Investing in a stocks and shares ISA means your money can grow tax-free. We run through the options, helping you decide which provider is right for you.
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Finding the best stocks and shares ISA for your circumstances is essential, because it’s a vital tool for building your wealth thanks to its tax-free perks.
There is a huge range on offer and the right ISA for you depends on how you want to invest.
Investing comes with more decisions to make than saving cash, which usually involves simply picking an account with a best-buy savings rate. Do you want to pick shares, choose funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or have your investing platform do the work for you? The answer to this should heavily influence which platform you choose.
We run through the best investment ISAs below, from do-it-yourself platforms to providers that can manage your investments for you. We explain our pick of platforms to try depending on the type of investor you are.
> Read more: Our pick of the best investment platforms
Our top picks of the best stocks and shares ISAs
If you’re looking to save tax–efficiently for retirement, read our guide to the best self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) for more on the top providers.
How we review stocks and shares ISA providers
This is Money’s view of the best investment ISA providers is informed by the team’s experience of testing and reviewing different platforms.
We consider fees primarily, but the cheapest platform won’t always be the best for you. For this reason we also consider investment choice, how easy it is to use the platform, the research and educational content on offer, plus customer service. Read more about how we test and review investment platforms.
Why trust us
Sam is This is Money’s Money and Consumer Guides Writer. He has more than a decade of experience writing about financial products, including ISAs and SIPPs. He’s tested and reviewed a raft of investing platforms and keeps up to date with the fees that each charges.
He’s written for Simply Business, the Financial Ombudsman Service and NerdWallet, where he was Lead Writer.
Should you choose a do-it-yourself ISA or a managed one?
It’s often daunting to know where to start. But when building long-term wealth, taking that first step is very important, even if the action is relatively small – such as picking an account and setting up a small monthly contribution.
A good jumping off point is deciding whether you want to pick and manage investments yourself – commonly called DIY investing – or have the investment platform do it for you. Then you can look at the services the different platforms provide and their costs.
You can find top stocks and shares ISAs to consider below, separated into DIY investing and managed options.
> Investing for beginners: How to get started
Best DIY stocks and shares ISA providers: costs, investment choice and more
Provider Account fee Fund dealing Standard share, trust, ETF dealing Investment choice Flexible ISA? Notes AJ Bell* 0.25% £1.50 £5 Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, ETFs No Max £3.50 a month account charge when investing in shares, trusts, ETFs. Regular investing free Read more* AJ Bell Dodl* 0.15% (min £1 a month)Free (but a smaller choice than other options)Free Stocks and shares, funds, ETFs No Around 80 stocks and shares, plus ready-made options Read more* Bestinvest 0.40% Free £4.95 (US shares free)Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, ETFs Yes Account fee drops to 0.20% when choosing a ready-made portfolio or US shares Read more Charles Stanley Direct* 0.30% £4 £10 Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, ETFs Yes Min platform fee of £60, max of £600. £100 back in free trades per year Read more* Fidelity* 0.35% Free £7.50 Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, ETFs No If less than £25,000 and no regular savings plan, account fee is £7.50 a month rather than 0.35% Read more* Freetrade* Free (ISA included on basic free plan)Free Free Stocks and shares, ETFs, investment trusts, funds Yes Paid subscription allows you to access cheaper FX fees and higher interest on cash Our Freetrade review Hargreaves Lansdown* 0.35% £1.95 £6.95 Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, ETFs No Account fee capped at £150 a year for shares, trusts, ETFs Our Hargreaves Lansdown review IG* Free Not available Free Stocks and shares, investment trusts, ETFs Yes Mutual funds unavailable, but IG offers ready-made funds called Smart Portfolios Our IG review Interactive Investor* £5.99 a month up to £100,000 (Core plan), £14.99 above (Plus plan)£3.99 (Core); £1.49 (Plus)£3.99 Stocks and shares, funds, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, ETFs No £3.99 to trade UK shares and funds and US shares; £9.99 for other international shares (£7.99 Plus)Our Interactive Investor review InvestEngine* Free Not available Free (only ETFs available) ETFs Yes No dealing charges, 0.25% account charge when choosing a ready-made option (these are temporarily unavailable)Our InvestEngine review Prosper* Free Free Not available Funds, ETFs Yes Refunded underlying fees on around 30 ETFs Our Prosper review Trading 212* Free Not available Free Stocks and shares, investment trusts, ETFs Yes Competitive interest rate on uninvested cash, no dealing fees Our Trading 212 review Vanguard£4 monthly up to £32k, 0.15% above (max £375 a year) Free (only Vanguard funds available) Not available 88 Vanguard funds, Vanguard ready-made portfolios Yes Vanguard’s ready-made portfolios are low-cost, OCF from 0.22% to 0.24%Read more Source: This is Money based on published information from investment providers, checked 12 June 2026
Best managed stocks and shares ISAs:
If you’d rather make a few decisions before opening an investment ISA and then have the provider manage your portfolio for you, these are some of the best-known options.
Provider Account feeCost for underlying investments (actively managed options)Flexible ISA? Moneyfarm 0.70% Between 0.21% and 0.24% Yes JP Morgan Personal Investing (previously Nutmeg)0.75% Between 0.22% and 0.43% No Wealthify* 0.6% Average 0.15% (or 0.58% for ethical)Yes Source: This is Money based on published information from investment providers, checked 12 June 2026
Our detailed review of the best DIY stocks and shares ISAs
Here’s our selection of the top DIY stocks and shares ISA providers to consider, along with how we believe each provider stands out. These are in alphabetical order. Before going ahead, make sure you do your own research and think carefully about your needs and goals.
A good ISA for beginners who want low fees and ready-made options
AJ Bell is a well-known investment platform and Dodl is its app-based offering. It offers cheap access to ready-made investments, with a platform fee of 0.15 per cent (£1 a month minimum) and a fee for ready-made funds of 0.31 per cent, or 0.45 per cent for an ethical alternative. This makes it attractive for those new to investing.
A selection of around 80 stocks lets you get started with choosing your own investments, and you can also pick from a selection of index funds and ETFs under Dodl’s ‘themed investments’ – but for more choice you’ll have to move elsewhere. Another nice boost with AJ Bell Dodl is that it pays 3.8 per cent interest on uninvested cash.
> Learn more about AJ Bell Dodl*
A good ISA for straightforward account fees
Unlike other investment platforms, Charles Stanley Direct doesn’t charge platform fees in different bands – 0.3 per cent is what you’ll pay across all of your investments, with a £60 minimum and £600 maximum fee. This keeps fees simple.
Charles Stanley Direct also offers a free, no-obligation 15-minute investment coaching session and although a downside is its high dealing fee of £10 a trade (or £4 for fund dealing), you get £100 in trading credits a year.
> Learn more about Charles Stanley Direct*
A good ISA for low fees and wide investment choice
Freetrade has made several improvements to its stocks and shares ISA recently. The account is now free to open on its basic plan, and allows you to choose from more than 6,500 stocks and ETFs.
The investment platform is clear, uncluttered and straightforward to use, with a good discover feature for finding investments. It’s now free to access mutual funds on the platform, making Freetrade an attractive option for fund investors, who usually need to pay account fees at fund supermarkets such as Hargreaves Lansdown.
Freetrade has also recently launched a junior stocks and shares ISA.
A good ISA if you want dedicated investment research and customer support
Hargreaves Lansdown is the biggest and most well-known of the UK’s investment platforms. It’s particularly regarded for its investment research and customer support, but its account fee is higher than some other DIY investing platforms at 0.35 per cent.
The platform controversially updated its fee structure in March 2026, which saw fees reduce for some investors and increase for others. A big change is the introduction of a £1.95 dealing fee for funds, although the 0.1 per cent reduction in account fees is positive.
Share dealing is now far cheaper after dropping to £6.95 from £11.95, but it’s still higher than some platforms. Still, if you’d prefer to choose an established name and think you’ll need extensive research and customer support, it’s worth considering Hargreaves Lansdown.
> Our Hargreaves Lansdown review
A good ISA for keeping fees low as your pot grows
Interactive Investor is different to other stocks and shares ISA providers because it charges flat account fees, rather than fees as a percentage of your investments. It’s £5.99 a month for a stocks and shares Isa up to £100,000 and £14.99 a month above that.
Flat fees generally work out well for people with larger pots, because as long as you remain within the relevant tier, you’ll pay the same whether you have a lower or larger amount. We also like Interactive Investor’s family plan, which allows customers to ‘gift’ subscriptions to relatives. Just watch out for other fees, for fund dealing for example – this costs £3.99 a trade, while other platforms offer this for free.
> Our Interactive Investor review
A good ISA for potentially zero-cost investing
Prosper stands out because it refunds fees on around 30 funds. This along with zero account fees means that you could invest at no cost to you. However as a new platform it’s not well-known or tried-and-tested yet among investors, plus it’s app-only.
The platform is also worth considering if you want to invest in active investment funds. The likes of Trading 212 and InvestEngine don’t allow you to choose Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs), while Prosper gives you a limited choice of them including Fundsmith Equity and M&G Global Dividend.
A good ISA for intermediate investors who want low fees
Trading 212 can feel a little overwhelming when you first open an account, but you soon get used to it and it’s a good low-cost option. It may suit intermediate and experienced investors best but its pies can help you easily build portfolios. There’s no account fee or dealing fees and the foreign exchange fees are lower than some other platforms.
Trading 212’s social trading features allow you to discuss investments, follow other investors and replicate investment strategies and there’s a large range of investments to choose from. Just make sure you stick to its investing accounts rather than opening a CFD trading account. CFDs are very risky and not something that we cover.
How to choose a stocks and shares ISA
You need to think about the type of investor you are when picking an account. For example, are you interested in being hands-on, or would you prefer to just set up a regular contribution and forget about it, only checking in from time to time?
Answering the questions below can help:
How much experience do you have with investing – and if you’re a beginner, do you want to learn as you go along, or delegate investing to someone else? How much risk are you willing to take when investing?Do you know what you’d like to invest in based on your attitude to risk – for example shares, investment funds, or investments that track certain markets?
If you have some ideas about the above, you could consider opening a DIY stocks and shares ISA.
On the other hand, if you’re inexperienced or don’t have much time to dedicate to managing your investments, you could start with a managed option. Just be aware that managed platform fees are usually more expensive than DIY options.
When it comes to fees, you’ll want to keep them as low as possible, but you should think about the level of service and support you’ll need when investing. For example, the cheapest stocks and shares ISAs include InvestEngine, Prosper and Trading 212, but fee-free platforms won’t always offer the same level of investment research and customer service as more established players like Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor.
Once you know which type of stocks and shares ISA you’d like, you should compare the platform fees as well as other key aspects of the account, such as the choice and flexibility available and the fees and limitations around transferring to another provider later on.
Do you want to manage your own investments?
If you have some experience with investing already – or want to learn – you might be comfortable opening an account with a DIY investing platform.
These let you pick your investments yourself or choose a ready–made set of investments that the provider puts together.
Decisions about where to invest rest on your shoulders. Even when choosing a ready-made option, the provider won’t recommend what to choose or how to manage your money on an ongoing basis.
You’ll need to think carefully about how much time you can dedicate to managing your investments, and if you’re not experienced already, how motivated you are to learn.
There’s plenty to consider, including the ideal mix of investments based on the level of risk you want to take. For example, what will you allocate to more volatile investments such as equities, and what will you allocate to investments considered to be safer, such as bonds?
Many of these services support you with educational content and detailed investment research designed to help you answer questions like the above, so they can still be suitable for more adventurous beginners who are happy to learn as they go along.
Do you want someone else to manage your investments?
Alternatively, some providers can manage your investments for you. You’ll usually have to tell the investment platform about your attitude to risk initially, and sometimes you can choose a particular investment style.
The key difference is these services pick investments based on your profile and then look after them on an ongoing basis. The platforms we’ve listed are ‘robo-advisors’ which means they use algorithms to pick and manage investments, although you usually still have access to human customer support.
For beginners, those with little investing experience, or people who just don’t want to dedicate time to investing, this can be a stress-free route. But these providers usually charge higher fees than do-it-yourself platforms. And you should still keep an eye on performance, comparing it against other platforms and how the markets have performed more generally.
Check the fees
The account fee is the headline rate the provider charges for looking after your investments, but research other fees too. These include fees for:
Buying and selling investmentsSetting up a regular payment into an investment of your choiceUnderlying investments – known in most cases as the ongoing charges figure (OCF)
If you’re choosing your own investments, consider fees in relation to the type of investments you’d like to buy and how often you think you’ll be trading. For example, some platforms charge a fee for buying and selling funds, while others offer this for free.
The cheapest stocks and shares ISA might not always be the right one for you, so it’s best to compare providers based on your needs and goals.
Ready-made investments vs managed options
Even when investing in a ready-made portfolio, it’s best to see this as a form of DIY investing. The important difference between the services above is the level of personalisation and ongoing management of your investments.
Many DIY investing platforms offer ready-made investments. This is a set of investments built around a particular investment style and attitude to risk – for example ‘cautious’, ‘adventurous’ or ‘ethical and green’ portfolios.
But these ready-made investments aren’t specific to you. They’re often made up of existing funds that track certain markets or sectors and you still must choose a ready-made portfolio yourself.
With a managed option, the provider picks and looks after your investments based on information you give initially, tweaking them over time. Investments are more personalised to you and your goals, but management fees are more expensive than DIY options.
No matter whether you want to pick investments yourself or go for a managed option, you should check the fees for the underlying investments as well as the annual account fees.
These vary depending on the type of fund or investments. Keep this mantra in mind: high fees eat into investment growth, so it’s best to keep costs as low as possible.
What is a stocks and shares ISA?
A stocks and shares ISA – or Individual Savings Account to give it the full official term – is a tax–free account for your investments.
In the same way that the interest earned within a cash ISA isn’t subject to income tax, investments within a stocks and shares ISA can grow tax-free.
Investments held outside of a tax-free account are liable for taxes including capital gains tax, dividend tax and income tax.
The downside is you can only save up to £20,000 a year across all your ISA accounts, which is your annual ISA allowance.
You can split this any way you like, for example by stashing £5,000 in a cash ISA as part of an emergency fund and then investing up to £15,000 in a stocks and shares ISA.
Usually when you withdraw money from an ISA, you won’t be able to replace it in the same tax year without using up more of your ISA allowance. As an example, if you still have your full allowance left to use, but withdraw £2,000 and then pay it back in a week later, your allowance will reduce to £18,000 for that tax year.
But there is a type of ISA called a flexible ISA, which does allow you to withdraw money and replace it in the same tax year without affecting your allowance. If you think you’d like this feature, check whether the
