Freetrade Review 2026: Free Stocks or Costly FX Trap?

Freetrade review 2026: what the fee schedule actually says

Freetrade is a UK investing app. The pitch is simple: commission-free stock and ETF trading, ISAs and SIPPs, and a free tier you can open without paying a monthly fee. The provider states it has 1.5M+ users. Paid plans unlock more features.

That is the marketing frame. The useful frame is narrower. "Free" describes the base trade only. The all-in cost of owning a US stock through Freetrade includes the plan fee, the FX conversion margin on any non-GBP purchase, and the ISA or SIPP charge if you use a tax wrapper. None of those are hidden exactly, but they are easy to miss when the headline says commission-free.

This review works from the provider's own published disclosures: the fee schedule, the account types, the supported assets and the stated limits. I have not signed up, funded or used the app. Everything below is read off what Freetrade publishes, plus how those numbers compare with what competitors publish. Where a figure is not in the verified data I am working from, I name the fee type and tell you to check the current schedule rather than guess at a number.

What Freetrade changed in 2026

Freetrade has been a UK-focused broker since launch, and the 2026 lineup keeps that shape. The product is a mobile-first app for buying individual shares and ETFs, wrapped in a general investment account by default, with ISA and SIPP options on top. The plan structure is tiered: a free tier, then one or more paid tiers that unlock additional features.

The category has moved under it. Trade Republic and eToro have both pushed harder into UK retail, and US brokers with UK arms have kept pressure on pricing. Freetrade's response has been to keep the free tier as the entry point and push the paid tiers as the place where the useful features live. That is a normal freemium shape, and it means the free tier is best understood as a trial of the product rather than the product itself.

What has not changed is the core mechanic that decides your real cost: Freetrade quotes in GBP, and any non-GBP asset has to be converted. That conversion is where the free tier stops being free in any meaningful sense for anyone buying US stocks.

Free tier vs paid plans

Freetrade's pricing starts at $0/mo, per the provider's own listing. That is the free tier. Paid plans sit above it and unlock more features. The provider's current schedule is the only place to get exact plan prices, because they change and because the tiers have been restructured more than once.

What the tiers generally separate:

• Asset access. The free tier covers a base set of stocks and ETFs. Paid tiers widen the universe, including more international listings and some instrument types the free tier does not carry.
• Tax wrappers. The ISA and SIPP are the big ones. The ISA is the UK tax-free account; the SIPP is the self-invested personal pension. Both carry their own charges, and the ISA in particular is the reason most UK investors are on the app at all. Whether a wrapper is included in a given tier or charged on top is a schedule question, so check the current plan page.
• Research and tools. Paid tiers add more of the analytical surface: deeper company data, more screeners, more of the stuff that matters if you are picking individual names rather than buying a global ETF and forgetting about it.
• Order types and limits. Basic market orders on the free tier; more order control higher up.

How the tiers compare by account value is the part most reviews skip. The logic is straightforward. A flat monthly plan fee is a fixed cost, so it hurts small balances proportionally more and large balances proportionally less. If you hold a few hundred pounds, a monthly fee can eat a meaningful share of your expected return before you have bought anything. If you hold tens of thousands, the same fee is a rounding error and the extra features may be worth it.

That gives a rough rule. Small balances: the free tier is the only tier that makes arithmetic sense, and even then only if you are not paying FX margin on every trade. Mid balances: the paid tier starts to pay for itself if you actually use the ISA and the research. Large balances: the plan fee is noise, and the question becomes whether the platform has the assets and order types you need.

One thing to check on any tier: whether the ISA and SIPP are included or billed separately. A plan that looks cheap can stop looking cheap once the wrapper charge is added, and the wrapper is not optional if you want the tax treatment.

The hidden FX fee on non-GBP stocks

This is the part of the Freetrade cost story that matters most, and it is the part the word "free" does not cover.

Freetrade's accounts are GBP-denominated. If you buy a US stock, or any other non-GBP asset, the app has to convert your pounds into the asset's currency to settle the trade, and convert back when you sell. That conversion is not done at the mid-market rate. It is done at a rate that includes a conversion margin, which is the broker's cut. The provider's fee schedule lists this as a foreign exchange charge; the exact percentage is on the current schedule and should be checked there before you trade.

How the margin works in practice: the mid-market rate is the midpoint between the buy and sell price for a currency pair at a given moment. It is the rate you see on a currency chart. A broker applying a conversion margin gives you a rate slightly worse than mid-market, and keeps the difference. On a single trade the difference is small. Across a portfolio it compounds, because you pay it on the way in and again on the way out.

Worked example, using a $1,000 US stock trade. Suppose the conversion margin is a fraction of a percent. On the buy, you convert roughly £800 into dollars and the broker takes its cut. On the sell, you convert the dollar proceeds back into pounds and the broker takes its cut again. Two conversions, two margins. If the stock goes nowhere, you are still down by the round-trip conversion cost. If you trade in and out a few times a year, that cost stacks up against any commission you saved.

The comparison that matters is not "Freetrade versus a broker that charges commission." It is "Freetrade's conversion margin versus the competitor's conversion margin." A broker that charges a visible commission but converts at or near mid-market can be cheaper overall for frequent US trading than a commission-free broker with a wider FX spread. That is the trap in the headline. The commission is free; the currency is not.

Two practical consequences. First, if your strategy is buy-and-hold US stocks, the FX margin is a one-time-ish cost on entry and exit, and it is tolerable. Second, if your strategy is frequent trading of US names, the FX margin is a recurring tax on every round trip, and it can dominate your cost stack. The fee schedule is the place to confirm the current margin before you decide which of those you are.

Product features: fractional shares, pies, pensions

The core feature set is what you would expect from a modern UK retail broker.

Fractional shares

Freetrade supports fractional shares, which means you can buy a slice of a high-priced stock rather than a whole share. The provider states this is available on eligible assets. The practical value is that a small monthly deposit can be spread across a diversified set of names without leaving cash stranded because one share costs more than your whole contribution. The restriction to check is which assets are eligible; not every listing supports fractions, and the eligible list is published in the app.

Pies

Pies are the app's basket feature: you define a set of holdings and target weights, and the app allocates your deposit across them. This is the closest thing Freetrade has to a robo-advisor, except you are the one choosing the contents. It is useful for automating a monthly contribution into a fixed allocation. It is not a managed portfolio, and it does not rebalance for you unless you set it to.

Pensions

The SIPP is the feature that separates Freetrade from the pure trading apps. A self-invested personal pension lets you hold investments inside a pension wrapper, with the UK tax treatment that comes with it. The provider states SIPPs are available; the charges and the available investments inside the SIPP are on the schedule and the pension documentation. SIPP governance is a separate matter from the trading app, and the provider publishes the trustee and governance arrangements.

Limits and restrictions

Things to check before committing: which markets are available, which order types are supported, whether there are limits on the number of free trades per month on the free tier, and whether certain assets are restricted to paid plans. These are all schedule and app-documentation questions, and they change. The provider's current disclosures are the source.

Safety and regulation

Freetrade is regulated by the FCA, the UK financial regulator. That matters for three reasons.

Client money and assets. UK-regulated investment firms are required to hold client money and client assets separately from the firm's own money and assets. The provider states it does this. Segregation is the protection that means if the firm fails, client assets are not part of the estate available to creditors in the ordinary way. It is not a guarantee against investment loss, but it is the structural protection that matters for custody.

FSCS protection. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers eligible claims against failed UK-regulated investment firms, up to the scheme's limit. The limit is set by the scheme, not by Freetrade, and the current figure is published by the FSCS. FSCS does not cover investment losses from market movements; it covers the failure of the firm. That distinction is worth being clear about, because it is the most commonly misunderstood part of "is Freetrade safe UK."

SIPP governance. A SIPP involves a trustee and a scheme administrator, not just the app. The provider publishes who those are and how the scheme is governed. If you are putting pension money in, that documentation is worth reading rather than skimming.

What Freetrade is not: it is not a crypto exchange, and it is not a leveraged derivatives venue. The product is long-only stock and ETF investing inside regulated wrappers. That is a narrower risk profile than the trading apps that mix spot crypto and leverage into the same account. If you want crypto exposure, this is not the venue for it, and the regulatory protections above do not extend to crypto in the way they extend to custody of regulated investments.

Freetrade vs competitors in 2026

The UK retail investing market in 2026 is crowded. The two comparisons that come up most are Trade Republic and eToro. Both have UK offerings and both compete on price.

Trade Republic is the German neobroker that has expanded across Europe. Its model is similar in shape to Freetrade's: a free or low-cost entry tier, paid features above it, and a strong push into savings plans and fractional investing. The comparison to run is on the FX margin and on the plan fee, because those are the two numbers that decide the all-in cost. You can see the current Trade Republic fee structure on our Trade Republic tool page.

eToro is the social trading platform with a much wider asset menu, including crypto and CFDs alongside stocks. That breadth is the difference. If you want a single account that covers stocks and crypto, eToro covers more ground. If you want a regulated stock and ETF account with an ISA and SIPP and no crypto in the same place, Freetrade is the narrower and more focused product. The eToro fee structure, including its own FX and withdrawal charges, is on our eToro tool page.

US equivalents. The US brokers that UK investors can access generally compete on commission-free US trading with low or no FX conversion cost, because their home currency is the dollar. For a UK investor buying US stocks, that is the structural advantage: no conversion needed on the US side. The trade-off is the wrapper. US brokers do not offer a UK ISA, and the UK tax treatment of a US brokerage account is not the same. If the ISA wrapper is the reason you are investing, the US comparison is not apples to apples.

Who wins for small orders? For a small order in a UK-listed stock or ETF, the free tier of a commission-free broker is hard to beat, because there is no FX conversion and no commission. For a small order in a US stock, the FX margin is the deciding number, and the broker with the tighter conversion margin wins regardless of the commission headline. That is the whole argument in one line: the commission is not the cost that matters on small US orders.

Final verdict and who should skip

Scorecard, by investor type.

Long-term holder, UK assets, ISA. Strong fit. The ISA wrapper, the fractional shares and the pies cover the core use case, and the free tier keeps the fixed cost at zero. The main thing to verify is the ISA charge on your chosen plan.

Long-term holder, US assets. Workable, with a caveat. The FX margin is a real cost on entry and exit, but on a buy-and-hold horizon it is a one-off rather than a recurring drag. Check the current conversion margin on the schedule and compare it with the competitor's before committing.

Frequent trader, US names. This is where I would look elsewhere. Every round trip pays the conversion margin twice, and on a high-turnover strategy that cost can exceed what a commission-charging broker with tighter FX would charge. The free commission is not the number that decides it.

High account value. The plan fee stops mattering, and the question becomes whether the platform has the assets, order types and reporting you need. At that point the comparison is against full-service brokers, not against other apps.

Small balance, non-GBP assets. The combination of a plan fee and an FX margin on a small balance is the worst case for cost. If the balance is small, staying in GBP assets on the free tier is the version of Freetrade that makes arithmetic sense.

Risk note: investing puts your capital at risk, and the value of investments can fall as well as rise. FSCS protection covers the failure of the firm, not losses from market movements. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and can change. Nothing here is personal financial advice; it is a read of the provider's published terms.

How this review was researched

This review is based on Freetrade's published fee schedule, the provider's account and product disclosures, and the official site at freetrade.io. Competitor comparisons draw on the published fee structures of Trade Republic and eToro as summarised on our tool pages. No account was opened, no funds were deposited, and no trades were placed in the course of writing this. Where a specific fee figure is not stated in the source material, the fee type is named and the reader is directed to the provider's current schedule.

FAQ

Is Freetrade safe UK?

Freetrade is regulated by the FCA, and the provider states client money and assets are held separately from the firm's own. Eligible claims against a failed UK-regulated investment firm are covered by the FSCS up to the scheme's limit, which is set by the FSCS and published by them. FSCS does not cover investment losses from market movements. The SIPP has its own trustee and governance arrangements, which the provider publishes.

Does Freetrade charge for US stocks?

The base trade is commission-free, but US stocks are not GBP-denominated, so a foreign exchange conversion applies. The provider's fee schedule lists this as an FX charge; the exact margin is on the current schedule and should be checked there. The conversion applies on both the buy and the sell, so a round trip pays it twice.

What is the difference between the free tier and the paid plans?

Pricing starts at $0/mo on the free tier. Paid plans unlock more features, including a wider asset universe, more research tools and additional order control. The ISA and SIPP are the wrappers most UK investors care about, and whether they are included in a given tier or charged separately is a schedule question. Check the provider's current plan page for exact prices and inclusions.