InvestEngine review

Save and invest with InvestEngine

• Get a £25 welcome bonus
• Don't worry about dealing fees
• Manage your account yourself or let specialists do it for you

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InvestEngine is a relatively new investment platform that lets you choose between ready-made portfolios and a DIY option to choose a range of exchange traded funds (ETFs) to invest in.

You’re able to invest in both individual savings accounts (ISAs) and general investment accounts with InvestEngine, so you can make use of your ISA allowance of £20,000 in each tax year. Find out what we thought of InvestEngine, the types of investments available and what it’s got up its sleeve for the future.

InvestEngine products

Stocks and shares ISA
Lifetime ISA (LISA)
Pension
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InvestEngine has three different accounts that you can invest in:

• Personal account. This is a general investment account (GIA) for flexible investing without any limits.
• Individual savings account (ISA). Use your ISA allowance to invest tax free.
• Business account. For investing your company’s surplus money.

InvestEngine personal account

The personal account is InvestEngine’s general investment account. Like the other accounts, you can start with £100.

With this account you might have to pay income tax on your profits. Tax is payable on profits over £12,300.

InvestEngine ISA

With the InvestEngine ISA, you can use your annual ISA allowance to invest tax free. You get an allowance for each tax year, up to which you can invest without paying tax on your profits. The allowance for the 2022/2023 tax year is £20,000.

InvestEngine business account

This account is for businesses that have some surplus money that they’d like to invest. It’s a potential way to earn better returns on the money sitting in your bank account. The money can be accessed whenever you want, but any tax advantages depend on your business circumstances.

Investments available with InvestEngine

You can’t invest in individual shares with InvestEngine, so if this is something you’d like to be able to do, this isn’t the platform for you. Check out our share dealing comparison table to find an alternative provider.

You can choose to either invest in ready-made portfolios or create your own portfolio of exchange-traded funds. Here’s how each of these approaches works.

InvestEngine ready made portfolios

InvestEngine’s ready made portfolios are fully managed. As with other robo-advisors like Moneyfarm and Nutmeg, your portfolio depends on your appetite to risk. It asks you a set of questions that helps the platform understand how you feel about risk to suggest a portfolio for you.

InvestEngine automatically rebalances your portfolio to ensure that it stays aligned to your investment plan. Its investment team keeps an eye on your portfolio to make sure it remains well-positioned for the latest market conditions.

You can choose between growth portfolios and income portfolios.

How to invest in a ready-made portfolio with InvestEngine:

1. Choose what sort of portfolio you want. You can choose between Income and Growth – we explain these above.
2. Choose an account. You can invest in an ISA, a general investment account or a business account.
3. Answer some questions. These are mainly about your investment goals and how much risk you want to take.
4. Look at the portfolio InvestEngine matches to you. This will be suited to your risk level. It’ll be a selection of exchange traded funds (ETFs).
5. Fund your account. You can start with just £100.
6. InvestEngine manages your portfolio for you. It’s as easy as that. InvestEngine will constantly adapt your portfolio to keep you on track.

InvestEngine DIY portfolios

InvestEngine’s DIY option lets you choose which ETFs you want to be invested in. There’s more than 530 available on the platform, including ESG options. Once you’ve chosen which ones you want to invest in, you can choose how they’re weighted, so you don’t have to be invested equally in each fund.

There’s more information about choosing which ETFs you want to invest in with InvestEngine’s screener below.

Once you’ve created your portfolio, you simply need to make your first deposit. InvestEngine has “one click rebalancing”, which means that as the markets rise and fall, your portfolio stays consistently balanced to the weights you have chosen. You also don’t need to set up ETF trades — you can buy and sell based on your portfolio weights, so all future top ups can be automatically organised.

InvestEngine fees

There are no fees for InvestEngine’s DIY portfolios.

Its managed portfolios have a (relatively) simple fee structure:

The minimum amount you can deposit into your account is £100.

What does this actually mean?

A £1,000 investment will incur fees of around £5.70 with an income portfolio while the growth portfolio would cost you around £4.70 for a £1,000 investment.

A £10,000 investment will incur fees of around £57 if you’re invested in an income portfolio and around £47 for growth portfolios.

InvestEngine customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction rating	★★★★★
Customer help in app
Customer help via email
Customer help over the phone
Community or forums
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InvestEngine has a UK based support team that can be accessed via email, over the phone and with an online form.

App store and Google Play reviews rave about how easy to use the app is, even though it perhaps isn’t as attractive as other choices. Users feel that the fees are low compared with InvestEngine’s competitors and liked the process when creating a portfolio.

InvestEngine review: What else do I need to know?

InvestEngine isn’t comparable to share dealing platforms like Trading 212, IG, Hargreaves Lansdown or Freetrade, but it’s a pretty good choice if you’re looking to make recurring investments into exchange-traded funds. Here’s some more information about the platform.

How to choose ETFs with InvestEngine

One of the things we really like about InvestEngine is its ETF screener. It’s really easy to use and explains key terms, something a lot of providers fail to do. You can filter the list of ETFs by their asset classes, whether they accumulate or distribute dividends, ESG scores and whether they are currency hedged.

When you’ve chosen a few ETFs, you can see a pie chart with your breakdown based on assets, regions and sectors. This can help you create a well diversified portfolio. Plus, you can keep tweaking even after you’ve started investing, which we like.

InvestEngine mobile and web apps

InvestEngine can be accessed on its website as well as with a mobile app. You can top-up within the app and see your dashboard to manage your account. It lets you see what you’re invested in and a percentage of how much of your portfolio is in each investment.

When choosing investments, you can see the full holdings of each ETF, giving you great control over your individual investments.

For those investing in ready-made portfolios, it’s also got some handy in-app calculators to help you understand how your savings could grow based on one-off investments, how much you plan to invest each month, your risk profile and timeline.

Is InvestEngine safe?

InvestEngine is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means that if InvestEngine were to go bust, you’d be covered for up to £85,000 of your deposits.

Platforms like InvestEngine

InvestEngine has two different approaches, managed portfolios and DIY portfolios.

Managed portfolios are commonly known as robo advice. This means it builds and manages ready-made investment portfolios for you in exchange for a fee. Robo-advisors include Nutmeg and Wealthify.

InvestEngine DIY portfolios don’t let you buy individual shares, so it’s pretty different to Trading 212 or Freetrade. Instead, its DIY portfolios give you a choice between more than 530 exchange-traded funds, which are made up from bonds, stocks and commodities. This is pretty similar to Vanguard.

Pros and cons of InvestEngine

Our verdict: Is InvestEngine any good?

InvestEngine is an ETF investment platform, so you can’t research individual companies to invest in. This makes it a little less exciting than other options, so wouldn’t be suited to those who like the buzz and conversation around investing and is more likely suitable for those looking for growth over the long term. InvestEngine is really easy to set up — I’m fairly confident that I could hand my phone to my mum and she’d figure it out in no time, and she’s hardly a technophile. Its low fees make it attractive to investors.

We like that there are options available for those who want ready-made portfolios as well as those who want to build their own portfolios. It’s a fresh take on the robo-advisors we’re familiar with, like Nutmeg, Wealthify and Moneyfarm. Its set fee structure is refreshing but could prove to be expensive for anyone investing large sums (we’re talking upwards of £100,000).

It would be nice to see more about the individual portfolios and how they invest. We also love that there are some ethical portfolios available, with the rise of ESG investing.

Get started by visiting InvestEngine and opening an account. Still not sure? Compare other share trading platforms with our comparison table.

Frequently asked questions

• What's an ETF?

  An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a collection of investments that’s listed on a stock exchange. We have a whole guide on ETFs if you’d like to learn more.

• Is InvestEngine an ISA?

  InvestEngine lets you invest in an ISA, so you’re able to make use of your annual ISA allowance, which is £20,000 in the 2022/2023 tax year.

• Can I buy shares with InvestEngine?

  You can’t buy shares with InvestEngine, however you can access company shares through exchange-traded funds. If you’d prefer to invest in individual shares, check out our comparison table.