares/ETFs): AJ Bell (£42), ii Core → Plus at £100k threshold (£179.88/year), HL (£150 cap). AJ Bell remains cheapest. But at this portfolio size, platform fees are a rounding error against investment returns and tax efficiency. Prioritise the ISA wrapper, fund selection, and service quality over a £100/year fee difference.

£100,000+ (funds): ii Plus at £179.88/year with £1.49 fund trades beats AJ Bell at £250+/year and HL at £350+/year. For pure fund investors above six figures, ii's flat fee is mathematically dominant.

Families with Junior ISAs: ii Plus (£179.88/year) with free JISAs and five free family accounts is the standout value. Freetrade Standard (£59.88/year) with free JISA on a paid plan is the budget alternative. HL's free JISA (no platform fee, no dealing charge) is also strong if you are already on HL for your own ISA.

Lifetime ISA investors: Only four providers offer a Stocks & Shares LISA — Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Moneybox, and Nutmeg. Platform fees barely register next to the 25% government bonus (£1,000 on £4,000). Choose based on investment range and service, not a £10 fee difference.

A fair proportion of readers landing on this page haven't decided whether to open a stocks & shares ISA at all. The honest answer depends on your horizon — and the maths keeps shifting.

With the Bank of England base rate at 3.75% (unchanged since December 2025) and gilt yields climbing to 4.94% in May 2026, the bond market is pricing in sustained inflation risk. The gap between what you earn in cash and what equities might deliver is narrowing on the risk-free side — but widening on the tax side.

The best easy-access Cash ISA rates hover around 4.5%, and HL's new Cash ISA at 4.3% is competitive but not market-leading. At 4.5%, £20,000 becomes £31,048 after 10 years — guaranteed, tax-free, with £120,000 FSCS protection for cash deposits.

The same £20,000 in global equities at a historical 7% annualised real return becomes roughly £39,300 — or £47,300 nominal. That £16,000+ gap is the price of safety, and for money you need in under five years, it is a price worth paying.

But here is what changed: the 2026/27 dividend tax increase means holding dividend-paying funds outside an ISA now costs substantially more. If you are choosing between a Cash ISA and a S&S ISA, do not just compare rates — compare tax treatment. Cash ISA interest is tax-free. So are S&S ISA dividends and capital gains. Outside an ISA, both are taxable — and both just got more expensive.

The practical answer: Use a Cash ISA for money you need within five years. Use a S&S ISA for money you will not touch for a decade or more. For a deeper dive on when cash beats equities, read our Cash ISA vs S&S ISA analysis. The platform fee comparison on this page is for the S&S ISA decision. But the ISA-or-not decision — that one has a clear answer: open an ISA.

The macroeconomic backdrop in July 2026 is more complex than the straightforward "rates peaked, time to buy equities" narrative of late 2025.

The UK service sector contracted in early July, with business activity falling for the first time in months. US job growth disappointed — only 57,000 new jobs in June versus expectations of 190,000. The Bank of England held rates at 3.75% through the July 2 MPC meeting but markets are now pricing a potential cut later in 2026 if the economic data continues to weaken.

Gilt yields at 4.94% are telling you one thing: bond investors expect inflation to persist and are demanding higher compensation for lending to the UK government. That same yield makes government bonds the most attractive they have been relative to equities since before 2008. An ISA investor can now earn nearly 5% risk-free from gilts held inside a tax wrapper — a genuinely competitive alternative to equity risk.

What this means for platform choice: if you are considering a mixed portfolio of equities, bonds, and cash, platform selection becomes about flexibility. Can the platform hold gilts? (Freetrade now can, on all plans.) Does it offer a competitive Cash ISA alongside the S&S ISA? (HL now does.) Can you hold multiple currencies? (ii does, on all plans.)

The cheapest platform on a 100%-equity comparison table may not be the cheapest for a 60/40 portfolio. Check what you actually plan to hold before you choose.

The 2026/27 tax year opened on 6 April with a fresh £20,000 ISA allowance. You can now split contributions across multiple ISAs of the same type — open a Freetrade ISA for commission-free trading and an AJ Bell ISA for individual shares in the same tax year.

Three reasons to act early:

Time in market beats timing the market. A £20,000 lump sum invested on 6 April at 7% nominal generates roughly £1,400 more than the same amount invested 11 months later. The earlier you use your allowance, the longer compounding works.

Dividend tax is higher in 2026/27. Every month your dividend-paying investments sit outside the ISA wrapper is a month of 10.75% (basic rate) or 35.75% (higher rate) tax on dividends above £500. The tax saving alone covers the platform fee on any provider discussed here.

The allowance does not roll over. If you do not use your £20,000 ISA allowance by 5 April 2027, it is gone. There is no carry-forward. Every year you skip an ISA contribution is a permanent loss of tax-free capacity.

£20,000 invested on day one of the tax year, earning 7% nominal over 20 years, becomes roughly £77,400 — entirely tax-free. The same amount sitting in a taxable account, with dividends taxed at 35.75% above the £500 allowance, compounds to significantly less. The platform fee you pay — whether £0 at Freetrade, £42 at AJ Bell, or £150 at HL — is trivial compared to the tax you avoid.