Hargreaves Lansdown* is the largest UK fund platform managing around £172bn for over 2 million clients. It offers a range of investment tools, guides and research as well as ready-made investment portfolios and a cash management service. In this in-depth Hargreaves Lansdown investment platform review we take a look at its products, its fees and exactly what type of investor it would suit.
How does the Hargreaves Lansdown platform work?
It is simple to set up a Hargreaves Lansdown account (an ISA, SIPP or trading account) and this will provide access to all their investment options, excellent research and a range of tools and calculators. Alongside the various types of investment accounts mentioned above, you can open an Active Savings account, which will let you maximise the amount of interest you receive on your savings. However, the Active Savings account cannot be used within a Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks and Shares ISA, SIPP or a general investment account.
It takes around 10 minutes to set up a Hargreaves Lansdown account* and you'll need your national insurance number and your bank details handy. The Hargreaves Lansdown website is clear and easy to use with access to a variety of excellent investment guides. Hargreaves Lansdown offers one of the best iPhone and Android apps of all the investment platforms and you can also manage your investments online or via a tablet such as an iPad.
Hargreaves Lansdown offer - Get £75 - £4,000 cashback
You can get £75 to £4,000 cashback* when you add £10,000 or more to a new HL Stocks and Shares ISA or SIPP by 5th April 2026. You must keep the money in your HL Stocks and Shares or SIPP until 28th February 2027 to qualify for cashback. Terms & fees apply. Capital at risk.
What can you invest in using Hargreaves Lansdown?
With Hargreaves Lansdown, you can invest in the following:
- Over 3,000 funds
- Shares listed on the UK, Canadian and European stock exchanges
- Corporate and Government bonds
- ETFs
- Investment trusts
- Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)
Investment choice is one of the key advantages Hargreaves Lansdown has over nearly all other investment platforms out there. Hargreaves Lansdown doesn't restrict your investment choice and offers access to over 3,000 funds as well as a cash management service (called Active Savings).
While many DIY investors focus on investing in funds (unit trusts), in my experience, most will eventually want to invest in ETFs and Investment trusts as well. These are usually cheaper yet not available on all platforms. In addition, Hargreaves Lansdown is a stockbroker, which means it allows you to buy and hold individual shares on its platform. However, you can not invest in fractional shares via Hargreaves Lansdown. Fractional shares allow you to buy a portion of a share, making it easier to invest in expensive shares. If you only have a small amount to invest in shares then you might want to consider other platforms that allow fractional share investing. Read our article 'What are fractional shares and where best to buy them?'
My advice to anyone looking to choose the best investment platform is to ensure they have access to a sufficient range of investment choices. It doesn't explicitly cost you any more to have access to such a wide range.
Think of it like food shopping in a large supermarket versus a small corner shop. The former can offer products to all its customers thanks to the benefit of economies of scale, regardless of how much each individual customer buys. The same goes for fund platforms and Hargreaves Lansdown is the UK's leading fund platform provider.
As well as a wide investment choice Hargreaves Lansdown also gives its platform users access to a range of investment tools. These include the ability to set stop-loss and limit orders, receive real-time share alerts and manipulate interactive charts. Again most other investment platforms do not offer these.
What products does Hargreaves Lansdown offer?
Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks and Shares ISA
The Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA* offers an easy to manage, tax-efficient way of investing in a range of assets along with some handy investment tools. Hargreaves Lansdown's Stocks & Shares ISA allows you to choose from a range of ready-made portfolios or make your own investment choices to maximise your investment returns.
Hargreaves Lansdown Junior ISA
The Hargreaves Lansdown Junior Stocks & Shares ISA* allows you to save for a child's future in a tax-efficient environment, ring-fenced until the child reaches the age of 18. In our roundup of the best Stocks and Shares Junior ISAs the Hargreaves Lansdown Junior ISA was deemed the best for tools and functionality. In 2023, Hargreaves Lansdown removed all fees for its Junior ISA product making it the cheapest Junior Stocks and Shares ISA on the market.
Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA
The Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA* allows those saving for a deposit on their first property to take advantage of an annual 25% bonus on contributions from the Government. If you want to know more about how the Lifetime ISA works then Hargreaves has produced a free easy to understand Lifetime ISA factsheet. Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the few providers to offer a Lifetime ISA that allows you to save Cash as well as invest in Stocks and Shares. It is great for flexibility and features in our 'Best and Cheapest Lifetime ISAs' roundup. In March 2023, Hargreaves Lansdown reduced the fees on its Lifetime ISA product. For funds, it now charges 0.25% on the first £1m, 0.10% on £1m to £2m and there is no charge on fund values over £2m. It charges 0.25% on shares, capped at £45 per year.
Hargreaves Lansdown Fund and Share account
With its wealth of investment tools, news & live share prices Hargreaves Lansdown share trading service* is a low-cost simple way of trading in the stock market. The Share dealing service can be accessed via the Hargreaves Lansdown ISA and SIPP which sets it apart from many other investment platforms. Or you can access the share dealing service via the Hargreaves Lansdown Fund & Share Account*, which is Hargreaves Lansdown's version of a general investment account, in which case there is no platform fee charged by Hargreaves Lansdown. The HL Fund and Share account therefore provides a low-cost flexible investment account to deal, manage and hold a wide range of investments.
Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP
Hargreaves Lansdown offers a comprehensive service if you are either looking to start planning for retirement or close to retirement and want to control your investments and understand your options. The Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP* is an award-winning self-invested personal pension that allows investment in a full range of assets including funds, ETFs and stock & shares giving clients full control over their retirement planning.
Hargreaves Lansdown Ready-Made Pension
The Hargreaves Lansdown Ready-Made Pension is managed by its sister company, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers Ltd and may be a good option for those who want more control over where their pension is invested but do not have the time or expertise to make investment decisions themselves. Hargreaves Lansdown's ready-made pension is designed for those who are comfortable with a medium-high investment risk and who are happy to lower that risk as they reach their intended retirement age. Hargreaves Lansdown recently cut the fees for its ready-made pension from 0.75% to 0.45%. You can read more about its ready-made pension in our article 'Hargreaves Lansdown launches ready-made pension plan – How does it compare?'.
Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings
Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings* was launched in the summer of 2018. It is a cash service that helps consumers get a better rate on their savings. Hargreaves Lansdown is the only investment platform to offer such a service. Once you sign up you can choose the savings product with the best savings rate at a click of a button and the account is automatically opened and your money deposited. When the fixed term comes to an end (i.e after 1 year) you can then move your money to a new fixed-term savings account at a click of a button and with no form filling. Additionally, Hargreaves Lansdown now provides access to cash ISAs through the Active Savings service. You can read more in our 'Hargreaves Lansdown active savings review'.
Hargreaves Lansdown Online VCTs
In November 2024, Hargreaves Lansdown launched with a range of 5 online Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)* from providers Blackfinch Group, Calculus and Octopus Investments. It now offers a range of 21 VCTs and we list these in the fees section below. The minimum investment is £10,000. VCTs invest in small, unlisted companies and are considered high-risk investments due to their volatility. These type of investments should only be considered by experienced investors with larger portfolios looking for long-term investments. We explain more about VCTs in Episode 361 of the Money to the Masses podcast.
Free tools and investment advice offered by Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown offers a selection of free tools and guides to help investors make the most of their investments. The following is a selection of the best on offer and can even be used by non-clients:
- Pension calculator - one of my personal favourites where you can find out how much your pension may be worth when you retire
- ISA calculator - find out what your ISA could be worth in the future
- Guide to SIPPs - straightforward easy to read guide on SIPPs
- Investor's guide to ISA's - find out how to save time, tax and money with an ISA
Hargreaves Lansdown new fees (from 1st March 2026)
In March 2026, Hargreaves Lansdown announced its first major change to its fee structure in over 10 years, cutting account charges, while introducing new costs for fund trading. Below we list the latest fees when investing with Hargreaves Lansdown.
Hargreaves Lansdown Fees for ISAs and SIPPs
The below annual platform charges apply to the Hargreaves Lansdown ISA and SIPP.
| Amount invested | Annual charge by Hargreaves Lansdown |
| £0-£250,000 | 0.35% |
| £250,000 - £1 million | 0.25% |
| £1million - £2 million | 0.10% |
| Over £2 million | 0.00% |
Hargreaves Lansdown Fees for Junior ISAs
In March 2023, Hargreaves Lansdown scrapped all fees for its Junior ISA making it one of the cheapest Junior Stocks and Shares ISAs in the UK.
| Amount invested | Annual charge by Hargreaves Lansdown |
| £0-£250,000 | 0.00% |
| £250,000 - £1 million | 0.00% |
| £1million - £2 million | 0.00% |
| Over £2 million | 0.00% |
Hargreaves Lansdown Fees for Lifetime ISAs
In March 2023, Hargreaves Lansdown reduced the fees on its Lifetime ISA. The following annual platform charges now apply.
| Amount invested | Annual charge by Hargreaves Lansdown |
| £0 - £1 million | 0.25% |
| £1million - £2 million | 0.10% |
| Over £2 million | 0.00% |
Hargreaves Lansdown share dealing fees
Annual Fees
| Details | Annual charge by Hargreaves Lansdown |
| Shares held in an ISA | 0.35% capped at £150 per year |
| Shares held in a SIPP | 0.35% capped at £150 per year |
| Shares held in a Lifetime ISA | 0.25% capped at £45 per year |
| Shares held in a Junior ISA | No charge |
| Shares held in a General Investment Account | No charge |
Dealing fees
| Deals made in previous calendar month | Cost per deal |
| 0-19 shares (including ETFs, investment trusts and bonds) | £6.95 |
| 20+ shares (including ETFs, investment trusts and bonds) | £3.95 |
| All fund trades | £1.95 |
Hargreaves Lansdown customer reviews
Hargreaves Lansdown is rated as 'Excellent' on independent customer review site Trustpilot, with a total score of 4.4 out of 5.0 from over 20,000 reviews. Many of the positive reviews mention great customer service and excellent tools and research features. Some of the negative reviews mention the cost and that they can buy cheaper products elsewhere.
Hargreaves Lansdown Pros and Cons
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Who is Hargreaves Landsdown good for?
The Hargreaves Lansdown platform is fairly competitively priced, particularly for investors with portfolios worth up to £100,000. For those with larger portfolios, it is sometimes possible to negotiate charge discounts on an individual basis. Regardless of the size of your portfolio, you should read through its brief guide to possible charges* to make sure you are aware of what you might be charged for, as my analysis assumes you only invest in unit trust funds. Looking at the Hargreaves Stocks & Shares ISA* and Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP*, they remain the market leaders and the addition of the Active Savings service makes Hargreaves attractive to those looking to increase the return on their cash savings too.
A viable alternative to Hargreaves Lansdown is Interactive Investor, which is cheaper for those with large portfolios (as it charges a fixed platform fee regardless of the amount invested) and like Hargreaves Lansdown, does not charge exit fees. For more analysis read our full Interactive Investor review.
I have been asked to be on an independent judge on a panel for an industry award to decide the best investment platform for consumers. In all honesty, my vote went to the Hargreaves Lansdown investment platform for many of the reasons I have outlined above. But that view is from an administrative perspective and not an endorsement of Hargreaves Lansdown's fund research. Unfortunately, as the Woodford episode (mentioned above) highlights, investment platform best-buy lists should be used with caution, irrespective of the platform you choose.
On top of that you can open an account in minutes (something other investment platforms fail at) with a debit card and start investing from as little as £25 per month. If you decide to do so here is the quickest way to open an account*. One personal tip, if you are at all unsure, then start by investing a small amount with Hargreaves Lansdown (or indeed any investment platform) as you can then always increase your investment and move your existing portfolio across at a later date.
When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
If a link has an * beside it this means that it is an affiliated link. If you go via the link Money to the Masses may receive a small fee which helps keep Money to the Masses free to use. But as you can clearly see this has in no way influenced this independent and balanced review of the product. The following link can be used if you do not wish to help Money to the Masses - Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, AJ Bell, Freetrade, Interactive Investor
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