Where your money can start working from just £1

On a £50,000 portfolio, picking the most expensive UK platform over the cheapest could cost you nearly £50,000 in lost returns over 30 years. That’s Kepler Partners’ own calculation, based on an 8% annual growth rate, and it’s the single most important thing a beginner needs to hear. The gap between apps isn’t cosmetic. It compounds.

Here’s the good news. You no longer need a lump sum or a stockbroker’s phone number to get going. Several UK apps now let you start from £1 or £2, and a handful charge nothing at all to buy shares and hold them in a tax-free ISA. The barrier to entry has basically collapsed.

So the question isn’t really “can I afford to start.” It’s “which app fits how I actually want to invest.” A micro-investor who wants to round up their spare change needs something completely different from someone who wants to buy a global tracker and forget about it for a decade.

Every app below is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and available to UK-based investors. Before you fund any account, do the thirty-second job of checking the firm appears on the FCA register and the details match exactly. That’s your fraud filter, and it costs you nothing.

The best investment apps for UK beginners, ranked

I’ve ordered these by how well they suit someone starting out. Cost matters most, but so does whether the app actually makes sense the first time you open it. A cheap platform you find baffling is not cheap in practice.

1. Trading 212 – best all-round for beginners

If I had to hand one app to a friend who’d never invested before, it’d be this one. Trading 212 offers a free trading account and ISA with no annual fee and no trading fees, which as MoneyWeek notes makes it one of the cheapest options going. You can start with just £1.

There are more than 13,000 shares and ETFs to choose from, so you can buy a single global tracker or build something more adventurous later. MoneyWeek’s reviewers found users describe it as “quick and easy, and a great way to buy and sell shares.” It scores 4.6 on Google Play and 4.7 on the App Store.

The catch, and there’s always one, is the currency conversion charge. MoneySavingExpert lists Trading 212’s FX fee at 0.15%, which is genuinely low, but you’ll pay it every time you buy a US-listed stock. There’s also a 0.7% fee on card deposits above £2,000 (deposits up to that are fee-free, and bank transfers avoid it). For UK-focused, buy-and-hold investing, none of that will trouble you.

Best for: low-cost self-directed investing in shares and ETFs, especially inside an ISA.

2. Moneybox – best for saving spare change automatically

Moneybox is built for people who think they can’t invest because they never have money left over. You can start with £1, and the app’s round-up feature nudges your spending. Buy a bottle of wine for £8.25 and it rounds up, dropping 75p into your investment account. It adds up faster than you’d expect.

There are three ready-made portfolios, a selection of funds and ETFs, plus 20 big US stocks like Coca-Cola and Nvidia if you want to dabble, including fractional shares. You can open a stocks and shares ISA, a general investment account, a lifetime ISA, a junior ISA or a personal pension.

Costs are a £1 monthly fee, a 0.45% annual charge and investment costs ranging from 0.07% to 0.77% depending on what you hold. That £1 monthly fee stings on a tiny balance, so Moneybox makes most sense once you’re contributing regularly rather than parking a fiver and leaving it. It scores 4.7 on Google Play and 4.8 on the App Store.

Best for: automated micro-investing and people who want the habit built in.

3. Freetrade – best for a clean, simple free plan

Freetrade does exactly what the name promises. There are no fees on the Basic account and no charges for trading shares. As of January, its ISAs, SIPPs, mutual funds and gilts all sit inside that free Basic plan, which makes it one of the lowest-cost apps available.

Part of the FTSE 100 IG Group, Freetrade has built a following of 1.6 million users on a straightforward “stop paying to invest” pitch, according to Kepler’s Trust Intelligence review. The range runs to over 6,500 UK, European and US shares and ETFs, plus more than 1,000 active funds, and you can buy fractional US shares.

The trade-off is support and FX. Customer help is online only, which Kepler flags may frustrate anyone who likes picking up the phone, and the Basic plan’s FX fee is 0.99% (paying £4.99 or £9.99 a month drops that to 0.59% or 0.39%). It holds a 4.3-star Trustpilot rating, solid mid-table. For a beginner buying UK-listed funds, the FX fee rarely bites.

Best for: simple, genuinely free investing with a tidy interface.

4. InvestEngine – best for ETF-only investors

InvestEngine is built entirely around ETFs, and that focus is the point. There are no account fees on self-invested ISAs, general investment accounts or pensions. Managed accounts cost 0.25%, and you can start with a £100 lump sum or £10 weekly regular investments. Fund fees from the ETFs themselves apply on top.

MoneySavingExpert flags it as best for cheap ETF investing, with FX fees at none and a selection of over 870 ETFs. It won’t do individual shares or traditional funds, so it’s not for stock-pickers. But if your plan is a couple of low-cost trackers held for years, that narrow focus is a feature, not a flaw. It scores 4.6 on Google Play and 4.8 on the App Store.

Best for: beginners who’ve decided ETFs are their whole strategy.

5. eToro – best for social and copy trading

eToro is a global fintech with over 40 million registered users, best known for CopyTrader, which lets you mirror another user’s trades in real time. For a curious beginner that’s either brilliant or dangerous, depending on who you copy.

The range covers over 6,000 stocks across 20 exchanges plus 300 ETFs, with fractional shares available. There’s no platform fee and no trading fee for shares or ETFs for UK investors. Watch two things, per Kepler’s review: the FX fee varies by tier and payment method, and there’s a $10 monthly inactivity fee after 12 months with no logins. Trustpilot sits at 4.2, towards the lower end. Support is online only.

Best for: investors drawn to social features and a broad global stock range.

6. Plum – best for blending saving and investing

Plum offers up to 26 investment funds, including tech, healthcare and green options, plus thousands of brands like Meta and Tesla. You can invest in an ISA, a general investment account or a pension, though the stocks and shares ISA is only on the three paid tiers; Basic members are limited to a GIA.

The Basic plan is free, with paid tiers at £3.99, £7.99 or £14.99 a month buying you higher cash interest, lower fees and more choice. There’s an annual management fee of up to 0.6% depending on plan, and fund manager fees on top. Only the top tier gives unlimited free trades; Basic, Plus and Boost charge 50p, 15p and 5p respectively from your third trade onward. It scores 4.6 on Google Play and 4.7 on the App Store.

Best for: people who want a savings pot and investments living in one app.

7. AJ Bell – best for growing beyond the basics

AJ Bell isn’t the flashiest beginner app, but it’s the one you’re least likely to outgrow. A FTSE 250 company with over 720,000 clients, it offers thousands of shares, funds and investment trusts, plus ready-made starter portfolios and the full account suite: ISA, lifetime ISA, junior ISA and SIPP.

The platform fee is 0.25%, capped at £42 a year for shares. Share trades cost £5 (falling to £3.50 for 10-plus trades a month), fund trades £1.50, and crucially it waives dealing charges for regular monthly investing of £25 or more. AJ Bell tops Kepler’s Trustpilot table with an impressive 4.9-star rating, and it earns it with phone support and a genuinely good research library. For beginners who prefer a simpler experience, its Dodl app strips things down at a lower cost.

Best for: beginners who want room to grow and a real person on the phone.

Comparing the fees before you commit

The headline “free” apps aren’t lying, but zero commission is only one line of the bill. Foreign exchange fees, platform fees and fund charges quietly erode the savings the marketing promises. Here’s how the beginner-friendly picks stack up on the things that actually matter.

A quick word on what these charges are. A platform fee is what you pay for holding investments, usually a percentage of your pot, typically 0.25% to 0.45% a year. A trading fee is charged per buy or sell, often £4 to £8, though a growing number of apps have scrapped it. A fund management fee is set by the fund itself, not the app, and typically runs 0.1% to 1% a year. It stacks on top of everything else, so a cheap platform holding an expensive fund isn’t cheap.

The pattern is clear enough. If you’re buying UK-listed funds and holding them, the free apps are hard to beat. If you buy a lot of US shares, that FX fee is the number to obsess over, and Trading 212’s 0.15% is the standout among the beginner apps here.

How to actually open an account and buy your first investment

Opening a trading account is usually done online in about ten minutes. The buying bit is quicker than that once you know the sequence. Here’s the order I’d follow.

  1. Check the FCA register first. Search the firm’s name and confirm the details match exactly. This is your protection against clones and scams, and it takes half a minute.
  2. Pick your account type, and lean towards an ISA. A stocks and shares ISA lets you invest up to £20,000 a year with no income tax on dividends and no capital gains tax on profits. For long-term investing, using your ISA allowance first almost always beats a general investment account.
  3. Set up the app and verify your identity. You’ll need your bank details and National Insurance number. Most identity checks are electronic; occasionally you’ll upload a document. Turn on two-factor authentication while you’re there.
  4. Deposit a small amount to start. Many apps let you begin with £1 to £25. Bank transfer usually avoids any deposit fee where card payments might not, so check before you top up large sums.
  5. Buy something diversified, not exciting. A global index tracker or an S&P 500 tracker gives you a slice of hundreds of companies in one purchase. MoneySavingExpert points beginners towards exactly this: an S&P 500 tracker, a global tracker, maybe a FTSE 100 or 250 fund for UK exposure.
  6. Set up a regular monthly payment. Drip-feeding, from £25 a month, smooths out the market’s ups and downs through pound-cost averaging. When prices drop, your fixed sum simply buys more units. It also removes the temptation to time the market, which almost nobody does well.

One practical note on the mechanics. When you buy, you’ll see a live buy-sell spread, and you usually have a few seconds to accept the quote before it lapses. The gap between those two prices is one way platforms make money, so a tight spread matters more than it looks.

What beginners get wrong, and the safety net you already have

Let me clear up the myths that keep people out of the market or into the wrong app.

“The cheapest app is always best.” No. Low commission can be wiped out by FX fees, fund charges or an inactivity fee you forgot about. Read the whole cost, not the headline.

“FCA-regulated means risk-free.” It doesn’t. Regulation improves oversight and gives you recourse, but the value of your investments can fall as well as rise. Martin Lewis’s rule is worth tattooing somewhere visible: only invest money you won’t need for at least five years, after clearing expensive debts and building an emergency fund.

“Trading apps and investing apps are the same thing.” They’re used very differently. Day trading is legal in the UK, but the majority of retail investors lose money at it, especially using leveraged products like CFDs and spread bets. For a beginner, a longer-term, diversified approach is far more likely to pay off.

Now the reassuring part. Every app here is FCA-authorised, which means you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and, if the firm collapses, you’re covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 per authorised firm. Your investments are usually held in nominee accounts, legally separated from the platform’s own assets, so they remain yours and can be transferred elsewhere if a provider fails. Note the FSCS investment limit is £85,000, lower than the £120,000 that now covers cash savings, so it’s worth knowing which of your money is which.

None of this protects you against a share simply falling in value. That’s the risk you’re signing up for, and it’s why diversification and time in the market do the heavy lifting.

Your next ten minutes: open the FCA register, type in “Trading 212” (or whichever app above matched your goal), and confirm it’s authorised. That single check is the smallest, most useful step you can take before a penny leaves your account.