Top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms

Here you will find a list complete with information on our Top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms. Online Trading Platforms can be helpful for both new and experienced traders. Below you can read details on the top 12 Online Trading Platforms. The companies we look at are listed below and then a write up on each of the listed top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms.
 
 

Rest assured our website is genuinely helping people find the best online trading platforms and that we are not affiliated with any of the companies listed on our website, therefor you can be sure we are not trying to flog you a dead horse for our own benefit. In fact we are not trying to sell you anything, we are simply here to help you find the best online trading platform that is suitable for all of your online trading needs.

Top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms List

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Name of Best Online Trading Platform
Barclays
IG Share Dealing
Interactive Investor
Get Stocks
TD Direct Investing
Hargreaves Lansdown
AJ Bell
Halifax
Alliance Trust Savings
Bank of Scotland
Charles Stanley Direct
Lloyds
The Share Centre
Fidelity International
Barclays Online Stocks and Shares 12 Best Online Trading Platform
Barclays Smart Investor
Barclays offer their Stock Broking service via what they call 'Smart Investor'.  You can invest in over 2,000 funds, ETFs, investment trusts and shares.

Barclays Smart Investor allows you to open the following type of accounts:

  • Investment ISA
    Barclays  investment ISA is a tax efficient version of a traditional investment account. With this account you can protect your gains from income tax, Invest your ISA allowance of up to £20k in 2018 or with a lifetime ISA you can invest up to £4000 in each tax year. With an investment ISA you can invest in shares, funds and bonds.

  • Investment Account
    Barclays Smart Investor say that their Investment account is suitable once you have used up your annual ISA allowance and that this type of account gives you access to a wider range of products.

    With a Barclays Smart Investor Investment Account you can choose from a variety of investments that are not available through an Investment ISA account and you can invest as much as you want without limit.

  • SIPP Accounts
    Barcalys Smart Investor SIPP accounts are great ff you want more control over your pension, you can access a wide range of investments via a Self-Invested Personal Pension or otherwise known a SIPP. They state that the benefits of a SIPP are that you can protect your returns from income tax tax on dividends and capital gains tax and income tax and that you claim tax relief on contributions of up to £40,000 or 100% of your earnings. 

Here you can find more information on their Barclays Trading Hub website
IG Top 12 Best Online Trading Platform
IG Share Dealing
IG Share Dealing help people trade financial markets on leverage, through CFD's and spread betting. You can trade on either indices, forex, shares, commodities and more.

You can also use IG share dealing as an investments service to buy and sell thousands of shares and ETFs in the traditional way or they will manage a wealth portfolio for you.

They describe their products as:

  • Spread Betting 
    A tax-free way to take advantage of rising or falling markets.

  • CFD Trading
    Flexible, accessible and free from stamp duty, CFD trading is a great alternative way to go long or short on many financial markets.

  • Investments
    You can manage all of your own investment decisions with an IG share dealing account, or choose a ready-made IG Smart Portfolio that IG manage for you on your behalf. These accounts can be opened with a tax-efficient ISA or SIPP to maximise your returns.


IG's charges for Share Dealing Only Traders are as follows:
Here you can find more information on IG's website
Interactive Investor Top 12 Online Trading Plaforms
Interactive Investor
Based in London and a very popular online trading platform, Interactive Investor simply had to be on this list.

Interactive Investor offer the following types of accounts to their clients:

  • Trading Account

  • SIPP

  • ISA

  • Junior ISA

  • Free Research Account

They list their advanced products as:

  • Spread Betting and CFD's

  • Short and Leveraged ETS's

  • VCT's

  • Structured Products

  • Covered Warrents

With Interactive Investor this is how you will pay them. You pay them £22.50 per quarter which actually gives you the same amount in trading credits which you can use to pay commissions. There are 2 commission rates, their standard commission rate is £10 and frequent traders (clients who trade an average of 10 times per month) pay just £6 per trade.

Interactive Investor also have a highly rated android app and iphone app.

Here you can read more info on Interactive Investors website
Get Stocks - Best Online Trading Platforms
Get Stocks
Get Stocks are an online licensed broker, on their platform you can buy and sell stocks on worldwide exchanges and view what others are buying. They charge no annual or transfer commissions and you can view live markets for free.

Get Stocks have both android trading app and an iphone trading app. On the Get Stocks app you can view what others are buying that can help you find trending stocks. Get Stocks charge £7 per trade if you trade on the London stock exchange or $7.50 if you trade on NASDAQ, NYSE, 
NYSEMK.

Hargreaves Lansdown Best Online Trading Platforms
Hargreaves Lansdown
HL offer you many options in ISA's, Pensions, Investing, Currency, Financial advice. They also have an online trading platform that we thought should be included in our top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms.

Hargreaves Lansdown's charges are listed on their website as follows:

£5.95 per deal if you place 20 or more share deals during the previous calendar month, they charge £8.95 per deal if you trade 10 and 19 deals and £11.95 per deal if you place fewer than 10. You can view live prices via their app without cost.

Read more information on Hargreaves Lansdown's website
AJ Bell Youinvest Best Online Trading Platforms
AJ Bell Youinvest listed the type of accounts that you can open with them as SIPP, Stocks and Shares ISA's, Lifetime ISA, Dealing Accounts, and Investing For Children Accounts. They list their services as Regular Investment Service, Investment Options, Mobile Dealing App and Devices.

AJ Bell have their android trading app and iphone trading app and they also have 2 cool new trading apps that you can link to your Google Assistant or your Amazon Alexa device.

Here you can read more information on the AJ Bell Youinvest website
Halifax Best Online Trading Platforms
Halifax Share Dealing 
Halifax first became involved in trading in 1997 when it dealt only with Halifax shares. Then in 1998 the company began to offer a buy sell shares service to it's customers. Today the company offers a wide range of services including Self Select Funds ISA, a Self Select Stocks and Shares ISA, and SIPP.

Halifax Share Dealing offer several types of accounts:

  • Share Dealing Accounts
    Their Share dealing accounts is the account they advise you to take if you want a simple account to start trading. The features and benefits of having a share dealing account are Trade UK and international shares, Set-up a monthly regular investment plan and Invest in shares, funds, bonds and gilts , ETFs, and investment trusts, Real-time online trades costing £12.50 dealing commission per trade and Regular investment plan charges of £2.00 dealing commission per trade.

  • Stocks and Shares ISA
    Hailfax state that their stocks and share ISA accounts are suitable if you want to protect any potential profits from capital gains tax. The main features of this account are, you can invest up to £20,000 in this tax year, you pay no Capital Gains Tax on any potential profit, Trade on seven world markets, access your money at any time, Annual administration charges: £12.50 per year, Real-time online trades: £12.50 dealing commission per trade, Regular investment plan: £2.00 dealing commission per trade, Transfer out charge: £25 per investment (maximum £125), ISA closure fee: No closure charge, however, the current annual administration fee is payable.

  • Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)
    This, according to Halifax is the account you want if you are looking for a flexible, tax efficient retirement account. The benefits of this type of account are: tax friendly way to save for your retirement, wide range of investments, you can invest in a lump sum or regular savings and you can trade whenever you want and still receive the tax benefits of a regular pension plan.

  • Sharebuilder
    According to Halifax's website, this account will suit you if you are looking for a cost effective way to build your portfolio using a monthly investment plan. The benefits of using a sharebuilder plan are: setup a monthly investment plan to purchase shares, access Halifax's market and insights centre, no tie in period so you can stop investing at any time, regular investment plan price = £2.00 dealing commission per trade, Real-time online trades price = £12.50 dealing commission per trade.
Below are Halifax's share dealing prices and account administration charges.


 
Read more on Halifax's website here
Alliance Trust Savings Best Online Trading Platform
Alliance Trust Savings offer a service that we thought should be included on our top 12 Best Online Trading Platform page.

Alliance Trust Savings list the services that they offer as follows:

ISA

Pensions

Investment Account

Child Savings

They offer a range of trader account types:

Stock Shares and ISA Accounts

Investment Dealing Accounts (IDA)

SIPP

Junior ISA Accounts

First Steps IDA

Child SIPP


Here you can visit their online trading platform website for more information.
Lloyds - Top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms
Lloyds offer an online trading platform that we felt we had to include. They offer you the opportunity to buy and sell UK and international shares and offer you the option of over 3,000 funds to invest in online or you can invest by telephone although you should take note that trading with Lloyds by telephone will cost you £35 per trade. With Lloyds you can start your investing venture online from £11 per deal, or benefit from the frequent trader rate of £8 available to you if you trade online 8 or more times per quarter. If you use Lloyds you can reinvest share sale proceeds immediately, or withdraw your funds to your bank account, that takes approx two days.

If you open a Share Dealing ISA with Lloyds in addition to your Share Dealing Account they discount the £40 per year charge for your Share Dealing Account.

Click here for full details on Lloyds Online Trading Accounts
Charles Stanley Direct Best Online Trading Platforms
Charles Stanley Direct offer a great solution for those looking for the Best Online Trading Platform. The platform consists of the following options: Investment Summary, Your Accounts, Messages, Pending Orders, My Share Watch List, Fund Basket, News and Research. It really is a simple way to trade and is suitable for both new and experienced traders who are searching for the best online trading platforms.

Charles Stanley's maximum online trading platform charge is 0.25% and they charge a share trading fee of £11.50.



If you would like more information take a look at Charles Stanley Direct's website Here
The Share Centre - Best Online Trading Platforms
The Share Centre is a highly rated online trading platform that deserves to be on any Best Online Trading Platform list.  The Share Centre offer Share Dealings Accounts, ISA's, Pensions and Options to invest for your children. The share centre was founded have been in business since 1990 and currently have more than 265k ISA's and Share accounts.

The Share Centre has won many awards in their time with a couple of recent ones being Value for Money: Share Investors - Investment Trends 2017 and Best Online Stockbroker - ADVFN International Financial Awards.


If you would like to read more on The Share Centres website click here
Plus 500 Best Online Trading Platform
Plus 500 offer a great service and platform that should be on every best online trading platform list. You can trade the UK’s most popular with Plus 500, UK 100, Bitcoin, GBP/USD & EUR/GBP with their CFD Service.

Plus 500 offer leverage of up to 1:300, tight spreads and no commissions. Use advanced tools and features such as Stop Limit / Stop Loss / Trailing Stop, Guaranteed Stop and Negative balance protection to gain full control over your Plus 500 account.
Take a look at Plus 500's website for more information.
This concludes our top 12 Best Online Trading Platforms, we hope it can help you in some way. The companies mentioned are simply mentioned because in our opinion they are the best online trading platforms available today. If you like the content on this page and found it helpful please use the widget below to share this page on your social media.
Stockbrokers Near Me - Best Online Trading Platforms
Article by Donna Mills of Stock Brokers Near Me
Published 19/05/2018