Trading 212 is a popular investing platform with low fees, a free stocks and shares ISA and plenty of investments right at your fingertips.
We chose Trading 212 as our best trading app for small investments because it offers a ton of functionality and features with minimal fees.
It’s hard to knock Trading 212 when it comes to value. No platform fee, a free stocks and shares ISA wrapper, zero investing commissions and a competitive foreign exchange (FX) fee of 0.15%.
On top of the low prices, you can invest in over 13,000 investments with as little as £1. Plus, there's a market-leading easy-access cash ISA with no account fees.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.77% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
How we rated Trading 212's investment features
Feature
Rating
Details
Fees
9.8
Excellent
Trading 212 offers excellent value and is pretty unbeatable for fees across the board.
Investment choice
9.8
Excellent
It offers plenty of investments and a decent range of asset types.
Safety and security
8.5
Great
Trading 212 offers a secure and safe place for people to invest.
Account types and products
7.5
Great
The platform is somewhat limited when it comes to account types.
Ease of use
9.6
Excellent
Trading 212 offers a solid investing experience that most customers seem happy with.
Tools, resources and features
10
Excellent
Trading 212 offers a comprehensive range of tools, features and resources.
Who might Trading 212 suit?
Trading 212 is one of the UK’s most popular trading apps for beginner (and more experienced) investors. The main draws of Trading 212 include commission-free investing, a free stocks and shares ISA wrapper, along with thousands of stocks and ETFs to choose from.
However, after reading our Trading 212 review, if you don’t think it’s for you, why not compare share trading platforms to find the right fit to match your style.
Hands-on test: I tried out Trading 212's investing app
"There’s plenty to like about Trading 212. I’m a big fan of the low fees for buying shares and holding an account (including a free stocks and shares ISA).
Also, using the app to research stocks and invest is a pleasure. I was suprised by how much is packed into the Trading 212 platform. A personal highlight is the ability to create Pies, which are like mini-portfolios you can share, copy or discuss with other investors."
£0 (0.7% deposit fee for more than £2,000 on card, Google Pay or Apple Pay)
Inactivity fee
£0
Trading 212 is one of the cheapest investment platforms around with no commissions and no platform fees, along with one of the cheapest FX fees available for investing in international stocks.
There’s not much more to be said in the way of fees, which is why Trading 212 scored almost perfectly in our assessment of its costs.
How does that compare?
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Trading 212 allows you to invest in all the top shares and ETFs from the UK, the US, and Europe. One of the coolest things about Trading 212 is the “pies” feature. This allows you to build and create your own portfolio (pie) using whatever mix of assets you like. You can then set your desired allocation and invest whenever you want.
Or use the “AutoInvest” feature to automate your pie process. Another piece of this pie action is the option to view and copy pies from other investors. Additionally, Trading 212 offers automatic reinvestment of dividends and the option to adjust slice proportions and rebalance portfolios with ease.
Is Trading 212 safe?
Safety and security score
Biometric login/2FA
FCA regulated
FSCS protection
SSL certificate
Public company
As you’d expect, Trading 212 is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It’s also a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) so your deposits up to £120,000 are protected should Trading 212 go bust.
Trading 212 account types and products
Account types and products score
7.5
Great
General investment account (GIA)
Stock and shares ISA
Self-invested personal pension (SIPP)
Lifetime ISA (LISA)
Junior ISA (JISA)/Junior SIPP (JSIPP)
Business Account
Interest on cash balances
Trading 212 has 4 products to choose from, you can read more in-depth details in our FAQs:
Trading 212 Invest. A general investment account (GIA) with no platform fees and zero commissions. This might be what you’d use if you’d used up your ISA allowance.
Trading 212 Stocks ISA. This is the same as the invest account, but a stocks and shares ISA is a tax-free wrapper.
Trading 212 CFD. This is a much riskier way of trading — contracts for difference (CFDs) allow you to trade contracts based on asset price movements.
Trading 212 Cash ISA. This is the most recent addition to Trading 212’s lineup and means you can save up to £20,000 in a tax-free wrapper.
Trading 212 ease of use
Ease of use score
9.6
Excellent
Apple iOS rating
4.6/5
Google Play rating
3.9/5
Ways to contact customer service
Phone, email and in-app chat
UI/UX
Good
Desktop or mobile app
Both
Trading 212 scored well in our ease of use assessment. We particularly like that there are a few ways to get hold of the support team and invest using either the well-designed mobile app or on the desktop.
On the App Store, Trading 212 scores an impressive 4.6 out of 5, and on Google Play it has a 3.9 out of 5.
Trading 212 customer reviews
Reviews platform
Score
Trustpilot
4.6/5
Feedback included praise for Trading 212’s reliable and accessible service, and many customers described Trading 212 as “easy to use”.
On Trustpilot, users are also positive about the brand – Trading 212 has a high 4.6 out of 5 rating, classed as “Excellent” (as of October 2025).
Trading 212 tools, resources and features
Tools, resources and features
10
Excellent
Analysis features
Tools for investing/trading
Social features
Learning resources
Additional Features
Trading 212 has lots on offer in the way of features and tools. Alongside basic financials and key ratios for stocks, you can also access and use a bunch of features, but the unqiue highlight has to be the previously mentioned pies. Trading 212 does now offer some AI insights, but how useful that is is up for debate.
Nevertheless, there’s plenty packed into the Trading 212 platform, especially when you consider it’s free to use and there’s no cost to hold an account and access all these features and resources. If you want to test out the platform before investing with real money, you can use a demo account (known as practice mode).
Trading 212 and Finder Awards
Our Finder Awards celebrate brands that truly stand out in their field, creating innovative personal finance products and providing outstanding service to their customers. Trading 212 is one of these brands and has won multiple awards!
Here's what it's won in the past year:
2025 Provider of the Year Award (Investing)
2025 Provider of the Year Award (Stocks and Shares ISA)
2024 Innovation Award (Stocks & Shares ISA)
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Trading 212 is FCA-regulated and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means your deposits up to £120,000 are fully secure and protected should something happen to Trading 212.
Yes, Trading 212 is a fintech company with over 2 million funded accounts and £3 billion in client assets and cash. The platform is fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
We found using the Trading 212 platform extremely functional and straightforward to learn. You can even try the practice mode if you want to get a feel for it first. Considering there are no fees to pay for holding an account and trading, it’s an excellent service. The platform recently added some social features and the ability to invest in pre-set portfolios (called pies). Overall, Trading 212 is up there with one of the best free trading platforms available.
Trading 212’s Invest product allows you to invest in stocks and shares without paying any commission. Here are the key features:
You may need to pay UK dividends or capitals gains tax (CGT) if you breach your yearly allowances
Trading 212’s stocks and shares ISA allows you to do everything its Invest product does but with the added benefit of paying no UK tax on profits or dividends when investing up to £20,000 in the 2025/2026 tax year.
So, with the Trading 212 ISA, these are the main things to know:
Like any ISA, you can invest up to £20,000 in the 2025/2026 tax year tax year with mostly tax-free profits
The latest member of the Trading 212 lineup is a cash ISA with table-topping interest. Features of the Trading 212 Cash ISA include:
No fees to open or hold an account
Easy-access and no restrictions on number of withdrawals
FSCS protection
Flexible ISA so you can make withdrawals without impacting your allowance
Free transfers in
Interest paid daily
High interest rate of 4.38%
Trading 212 has a demo feature on the site and app that allows you to test the platform with £50,000 of fake money. It’s fun to play around with to get a feel of the site and how it works before committing actual money to your investments.
You can “buy” anything that you can in the regular app. This lets you see how the investments fluctuate over time. It’s a useful learning tool to get a feel for investing as a whole.
Trading 212 has a strong focus on teaching people about the basics of investing and how to use the platform. It has a YouTube channel with hundreds of videos to teach you about share dealing and some handy guides on the basics and terminology.
It also has the demo feature for CFD trading, but if you don’t have much exposure to CFDs, then this can be overwhelming and may put you off investing altogether. But if CFDs are what you’re after, it’s worth dipping your toes in with the practice mode to start understanding how it works.
Once you reckon you’ve played around with fake money enough, you select “switch to real money”. It will take you through some basic information, such as your contact details and some basics on your income and savings. Select the accounts and currency you want to trade in, and you’re good to go.
When buying shares, you can choose how many you want, and the app gives you the cost in your chosen currency, which is helpful. You have the choice to create limit orders. This allows you to enter the maximum you’re willing to go to when buying shares. If the stock prices drop below this amount before the end of the day, it will automatically place the order for you. You can also do this when selling shares by entering the minimum you’re willing to sell for.
CFD trading is a lot more complex than investing in stocks. When you trade CFDs, you speculate on the movements in value rather than purchase the underlying asset or share.
This means you’re not entitled to receive dividends, as you never own the shares. It does mean you can take advantage of prices going down in value as well as up.
There’s more complexity to this than just the contract, as CFDs allow for leverage (which means borrowing money to hold larger trade positions).
These 2 accounts are virtually identical.
If you don’t have a stocks and shares ISA already, you should consider opening a Trading 212 ISA and take advantage of the tax benefits that come with it.
If you do have a stocks and shares ISA and have paid into it this year, you’ll need to open up the Trading 212 Invest account, because you’re not allowed to pay into more than one type of ISA per year.
Remember, every UK adult is also allowed £3,000 of potential gains (in the 2025/2026 tax year) as a tax-free capital gains tax (CGT) allowance. This means your first £3,000 of capital gains (i.e., growth of your investments) won’t be subject to tax. Once you exceed £3,000, you’ll start paying tax unless you’re using an ISA. You may also have to pay tax on any dividends over £500 each year.
Trading 212 has registered offices in London and Cyprus.
Only investors outside the EU and the UK need to join the Trading 212 waitlist. So, if you’re based in the UK, you can join the platform without waiting.
It’s best for beginners to use either Trading 212 Invest or Trading 212 ISA (tax-efficient). The Trading 212 CFD account is best avoided if you’re not an experienced investor who knows the inside outs of trading and markets.
Yes, it can be a great long-term investing platform because of the low cost. It’s especially good if you use the Trading 212 ISA. Using this account means your investment portfolio can grow free from tax over the long run, allowing you to keep more potential profit.
An “OCO” order stands for “One-Cancels-the-Other”. It’s basically a trading tool you can use on the platform and involves placing both a stop order and a limit order at the same time. Whichever trade order executes first will take priority, and the other order is automatically cancelled.
Yes. You can access Trading 212 in a web app, on a mobile app and through a browser extension. The mobile app is, by far, less overwhelming than the web application, but in general, it is pretty simple and nicely laid out.
Yes. Trading 212 is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and your deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
No, Trading 212 is not authorised to give financial or investment advice.
You can only lose what is in your Trading 212 account.
If you have an active Trading 212 Invest or Trading 212 ISA account, from time to time you can invite friends to join Trading 212, and you’ll both get free fractional shares. Your friend needs to fund their Trading 212 account with the minimum deposit. Go to the menu in your app and select “Get free shares” to learn more.
No, there is no inactivity fee for the Trading 212 Invest and Trading 212 ISA accounts.
Yes. Dividend reinvestments are possible with Trading 212 and have no additional fees. The dividends that you receive are added as funds. You can decide whether you want to withdraw the dividends or reinvest them.
It’s a legal requirement for Trading 212 to ask you to provide your national insurance number. This is because stocks and shares are usually taxed by HMRC. The tax is called stamp duty reserve tax (or just “stamp duty”).
Leverage in CFD (Contract for Difference) trading refers to the ability to control a larger position with a smaller amount of capital. It allows traders to amplify their potential profits or losses by borrowing funds from a broker. However, it also increases the risk, as losses can exceed the initial investment.
At the moment, Trading 212 only supports cash transfers. If you wish to transfer your existing shares from a different broker to Trading 212, you will need to sell them and transfer the cash proceeds instead. Once the cash is transferred, you can use it to invest in stocks or other assets available on the Trading 212 platform.
Yes. Trading 212 started fully accepting customers from the UK again in August of 2022. Previously, due to a surge in demand triggered by the GameStop situation in early 2021, Trading 212 had temporarily paused the admission of new users and introduced a waiting list. However, after preparing the platform for more clients, they have resumed onboarding new customers from the UK without any waiting list.
Zero commission trading may not necessarily be beneficial if it encourages a short-term mindset instead of a long-term buy-and-hold approach. One of the key concerns with commission-free platforms is the potential for gamifying investing and attracting young traders who may take on inappropriate risks.
Additionally, commission-free platforms often generate revenue through other means, such as offering complex derivative products like contracts for difference (CFDs). These products can amplify gains or losses and expose traders to significant risks. Regulators have imposed restrictions on trading CFDs to protect customers, but the fact remains that a large portion of users on platforms like Trading 212 and eToro engage in CFD trading. These platforms rely on spreads and interest swaps on CFDs as their main source of revenue, highlighting the potential conflict of interest between the platform’s profitability and the customer’s best interests.
Ultimately, a long-term buy-and-hold strategy outperforms trading strategies most of the time. Therefore, investors would be well advised to think long and hard before believing they are smarter than the market and can outmanoeuvre its ups and downs.
Nope, which is great. Some trading platforms have a fee that you have to pay if you are inactive, but Trading 212 gives you plenty of breathing room.
Trading 212 makes money through the “spreads” between the buy and sell price for the CFD accounts on the platform. There is also a 0.5% FX fee for the CFD accounts. The stock trading accounts also have a 0.15% FX fee (but this is lower than most other platforms).
There are no commissions or platform fees when investing using Trading 212, but there is a small FX fee. This is a fee for converting the money you’re using to buy shares into the currency that the shares are in.
So, for example – if you bought 100 shares of a company that cost US$4 per share, the total amount to convert would be US$400. You’d need to pay a currency conversion charge of 0.15%, which is US$0.60 (approximately less than 50p).
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.
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