Best stocks and shares ISA: Trading 212, XTB, Freetrade, IBKR and eToro compared

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The short answer

Of the five UK platforms we score that offer a stocks and shares ISA, Trading 212 is the cheapest for most people: no account fee, no commission, a 0.15% FX fee on foreign-currency trades, a £1 minimum and a flexible ISA. XTB matches it on sterling investments and pays a variable 4% AER on uninvested cash, but charges 0.5% on currency conversion. Freetrade includes its ISA, SIPP and Junior ISA in the free Basic plan and adds mutual funds and gilts, but its 0.99% FX fee is the highest here. Interactive Brokers has the lowest FX costs but a £3 minimum monthly activity fee, so it suits larger portfolios. The eToro ISA, run by Moneyfarm, now charges no commission or custody fee but 0.70% FX and a £500 minimum first deposit. All figures as of October 2026.

How do the five stocks and shares ISAs compare?

Sources: Trading 212’s ISA key features document and our Trading 212 fees explained guide; XTB’s UK ISA page and XTB fees explained; IBKR UK’s ISA, commission and interest pages, summarised in Interactive Brokers fees explained, and IBKR’s knowledge-base article on the IBUK ISA; eToro’s stocks and shares ISA page, its 29 July 2026 press release and its help centre, summarised in eToro fees explained; Freetrade’s pricing page, stocks and shares ISA page and ISA transfer page, summarised in our Freetrade review. Checked on 23 October 2026. Rates on cash are variable and change often.

None of the five charges a percentage platform fee on your holdings, which is the main way they differ from older ISA platforms. The fund or ETF you buy still has its own ongoing charge, which is the same wherever you hold it and is not included above.

How does a stocks and shares ISA work in 2026/27?

A stocks and shares ISA is a tax wrapper. Dividends, interest and capital gains inside it are free of UK tax, and you do not report them to HMRC.

• The allowance. GOV.UK sets the 2026/27 maximum at £20,000, shared across every adult ISA you pay into: cash, stocks and shares, innovative finance and the Lifetime ISA (which is capped at £4,000 of that). The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and unused allowance does not carry over.
• The April 2027 change. HMRC’s policy paper, “Reduction in the cash Individual Savings Account (ISA) limit”, published on 17 September 2026, cuts the annual cash ISA limit to £12,000 for individuals aged under 65 from 6 April 2027. The overall £20,000 stays, so for under-65s at least £8,000 of each year’s allowance will only be usable in non-cash ISAs such as stocks and shares. The paper says it also introduces rules “to make sure the limits operate as intended”; the Treasury told Parliament in July 2026 that a flat-rate charge will apply to interest on cash held in a non-cash ISA, but the detail has not yet been published. It does not affect the 2026/27 tax year. Our Trading 212 Cash ISA guide covers the cash side.
• Flexibility. With a flexible ISA, money you withdraw can be paid back in the same tax year without using fresh allowance. Withdraw £3,000 in June and put it back in September, and on a flexible ISA your allowance used is unchanged; on a non-flexible one, the £3,000 redeposit counts again.
• Transfers. Move an ISA between providers with the new provider’s transfer process, never by withdrawing and redepositing, which would use up allowance and lose the wrapper on that money. XTB and eToro both say a stocks and shares ISA transfer can take up to 30 days.

What does £200 a month into a global ETF cost on each platform?

Assumptions: you invest £200 by bank transfer once a month for 12 months (£2,400 in total) into a global equity ETF, buying a London-listed share class priced in pounds. ETFs carry no UK stamp duty. Market spreads and the ETF’s own ongoing charge are left out, because they are the same everywhere. We also show the cost if you bought a US-dollar-priced line instead.

The Interactive Brokers line needs explaining. On Fixed pricing a £200 UK ETF order hits the £3 minimum commission, and that commission counts towards the £3 monthly activity fee, so you pay £3 a month in total. On Tiered pricing the commission is £1 plus exchange fees, but the activity fee tops the month up to £3 anyway. Either way, £36 on £2,400 is 1.5% in the first year. The same fee on a £100,000 portfolio is 0.04%.

The FX column also explains why picking the right share class matters more than picking the platform. Many large global ETFs list a sterling line on the London Stock Exchange; buying that one removes the conversion fee entirely at Trading 212, XTB, Freetrade and eToro. Freetrade shows it most sharply: £0 on the sterling line, £23.76 on the dollar line.

Which stocks and shares ISA suits which investor?

The small monthly investor (£50 to £500 a month). Trading 212 or XTB, with Freetrade close behind if you stick to sterling. Both charge nothing to buy a sterling ETF, both accept £1 amounts through fractional shares, and both are flexible. Trading 212 is cheaper if you ever buy in dollars; XTB pays interest on idle cash automatically without opting in. Interactive Brokers’ £3 a month is a real drag at this size, and eToro’s £500 opening deposit rules it out for anyone starting small.

The US-shares buyer. On a £1,000 US purchase, the FX fee is £1.50 at Trading 212, £5 at XTB, £7 at eToro, £9.90 at Freetrade on its free plan and about £0.30 at Interactive Brokers before its $1 minimum commission, according to each platform’s fee pages. For frequent, larger US orders, IBKR wins and the £3 activity fee becomes irrelevant because your commissions cover it. For occasional purchases under a few thousand pounds, Trading 212’s 0.15% with no commission is hard to beat.

The large portfolio (£100,000 and up). Fixed costs stop mattering and percentages do. IBKR’s 0.03% automatic FX, or 0.2 basis points on manual conversions, is the cheapest route for big currency trades, and it offers the widest market access of the five. Be aware it is not a flexible ISA, and it pays nothing on the first £8,000 of sterling cash. XTB charges a 0.02% custody fee once a portfolio passes €250,000, according to its fee table; Trading 212 has no such threshold. The FSCS covers investments up to £85,000 per person per firm if a provider fails, which is a reason some people with large ISAs split them across two platforms.

The investor who wants funds, not just ETFs. Trading 212’s key features document lists shares and ETFs only. Freetrade’s free plan includes mutual funds, investment trusts and gilts; the eToro ISA includes mutual funds and bonds, and IBKR offers a broader product range. If a specific fund matters to you, check it is available before transferring.

What about Vanguard, Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell?

They are well-known UK ISA providers, and plenty of investors use them. We do not score them, so they are not in the table above and we make no claims about their costs or service here. If you are comparing them with the five platforms we cover, use the same checklist: account fee, dealing charge, FX fee, interest on cash, flexibility and transfer-out charges, taken from each provider’s current price list.

Things to check before you open or transfer

• Transfer out the right way. Ask the new provider to pull the ISA across. XTB, for example, says outgoing transfers must be requested through the receiving provider.
• In-specie or cash. Trading 212 accepts both. The eToro ISA converts transferred holdings to cash, so you are out of the market for the transfer period.
• Interest is not automatic everywhere. Trading 212 requires you to opt in. IBKR pays nothing on small sterling balances.
• The ISA is not your main account. At eToro the ISA is a separate Moneyfarm account; at IBKR it must be funded in pounds and allows no margin.

Verdict

For most UK investors putting in a regular monthly amount, Trading 212 is the best stocks and shares ISA of the five we score: nothing to hold, nothing to trade, a low FX fee and a flexible wrapper. XTB is a close second and the better pick if you hold cash in the ISA, as long as you buy sterling-priced investments. Interactive Brokers earns its place for large portfolios and heavy US trading, where its £3 monthly minimum disappears into commission you would pay anyway. The eToro ISA is now much cheaper than it was, but the 0.70% FX fee and £500 minimum keep it behind the others for a cost-focused investor. Freetrade is the pick for a sterling portfolio of shares, funds and gilts, and the wrong one for regular dollar purchases. For the full US-share arithmetic, see what it costs to buy US shares from the UK.

Read the full reviews of Trading 212, XTB, Freetrade, Interactive Brokers and eToro, or see how they rank overall in our best trading platforms in the UK.

Dividends outside an ISA are taxable above a £500 allowance: see our guide to dividend tax in the UK or try the dividend calculator.