interactive investor vs Freetrade
Which platform can help you secure your financial future?
See how Freetrade compares with interactive investor (ii) and discover which platform can help you:
- Build a safe home for your wealth
- Access the investment choice you need
- Get dedicated customer support
- Invest with confidence
- Retire on your terms
Important information: The ii SIPP is for people who want to make their own decisions when investing for retirement. As investment values can go down as well as up, you may end up with a retirement fund that’s worth less than what you invested. Usually, you won’t be able to withdraw your money until age 55 (57 from 2028). Currency changes affect international investments, and this can decrease their value in sterling. If you’re unsure about investing or if a SIPP is right for you, please speak to an authorised financial adviser.
What's the difference between Freetrade and interactive investor?
Both platforms offer price plans with a range of popular benefits. But which brings you the best value for money? We've compared ii and Freetrade on a range of key features and benefits our customers consider the most valuable. From family accounts and customer support to investment choice and retirement options - see which platform hits the mark for you.
| Feature | interactive investor | Freetrade |
|---|---|---|
| Investments | 20,000+ across 17 markets | 8,200 (UK, US and Europe only) |
| FX fees | Core plan: 0.75% Plus plan: 0.75% for first £50,000; 0.25% over £50,000 Premium plan: 0.25% | Basic plan: 0.99% Standard plan: 0.59% Plus plan: 0.39% |
| SIPP, ISA and Trading Account | ✔ | ✔ |
| Which? Recommended SIPP | ✔ | ✗ |
| Free pension withdrawals | ✔ Income drawdown, tax-free cash and UFPLS | ✗ £240 per withdrawal. Only offers UFPLS. |
| Free Junior ISAs | ✔ | ✔ |
| Managed portfolios | ✔ Managed ISA & Managed Portfolios (pension) | ✗ |
| Cash interest | ✔ No cap on eligible balances | ✔ Capped at £3,000 combined (Plus plan) |
| UK phone support | ✔ | ✗ Online only |
| Fractional shares | ✗ | ✔ US stocks from £1 |
| Family investing | ✔ Up to 5 free accounts (available on Plus plan) | ✗ No family plan |
| Social investing community | ✔ ii Community | ✗ |
| Apply for IPOs before public trading | ✔ | ✗ |
| Multi-currency investing | ✔ | ✗ |
| Shareholder voting | ✔ | ✔ Offers proxy voting only |
| Educational content |
✔ Podcasts, webinars and research tools ✔ Market news and analysis ✔ Educational guides |
✗ Podcasts, webinars and research tools ✔ Market news and analysis ✔ Educational guides |
| Monthly platform fee | Core plan: £5.99/month up to £100,000 Plus plan: £14.99/month over £100,000 Premium plan: £39.99/month with no portfolio limit | Basic plan: £0/month Standard plan: £5.99/month Plus plan: £11.99/month |
Investors choose a platform that helps them build long-term wealth
"interactive investor customers continue to give a masterclass in investing: building well-balanced ISA, SIPP, and Trading Account portfolios for the long-term. This consistent success is reflective of the choice, flexibility, and support that interactive investor proudly offers every investor - however they choose to invest.
“We offer a range of bespoke tools such as Investment Coach and ii Community, designed to enhance your unique investment experience. Plus, our award-winning customer service team is on hand to help whenever you and your family need it.
"Our two flagship reports: the ii Index and the ii SIPP Index provide detailed insight into how thousands of investors are confidently growing their wealth on our platform. Ultimately, this is a case in point; interactive investor is the obvious choice for individuals and their families’ financial futures.”
Camilla Esmund, Head of Investor Campaigns
Over 30 years of heritage
For more than 30 years, we've helped people invest with confidence. Throughout changing markets, we've remained focused on giving investors a wide range of investment choice, customer support and reassurance they need to build long-term wealth.
Invest with peace of mind
Keeping your money secure is our top priority. All your wealth is held and administered by us — we never use third parties . And we carry out robust processes to safeguard your investments, using the latest encryption technology.
A home for long-term wealth
over 500,000 investors trust us with their cash and investments — we hold over £100bn in assets. Our platform is for people who want to build meaningful wealth for themselves and their family over time.
UK-based support from real people
When you need help, sometimes a message isn't enough. With ii, you can call our award-winning UK-based Customer Support team and talk to a real person — not a robot or a chat window.
You can also send a secure message through our platform at any time. Our team will answer your questions and solve your issues as quickly as possible.
Not all SIPPs are created equal
More platforms are now offering Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs), including Freetrade.
But saving for retirement is only part of the journey. As you get closer to retirement, how you access your pension can become just as important as how you build it.
The five-time Which? Recommended ii Personal Pension (SIPP) gives you full control over both. You can take advantage of its wide range of investments options and when you start taking your pension income, you have access to flexible retirement options. And it recently scored the highest of all SIPP providers with an overall score of 83%.
What’s more, there are no additional charges for taking income from your pension — giving you greater control over how and when you access your savings.
Invest in a way that suits you
You have access to one of the widest ranges of investments on the market. Invest in shares, funds, ETFs and bonds to build a pension portfolio that aligns with your goals and attitude to risk. If you prefer a hands-off approach, you can leave it to the experts with our Managed Portfolios.
Personal and employer contributions
Take advantage of flexible ways to contribute to the ii Personal Pension. Alongside personal contributions, your employer may also be able to make contributions to your account, giving your retirement savings a real boost.
Retire on your terms
Retirement rarely follows a set plan. That's why the ii Personal Pension offers flexible ways to access your money — at no additional cost. Choose from tax-free cash, income drawdown or lump sum (UFPLS) — or a combination that best suits your needs.
Why Enzo chose the ii Personal Pension?
Enzo wanted to combine all of his previous workplace pensions to a provider that can help him achieve his retirement goals.
“I wanted a provider that would help me with my own objectives and aspirations around my pension for the long-term.
“After investigating, it was was clear that ii is recognised as one of the best SIPP providers to help me achieve my goals. That’s why I’m with ii.”
Don’t let FX fees eat into your international investments
Foreign exchange (FX) fees. This is the fee you pay each time you convert pounds sterling into another currency to buy an investment. And if you’re a regular international investor, these costs can mount up.
With ii, you can invest across 17 global markets at competitive FX rates. And in our Personal Pension and Trading Account, we also offer multi-currency investing where you can convert and hold up to 9 currencies.
Multi-currency investing gives you more control over your international investments. You can convert currency in advance, and hold it until you’re ready to invest — saving you from having to repeatedly convert back and forth.
Invest together, for one flat fee
With our Plus and Premium plans, you can gift free ii accounts to your family members. It’s a great way to help your loved ones become confident investors and build a secure financial future together.
Each person will join our Family plan, where they can invest across our Personal Pension (SIPP), Stocks & Shares ISA and Trading Account without paying a monthly account fee. And as part of the Family plan, they can even open a Junior ISA for each of their kids too.
Your family member(s) will pay trading fees to buy and sell their investments, and these are charged at our Core plan rate.
Real value with a wealth of benefits
We offer 3 plans with a wide range of benefits in each. Whichever plan you're on, you'll have everything you need in one place.
ii vs Freetrade FAQs
You can start your transfer when opening your ii account, or once your account is set up - just log in and select ‘Transfers’ under your ‘Portfolio’ menu.
When completing your transfer request, you’ll need to tell us a few important details, including:
- Your Freetrade account number
- The value you’re transferring and whether this is as cash or investments (‘in specie’)
Once your transfer details are in, it’s time for you to sit back and relax. We’ll work closely with Freetrade to move your account to ii.
If we need any more information from you, we’ll be in touch. Our Transfer team will bring you regular updates as the transfer progresses.
The time it takes can vary depending on your account type and whether you’re transferring investments (known as an ‘in specie’ transfer).
If you’re transferring cash only, this typically takes 2-6 weeks to complete. If your transfer involves moving investments from your Freetrade account to your ii account, this could take 8-12 weeks to complete.
Our dedicated transfers team work hard to make the process as quick and easy as possible, but a smooth and speedy transfer also relies on some work from the provider you’re leaving.
To the best of our knowledge, Freetrade do not charge you to transfer your accounts away from them. But, if you’re in any doubt, it’s always worth double checking this directly with them yourself.
For most account types you can transfer part of your account to ii and leave the other part with Freetrade.
The one exception is a pension you've started taking an income from, this needs to be transferred to ii in full.
You do have more flexibility if you have both a pension you’ve taken an income from (known as crystallised) and a pension that hasn’t been touched yet (known as uncrystallised). In this instance you can transfer either pot separately or together to ii.
Yes, you can transfer most investments from Freetrade to ii. There may be some cases where investments aren’t available on our platform - for example if it’s a specific stock or ETF that’s only available with Freetrade. If this happens, we will let you know as soon as possible and explain your options.
Yes, we offer two types of managed or ‘ready-made’ investments: a Managed ISA and Managed Portfolios for your pension.
Both our Managed ISA and Managed Portfolios are built and managed on an ongoing basis by the experts at aberdeen.
All you need to do is choose the risk level and investment strategy that suits you, then leave the hard work to the experts.
As a UK-based, FCA-regulated investment platform, our number one priority is keeping you and your investments safe.
To do this, we use the latest technology and adhere to robust security protocols. If for any reason our security measures fail, like the banks, you’re protected up to certain limits by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Freetrade’s Basic plan has no monthly fee attached to it. Their Standard and Plus plans cost £4.99 a month and £9.99 a month, respectively.
FX fees vary depending on which plan you’re on. For the Basic plan, the FX fee is 0.99%. For the Standard and Plus plans, the FX fee is 0.59% and 0.39%, respectively.
Both ii and Freetrade offer shareholder voting on eligible investments.
ii uses an opt-out approach for eligible customers, meaning investors are automatically enrolled to receive voting notifications unless they choose otherwise. Votes can be submitted online or through the ii app.
Freetrade also offers shareholder voting on eligible investments, notifying investors when voting opportunities are available and enabling them to submit voting instructions digitally (also known as proxy voting).
Freetrade provides and manages its ISA and General Investment Account. Its SIPP is provided through Platform One, a third-party provider, which is responsible for holding and administering the money and investments in the pension.
At ii, your Personal Pension (SIPP), ISA and Trading Account are all held and administered by ii.
