Ever wondered who would come out on top in a battle between Freetrade vs Hargreaves Lansdown (HL)? Well, read on to find out how they compare for features, fees and much more.
Freetrade and Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) are two of the most popular investing platforms available to UK retail investors. However, they’re quite different in terms of ethos, approach and target audience. So, we’re going to compare them both and pit Freetrade vs Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) against each other in a head-to-head battle.
Both Freetrade and HL offer a decent range of investments and plenty of account options, including a stocks and shares ISA and a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). So, check out our breakdown of Freetrade vs HL and hopefully this will help you pick who’s best, depending on what’s most important to you – whether that’s fees, investment choice, account types or anything else.
Freetrade and Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) are pretty neck and neck when it comes to their overall Finder score. Freetrade has a score of 4.4 out of 5, whereas HL has a score of 4.2 out of 5.
Where the platforms differ significantly is fees. Freetrade scores a 4.4 out of 5 for fees, whereas HL scores a much lower 2.4 out 5. It is worth pointing out however that Freetrade does put a number of it’s best features behind a paywall (including the use of an ISA), so it doesn’t always work out the absolute cheapest, it depends on how much you’re investing, what account you’re using and what you’re investing in.
Both platforms were some of the highest-rated in the Finder Investing Customer Satisfaction Awards 2024, but HL was our overall winner (for the third year in a row) with 97% of investors saying they’d recommend the platform to a friend.
Although Freetrade offers a decent range of accounts, it’s difficult to beat HL in this category because it offers pretty much every type of account imaginable.
Although Freetrade has over 6,000+ stocks in total, there’s a limited selection of around 4,800+ if you’re not on one of the paid plans.
Whereas HL has around 11,000+ investments available covering a more diverse range of asset types, and you can access the full selection without needing to pay for a more premium account.
This is a pretty easy win for Freetrade which charges 0% commission for trades, whereas HL charges £11.95 for each time you want to buy or sell a stock.
The saving grace for HL is that fund dealing is free, and if you set up a regular monthly direct debit investment, you don’t have to pay a commission. It also offers discounts for regular traders but the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze with that (you’d need to spend over £100 in trading commissions to access the lowest rate which is still much higher than Freetrade’s zero commission).
HL is slightly more expensive for foreign exchange (FX) fees, but Freetrade’s does get lower if you’re on one of the paid Standard or Plus plans. The paid plans from Freetrade give you access to more investments, account types, and perks but the flat fee structure best suits larger portfolios (compared to a percentage based platform fee like with HL).
So there are ways to minimise your costs with HL but you need to be very intentional with your investing plans. Whereas the Freetrade app is free to use on the Basic account, and you can invest commission-free from as little as £2. Just remember you might need to recalculate and upgrade to a paid Freetrade plan at some stage.
In summary, HL can be cheap for fund investing (or a single monthly investment, and small portfolios using a range of account types. Whereas, Freetrade is cheap for small portfolios on the Basic plan, and generally provides better value for those investing in stocks and shares regularly.
Both platforms score well in this area and when it comes to an easy-to-use app – Freetrade is fantastic.
However, HL offers more ways to contact its award-winning customer service team.
Also, Freetrade’s desktop platform is still in its infancy, released only recently. HL has a well-established mobile app and desktop investing platform.
The Freetrade app is definitely more accessible for complete beginners, but HL offers a more well-rounded experienced – especially for investors who want to contact real humans.
This is an easy win for HL. Freetrade keeps things pretty simple (by design) to streamline the investing experience and make it more approachable.
But for those who want to dive into all the nitty gritty details and analysis tools, HL has a much more complete offering in that regard.
HL does lack a social investing element (Freetrade has a community forum), but it’s HL that offers plenty more research resources and unique content.
Winner: Hargreaves Lansdown (HL)
Overall winner: Is Freetrade better than Hargreaves Lansdown?
It’s hard to separate these two platforms because they take different approaches.
When looking at Freetrade vs Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), it’s clear that HL offers a much more rounded investing experience to suit people at all stages, however its fees are a major drawback.
You can navigate HL’s fees to get better value, but you need to know what you’re doing.
Freetrade is much easier to pick up and use, and you don’t need to do much to keep your investing experience cheap. However, Freetrade starts getting a bit pricey when you start to factor in the additional paid plan costs if you want access to all the accounts and investments.
Winner: Tie
All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
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
George's expertise
George has written 233 Finder guides across topics including:
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