There's lots of alternatives for you to choose from. One very similar but a lot cheaper is AJ Bell – but there's more options below.
Hargreaves Lansdown is a great traditional stock broker, but is it the right option for you? Could there be alternatives? Yes, yes there are alternatives!
Hargreaves Lansdown is the most popular broker in the UK – and by quite a distance, with over 1.4 million customers. It’s often the first choice for many people, as it’s trustworthy with a great reputation and solid history.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best, and it’s actually the most expensive broker out there too. And when it comes to investing, fees can add up fast. Let’s take a look at the alternatives:
Cheaper alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown
Here’s the cheapest alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown:
The best investment platforms
We've reviewed and rated the best investment platforms in the UK. Check it out.
One of the cheapest traditional brokers out there, with a good reputation and established history. The customer service is great and there’s a huge range of investment options.
InvestEngine is great for investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and that’s all they do. It’s a cheap way to invest your money, in fact the only cost you’ll pay is the fund fee. There’s no InvestEngine fees!
The app is great to track your investments too.
There's also ready-made investment portfolios where the experts handle things for you.
Interactive Investor is a popular investment platform with a flat fee, making it a cheap option if you have over £30,000 of investments. There’s a huge range to choose from, their website and apps are great and their customer service is excellent.
If you don’t regularly buy and sell investments (trade), or manage your own portfolio – perhaps you just let Hargreaves Lansdown invest your money for you with their ready-made portfolios. Well then, you’ve got plenty of options for alternatives where the experts handle everything for you, there’s no need to use a stock broker like Hargreaves Lansdown, you can save money on fees, and potentially get a bigger investment return too.
Here’s the best options:
Cheapest (ETFs only)
InvestEngine
InvestEngine is great for investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and that’s all they do. It’s a cheap way to invest your money, in fact the only cost you’ll pay is the fund fee. There’s no InvestEngine fees!
The app is great to track your investments too.
There's also ready-made investment portfolios where the experts handle things for you.
Moneyfarm is like a financial advisor on your phone (or website), their experts will work with you to determine the best investment strategy. It’s low cost, with an excellent investment track record and great customer service.
You’ll pay one simple fee that decreases the more you save.
Nutmeg is a good digital wealth manager – their experts will handle everything for you. However, the investment track record isn’t the best, and they’re one of the most expensive. Plus, they’re the furthest you’ll get from socially responsible investing. There’s better options out there.
Rating
There's currently a deal for our readers: get your first 6 months with Nutmeg fee-free!
Hargreaves Lansdown are good overall, they’re fairly easy to use and the customer support is great, but the fees are expensive. There’s no harm in trying other platforms to see what you think!
By the way, you don’t have to have just one investing account, you can use as any investment platforms as you like – the only restriction is paying into one Stocks & Shares ISA per year, but you can open as many General Investment Accounts (GIA) as you like.
You’ll have to pay Capital Gains Tax on your profits, but only if they exceed £12,300 within a tax year (April 6th to April 5th the following year).
There we have it
So there we go, there’s our best alternatives to Hargreaves Lansdown – all really great platforms. Let’s have a quick recap:
If you're looking for a similar platform to Hargreaves Lansdown, but cheaper, check our AJ Bell¹ – it’s pretty great.
If you’re just interested in buying investment funds (ETFs), then InvestEngine¹ is for you – it's completely fee free, with a good range of funds.
And if you’ve got a slighter bigger portfolio than average (over £30,000), then you can benefit from some of the cheapest fees around with Interactive Investor¹ and their fixed fee option.
If you’re just looking for short term trading – check out eToro¹, it’s commission free and a great platform. Plus you can copy other people’s trades.
If you want the experts to handle things for you, there’s some great options. Our favourite is Moneyfarm¹, which handles everything for you for a great fee, and a close runner up is Nutmeg¹.
