If you’re looking to switch from Vanguard, or simply want some alternatives, here are some options that could save you money on investing fees to help your portfolio grow.
Vanguard is one of the most popular index fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers in the world. Its founder, Jack Bogle, was the person to come up with the concept of index funds in the first place. However, you don’t need to use Vanguard’s platform if you want to invest in its funds and ETFs.
You might even save money by investing in a Vanguard fund using an alternative broker. Because these days, it’s often cheaper to invest in these funds elsewhere, especially if you have a smaller size portfolio, or a smaller sum to invest.
Get a Welcome Bonus of up to £100 when you invest at least £100 with InvestEngine. T&Cs apply.
Capital at Risk.
InvestEngine is the closest comparable to Vanguard as it’s also a fund-only platform. With InvestEngine, there are over 700 ETFs to choose from and 45 of those are Vanguard funds. InvestEngine also has pre-packaged “LifePlan” portfolios which are similar to Vanguard’s popular “LifeStrategy” options, where it's a fund made of funds and you simply pick your desired percentage allocation to equities (stocks).
The key difference between InvestEngine and Vanguard is the fees. InvestEngine has no platform fee for a DIY portfolio, and this includes using a flexible stocks and shares ISA or a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). Vanguard on the other hand has a 0.15% fee (with a £4 monthly minimum from 31 January 2025).
So if you want to invest in Vanguard funds, it’s actually cheaper with InvestEngine. Plus, you get the added benefit of choosing ETFs from various providers (whereas Vanguard only lets you invest in its own products, selfish we know). For years, Vanguard didn’t offer a mobile app, now it does - but it’s far less superior to InvestEngine’s app in terms of features and functionality.
Pros
Build your own portfolio or have a managed one
Over 700 ETFs
The platform looks great, and it’s easy to use
No extra fee for a stocks and shares ISA or SIPP
Low fees all around
Excellent features like one-click rebalancing
Cons
Percentage fees can be expensive for large managed portfolios
You can only invest in ETFs
Limited learning resources and tools
Relatively small range of managed portfolios
£100 initial minimum investment
Platform fees
0% - 0.25%
Price per trade
£0
Frequent trader rate
N/A
Foreign exchange fee
0%
Min. initial deposit
£100
Fractional shares
FCA regulated
Price per trade
£0
Min. initial deposit
£100
Offer
Get a Welcome Bonus of up to £100 when you invest at least £100 with InvestEngine. T&Cs apply.
Although Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) can be pricey for investing in individual shares, it’s actually a fantastic option if you’re sticking to fund investing. It’s a decent alternative to Vanguard because there’s no commission fee to buy or sell funds, the platform fee is 0.45% (with no monthly minimum fee) and it actually gets cheaper for larger portfolios.
There’s a huge choice of over 3,000 funds from a range of providers. This is much more than Vanguard offers, which is about 85. You’re also able to hold your funds in a HL stocks and shares ISA wrapper for no added fee.
HL is an expensive option if you want to buy and sell individual stocks, but this isn’t even an option with Vanguard so it’s a bit of a moot point for comparison. Fund investors will find lots to like with HL.
Pros
Wide range of accounts
No platform fee for some accounts
Free fund trading
Great customer service reviews
Excellent mobile app
Discount for regular investors
Cons
Expensive to buy or sell shares
Fee structure is slightly complex
No demo account
Some investors may not need all the features
As a listed company, HL has to please shareholders
Get £100 worth of free trades with an ii Trading Account by 31 January. Capital at risk. T&Cs apply. New customers only.
Capital at Risk.
interactive investor (ii) is one of the most comprehensive platforms in the UK and its choice of over 3,000 funds and ETFs absolutely blows Vanguard’s selection of 85 own-brand funds out of the water.
Along with over 40,000 investment options in total, ii charges a flat monthly fee of £4.99 for portfolios under £50,000 on its Investor Essentials plan (fairly comparable to Vanguard). Over this threshold, the monthly fee rises to £11.99 for its Investor plan, which isn’t great if you nudge into that bracket, but it’s good value if you have a large portfolio because the fee doesn’t get any bigger.
One downside with ii is that there’s a commission fee of £3.99 each time you make a trade. But, long-term investors can avoid this by setting up a regular monthly fund investment, putting it on a par with Vanguard’s lack of commission. With ii, you also get access to loads of unique, in-house research from its experts and an excellent mobile app and desktop platform for investing.
Pros
Flat monthly fee is good value for large portfolios
Massive choice of investments
A platform designed for every type of investor
Lots of account choices
Invest online or with the ii app
Cons
Platform fee is expensive for small portfolios
Share dealing charges are quite high
Free monthly trade(s) with premium plans
Cheapest plan has a maximum portfolio size
Adding a SIPP costs more
Platform fees
From £4.99 a month
Price per trade
£3.99 (free regular investing)
Frequent trader rate
£0
Foreign exchange fee
1.5%
Min. initial deposit
£0
Fractional shares
FCA regulated
Price per trade
£3.99 (free regular investing)
Min. initial deposit
£0
Offer
Get £100 worth of free trades with an ii Trading Account by 31 January. Capital at risk. T&Cs apply. New customers only.
Unlike some of its slicker counterparts, but similar to Vanguard, AJ Bell offers a robust (if somewhat clunky) platform for investing in funds and ETFs. AJ Bell is a solid alternative to Vanguard because it has a much larger choice of over 3,400 ETFs and over 2,000 funds.
AJ Bell’s fees are slightly higher than some of Vanguard’s. The ongoing platform fee depends on the account you’re using, but to hold funds in a stocks and shares ISA or a SIPP, it’s 0.25% of the value of your funds (and this gets cheaper once you hit £250,000).
However, whereas it’s free to buy or sell funds on Vanguard, AJ Bell charges £1.50 per fund trade. So if you’re investing smaller sums, these fees can add up and eat into your potential returns. Yet, for larger fund investors that want plenty of choice, AJ Bell can be superior to Vanguard.
Fidelity is relatively similar to Vanguard in terms of its approach and target audience. It offers plenty more funds, with over 2,500 to choose from and more than 400 ETFs. You can get started investing with Fidelity from £25 a month, or a much steeper £1,000 lump sum.
The initial monthly deposit amount is lower than Vanguard’s £100, but the lump sum is double Vanguard’s £500 minimum. Although Fidelity offers a whopping choice of funds and ETFs, the complex and sometimes expensive fees let the platform down when compared to Vanguard.
The best value is to set up a regular savings plan, which means a fee of 0.35% (£7.50 a month without) for portfolios under £25,000. The good news is there’s no fee to buy or sell funds. Fidelity’s platform is pretty basic and comparable to Vanguard’s, but slightly clunkier and less intuitive.
Pros
Well-respected platform
Plenty of investments to choose from
Lots of fund-specific research and tools
Option for financial advice
Regular investing discount
Cons
High £7.50 commission for investments
Confusing fee structure
Platform isn’t doesn’t have the best user interface
Higher fees if you don’t have a regular savings plan
Get your first 3 months free when you upgrade to Plus plan. T&Cs apply. Capital at risk.
Capital at Risk.
A relatively new platform compared to some of the older players, CMC Invest could be a useful alternative to Vanguard for some investors.
Like Vanguard, it offers a flexible stocks and shares ISA - but you do need to subscribe to its Plus or Premium plans which costs £10 and £25 a month respectively. The Premium plan also includes a SIPP, but at this price, it’s only economical for larger pension portfolios.
CMC Invest does offer a free Core plan, but you don’t get an ISA. However, with all CMC Invest plans, you do get access to over 1,000 mutual funds, plus a selection of around 400 ETFs and investment trusts. There’s no commission to buy or sell investments on CMC Invest, but it doesn’t offer fractional shares.
Pros
No minimum deposit
Free to open and hold a Core account
No investing commissions
Over 4,500 investments
2% uncapped interest paid on cash in all account plans
ISA and SIPP available
Cons
Limited range of UK stocks
No fractional shares
Costs £10 per month to use an ISA with Plus plan
Some account types and features reserved for paying subscribers
Multi-currency wallets only for Plus and Premium
Platform fees
£0
Price per trade
£0
Frequent trader rate
N/A
Foreign exchange fee
0.5%
Min. initial deposit
£0
Fractional shares
FCA regulated
Price per trade
£0
Min. initial deposit
£0
Offer
Get your first 3 months free when you upgrade to Plus plan. T&Cs apply. Capital at risk.
Our expert says: What’s the cheapest way to invest in Vanguard funds?
"As it stands, the cheapest place overall to invest in Vanguard funds is by using InvestEngine. There’s no commission fee to buy or sell Vanguard ETFs on InvestEngine, and there’s also no platform fee with a DIY account. Whereas Vanguard charges 0.15% (with a £4 minimum for portfolios under £32,000 from 31 January 2025).
Therefore, you can buy Vanguard ETFs and hold them in a stocks and shares ISA or SIPP wrapper and pay nothing extra other than the ongoing ETF fees (that you have to pay anywhere you’d buy Vanguard ETFs, including on Vanguard’s platform). "
If you’re a Vanguard customer and looking to transfer out to an alternative (perhaps because of the fee hike for smaller portfolios), here’s a simple step-by-step guide explaining how:
Check the account types. Make sure your new account offers a stocks and shares ISA or SIPP (if that’s what you hold with Vanguard).
Look at transfer options. See if your new platform offers “in-specie transfer” of your investments or if they need to be sold and moved over as cash.
Start the transfer. If your new platform allows transfers in, they should offer a form to complete to start a transfer process from your Vanguard account.
Wait for the transfer. The transfer time can vary depending on the type of account you’re transferring. An ISA transfer is usually within 30 days but a SIPP might be longer.
Close Vanguard account. Once the transfer has taken place, if your balance is now zero with Vanguard, you can send them a secure message requesting your account(s) to be closed.
Remember to follow the official process using a transfer service if moving a stocks and shares ISA. Otherwise, if you simply withdraw the funds and deposit them somewhere else – this could eat into your yearly ISA allowance.
Bottom line
With Vanguard introducing a new minimum monthly fee of £4 for portfolios under £32,000 – it’s no longer one of the cheapest options for investors with smaller portfolios. Luckily, there are plenty of affordable UK alternatives to Vanguard that are cheaper and offer a greater selection of investment funds and ETFs.
Just remember to take care and follow the official process if you want to transfer out of Vanguard and move your portfolio somewhere else, especially if you’re using a tax-efficient account like an ISA or SIPP. If you want to know a bit more about the “godfather” of index funds, check out our full Vanguard review.
Pensions are long-term investments. You may get back less than you originally paid in because your capital is not guaranteed and charges may apply. Keep in mind that the tax treatment of your pension and investments will depend on your individual circumstances and may change in the future. Capital at risk.
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George is a deputy editor at Finder. He has previously written for The Motley Fool UK, Nasdaq, Freetrade, Investing in the Web, MoneyMagpie, Online Mortgage Advisor, Wealth, and Compare Forex Brokers. He's focused on making personal finance and investing engaging for everyone. To do this he draws from previous work and his Level 4 Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA), sharing what he’s learnt. When he’s not geeking out about money, you’ll find him playing sports and staying active. See full bio
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George has written 195 Finder guides across topics including:
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