Vanguard vs Hargreaves Lansdown 2026: The £13,714 Break-Even Where Cheap Flips to Expensive

Both platforms bill you on your invested balance, but the shape of the charge is completely different.

Vanguard self-managed (fees):

• Under £32,000: £4 a month — £48 a year — no matter how little you hold
• £32,000 and above: 0.15% a year, capped at £375 a year
• Fund dealing: free; ETF trades: £7.50 each
• Fund OCFs: 0.06% to 0.79% (LifeStrategy averages around 0.20%)

Hargreaves Lansdown (charges):

• Funds: 0.35% a year on the first £250,000, then 0.25%, then 0.10%, and nothing above £2 million
• Shares, ETFs and investment trusts: capped at £45 a year in an ISA, £200 in a SIPP
• Fund dealing: from £1.95 online; shares: never more than £6.95 online; regular investing: free
• Junior ISA: £0 platform charge and £0 online dealing

The headline gap everyone quotes is 0.35% versus 0.15% — HL at more than double Vanguard's rate for fund portfolios. But the £48 floor is the part nobody prices. Run it as an effective percentage and a £5,000 account pays 0.96% at Vanguard against 0.35% at HL. That's the comparison that changes the answer.

The crossover is the first number to memorise: £48 ÷ 0.35% = £13,714. On a funds-only portfolio:

• £5,000: HL £17.50, Vanguard £48 — HL cheaper
• £10,000: HL £35, Vanguard £48 — HL cheaper by £13
• £13,714: both £48
• £20,000: HL £70, Vanguard £48 — Vanguard cheaper by £22
• £32,000: HL £112, Vanguard £48 — Vanguard cheaper by £64
• £50,000: HL £175, Vanguard £75 — Vanguard cheaper by £100
• £100,000: HL £350, Vanguard £150 — Vanguard cheaper by £200
• £250,000: HL £875, Vanguard £375 (capped) — Vanguard cheaper by £500

Below £13,714 the "expensive" platform is the cheap one. That covers a first-time ISA saver with £10,000 to deploy — exactly the investor most articles steer toward Vanguard. Above the line the gap widens quickly, because Vanguard's 0.15% is less than half HL's 0.35% once the flat fee falls away.

One caveat: this is platform fee only. Both platforms add the fund's own ongoing charge, which is identical for the same underlying fund. The platform fee is the part you actually choose — and the full maths across all 13 major platforms is in our flat-fee versus percentage-fee guide.

Platform fees aren't the whole bill, and the dealing charges cut in opposite directions.

Funds. Vanguard charges nothing to buy or sell its own mutual funds. HL introduced a £1.95 online fund dealing charge — small, but it used to be free, and it's a cost Vanguard simply doesn't have. HL's regular monthly investing is free, so a set-and-forget Direct Debit avoids the £1.95 entirely.

ETFs. This is where it flips. Vanguard charges £7.50 per ETF trade through its Quote and Deal service. HL charges £6.95 online as a maximum — and zero through free regular investing. An ETF investor making four trades a year pays £30 at Vanguard versus £27.80 at HL, before any platform fee.

Ongoing fund charges. Vanguard's own funds span 0.06% to 0.79%; the LifeStrategy range averages about 0.20%. HL hosts thousands of funds, including 500+ with discounted OCFs averaging 17% off. But the shelf size matters less than the evidence on active funds: 9 out of 10 active UK equity funds trail their benchmark, so paying 0.75% for active management rarely beats a 0.20% tracker.

Here's the comparison that decides it for share investors: Vanguard doesn't let you hold individual shares at all. Its roughly 85-fund range is Vanguard-only — no FTSE 100 dividend stocks, no investment trusts, no third-party active funds.

HL, by contrast, caps share custody at £45 a year in an ISA and £200 in a SIPP, whatever the size. A £200,000 ISA of shares, ETFs and investment trusts costs £45 a year at HL. There is no Vanguard equivalent, because Vanguard can't hold that portfolio.

That cap is also why "HL is expensive" is only half-true. It's expensive for funds. For shares it becomes one of the cheapest custody options in the market — cheaper than Interactive Investor's £179.88 a year on the Plus plan for a £200,000 portfolio, and only £3 more than AJ Bell's £42 ISA cap.

If you want individual dividend stocks or investment trusts, the comparison is already over: HL is the only option of the two.

Both platforms carry the core tax wrappers, but HL's list is longer.

Vanguard: Stocks & Shares ISA (self-managed and Managed), Personal Pension (SIPP), Junior ISA, General Account. No Lifetime ISA, no Cash ISA.

HL: Stocks & Shares ISA, Cash ISA, Lifetime ISA, Junior ISA, SIPP, Junior SIPP, Drawdown, Fund & Share Account, and the Active Savings marketplace.

The two gaps that matter most:

• Lifetime ISA: under-40s saving for a first home lose the 25% government bonus if they choose Vanguard. HL offers it. See the ISA hub for the maths on that £1,000-a-year bonus.
• Cash ISA and savings: Vanguard is investment-only. HL lets you run cash ISAs and Active Savings from one login.

For pensions, both route contributions through the £60,000 annual allowance with basic-rate relief added automatically. Vanguard's SIPP is cheap and simple; HL's adds drawdown tools and a wider investment universe, at the cost of a 0.35% fund fee versus Vanguard's 0.15%. For a pure SIPP tracker, Vanguard wins on price; for a consolidated pension with share holdings, HL's £200 SIPP cap can win at scale. More in the pensions hub.

Fees compound just like returns. Put £50,000 in funds and leave it for 20 years at a 5% gross return:

• Vanguard (0.15%): £128,925
• HL (0.35%): £124,095

That £4,830 gap is the price of the wrong platform on a static £50,000 — before you add a single extra contribution. Add £500 a month and the gap widens further, because the 0.20 percentage-point difference is charged on a growing balance every single year.

The MoneyHelper compound interest calculator makes the point bluntly. Or flip it the other way: the £100 you save at Vanguard in year one, compounded at 5% for 20 years, is worth roughly £265. The platform decision is a one-off; the fee is forever.

Choose Vanguard if:

• You're a buy-and-hold index fund investor with more than about £13,700 in funds
• You'll live happily inside roughly 85 Vanguard funds and never need individual shares
• You want the cheapest SIPP tracker, or the Managed ISA below £15,000
• You'll never need a Lifetime ISA or a Cash ISA in the same place

Choose Hargreaves Lansdown if:

• Your fund portfolio is below £13,714, or
• You hold shares, ETFs or investment trusts — especially £30,000+, where the £45 ISA custody cap makes HL genuinely cheap
• You want a Lifetime ISA, Cash ISA, Active Savings or Junior ISA under one roof
• You'll actually use the research, the app and the UK helpdesk — that's what the premium buys

The one-line version: Vanguard for funds above £13,714; HL for shares, small balances, and everything Vanguard won't touch. Our full Vanguard review and full HL review dig into each platform in detail, and the platform comparison hub runs the broader field.

Both are FCA-regulated: Vanguard Asset Management, Limited (firm reference 527839) and Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited (firm reference 115248). Investments are covered by the FSCS up to £85,000 per person against firm failure — that protects you if the platform collapses, not if the market falls. HL's Active Savings cash is separately protected up to £120,000 per banking licence.