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Freetrade review: Is the low-cost investing platform worth another look for DIY investors? By SAM BROMLEY, MONEY & CONSUMER GUIDES WRITER Updated: 07:54 GMT, 7 November 2025 Products featured in this article are independently selected by This is Money's specialist journalists. If you open an account using links which have an asterisk, This is Money will earn an affiliate commission. We do not allow this to affect our editorial independence. Freetrade is a home-grown investment platform that launched in 2018 and stakes a claim as a pioneer of commission-free investing in the UK, hence the company's name. It's now owned by online trading firm IG Group. Since 2018, several other investment platforms have boomed in popularity, each offering its own spin on Freetrade's selling point. Commission-free investing is no longer anything special. Some investors now demand free account fees too, which other platforms oblige, while Freetrade's best features are locked behind subscriptions. That being said, Freetrade has made some positive changes in 2025 that mean it's worth another look. Its big shake-up is that you can now open a stocks and shares Isa on its basic plan, without any account fees to pay. This makes it a competitive low-cost option for do-it-yourself investors. Freetrade now also lets you invest in mutual funds, which sets it apart from the newer batch of investing platforms such as InvestEngine and Trading 212. Funds are only available on Freetrade's paid plans. But their addition makes the platform an attractive option for those who want a wide investment choice while still keeping costs low. What deals are Freetrade running? You can currently get 2 per cent cashback on pension transfers and up to £1,000 cashback on Isa transfers until 31 December 2025. > Open an account with Freetrade* Freetrade: Who does this investment platform suit? Good for investors who want a no-nonsense low-cost platform Simple and straightforward platform to use No account fees on its stocks and shares Isa Funds are now available on the paid plans Flat fees can work out well for those with larger pots Fractional shares are only available for US stocks Performs well but little that makes it stand out among a growing range of platforms This is Money's view: Freetrade has improved its offering recently, with the addition of funds making it worth considering as a low-cost alternative to the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor. The platform is straightforward to use on both desktop and mobile but doesn't do anything special in terms of features. You can open these accounts with Freetrade: Investment Isa – read our full round-up of the best stocks and shares Isa providers General investment account Self-invested personal pension (Sipp) – here's our view of the best Sipps Unlike other platforms, Freetrade doesn't offer a cash Isa. Read our round-up of the best cash Isas you can open at the moment. Why you can trust us This is Money has been covering investing and personal finance since 1999. Read more about how our editorial independence helps make our readers' lives richer and how we test and review investment platforms. About our writer: Sam has been helping people make the most of their money for more than a decade and has written extensively about investment accounts and types of investments. He's a DIY investor and enjoys tracking economic news and market developments. He's written for organisations including NerdWallet, the Financial Ombudsman Service and Simply Business. How we tested Freetrade I opened a general investment account and a stocks and shares Isa with Freetrade and spent several hours testing its features. I've searched for investments using Freetrade's 'discover' tab and tried the platform on both desktop and mobile. I've bought an investment and set up a limit order to sell when it reaches a certain price. I've spoken to This is Money team members who use the platform and have included their opinions in my Freetrade review. Freetrade's fees Freetrade's basic plan is free and allows you to open a general investment account and a stocks and shares Isa. You need to pay to access the two plans above that, but they offer a wider investment choice, with Freetrade's plus subscription giving access to a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) too. Monthly cost £4.99 (billed annually), £5.99 (billed monthly) £9.99 (billed annually), £11.99 (billed monthly) General investment account, stocks and shares Isa General investment account, stocks and shares Isa General investment account, stocks and shares Isa, Sipp Investment choice 6,500+ UK, US, and European stocks, ETFs As on basic plan + mutual funds As on basic plan + mutual funds Interest on cash Source: This is Money based on Freetrade's published fees. This is Money's view of Freetrade's fees Freetrade charges fixed subscription fees rather than charging them as a percentage of your investments, meaning its fee structure is like Interactive Investor's. We like flat fees, because they're straightforward to understand – and crucially they don't skyrocket as your investments grow. And now its stocks and shares Isa is free, Freetrade can compete much more effectively with the likes of Trading 212 and InvestEngine, neither of which charges account fees. Even though there's not many to choose from currently, adding funds is a savvy move for the platform. When there's more to choose from, it should be able to compete with fund supermarkets like Bestinvest and Hargreaves Lansdown. If you have a larger portfolio, Freetrade should work out much cheaper than many of these platforms for fund investors. For example, Interactive Investor ramps up its subscription fee to £11.99 a month when the value of your Isa reaches £50,000. With Freetrade there's no similar rise. There are no dealing fees either, which some platforms charge for funds – for example Interactive Investor at £3.99 a trade and AJ Bell at £1.50 a trade. On the other hand, those with a smaller pot are likely to find cheaper account fees elsewhere. Here are example annual account fees for someone with a £75,000 portfolio in a stocks and shares Isa: Bestinvest – £300 AJ Bell – £187.50 Hargreaves Lansdown – £337.50 Interactive Investor – £143.88 Freetrade – £59.88 (billed annually), £71.88 (billed monthly) Fidelity – £262.50 What is Freetrade's investment choice like? Freetrade says it has more than 6,500 UK, US and European stocks, investment trusts and ETFs to choose from. By comparison, Trading 212 claims you can pick from more than 13,000 global stocks and ETFs. The number of options available through Freetrade is enough for investors to build a diversified portfolio. But with more stocks available elsewhere, it's possible that more experienced investors may not be able to find certain niche investments on Freetrade. > Read more: Investing for beginners Those on the Standard and Plus subscriptions can also invest in gilts, UK Treasury bills and funds. It's great that Freetrade has added funds to the platform for paid subscribers, with a limited choice of options currently available from investment houses such as Aegon, Trojan and Vanguard. The platform is aiming to have around 300 funds available initially before expanding this out to around 2,000. But until this happens, more experienced fund investors may not be able to find what they're after on Freetrade and will likely want to stick with a different investing platform. What about fractional shares? Freetrade's fractional share trading is limited, but the platform says it's aiming to add fractional share trading in UK and EU stocks and ETFs in the future. Buying investments is straightforward enough, though fractional shares are only available for US stocks, with no option to buy fractions of UK and European ones. Harvey Dorset, Reporter at This is Money What is Freetrade's customer service like? Like many app-based investment platforms, Freetrade funnels you to a chatbot when you have a question, which you can access through your account. If you have a more general question, the chatbot attempts to match your question to a response in Freetrade's help centre. But during my testing, it wasn't obvious how to get put through to a real customer service agent, or whether they would read my messages. It's not the best experience when it's unclear how to get connected to a human and whether you're chatting to an AI or not. Someone did reply to my question about the choice of investments available through Freetrade a day later. You can also email Freetrade with your questions or get in touch with the team using social media. There's no phone-based support, so Freetrade may not be the right platform for you if you prefer to speak with customer service in real time. I, robot: It's not always clear whether your question will get through to a human What is Freetrade's platform like to use? Freetrade is one of the more straightforward platforms to use, on both mobile and desktop. It lacks frills, but this means it's uncluttered and simple to navigate. Within moments of joining, I'd funded my Isa by connecting my bank account to the platform using a QR code. Searching for investments is a better experience on Freetrade than most other platforms I've tested. The 'discover' tab allows you to find investments by popularity, sector and theme, with the platform highlighting particularly distinctive ones – such as cannabis companies. When searching for companies, Freetrade helpfully gives a short summary of what each one is known for. In most instances, these are dry. But Freetrade has injected frivolity into some of them, making your search – dare I say it – quite fun. Sausage rolls: Freetrade describes companies by what they're known for I bought two shares in a UK company using Freetrade, with the transaction occurring instantly after placing the order. If you place an order outside of market hours, Freetrade queues it so it goes through when the market opens. Freetrade also has extended hours orders on certain US stocks, meaning you can place orders before the market opens. You can search for these investments using the 'discover' tab. I like the 'discover' function where you can search for stocks by sector and region, and I also like that this function allows you to find stocks in more niche categories such as companies with female founders. I found it fiddly to update my address but managed to do it without contacting support. Helen Crane, Deputy Editor at This is Money Does Freetrade have any useful features for investors? When compared with options from rivals such as Trading 212 and Etoro, Freetrade is fairly bare bones. But as I mentioned in my InvestEngine review, a streamlined platform is no bad thing – especially for novice investors who may be overwhelmed by lots of bells and whistles. The main drawback with Freetrade is that it doesn't allow you to build distinct portfolios for your investments. Other platforms let you add investments into a portfolio and buy them according to target weights. This is a simplified example, but on Trading 212 you could create a more cautious investment portfolio – or Pie as the platform calls them – with an ETF that tracks global stocks at a 75 per cent target weight, and an ETF that tracks bonds, or fixed income, at 25 per cent. When you add money into the Pie, Trading 212 then allocates the investment according to these targets. There's no similar feature on Freetrade. This isn't the end of the world, but the Pie feature is useful if you're investing with different financial goals in mind. That being said, Freetrade does give you a portfolio breakdown, which allows you to track performance and to easily see how you're invested – including across investment types and sector. Otherwise you can expect the usual essential features in Freetrade: Recurring investments: You can set a single recurring order for up to 50 investments, choosing target allocations for each. Advanced order types: Extended trading hours, plus limit, stop and triggered orders to help you control how and when Freetrade places your orders – these are now available to free users as well as paid ones. Watchlist: You can track investments you've got your eye on by 'starring' them and adding them to your watchlist at the bottom of your main portfolio screen. What is Freetrade's research and educational content like? Freetrade has a learning hub on its website that gives useful information, especially for those just starting their investment journey. It has a news section of the website, where it publishes regular weekly articles about timely topics. There isn't a dedicated news section within Freetrade's app, however. It would be great to have relevant content featured under the insights tab of your account. When I signed up and logged into the desktop version of Freetrade for the first time, the platform pushed relevant articles at the bottom of the screen, which is useful when choosing your first account and investment. Other investing platforms have more extensive research and educational content. In particular, investment platforms such as AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor produce their own research and analysis to help you choose your investments. But they generally charge more in fees, letting them employ entire teams of investment researchers and analysts and offer these extra trimmings. The app-focused platforms like Freetrade, Trading 212, Prosper and InvestEngine can't generally compete with the established ones on this type of content. Freetrade: This is Money's overall review There was little to make Freetrade stand out before it improved its platform this year. But now it's added a free stocks and shares Isa and allows paid subscribers to invest in funds, it's worth keeping an eye on. Further changes are also afoot, with Freetrade aiming to dramatically expand the choice of funds available. These changes mean that Freetrade could appeal to two types of investor – those who prefer app-focused, low-cost platforms like Trading 212 for trading stocks, and those who want low-cost access to funds. The platform itself is less fiddly to use than others, and I was set up and investing very quickly. I can see myself using the platform more regularly because of its simplicity. SAVE MONEY, MAKE MONEY Sipp cashback Sipp cashback £200 when you deposit or transfer £15,000 4.53% cash Isa 4.53% cash Isa Trading 212: 0.68% fixed 12-month bonus £20 off motoring £20 off motoring This is Money Motoring Club voucher Free shares bundle Free shares bundle Get free UK shares worth up to £200 4.45% Isa with bonus 4.45% Isa with bonus Now with no penalty for withdrawals Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence. Terms and conditions apply on all offers. Share or comment on this article: Freetrade review: Is the low-cost investing platform worth another look for DIY investors? I initially switched because of the cashback offer... by SoccerMuleTrowel Add comment
