Freetrade review

Freetrade’s making its Stocks & Shares ISA free, making it one of the best available

Freetrade is a popular investment platform which you can use to buy and sell shares commission-free, hence its name. 

Previously, the Stocks & Shares ISA was only available with the Standard or Plus accounts – at a monthly fee. 

But it’s now giving  free customers access too, which could make it one of the best Stocks & Shares ISAs available for DIY investing at the moment.

Here’s everything you need to know about investing with Freetrade.

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Here at Be Clever With Your Cash, we’re not regulated to give you financial advice. We aim to give you the facts about a provider or investment but it’s up to you to decide if it’s suitable for you. If you’re looking for more personalised guidance, find a financial adviser who can give you specific advice. Remember that your capital is at risk when investing — don’t invest more than you are prepared to lose. 

What is Freetrade?

Freetrade is an investment app and now has a web-based platform. It became popular during the pandemic, when the stock market crash led to many people becoming interested in investing. It’s a pretty simple app to use, with a clean interface making it easy to sign up, top up money and get started.  

Freetrade’s got a few different accounts available to invest with, including a General Investment Account (GIA), a Stocks & Shares ISA and a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), which we’ll cover a little below. 

It has three different tiers, Basic, which is free; Standard, which is £4.99 per month; and Plus, which costs £9.99 per month.

What you can invest in with Freetrade

Freetrade has a pretty good collection of investments available with the platform.

• Shares: there are more than 6,500 company shares available on the platform 
• Exchange-traded funds: these are funds that you can buy and sell on an exchange — funds are collections of investments, and are an easy option for investors looking to track existing markets
• Exchange-traded commodities: these are commodities that can be bought and sold on an exchange. 
• Bonds: these are loans to companies with set interest rates
• Investment trusts: these are a type of pooled investment, similar to a fund
• Mutual funds: another type of fund where money is pooled from other investors

Crucially, you need to build your own portfolio with Freetrade. There aren’t any ready-made options available. You could do this pretty easily by choosing a range of exchange-traded funds, which will give you some diversification. Or, if you want more control and know what you’re doing, you can choose the individual investments to build a portfolio.

If you’d prefer ready-made options or a robo-advisor, we’ve collated some of the best ones in our guide on the best managed investment platforms.   

What accounts are available with Freetrade?

You can invest in one of three accounts: a Stocks & Shares ISA, a Personal Pension and a General Investment Account. You can invest in all of the same things with each of them, although you would get a wider selection with the Pension as you need to have the Plus plan to get one, which costs £9.99 per month. 

The Stocks & Shares ISA is probably the best of the accounts, letting you use your £20,000 annual ISA allowance and invest this much each year tax-free. 

The General Investment Account is generally best for if you’ve already maxed out your ISA allowance for the year but want to continue to invest. These don’t have the same tax benefits, you’d instead make use of the Capital Gains Tax allowance and the Dividend Allowance, which aren’t as generous.

Freetrade Standard and Plus

Alongside the free Basic plan, Freetrade’s got a couple of additional tiers. Previously, the main benefit of the Standard account over the Basic one was that you’d also get the Stocks & Shares ISA included, but since September 2025 it’s included in the basic plan. 

Feature	Basic	Standard	Plus
Price	Free	£4.99 per month	£9.99 per month
General Investment Account	✅	✅	✅
Stocks & Shares ISA	✅	✅	✅
Personal Pension	❌	❌	✅
Interest on cash	1% AER on up to £1,000	3% AER on up to £2,000	5% AER on up to £3,000
Customer service	Basic	Basic	Priority
Foreign exchange fee	0.99%	0.59%	0.39%

Freetrade fees

There are three plans with Freetrade which all have a monthly fee, as detailed above. Other than this, and the foreign exchange fee when you buy stocks in another currency, which depends on the plan you’ve got, also detailed above, there aren’t any other fees to use Freetrade.

This is one of the biggest benefits of Freetrade, as you don’t have to pay commission to buy or sell investments, to add money to your account or to make withdrawals.

Is Freetrade safe?

Freetrade is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and your deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which means that you’re covered by up to £85,000 if Freetrade went out of business. 

Although, this isn’t a guarantee that your investments will perform well. You’re in charge of what you choose to put in your portfolio and you shouldn’t invest any money that you’re not prepared to lose. 

How to open a Freetrade account

It’s pretty easy to open an account with Freetrade.You’ll need to download the mobile app from the App Store or Google Play store. 

Then you just need to follow the steps in the app to sign up. You need some personal information, including your National Insurance Number. And you may need to verify your identity with your ID and a short video. 

After all of this, you just need to choose your monthly plan and which type of account you want to open.

Pros and cons of Freetrade

Pros

• Commission free investing
• Free Stocks & Shares ISAs
• Plenty of investments to choose from

Cons

• No ready-made options
• Pension only in the most expensive plan

Freetrade vs Trading 212

A similar platform to Freetrade, and another of the best investment apps on the market is Trading 212. Here’s a quick comparison of the two. The Trading 212 app and platform are more advanced than Freetrade’s, and there are additional, riskier ways to invest available.

Feature	Freetrade (Basic)	Trading 212
Cost per trade	£0	£0
Foreign exchange fee	0.99%	0.15%
Accounts available	GIA, Stocks & Shares ISA, Personal Pension	GIA, Stocks & Shares ISA
Shares	✅	✅
ETFs	✅	✅
Mobile app	✅	✅
Web app	✅	✅
Demo account	❌	✅

Freetrade reviews

On our sister site, Smart Money People, Freetrade customers have rated the investment app 4.88/5 across its three products. Customers like that it’s commission free, saying its generally easy to use and has plenty of information available.

Negative reviewers mostly had issues with customer service, but its also got a lot of positive reviews for customer service. Some customers weren’t impressed with the number of stocks available. 

Is Freetrade any good?