10 "Best" Investment Platforms UK: 2024 (+ Pros & Cons) (2024)

Reading about top investment platforms in the UK is one thing. It’s another to understand how and why you should subscribe to one or another.

What is an Investment Platform?

Put simply, an investment platform is a kind of online market trading platform that, as opposed to a regular online trading platform, will let you purchase various investment instruments (such as funds, bonds, shares, and so on) and place them inside a tax-free Stocks and Shares ISA or individual savings account.

They may also allow you to place your trades inside an SIPP or self-invested personal pension.

Investors typically use investment platforms in order to build up enough of a financial nest egg to retire or to save up for other big expenses such as college for their children.

As such, investment platforms (or trading platforms that can double as investment platforms) will often have different features or attributes compared to short-term trading services.

Investment Trading

With investment trading, you’ll buy and hold certain stocks for months or years, allowing your portfolio to gradually increase in value over time. Then you’ll sell the stocks or other financial instruments at a date that works for your financial savings goals.

The best investment platforms are meant for long-term financial gain and stable trading. Regular brokers or trading platforms are better suited for short-term gains and trading.

What’s a Stock? What about other Market Assets or Instruments?

A stock is just a share or unit of ownership in a company. When you buy a stock, you buy a single piece of ownership in a given company. By owning a stock, you get a very small fraction of a corporation’s assets or profits.

Stock exchanges allow you to buy and sell stocks.

In addition to regular stocks, there are other financial instruments you can invest in.

These include:

• ETFs or Exchange-Traded Funds
• Mutual Funds
• CFDs or Contract for Difference
• Options, which are specialized instruments that guarantee the right to buy or sell a stock at a particular price at a certain time.

Many of the best investment platforms will allow you to purchase multiple types of market assets and instruments. A diverse portfolio typically leads to better long-term investment gains since you’re less susceptible to market risk or declines.

How to Invest in Stocks Using an Investment Platform

Investment platforms are pretty similar to stock trading platforms in terms of their mechanics. Learn more about them in our online stock trading guide for beginners.

First, sign up for an investment platform by providing some personal information and funding the account. Because investment platforms are designed for long-term investment gains, they usually have a minimum investment amount. This is often between £100 and £1000 depending on the service.

How Do You Know Where to Invest Money?

Don’t have the experience necessary to master long-term investing? No worries.

Most great investment platforms in the UK will also come with educational resources.

These include tutorials and advice on how to analyze different stock information. These resources will help you to make better decisions as you build your investment portfolio.

Certain platforms may even let you copy the trades or investment strategies of other investors on the same platform, meaning you can tag along with experienced investors and make a consistent profit without having to do a ton of research.

But yYou might also want to do your own research using the tools available with your chosen investment platform as you become more experienced.

Research means looking at aspects of a stock like:

• How well the company is doing.
• Its current dividends (i.e. shareholder profits).
• Projections for how the company will do over the next few years.

All of this information can help you predict whether a given investment will be a good choice in the long run. It takes time to master, but it’s well worth it in the end.

How Much Do Investment Platforms Cost?

It depends. As opposed to regular trading platforms, many investment platforms come with additional fees.

Typical charges include:

• Annual ongoing charges, to pay for the platform’s upkeep.
• Buying or selling fees, incurred when you execute various transactions.
• Inactivity fees, which can kick in if you don’t use your account for a certain amount of time.

In many cases, these charges will come out of your investments’ returns. That’s why it’s important to compare the costs of different investment platforms and make sure you pick the one that works best for your budget.

How to Choose the Right Investment Platform

Speaking of picking the right investment platform, let’s take a look at how you can choose the platform that’s best for your needs.

Fees

Be sure to compare the different fees and charges that various platforms might charge. Some of these fees might be hidden.

For instance, eToro is a great choice in terms of cost overall. While it does charge withdrawal fees, it doesn’t charge any commission fees (i.e. fees on any trades you make). eToro is one of the most affordable investment and trading platforms available to UK residents.

Minimum Amounts

Most investment platforms will require you to always keep a minimum amount of cash in your account. Check this factor before signing up for an investment platform.

Research

Even with the best online trading platforms for beginners you’ll need good educational and research resources.

The best online investment platforms will have excellent research tools and tabs for you to check out: the more research tabs a platform has, the easier it'll be to make smart investment decisions. It is, however, a good idea to check where a given platform gets its research information.

User Interface

Platforms with smooth, streamlined user interface designs are better than those with clunky interfaces (who likes a hard-to-use app? Not us!). The easier you find a platform, the more enjoyable your experience will be, and the faster you'll learn.

Is There a “Demo” Account?

Lastly, it's a good idea to see if a given platform has a demo account. Demo accounts allow you to set up an account and tour the platform in question without having to put down any money. You'll instead be given some fake digital currency to make trades and see how your investments pan out.

Demo accounts are great ways to try out an investment platform before you commit fully.