Freetrade Review 2026

Freetrade launched in 2016 as a commission-free alternative to traditional UK stockbrokers and has since grown to over 1.6 million users. In 2023 it was acquired by IG Group, one of the UK’s largest FTSE 100-listed financial services companies — a backing that has materially improved its financial stability and regulatory credibility compared to its earlier years as an independent fintech startup.

The platform underwent a significant restructuring in January 2026. The most important change: the ISA and SIPP are now available on the Basic plan at no monthly cost. Previously, ISA access required a paid plan — this was one of the most common criticisms of Freetrade compared to Trading 212, which has always offered a free ISA. That gap has now closed for the ISA; SIPP access is also free on Basic.

What Freetrade offers is a clean, well-designed UK investment app covering stocks, ETFs, and investment trusts across the LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ, and major European exchanges. It is FCA regulated, FSCS protected up to £85,000, and increasingly competitive at portfolio sizes above £30,000 where the flat-fee model becomes cheaper than percentage-based rivals like Hargreaves Lansdown.

Freetrade covers 8,200+ instruments across stocks, ETFs, investment trusts, mutual funds, gilts, and REITs. For most long-term investors the practical question is not the total number but whether the specific funds and markets they want are available — and they almost certainly are.

Index funds and ETFs are the core use case for most Freetrade investors. The full range of Vanguard, iShares, and SPDR ETFs is available — including the most popular choices for passive portfolios: the Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF (VWRL), iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (CSP1), Vanguard LifeStrategy funds, and global bond ETFs. If you are building a simple two or three-fund passive portfolio inside an ISA, everything you need is here.

Individual stocks across the London Stock Exchange, NYSE, and NASDAQ are all available, covering the full FTSE 100, FTSE 250, and major US listed companies. European stocks are available on Standard and Plus plans. Fractional shares on US-listed stocks are available on Standard and Plus — useful for building positions in high-priced companies like Amazon or Alphabet without needing the full share price.

Mutual funds were added to all plans including Basic in 2026 — a significant expansion. This brings access to actively managed funds from providers like Fundsmith, Lindsell Train, and Baillie Gifford alongside the passive ETF range. For investors who want a blend of passive and active exposure, this is a meaningful addition that puts Freetrade on a more equal footing with Hargreaves Lansdown.

Gilts and UK Treasury bills are available on all plans — short-duration T-bills currently yielding around 4.5% are a useful alternative to cash for investors who want government-backed returns without locking into a fixed-term savings account.

AutoInvest and recurring orders allow you to set up automatic monthly purchases of specific stocks or ETFs. This is one of Freetrade’s most practical features for long-term investors — you can set a monthly amount, choose your target holdings, and the platform handles the rest. Combined with a free ISA, this makes building a passive portfolio in Freetrade genuinely frictionless.

Ready-made portfolios are available on Standard and Plus plans — these are pre-built ETF portfolios you can invest in with one tap, covering different risk profiles from cautious to adventurous. They are not a fully managed robo-advisor service: Freetrade does not rebalance your portfolio automatically or manage it on your behalf the way Nutmeg, Moneyfarm, or Vanguard Personal Pension do. Think of them as a starting template rather than a managed product. If you want genuine automated portfolio management with rebalancing, Freetrade is not the right platform for that.

Freetrade is transparent about its revenue model, which is worth understanding before you open an account. There are three main income streams.

FX fees are the primary revenue source for most users. Every time you buy or sell a share denominated in a foreign currency — US dollars, euros, or any other non-GBP currency — Freetrade charges a conversion fee. On the Basic plan this is 0.99%, on Standard 0.59%, and on Plus 0.39%. For an investor buying US stocks regularly, this is where the majority of platform costs accumulate.

Cash interest is the second stream. Freetrade holds uninvested cash in your account and earns interest on it. It keeps a portion of this interest rather than passing all of it to customers. The exact split is not publicly disclosed, though Freetrade does pay a portion of interest to customers on paid plans. On the Basic plan, Freetrade pays 1% AER on up to £1,000 of uninvested cash. Standard pays 2.5% AER on up to £2,000, and Plus pays 3.5% AER on up to £3,000. Cash above these thresholds earns nothing, which is a meaningful limitation for investors holding larger cash balances.

Subscription fees from Standard (£4.99/month) and Plus (£9.99/month) plan subscribers form the third revenue stream. These plans offer lower FX fees and additional features in exchange for the monthly fee.

Freetrade does not use payment for order flow (PFOF) — a practice where brokers receive payments from market makers for routing orders to them — which is banned in the UK. This means your trades are not being routed to whoever pays the most; they go through regulated venues. This is a meaningful difference from some US-based apps that rely on PFOF.

Freetrade’s fee structure has three plan tiers. Understanding which plan suits your situation — and the FX fee implications — is the most important part of any Freetrade decision.

The FX fee is where the real cost lives. On the Basic plan, every time you buy a US stock you pay 0.99% on the transaction value. On a £5,000 purchase of Apple shares, that’s £49.50 — compared to £7.50 on Trading 212’s 0.15% FX fee. For investors with meaningful US equity exposure, this gap compounds significantly over time.

The Standard plan at £59.88/year reduces the FX fee to 0.59%. This breaks even against the Basic plan if your annual US stock purchases exceed roughly £10,000. The Plus plan at £119.88/year with 0.39% FX is better value for portfolios with heavy US exposure above £30,000.

There are no commission charges on any plan. Stamp duty (0.5%) applies to eligible UK share purchases as a government tax, not a Freetrade fee. No deposit fees, no withdrawal fees, no inactivity fees.

Freetrade’s app is clean, well-designed, and consistently well-reviewed on both iOS and Android — it has won the Best Online Trading Platform at the British Bank Awards for six consecutive years. The interface prioritises simplicity: browse stocks, view price charts, place trades, manage your portfolio. It does what it needs to without overcomplicating the experience.

The investment universe covers 8,200+ instruments including stocks and ETFs across the LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ, and major European exchanges, plus UK investment trusts and Treasury bills. Freetrade trimmed lower-volume listings in May 2026 post-IG integration, so the universe is slightly smaller than peak but covers everything a mainstream retail investor is likely to want.

The charting tools are functional rather than sophisticated — you get price history and basic performance data, but no technical indicators, no drawing tools, and no screeners. For investors who want to do technical analysis, Freetrade is not the right platform. For buy-and-hold investors who want to find a stock, check its price history, and place an order, the charts do the job without clutter.

Research and analysis tools are limited. Freetrade provides some fundamental data on individual stocks — market cap, P/E ratio, dividend yield — alongside company descriptions and recent news. It does not offer analyst ratings, earnings estimates, or the depth of research available on platforms like Hargreaves Lansdown or Interactive Brokers. Again, for passive long-term investors this is rarely a dealbreaker; for active stock pickers it is a meaningful gap.

What Freetrade does not offer: options, CFDs, or a Lifetime ISA. Mutual funds and gilts are now available on all plans including Basic — a recent addition that expands the investment universe meaningfully. Fractional shares are available on Standard and Plus plans for US-listed stocks, but not on Basic. If you need fractional shares and don’t want to pay a monthly fee, Trading 212 remains the better option.

A web platform is available alongside the mobile app, which puts Freetrade ahead of some competitors that remain mobile-only. Order types include market orders, limit orders, stop losses, and direct debits for regular investing. Regular investing — setting up a recurring monthly purchase of a specific stock or ETF — is well implemented and one of the more practically useful features for long-term investors building a portfolio systematically.

Freetrade’s onboarding is straightforward. You can open an account via the iOS or Android app or the web platform in around 10 minutes. You’ll need to provide your name, address, date of birth, and National Insurance number, and go through standard identity verification (a photo ID and a selfie). Most accounts are approved immediately or within a few hours; a small number are referred for manual review which can take 1-2 business days.

There is no minimum deposit to open an account. You can fund via bank transfer (Faster Payments, free) or Apple Pay and Google Pay up to a £2,500 lifetime limit. Bank transfers are typically credited within minutes during business hours. Card deposits are free up to £2,000 in cumulative deposits.

Placing your first trade is simple: search for a stock or ETF, tap buy, enter the amount in pounds, confirm. Freetrade executes trades during market hours at the best available price. Limit orders are available if you want to set a specific price rather than buying at market. For beginners, the market order process is clear and hard to get wrong.

Customer support is available in-app via chat. Response times are generally measured in hours rather than minutes for basic plan users; Plus subscribers get priority support. Freetrade’s help centre covers most common questions comprehensively.

This is where Freetrade genuinely differentiates. It is one of the few investment apps offering all three main UK tax-efficient account types on a single platform: a Stocks & Shares ISA, a SIPP, and a General Investment Account — all free on the Basic plan as of January 2026.

Stocks & Shares ISA: Invest up to £20,000 per tax year with no tax on gains or income. Free on all plans. The ISA wrapper is straightforward to use and allows full access to Freetrade’s investment universe.

SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension): Invest for retirement with tax relief at your marginal rate — a basic-rate taxpayer adding £8,000 gets topped up to £10,000 by HMRC. Free on the Basic plan as of January 2026. Annual contribution limit is £60,000 or 100% of relevant earnings. Freetrade accepts pension transfers from other providers at no charge, and if the investments are ones it can hold, you can transfer in-specie without selling.

The SIPP has one significant structural limitation that is not prominently advertised: withdrawals are UFPLS only (Uncrystallised Fund Pension Lump Sum). This means you cannot set up a regular income drawdown; every withdrawal is a one-off lump sum, each of which costs £240. For investors who plan to use their pension as a regular income stream in retirement — taking monthly or quarterly withdrawals — this is an expensive and cumbersome structure. Investors planning to access their pension this way should consider whether a platform offering full flexi-access drawdown (such as Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell) better suits their long-term needs, even if the platform fee is higher.

Junior ISA (JISA): Available on all plans including Basic, the Junior ISA lets parents invest up to £9,000 per tax year for a child under 18 tax-free. A notable addition that puts Freetrade ahead of Trading 212 which does not offer a JISA.

GIA (General Investment Account): No annual limit, no tax wrapper. Subject to capital gains tax above the £3,000 annual exemption. Useful for investments above the ISA allowance.

Platform fees only. Excludes trading commissions, FX fees, and fund charges. HL fee capped at £45/quarter for shares. Freetrade FX fee (0.99% on Basic) not included — factor this in for US stock portfolios.

No Lifetime ISA: Freetrade does not offer a LISA despite it being available from competitors including Dodl, AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, and Moneybox. For investors under 40 eligible for the 25% government bonus on up to £4,000/year, this is a genuine gap.

Freetrade works best for UK investors who want all three account types — ISA, SIPP, and GIA — in one app without paying a percentage-based platform fee that scales with portfolio size.

The flat fee advantage becomes meaningful above £30,000. At that level, Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0.35% annually (£105/year); Freetrade Basic charges £0. At £100,000, the gap is £450 per year in platform fees alone, before trading costs.

Freetrade is less suitable for investors with heavy US stock exposure on the Basic plan, where the 0.99% FX fee is the dominant cost. These investors should either upgrade to Standard or Plus, or compare carefully against Trading 212’s 0.15% FX rate. It is also a poor choice for anyone who needs fractional shares, mutual funds, or a Lifetime ISA.