Three platforms come up again and again when UK DIY investors talk about cheap, simple investing: Trading 212, InvestEngine and Vanguard. All three are genuinely low cost. None of them will quietly drain your returns the way some older fund supermarkets do. But they are built for different people, and picking the wrong one can cost you money or, worse, leave you holding investments you did not really want.

This is a fee-by-fee look at what each platform actually charges in 2026, what you can hold inside it, and which type of investor each one suits. No affiliate spin, no urgency, just the numbers and the trade-offs.

The short version

If you only read one paragraph: Trading 212 is the most flexible and pays interest on spare cash, InvestEngine is the cleanest ETF-only option with zero platform fee, and Vanguard is the safe, boring home for someone who only ever wants Vanguard funds and plans to build a large pot. The right answer depends almost entirely on what you intend to hold and how big your account will get.

How the fees stack up

The headline charges break down like this.

  • Trading 212: No platform fee and no dealing commission on its Invest account and Stocks and Shares ISA. The only charge it adds is a 0.15% foreign exchange fee when you buy something priced in a currency other than sterling, such as a US stock or a dollar-denominated ETF. Stick to GBP-traded UK and global funds and you pay Trading 212 nothing.
  • InvestEngine: No platform fee on its DIY portfolios, no dealing fees, no setup fee and no withdrawal fee. Because it only lists ETFs, there is no individual-stock FX charge to worry about. Its managed portfolios cost 0.25% a year if you want InvestEngine to pick and rebalance for you.
  • Vanguard: 0.15% a year on your invested balance, capped at £375 a year. Since 31 January 2025 there has also been a minimum account fee of £4 a month, which works out at £48 a year, for self-managed accounts holding less than £32,000.

On top of the platform fee, every fund you hold on any of these platforms carries its own ongoing charges figure, or OCF. That is paid to the fund manager, not the platform. Vanguard’s own funds range from about 0.06% to 0.79% a year depending on the fund, and on InvestEngine the cheapest ETFs start from about 0.03% a year. These fund charges are unavoidable wherever you invest, so compare them on the actual fund you plan to buy, not the brand.

You can read the current detail straight from the source on each provider’s fees page, for example Vanguard’s fees and charges page, and check the underlying fund OCF before you buy.

What that fee structure means in practice

The Vanguard minimum fee is the detail people miss. If you are just starting out with, say, £2,000 in a Stocks and Shares ISA, that £48 a year is a 2.4% drag on your money. That is enormous for a passive investor. The same £48 on a £30,000 pot is only 0.16%, which is fine. Vanguard’s pricing quietly punishes small accounts and rewards large ones.

Trading 212 and InvestEngine have no such floor. A beginner with £500 pays the platform nothing, which is why both have become a popular first home for new UK investors. The flip side is the FX fee on Trading 212: if you build a portfolio of US shares or dollar ETFs, that 0.15% on every purchase adds up, although it is still cheaper than most rivals.

For a large pot, the maths flips again. Vanguard’s £375 cap means a £250,000 ISA pays a fixed £375 a year regardless of how big it grows. A percentage-only platform with no cap could charge far more on the same balance. None of these three penalise large balances badly, but Vanguard’s cap is the clearest protection if you expect a six-figure portfolio.

What you can actually hold

This is where the three really part ways, and it matters more than the small fee differences.

  • Trading 212 is the broad one. You can buy thousands of individual shares and ETFs across major global exchanges, plus fractional shares, so you can put £10 into a £400 share. If you want to mix index funds with a few individual companies, it is the obvious pick of the three.
  • InvestEngine is ETFs only. There are over 800 of them, covering global trackers, sectors and bonds, but you cannot buy a single company share, an investment trust or an active fund. For a strict index investor that is a feature, not a flaw. It keeps you away from stock picking. If you ever want to hold individual shares, you will need a second account elsewhere.
  • Vanguard is the narrowest. You can only hold Vanguard’s own funds and ETFs. That includes its well-known LifeStrategy and Target Retirement ranges and its FTSE Global All Cap tracker, but nothing from BlackRock, HSBC or any other manager, and no individual shares. If you are happy living inside the Vanguard range forever, that is no problem. If you might want a cheaper rival tracker later, you would have to move platforms.

This single point decides a lot of cases. Someone who wants one global tracker and never to think about it again is well served by Vanguard. Someone who wants the freedom to hold anything wants Trading 212. InvestEngine sits in between, deliberately limited to ETFs to keep things disciplined.

If you are still deciding which type of fund belongs in your account in the first place, our guide to choosing a low-cost index fund walks through the difference between an all-in-one fund and building your own mix before you pick a platform.

ISAs, SIPPs and pensions

All three offer a Stocks and Shares ISA with the standard £20,000 annual allowance, and all three now offer a SIPP, but the pension picture is not identical.

InvestEngine charges no platform fee on its DIY SIPP, which makes it one of the cheapest ETF pensions available. Vanguard’s SIPP runs on the same 0.15% capped fee as its ISA, with the same £4 monthly minimum below £32,000. Trading 212’s SIPP is the newest of the three: it received FCA approval in February 2026 and is being rolled out gradually to clients. It carries no Trading 212 platform fee or commission, but the pension wrapper is administered by a separate, FCA-authorised SIPP operator that levies its own annual charge, so a Trading 212 SIPP is not quite as free as its ISA. Check that operator charge before assuming the pension is zero cost.

Cash interest

One practical difference: Trading 212 pays interest on uninvested cash sitting in your Invest and ISA accounts, generated through qualifying money market funds, with the rate broadly following the Bank of England base rate. Inside the ISA that interest is tax free. If you tend to hold cash between purchases, that is a genuine perk. InvestEngine and Vanguard are not designed as homes for spare cash, so do not treat either as a savings account.

Safety and regulation

All three are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and your eligible money and investments are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 per person, per firm, if the platform itself fails. Your investments are also held in ring-fenced nominee accounts separate from the company’s own assets.

One nuance worth knowing: the £85,000 FSCS investment cover applies to the platform, not to the underlying fund. Many ETFs sold to UK investors, including Vanguard’s, are domiciled in Ireland, and the fund itself is not directly covered by FSCS. This is normal across the industry and not a reason to panic, but it is why some cautious investors prefer UK-domiciled funds. You can read the plain-English explanation on the FSCS investment protection page.

Which platform wins

There is no single winner, because they are not really competing for the same person.

  • Choose Trading 212 if you want the widest choice, individual shares as well as funds, fractional investing, and interest on idle cash. It is the best all-rounder and a strong pick for a small or growing account, as long as you watch the FX fee on overseas holdings.
  • Choose InvestEngine if you are a committed index investor who only wants ETFs, values a genuinely zero platform fee across ISA and SIPP, and likes the discipline of not being able to buy individual shares.
  • Choose Vanguard if you are happy inside the Vanguard fund range, plan to build a large pot where the £375 cap and 0.15% fee work in your favour, and want the simplest possible setup. Just avoid it as a beginner with a small balance, where the £48 minimum fee is a heavy drag.

The honest answer for many people is to start with InvestEngine or Trading 212 while their pot is small, then reassess once the balance is large enough that a capped percentage fee like Vanguard’s becomes competitive. Switching ISAs later is straightforward, and none of these three charge you to transfer out.

Frequently asked questions

Is Trading 212 really free? For its Stocks and Shares ISA and Invest account, yes, there is no platform fee and no dealing commission. The only charge Trading 212 adds is a 0.15% foreign exchange fee when you buy assets priced in a non-sterling currency. Its newer SIPP has no Trading 212 platform fee, but a separate third-party operator charge applies to the pension wrapper.

Which platform is cheapest for a small ISA? Trading 212 or InvestEngine, because neither charges a platform fee or a minimum fee. Vanguard’s £4 a month minimum, which is £48 a year, makes it expensive in percentage terms for balances under £32,000.

Can I buy individual shares on all three? No. Only Trading 212 lets you buy individual company shares. InvestEngine offers ETFs only, and Vanguard offers only its own funds and ETFs. If holding single shares matters to you, Trading 212 is the only choice of the three.

Are my investments protected if the platform goes bust? All three are FCA regulated and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 per person if the firm fails, with client assets held in ring-fenced nominee accounts. Note that the £85,000 cover applies to the platform, not to individual funds, many of which are domiciled in Ireland.

Does Vanguard pay interest on cash? Vanguard is not designed to hold uninvested cash and is not a competitive home for it. Trading 212 does pay interest on spare cash in its Invest and ISA accounts through money market funds, with the rate broadly tracking the Bank of England base rate.

Can I have an ISA on more than one of these platforms in the same year? Since April 2024 you can pay into more than one Stocks and Shares ISA in a single tax year, as long as your total contributions across all ISAs stay within the £20,000 annual allowance. Transferring an existing ISA does not use up that allowance.