Last updated: 23 October 2026
By Stiv ยท Design, technology and personal finance
Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don't choose what I feature or what I say about them.
This is not financial advice, and CoolCuration is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is my own comparison from using both apps with my own money, so treat it as research and make your own decision.
Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
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Two ยฃ0 platforms, and how to choose between them for your ETFs
On InvestEngine vs Trading 212, neither charges a platform fee for a DIY account, so a pot of sterling-priced ETFs costs exactly the same to hold on both. I have run a DIY InvestEngine account since the start of 2026, and I used Trading 212 every day for three months. So the choice comes down to four things: currency fees, interest on spare cash, whether you want individual shares, and how each app feels to use.
Section 01 / At a glance
InvestEngine vs Trading 212 side by side
The two apps on the points that change what you pay or what you can do.
| InvestEngine | Trading 212 | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee, DIY | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 |
| Dealing fee | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 |
| Currency conversion fee | None on its fee list | 0.15% when a trade needs converting |
| What you can buy | ETFs only | Shares and ETFs, more than 13,000 by its own count |
| Accounts | Stocks and shares ISA, general account, SIPP, business account | Invest (general) account, stocks and shares ISA, cash ISA, SIPP |
| Automatic investing | AutoInvest and Savings Plans | Pies with automatic deposits |
| Fractional investing | From ยฃ1 per ETF order | From ยฃ1 |
| Minimum to start | ยฃ100 per portfolio | ยฃ1 |
| Interest on spare cash | None paid to you | 3% AER on pounds from 26 October 2026, variable |
| When trades happen | Once a day, after 2.30pm on UK working days | Live, while the market is open |
| Managed option | Yes, 0.25% a year | No, ready-made Pies but you make every decision |
| Regulator record | InvestEngine (UK) Limited, FRN 801128 | Trading 212 UK Limited, FRN 609146 |
I checked every fee, rate and offer in this post on 23 October 2026, on InvestEngine's costs page and Trading 212's fees page.
Section 02 / Cost
What each one costs on the same pot
A global tracker held for a year, at ยฃ5,000 and at ยฃ50,000.
The test is the ETF I actually hold. My InvestEngine account is 100% in the Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF, and its accumulating line, VWRP, trades in pounds on the London Stock Exchange. Vanguard puts its ongoing charge at 0.14% a year. You pay that charge to Vanguard wherever you hold the fund, so it is the same on both apps.
| Cost over a year | InvestEngine, ยฃ5,000 | Trading 212, ยฃ5,000 | InvestEngine, ยฃ50,000 | Trading 212, ยฃ50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 |
| Dealing fee | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 |
| Currency fee on VWRP | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 | ยฃ0 |
| Fund charge at 0.14% | ยฃ7.00 | ยฃ7.00 | ยฃ70.00 | ยฃ70.00 |
| Total | ยฃ7.00 | ยฃ7.00 | ยฃ70.00 | ยฃ70.00 |
So on a sterling ETF line, the cost of InvestEngine vs Trading 212 is a draw at both sizes. Both apps also buy at the market price. So the gap between the buying and selling price, called the spread, is a cost on either one. Neither app adds a charge on top of it.
Where Trading 212 costs more
The draw ends when a trade needs converting. Trading 212 adds 0.15% to anything priced in another currency, such as a US-listed ETF or a dollar line. On ยฃ5,000 that is ยฃ7.50 going in and roughly the same coming out. On ยฃ50,000 it is ยฃ75 each way. Trading 212 does not charge it on dividends, and it shows the fee on the order screen before you confirm. InvestEngine lists no currency conversion fee at all. If you want to see what a conversion does to your money, my free currency converter shows today's pound to dollar rate.
Card deposits are the second trap. Trading 212 lets you pay in by card free until your card deposits reach ยฃ2,000 in total, and then it charges 0.7%. Pay a ยฃ50,000 pot in by card and you would hand over ยฃ336. That is 0.7% of the ยฃ48,000 above the free limit. A bank transfer is free, so use that for anything large.
Where Trading 212 pays you back
Spare cash works the other way round. Trading 212 pays 3% AER on uninvested pounds, paid daily, if you switch interest on. That rate took effect on 26 October 2026, down from 3.8%, and it can change again whenever the Bank of England moves. As a rough guide, ยฃ1,000 left sitting for a year at 3% earns about ยฃ30. InvestEngine pays nothing on spare cash. InvestEngine keeps that interest to help pay for its service. Instead, it points you to AutoInvest to keep your money invested.
Outside an ISA or SIPP, that interest may be taxable, depending on your own circumstances.
Trading 212's rate is good, but I would rather keep spare cash elsewhere. Mine goes into Amundi's Smart Overnight Return ETF, ticker CSH2, which tracks the overnight interest rate on pounds, or into a Chip savings account. My rainy day pot lives in Chip. An ETF like CSH2 is still an investment, so its value can move.
Withdrawals on Trading 212 have always been quick for me. They usually arrive the same day and sometimes the next, including when I parked cash there for the interest before moving it on.
For a sterling ETF line, both apps cost ยฃ7 a year on ยฃ5,000, and every penny of it is Vanguard's fund charge.
Section 03 / Range
Only ETFs, or shares as well
InvestEngine is ETFs only. There are no individual shares, no investment trusts and no unit trusts. I hold one tracker there alongside my JPMorgan and Monzo accounts, so the limit suits me. Even so, anyone who wants to pick companies will hit it on day one.
Trading 212 sells shares and ETFs side by side, so a core tracker and two or three company shares can sit in one account. It has ETFs too, but for an ETF pot I think InvestEngine's simplicity works better. The trade-off is UK stamp duty of 0.5% on UK share purchases, which is a government tax rather than a Trading 212 fee. It does not apply to ETFs.
Section 04 / Automation
AutoInvest vs Pies, from using both
AutoInvest on InvestEngine is easy enough. You pick your ETFs, pay in, allocate the money and leave it alone. AutoInvest then puts any new money in to match the weights you set, and Savings Plans pull in a regular direct debit and invest it for you. It is a simple, basic app, and it does that one job well. Adding cash used to take three separate moves, but Savings Plans and instant bank transfers have cut that down a lot.
On Trading 212 I tried a self-managed general account, built a Pie myself and then added money. You set a percentage for each holding, or pick a ready-made Pie, and automatic deposits feed it. When I later swapped one stock out for another, I expected the Pie to rebalance itself into the new mix. It did not. That is how Pies work. A new slice only becomes active once you rebalance by hand, and changing the percentages does not buy or sell anything. The app now asks what to do with the shares in a removed slice before it saves the change. Even so, it felt more manual than I wanted.
Copying other investors' Pies on Trading 212
Trading 212 also lets you copy Pies that other investors have shared, and you get a notification when the owner changes theirs. I have not tried it. I already copy Nancy Pelosi's trades through the Autopilot app and Robinhood, and I do not have unlimited funds. I also do not like the idea of copying ordinary people, because someone's past success does not mean future gains.
The Trading 212 app
One feature I do like is AI Analysis. It writes a short summary of the price moves, news, sentiment and figures behind a stock, for a limited number of the most popular shares and ETFs. It is nicer than Robinhood's version, but not very useful really.
The bigger problem for me was the app itself. A dropdown in the top corner switches between your accounts, and cash can sit in any of them. Finding where my money was meant checking three or four sections. It feels cluttered and a bit "tech bro" for my liking. Freetrade is my main broker because I find it much easier to use, and my Trading 212 review covers the app in full.
When your money gets invested
Timing differs as well. InvestEngine places all orders once a day, after 2.30pm on UK working days. An order placed before 2pm usually goes in that day. Trading 212 trades live while the market is open. For a monthly tracker habit, the once-a-day window makes no practical difference. For anyone who wants to buy at a specific moment, it does.
Section 05 / Accounts
ISAs, SIPPs and transfers
Both offer a stocks and shares ISA with no account fee. The government lets you split your ยฃ20,000 ISA allowance across more than one account in a tax year, so you can pay into both. Trading 212 adds a cash ISA, which InvestEngine does not offer. Trading 212 also says its ISAs are flexible, so you can withdraw and pay back in the same tax year without using up more allowance. I have not used the ISA on either app, so these details come from each provider's own pages.
Both also run a SIPP with no account fee. InvestEngine needs ยฃ100 to open one. Trading 212's SIPP is operated and administered by Platform One, and Trading 212 claims basic-rate tax relief for you automatically. I do not hold either SIPP myself, so I am going on each provider's own pages here.
Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.
Neither charges to transfer an ISA or pension in. Always ask the new provider to arrange the transfer, rather than withdrawing the money yourself, or you lose the tax wrapper.
Section 06 / Safety
How your money is protected on each
Both are investment firms authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and both records are linked in the table above. Your investments are held separately from each company's own money. Trading 212 says its customers' shares are held at Interactive Brokers. If either firm failed and something went missing, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the backstop.
Eligible investments are protected up to ยฃ85,000 per person per FCA-authorised firm by the FSCS.
The FSCS does not cover your investments falling in value. Cash is the other difference. Trading 212 holds spare cash with banks and, if you switch interest on, in money market funds. It says cash held with a bank has FSCS protection up to ยฃ120,000. A money market fund counts as an investment, so that protection would not apply if the fund itself failed. InvestEngine holds spare cash with third-party banks.
Section 07 / Offers
The InvestEngine and Trading 212 referral offers
InvestEngine's referral bonus pays both of you between ยฃ20 and ยฃ200 once the new customer invests ยฃ100. You must keep the bonus invested for 12 months before you can withdraw it. Most awards land near the bottom of that range. I joined InvestEngine through a referral, and I have referred two people since. Those two paid me ยฃ50 and ยฃ20, so InvestEngine has been the better of the two for me, with less thinking and less effort.
Trading 212 runs a free share offer in campaign windows. A new customer who funds an account gets one fractional share picked at random from a pool, and the larger values are rarer. I got a share worth $12 when I joined. Since then I have referred two people and received $15 of Nike and $12 of Adidas, which is quite low. I sold the Adidas share quickly and put the money into something I believe in more. The current window and its conditions are on my referral page.
Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
See the Trading 212 free share offer
Section 08 / Verdict
InvestEngine vs Trading 212: which one suits you
InvestEngine is my preference, for its simplicity and its set-and-forget nature. If it is ETFs you want, I feel InvestEngine is the obvious winner, because it is much simpler and much clearer, with no fuss. On cost, InvestEngine vs Trading 212 is a draw for a sterling ETF line. InvestEngine only comes out cheaper when Trading 212 would charge for a currency conversion or a card deposit. I scored InvestEngine 4 out of 5 in my InvestEngine review, and Trading 212 2 out of 5.
I would pick Trading 212 if you are more confident, want more complexity or like the idea of copying other people's Pies. It also suits you if you want a cash balance that earns interest, currently 3% AER on pounds. For more control than InvestEngine gives, though, I rate Freetrade higher than Trading 212, because I find it much easier to use.
The limits of each
InvestEngine's limits. It is ETFs only, it needs ยฃ100 to start a portfolio, it pays no interest on spare cash, and it trades once a day. Its managed portfolios cost 0.25% a year on top of the fund charges.
Trading 212's limits. It charges 0.15% on currency conversion and 0.7% on card deposits beyond ยฃ2,000. Its interest only applies once you switch it on and agree to money market funds. Pies do not rebalance after an edit until you tell them to. Its app also puts every account type behind one dropdown, which I found confusing.
If you are still choosing between more than two apps, my best ETF platform comparison prices eight of them on the same pot. For currency fees across every app, see my cheapest investment app guide. The Monzo Invest vs Freetrade vs Lightyear comparison covers the other side of the market.
InvestEngine vs Trading 212: FAQs
Is InvestEngine cheaper than Trading 212?
Not for a sterling ETF line, where both charge ยฃ0 in platform, dealing and currency fees. You pay only the fund's own charge, which is 0.14% a year on the Vanguard FTSE All-World. InvestEngine works out cheaper if you buy funds priced in dollars or pay in large sums by card. Trading 212 charges 0.15% and 0.7% for those. Those are the fees I checked on 23 October 2026.
Can I hold both in an ISA in the same tax year?
Yes. You can split the ยฃ20,000 allowance across as many ISAs as you like in one tax year, as long as the total stays within ยฃ20,000. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.
Does Trading 212 charge FX on ETFs?
Only when the ETF is priced in another currency. Then it adds 0.15% to the conversion. A sterling line such as VWRP needs no conversion, so there is no fee, and dividends are exempt too.
Which is safer, InvestEngine or Trading 212?
Both are FCA-authorised, both keep your investments separate from their own money, and both fall under FSCS investment protection up to ยฃ85,000. The difference is spare cash. Trading 212 places some of it in money market funds if you switch interest on, which counts as an investment rather than a bank deposit.
Can I transfer an ISA between them?
Yes. Both accept ISA transfers in and neither charges for it. Start the transfer from the new provider's app, rather than withdrawing the cash yourself, so the money keeps its ISA status.
More from CoolCuration
- How to start investing in the UK: the first steps, from opening an account to picking a first fund.
- The ISA allowance deadline: what happens to unused allowance on 5 April and how to use it in time.
- Lightyear referral link: the free share offer from another low-fee investing app, and its rules.
- Stock Events app: track shares and dividends across every app you use in one place.
- Gifts for technology lovers: gadgets and gear for the person who already reads app reviews for fun.
Rates, fees and offers change, and the figures here may be out of date by the time you read this. This is not financial advice, so consider speaking to a qualified financial adviser before you invest. This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don't choose what I feature or what I say about them.
Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
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