Commission-free trading platforms have transformed the way we invest in stocks. Freetrade and Trading 212 are the two most prominent players in UK, offering users the ability to trade stocks and ETFs without charging any commissions.
We previously published our long-term, in depth Trading 212 review, but in this Freetrade vs Trading 212 comparison, we’re going to pit the two platforms against each other and see how they stack up.
So let’s dive and discover which platform suits your investment needs.
Freetrade background
Freetrade was founded in 2016 by Adam Dodds. It’s based in London, and aims to make investing in the stock market more accessible to the masses.
The idea for Freetrade stemmed from Dodds’ frustration with the high fees associated with traditional brokerage services. He envisioned a platform that would allow users to invest in stocks and ETFs without paying any commission fees, thereby democratizing access to financial markets. With this vision in mind, Dodds embarked on creating Freetrade.
Freetrade initially launched as a mobile app in 2018, offering a simplified and user-friendly interface for investors. The platform gained significant traction, attracting a large user base and receiving positive feedback for its intuitive design and easy-to-use features.
Over the years, Freetrade has expanded its offerings and introduced additional features to enhance the user experience. It has introduced investment account options, including Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs), allowing users to take advantage of tax-efficient investing. The platform also offers a premium subscription plan called Freetrade Plus, which provides access to additional features and benefits for a monthly fee.
Trading 212 background
Founded in 2004, Trading 212 started life as a Forex broker, and slowly added additional services from there. In 2016, Trading 212 launched its mobile app, which gained significant popularity and helped propel the platform’s growth. The app provided users with the ability to trade various financial instruments on the go, making it more convenient for investors to participate in the markets.
Types of accounts available
Both Freetrade and Trading 212 offer three different accounts.
The first two are the same, a General investment account (GIA), and a Stocks and shares ISA.
There they difference is that Trading 212 offers a CFD account. While Freetrade offers Self-invested pension plan (SIPP).
A SIPP is arguably more useful to the general public than a CFD account, but we have to give Trading 212 the edge here, as all of its accounts are free. Whereas Freetrade’s ISA and SIPP are only available on its paid plans.
In addition, Trading 212 offers a demo account and tons of videos, guide and tutorials making it more beginner friendly.
More recently, Trading 212 launched a debit card allowing users to directly access the money in their invest account. We have a full review of the new Trading 212 debit card here.
Winner: Trading 212
Investment Types
One of the biggest differences between Trading 212 and Freetrade is the range of investment types they offer. Trading 212 offers a wide range of investment types, including stocks, ETFs, forex, and CFDs. This makes it a good choice for traders who want to trade a variety of assets, and for those that want to trade frequently.
Freetrade, on the other hand, focuses solely on stocks and ETFs, which makes it a good choice for long-term investors who want to build a diversified portfolio. It’s worth bearing in mind though, that many stocks are hidden behind Freetrade’s paywall. i.e. you need a paid account to access them.
Neither platform offers mutual funds, which is a shame as they can be more diversified. On the whole, Trading 212 offers not only offers a more diverse range of investment types, but a much wider range of stocks and ETFs to trade.
Winner: Trading 212
Self-invested Pension Plan (SIPP)
A SIPP is a form of pension that you control and manage yourself. They are popular with the self-employed, but are available to anyone.
This is one area where Freetrade comes out on top. Trading 212 customers have long been asking the company to add a SIPP (and a LISA) to its platform, but so far those calls have fallen on deaf ears.
Freetrade on the other hand, recognised that many casual investors prefer to have their holdings in one place, and only deal with a single platform, and added at SIPP in 2020.
The SIPP is unfortunately only available to those on Freetrade’s Plus plan, which at £11.99 a month. This compares well to established providers such as HL which charges 0.45% of the value of the holding’s in the SIPP with a maximum charge of £200.
The Freetrade interface is nicer to work with, but most people won’t be dipping into a sipp often enough to be concerned by that.
Winner: Freetrade
Fees and subscriptions
Both Trading 212 and Freetrade offer commission-free trading on stocks and ETFs, which makes them both attractive options for traders and investors. However, Trading 212 forex and CFD trading do carry some fees.
Freetrade subscription plans
Freetrade works on a subscription basis with three different payment plans available.
Basic – free
This plan only covers the GIA account. It’s free, but only has around 1,500 stocks and ETFs to choose from.
Standard – £5.99
This includes everything from the basic plan, but increases the range of stocks to more than 6,000. As well as a GIA account, you can also trade within an ISA wrapper for tax free returns, and uninvested cash up to £2000 will earn 1% interest.
Premium -£11.99
The premium plan builds on the standard plan by offering a SIPP, priority customer service, and 3% interest on uninvested cash, and reduced foreign exchange fees of 0.39%. While £11.99 a month might sound expensive, it’s worth bearing in mind, that this is equivalent to just one trade on a traditional platform such as HL.
The premium account also includes additional investor tools, such as limit orders and instant trades.
Currency conversion
When buying or selling foreign registered shares the platforms need to automatically do a currency conversion. The cheaper this is the better as it means more of your money is going towards your investments rather than transaction fees.
Trading 212 – 0.15%
Freetrade – 0.99% (Basic), 0.59% (Standard), 0.39% (Premium)
Winner: Trading 212
Depositing and withdrawing money
The minimum deposit for both platforms is just £1, though this jumps to £10 for access to Trading 212’s CFD. Oddly the minimum trade value with Freetrade is £2, so the £1 minimum deposit limit is more of a gimmick to entice new customers.
Of course you’re going to want to repost more than that regardless of which account you have. The good news here is that both platforms allow fee free deposits via bank transfer (or standing order), and Apple/Google Pay.
Freetrade limits debit card deposits (made via Apple/Google Pay) to £250 for the lifetime of the account. Trading 212 will allow fee-free Apple/Google pay deposits up to £2,000 after which it charge a 0.7%.
We love the convenience of depositing via Apple or Google Pay, so when Trading 212 brought in its 0.7% that was seen as a bit of a kick in the teeth. In reality though, on both platforms you’re better off depositing via bank transfer, and or setting up a regular standing order.
When it comes to withdrawing money, we’ve found both platforms similar. Freetrade allows you to link a bank account to the app to make withdrawals too, while Trading 212 sends money back to the account/card it came from. Both take a few days. One thing we found curious was that when withdrawing larger amounts via Trading 212, it broke up the payments into three random amounts, whereas Freetrade just happily dumped in a single lump some.
All-in-all, there isn’t really anything to chose between he two platforms here.
Winner: Tie
Interest on uninvested cash
Trading 212 began offering interest on uninvested case back in 2023. Fast forward to today and it now offers up to 5.2% AER on uninvested GBP deposits, 5.1% AER on USD, and 4.2% on EUR. And with the new Trading 212 visa debit card, you now have instant access to that cash. That beats even the very best instant savings accounts.
In 2024 Freetrade also began offering interest on uninvested cash, but this comes with some heavy restrictions. Those with a free account earn 1% on deposits up to £1,000. Standard account users will earn 3% AER on up to £2,000, and Plus users 5% AER on up to £3,000.
Winner: Trading 212
User interface
Trading 212 and Freetrade both offer slick modern apps. Which one you prefer is going to be down to personal choice. Trading 212 forces more frequent updates which is annoying, especially when the update only lists the generic ‘bug fixes’ and ‘usability improvements.’ Seriously, don’t force an update unless it’s absolutely necessarily.
In terms of layout, the Trading 212 app makes use of larger fonts and more white space, but Freetrade looks and feels a little more tightly organised. That being said, the categorisation is better in Trading 212 where you have multiple watchlists, upcoming earnings, and other groupings all available from the top of the screen.
Freetrade on the other hand makes more extensive use of search to find investments.
The data available on stocks is similar, but is something that has always been limited on Trading 212 compared to the big players like HL. And research is ideally done away from the platform.
Freetrade annoyingly hides stock fundamentals behind its paywall, leaving basic users with a few key stats and a short paragraph about the company.
The feather in the cap for Trading 212, is that it also offers a full web based platform. Being able to search for stocks, view charts, and execute trades on a larger screen, is a much more pleasant user experience than a cramped mobile screen.
Freetrade does have a web based platform of its own, but it’s still in beta testing and is again something that is only available to paid customers. Overall, the Trading 212 platform is more comprehensive, and features tools for traders.
Winner: Trading 212
Customer support
Trading 212 isn’t exactly known for its customer support, yet we’ve contacted them on multiple occasions and always had a prompt a reply. As well as email support, there’s also a live chat (though it’s not often live), and telephone support for more serious issues. All in all, we’ve never had an issue getting in touch with someone.
Freetrade runs a tiered support system, with paying users getting priority support. That doesn’t mean those on the free plan are neglected though, as their queries are still dealt with in a timely manner (less than 5 hours) via the in app chat during our tests.
Winner: Tie
What do customers think?
Both Freetrade and Trading 212 are well likely by their customers. Trading 212 receives a 4.6/5 from over 19,000 reviews on Trustpilot, while Freetrade enjoys a 4.3/5 rating from over 2,000 reviews.
The difference in the volume of reviews can be attributed to Trading 212 being older, and available in more jurisdictions. Freetrade was originally only available in the UK, but has recently branched out into other European countries.
Common complaints on Trading 212 have centred around its sign up process, which was suspended for large parts of the year in 2020/21. There have also been issues with Trading 212 suspending trading on certain stocks. Popular meme stocks Gamestop, and AMC are classic example here. Not only were traders restricted in buying these, but Trading 212 also refused to allow stop losses, on some during 2020.
Criticisms of Freetrade are mostly centred around its paywall, and limit smaller asset base. There have also been some complaints from users regarding the speed of the customer support. Freetrade is also considered by some users to be more reliable and transparent than Trading 212, open to user suggestions.
Winner: Tie
Both platforms offer free shares as a sign up bonus to those who join via a refer a friend scheme. Freetrade’s tends to be standing offer, while Trading 212 opens and closes its scheme at various points throughout the year.
If you sign up to Freetrade via our link below, and deposit £50, you will be given a free share worth between £10-100.
Winner: Freetrade
Freetrade vs Trading 212 – which is better?
Both Trading 212 and Freetrade are good options for traders and investors, but as we’ve discovered they have different strengths and weaknesses. Trading 212 offers a wider range of investment types and a more comprehensive platform, which makes it a good choice for traders who want to trade a variety of assets. The tools available to traders such as stop losses, limit orders etc.. along with its lower pricing put it ahead Freetrade for regular trading.
Freetrade, on the other hand, has a simpler platform that is more focused on long-term investing, which makes it a good choice for beginners, and those looking for longer term investments. Yes, the range of stocks is more limited, but what really annoyed us, is Freetrade charging for features that are free or standard on Trading 212 and other platforms.
That being said, there’s everything the new investor needs to get started, and although it doesn’t yet offer a web interface, the mobile app is clean and clear.
If your main interest is in UK stocks, popular shares, and common ETFs, you’ll have no problems with the basic Freetrade subscription. And if looking for a SIPP, Freetrade is your only commission free option.
The main purpose of this comparison is to pick out issues or limitations of the platforms and highlight their strengths. For us, Trading 212 wins out across more categories, but the reality is, both are great at what they do. Ultimately, the choice between the two platforms will depend on your individual trading and investing needs.