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Interactive Brokers vs Interactive Investor: Which Is Better for UK Investors in 2026?
Two similar names, two very different platforms: a side by side comparison of a low cost global broker and the UK's original flat fee platform, covering fees, accounts, investment choice and who each one actually suits.
☆☆☆☆☆ Rated 4.5 out of 5
Interactive Brokers
170 markets | Shares from £3 | ISA and Junior ISA
Capital at risk.
☆☆☆☆☆ Rated 4.4 out of 5
Interactive Investor
Flat fee from £5.99 | ISA, SIPP, Junior ISA
Capital at risk.
170 markets | Shares from £3 | ISA and Junior ISA
Flat fee from £5.99 | ISA, SIPP, Junior ISA
Quick verdict
Interactive Brokers is cheaper on almost every fee. UK shares cost from £3 a trade, currency conversion starts at 0.002% and there is no platform fee, against ii's flat £5.99 to £39.99 a month and 0.75% FX on its Core plan. Choose Interactive Investor if you want a direct SIPP, simple flat pricing with UK phone support, a Managed ISA or free family accounts. Despite the names, the two firms are unrelated.
Details from our Interactive Brokers and Interactive Investor reviews; Interactive Investor charges checked on 23 October 2026. Always confirm current terms with the provider.Read our full verdict
Brief overview
Interactive Brokers is a global broker founded in 1978, listed on Nasdaq and a member of the S&P 500. UK clients contract with Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It offers access to 170 markets in 40 countries from one account, covering shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, options, futures and currencies. UK shares cost from £3 a trade, there is no platform fee, and currency conversion starts at 0.002%.
The trade off is complexity. The platforms, fee schedules and product permissions assume a degree of confidence, and there is no direct SIPP. Our full Interactive Brokers review covers the platform in depth.
Interactive Investor, usually shortened to ii, is the UK’s original flat fee investment platform and the second largest direct platform after Hargreaves Lansdown. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and has been part of the Aberdeen group since 2022. Instead of a percentage, it charges a monthly plan fee from £5.99 that covers an ISA, a SIPP and a Trading Account together, with UK phone support and a wide investment range.
Despite the similar names, the two firms are unrelated. Whether you search Interactive Brokers vs Interactive Investor or Interactive Investor vs Interactive Brokers, the real choice is between a low cost global trading platform and a simpler flat fee home for an ISA and a pension. Our full Interactive Investor review goes through each plan.
Interactive Brokers vs Interactive Investor at a glance
| Criteria | Interactive Brokers | Interactive Investor |
|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | ||
| Best for | Confident investors wanting global markets and low costs | Larger portfolios wanting flat, predictable fees and a SIPP |
| Regulator | FCA (Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Ltd, FRN 208159) | FCA (Interactive Investor Services Ltd, FRN 141282) |
| Owner | Interactive Brokers Group, listed on Nasdaq | Aberdeen group, since 2022 |
| Fee model | Pay per trade | Flat monthly plan fee |
| Platform fee | £0; ISA carries a £3 minimum monthly activity fee | £5.99 Core (up to £100,000), £14.99 Plus, £39.99 Premium |
| UK share dealing | £3, or 0.05% above £6,000 | £3.99 (£2.99 on Premium) |
| US share dealing | From USD 0.005 per share | £3.99 (£2.99 on Premium) |
| Fund dealing | Nil to £4.95 | £3.99 Core, £1.49 Plus, free on Premium |
| Currency conversion fee | 0.002% manual (USD 2 minimum), or about 0.03% automatic | 0.75% Core; Plus 0.75% to £50,000, then 0.25%; Premium 0.25% |
| Account types | General account, Stocks and Shares ISA, Junior ISA, joint, trust and family accounts | Trading Account, ISA, Managed ISA, SIPP, Junior ISA, Joint Trading Account |
| SIPP | Only through a third-party administrator | Yes, admin fee included in the plan |
| Junior ISA | Yes, £1 minimum monthly activity fee | Plus and Premium plans only |
| Investment range | 170 markets in 40 countries; shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, options, futures | UK, US and international shares, funds, 1,000+ ETFs, trusts, bonds and gilts |
| Minimum investment | None | None, or £25 a month regular investing |
| Inactivity fee | None on the general account | None |
| Monthly trading credit | None | £3.99 on Plus; £29.90 (ten trades) on Premium |
| Managed portfolios | No | Managed ISA and pension portfolios, 0.13% to 0.21% a year on top of the subscription |
| Withdrawals | Two free a month, then £7 bank transfer or £1 BACS | Next day free; same day £15 |
| Demo account | Yes, free paper trading | No |
| FSCS protection | £85,000 investments | £85,000 investments; £120,000 per bank on uninvested cash |
| Customer support | Phone, message centre, live chat and iBot | UK phone team, secure message and ii Community |
Fees and product details taken from our Interactive Brokers and Interactive Investor reviews. Interactive Investor charges checked on 23 October 2026; IBKR figures checked August 2026, with its UK share commission reconfirmed in October 2026. Always confirm current terms on the provider’s own site.
Fees and charges
1. Platform and account fees
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers charges no platform fee and no custody fee, and there is no inactivity fee or account minimum on the General Investment Account. The Stocks and Shares ISA does carry a minimum monthly activity fee of £3, or £36 over a year, and the Junior ISA £1. Real-time market data is a separate paid subscription, priced per exchange, if you want it.
Interactive Investor
ii charges a flat monthly fee instead of a percentage. Core is £5.99 a month for portfolios up to £100,000, Plus is £14.99 with no limit and Premium is £39.99. One fee covers your ISA, SIPP and Trading Account together, with the pension admin fee already included. Core works out at £71.88 a year whether you hold £5,000 or £95,000.
2. Dealing charges
Interactive Brokers
UK and most Western European shares and ETFs cost £3 or €3 a trade, rising to 0.05% of trade value above £6,000. US shares start at USD 0.005 per share, and funds cost nil to £4.95. Commissions can fall further as monthly traded volume rises, so heavy traders can pay less than the headline rate.
Interactive Investor
On Core, funds and UK or US shares cost £3.99 a trade and other international shares £9.99. Plus cuts fund dealing to £1.49 and international shares to £7.99, and Premium makes fund trades free, with UK and US shares at £2.99. Regular monthly investing is free on every plan. Plus includes £3.99 of monthly trading credit and Premium £29.90, worth one or ten UK or US share trades, and the credit expires after 31 days.
3. Currency conversion and other costs
Interactive Brokers
Currency conversion is where IBKR is hardest to beat. Converting manually costs 0.002% of trade value with a USD 2 minimum, so on a £5,000 US share purchase you pay the USD 2 minimum, while the auto-conversion service adds a spread of about 0.03%. Two withdrawals a month are free, after which a sterling bank transfer costs £7 or a BACS payment £1. Funding is by bank transfer only.
Interactive Investor
Foreign exchange costs 0.75% on Core, 0.75% on the first £50,000 and 0.25% above that on Plus, and a flat 0.25% on Premium. On a £5,000 US share purchase on Core that is £37.50 plus the £3.99 trade, or £41.49. Telephone trades cost £49 and same day withdrawals £15. You can model either platform with our broker fees calculator.
Account types and minimums
1. Available account types
Interactive Brokers
IBKR offers a General Investment Account, a Stocks and Shares ISA, a Junior ISA, and joint, trust and family accounts. IBUK is an HMRC approved ISA manager, but the ISA must be funded in sterling and is cash only, with no margin. There is no direct SIPP: a pension is only possible through a third-party administrator such as @sipp, which requires at least £75,000, or Westerby, each with its own fees and limits.
Interactive Investor
Every ii plan includes a Trading Account, a Stocks and Shares ISA, a Managed ISA, a Personal Pension and the Managed Portfolios range. The Junior ISA is only available on Plus and Premium, and a Joint Trading Account costs £14.99 a month extra. Plus also covers up to five family accounts with up to £100,000 each, and Premium unlimited family accounts with up to £250,000 each, without their own monthly fee.
2. Minimum investment
Interactive Brokers
There is no minimum deposit and no account minimum for the General Investment Account or the ISA. Fractional dealing is available on US shares and on selected European shares and ETFs, so a small sum can still buy a slice of an expensive share. Interest on cash only starts above £8,000 in sterling.
Interactive Investor
There is no minimum deposit, and regular investing starts at £25 a month. Everyone joins on Core and pays the monthly fee by Direct Debit from the start, so the real minimum is the £5.99 a month rather than the sum you invest. On a £5,000 portfolio that fee is roughly 1.4% a year.
Platform and app experience
1. Interface and ease of use
Interactive Brokers
IBKR is capable rather than simple. Trader Workstation is a professional platform with more than 100 order types, and IBKR’s own website and fee schedules are dense. IBKR Desktop, the newer desktop platform, puts the same tools behind a much cleaner interface and is the sensible place to start. Account opening asks detailed questions that decide which products you can trade.
Interactive Investor
ii is cleaner and more functional, built for investors rather than traders. The portfolio view shows performance, income and allocation clearly, and opening an account takes a few minutes online. It feels more like a tool than a trading screen, which suits a long term investor who logs in to check and top up.
2. Mobile app
Interactive Brokers
IBKR Mobile covers dealing, alerts, watchlists and monitoring on iOS and Android, and Client Portal handles the same account in a browser with no download. All of IBKR’s platforms read from one account, so you can switch between them freely.
Interactive Investor
The ii app handles dealing, valuations, watchlists and regular investing, and the portfolio screens carry across well from the desktop platform. Research is thinner in the app than on the website, so analysis tends to happen on a larger screen.
3. Tools and automation
Interactive Brokers
Tools are IBKR’s other big strength. GlobalAnalyst compares shares by region and industry, the Mutual Fund and ETF Replicator looks for cheaper ETFs that follow similar strategies, and IB Gateway and the APIs serve anyone running their own software. Selected US shares and ETFs and some bonds can be traded around the clock, five days a week.
Interactive Investor
Free regular investing on every plan is the main automation feature. ii also publishes model portfolios and expert fund and trust selections, and multiple currencies can be held in the Trading Account and the pension, so you can convert when the rate suits you rather than on every trade. Experienced investors can add ii360, ii’s advanced platform, for £20 a month, or get it included on Premium, although ii360 trades follow their own fee schedule.
Investment choice
1. Shares and ETFs
Interactive Brokers
IBKR publishes access to 170 markets in 40 countries, with 29 currencies in a single account. That covers UK, US, European and many other exchanges, with fractional dealing on US shares and selected European listings. For an investor who wants markets well beyond the UK and US, nothing else in this comparison comes close.
Interactive Investor
UK, US and international shares, over 1,000 ETFs and investment trusts, with pricing split between UK and US shares on one side and other international markets on the other. ii passes shareholder voting rights through on eligible holdings on every plan, which not all platforms do.
2. Funds and bonds
Interactive Brokers
The Mutual Fund Marketplace covers funds from more than 500 fund families, and the bond marketplace runs to over one million instruments by IBKR’s count, with commissions shown separately rather than built into the price. Fund dealing costs nil to £4.95.
Interactive Investor
A broad range of funds, investment trusts, corporate and government bonds and gilts, identical on every plan. Because the fee is flat, a large fund portfolio costs the same to hold as a small one. A Managed ISA and Managed Portfolios are available if you would rather delegate; access is included in the subscription, but the portfolios carry ongoing charges of 0.13% to 0.21% a year, taken from your investments.
3. What else is available
Interactive Brokers
Options, futures, spot currencies and CFDs, plus cryptoassets through a separate arrangement with Paxos. Crypto held with Paxos is not covered by the FSCS, and CFDs, options and futures carry a high risk of losing money quickly. None of these can be held in the ISA.
Interactive Investor
Cash savings alongside the investment accounts. There is no CFD account, no leverage and no cryptocurrency: ii is built for investing rather than trading.
Safety and regulation
1. Regulation
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 208159, and is an HMRC approved ISA manager. The group, founded in 1978, is listed on Nasdaq and is a member of the S&P 500, and reported $22.3bn of equity capital as of 2 June 2026. Despite the similar name, it has no connection to Interactive Investor.
Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 141282. ii has run since 1995, has been part of the Aberdeen group since 2022 and administers around £95bn for more than 500,000 customers. It is a UK platform with no link to Interactive Brokers.
2. How your money is protected
Interactive Brokers
Client money and assets are held under the FCA’s client asset rules, and eligible claims against Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited are covered by the FSCS up to £85,000 per client. That applies to designated investments and may not cover everything you hold. Make sure your account sits with the UK entity, because other IBKR companies fall under US or Irish schemes instead.
Interactive Investor
Your investments are registered to a separate company, Interactive Investor Nominee Services Limited, which keeps them ring fenced from ii’s own money. If ii failed and there were a shortfall, eligible claims are covered by the FSCS up to £85,000 per claimant. Uninvested cash is held in client accounts at UK banks, where eligible customers may be protected up to £120,000 per person, per bank. Neither scheme protects you against investments falling in value.
Customer support
1. How to get in touch
Interactive Brokers
Support runs through telephone, a secure message centre, live chat, an automated assistant called iBot and a searchable knowledge base. When answers arrive they tend to be detailed and settle the question in one go.
Interactive Investor
ii has a UK based telephone helpdesk, secure messaging and a detailed help centre. It also runs the ii Community, a moderated forum included on every plan, where customers discuss holdings and platform questions with each other.
2. What to expect
Interactive Brokers
In our own testing, replies through the message centre took longer than three business days, which is slow next to app based brokers offering same day chat. If you expect to need regular help, that is a genuine consideration.
Interactive Investor
Service is generally reported as solid, and ii says more than half of its customers have stayed for over ten years. Transfers in are free and come with a case handler, although they can still take several weeks depending on the provider you are leaving.
Learning resources
1. Guides and research
Interactive Brokers
IBKR Campus and Traders’ Academy cover courses from basic to advanced, and the platform gives access to research and news from more than 200 providers. The material is extensive but leans towards active trading and derivatives.
Interactive Investor
ii includes its own investment research and insight, model portfolios and expert fund and trust selections on every plan. It is less encyclopaedic than some rivals but more opinionated, and its coverage of investment trusts is particularly strong.
2. Practice and demo accounts
Interactive Brokers
A free paper trading account lets you test the platform and its order types with virtual money before committing real funds. Given the learning curve, it is worth using.
Interactive Investor
There is no demo account, because ii is not aimed at short term trading. The ii Community is often the quickest way to see how other investors use the platform.
3. Who it suits
Interactive Brokers
Best for someone who already knows what they want to buy and wants the tools and markets to do it cheaply, or who is prepared to put in the time to learn a professional platform.
Interactive Investor
Best for someone who wants research and a community alongside a straightforward platform. Our guide to dollar cost averaging pairs well with ii’s free regular investing.
Which platform suits which investor
1. Best for
Interactive Brokers
Confident investors who want global markets, bonds, options or futures in one account, anyone who converts currency regularly, and investors who hold meaningful cash balances, since IBKR pays interest on sterling above £8,000.
Interactive Investor
Investors with larger portfolios who want one predictable monthly fee for an ISA, SIPP and Trading Account, households that can use the free family accounts, and anyone who values UK phone support and a direct pension.
2. Less suited to
Interactive Brokers
First time investors who want a simple monthly tracker purchase, and anyone who needs a direct retail SIPP without a third-party administrator. The fee schedules and product permissions take real effort to understand.
Interactive Investor
Small portfolios, where £71.88 a year on Core is a heavy drag, and frequent overseas buyers, since 0.75% FX on Core is far above IBKR’s rates. The Junior ISA also needs the £14.99 Plus plan.
3. A note on costs
Interactive Brokers
IBKR’s ISA costs come down to a £3 minimum monthly activity fee, £36 a year, plus dealing from £3 a trade. Even before dealing, that is about half of ii’s £71.88 a year on Core, and the gap widens if you buy overseas shares.
Interactive Investor
ii’s flat fee rewards size: on larger fund portfolios it can compare well with percentage platforms, and the pension admin fee is already included. Against IBKR, though, it is the more expensive of the two on fees alone; you are paying for simplicity, support and the direct SIPP. Our compound interest calculator shows how fee differences add up over time.
What would each platform cost you?
Compare the yearly cost of Interactive Brokers, Interactive Investor and other UK platforms with our broker fees calculator.
Pros and cons
Interactive Brokers
Cons
Pros
Interactive Investor
Cons
Pros
Verdict
1. The short answer
Interactive Brokers
On cost and capability, Interactive Brokers wins. UK shares from £3 a trade, currency conversion from 0.002% and no platform fee make it cheaper than ii for almost any portfolio, and it reaches 170 markets with funds, bonds, options and futures in one account.
Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor is the stronger choice if you want simplicity: one predictable fee, a direct SIPP with the admin charge included, free regular investing, family accounts and a UK phone team. For many long term investors that ease of use is worth more than the fee gap.
2. Who should choose it
Interactive Brokers
You are a confident investor who wants global markets and the lowest dealing and currency costs, and you are comfortable learning a professional platform. Our Interactive Brokers review covers each feature in detail.
Interactive Investor
You want an ISA, a pension and a trading account under one flat fee, with support on the phone. The detail is in our Interactive Investor review, our Hargreaves Lansdown vs Interactive Investor comparison covers its closest rival, and our broker matching tool can narrow the field. You can also browse all our broker comparisons.
Risk disclaimer
This article is for general information and education. It is not personal financial advice and does not take account of your circumstances. When you invest, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than you put in. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.
Interactive Brokers also offers margin, options, futures, CFDs and cryptoassets, which sit outside the main scope of this comparison. These are complex products: you can lose money rapidly, and with margin and futures you may lose more than you invest. Cryptoassets held through Paxos are not covered by the FSCS or the Financial Ombudsman Service. Interactive Investor offers none of these.
Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and ISA and pension rules may change. If you are unsure whether a product is right for you, seek advice from an FCA authorised adviser.
Fees and product details are taken from our Interactive Brokers review, checked in August 2026, and our Interactive Investor review, updated against ii's published charges on 23 October 2026. They may have changed since. Always confirm current terms on the provider's own website.
Ready to start investing?
☆☆☆☆☆ Rated 4.5 out of 5
Interactive Brokers
Global markets | Shares from £3
Capital at risk.
☆☆☆☆☆ Rated 4.4 out of 5
Interactive Investor
Flat monthly fee | Direct SIPP
Capital at risk.
FAQ
Not sure either one fits?
Compare the best UK brokers side by side.
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