AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown
Which provider is the best to invest with?
Written by Boring Money
31 Mar, 2026
AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown are two of the largest and most popular investment platforms in the UK, so deciding between them can be a little tricky. Which is really the best for your investing needs? Which is the best Stocks & Shares ISA provider? Which is best for saving for buying your first home? And who to turn to for a private pension to boost your income in retirement?
We’ve done the research and crunched the numbers to help you decide which is the right home for your money. Scroll down to learn more about AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown's costs, products and who we think is most suited to help you achieve your financial goals depending on your financial goals.
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Boring Money review
Hargreaves Lansdown is the biggest DIY investment platform in the UK and has a very good pedigree. Solid, stable and reliable, they are known for good customer service and have an efficient website and app. They are typically seen to offer fantastic service at a cost – their administration fee is relatively high for mainstream ISAs and pensions, and this gets more notable for larger account sizes. Hargreaves Lansdown has removed administration fees for Junior ISAs and is pretty low-cost for Lifetime ISAs, trying to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s and/or parents, to keep tomorrow’s customers coming. I’d say they are the Waitrose of investing.
AJ Bell offers a very credible alternative to the bigger Hargreaves Lansdown. Their content is strong and the research is as solid as that offered by Hargreaves Lansdown. The app and site are good, but just a little bit less easy to use in my opinion. However, their standard administration fee for a collection of funds and shares is cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown, which starts to make a notable difference for bigger portfolios.
Both providers have a decent range of own-brand ‘ready-made’ funds for those who want a bit of help to get started, or who want to benefit from a low-cost diversified foundation to their investments, whilst you maybe pick a few options on the side. Hargreaves Lansdown’s pricing is particularly competitive for those who want a simple, managed pension where the experts do all the complicated stuff for you.
Impatient, demanding, happy to pay for good service, time-poor, under 40 and saving for a house, investing for kids, or looking for an outsourced easy pension choice? Hargreaves Lansdown. Cost-conscious and naturally more inclined to support a slightly smaller business (still big!) with the founder’s ‘do the right thing’ ethos and challenger focus still very evident? Or perhaps you are a ‘mixed bag’ investor with a collection of shares and funds? AJ Bell. But it’s a hard call. These are both good options, so you won’t go too far wrong.
AJ Bell pros and cons
Check out the table below to get a summary of the pros and cons of investing with AJ Bell. You can read our full review of AJ Bell here.
Hargreaves Lansdown pros and cons
Check out the table below to get a summary of the pros and cons of investing with Hargreaves Lansdown. You can read our full review of Hargreaves Lansdown here.
How do AJ Bell and Hargreaves compare on charges?
In the table below, we've crunched the numbers for you and calculated the amount you can expect to pay as a platform charge on AJ Bell or Hargreaves Lansdown, depending on how much you're investing in an ISA.
Amount Invested | AJ Bell Fees | Hargreaves Lansdown Fees |
£1,000 | £4.0 | £5.45 |
£5,000 | £14.0 | £19.45 |
£10,000 | £28.0 | £38.9 |
£20,000 | £53.0 | £73.9 |
£50,000 | £131.0 | £182.80 |
£100,000 | £259.0 | £361.7 |
£300,000 | £687.0 | £1,015.6 |
A note on our cost calculations
To compare trading costs fairly across platforms, we've had to make some assumptions about how many fund trades a typical investor might make each year. These vary by pot size — a larger portfolio is more likely to involve more funds and more rebalancing activity.
We've assumed 1 trade per year for portfolios up to £5,000; 2 trades for £10,000–£20,000; 4 trades at £50,000; 6 trades at £100,000; and 8 trades at £300,000. Our calculations assume that the selected investment is a fund, and do not include the management fees of the underlying investment.
These are assumptions, not predictions. Your actual trading behaviour will depend on how hands-on you are with your investments, and your real costs could be higher or lower as a result.
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Which is best for your financial goals?
We've matched which of the two providers we think is best depending on your saving or investing needs. Click on the financial goal that matters to you most in the column on the left to read more about our reasoning.
Investing
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Which is the best Stocks & Shares ISA provider?
Though both providers offer a similar range of products and investments to choose from, their charging structures are typically the make or break factor when it comes to a final decision. Let's compare with Stocks & Shares ISAs, which are a great way of investing in the stock market without having to worry about keeping the taxman away.
Both providers offer ready-made options, which are useful for investors who don't want to go through the hassle of creating and maintaining a diversified portfolio. AJ Bell have a more long-standing range of investment options, which are cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown’s, and come with a Responsible Growth option that will suit ethical investors.
AJ Bell's platform charge (the fee for administering your investment account) is 0.25%, which is lower than the 0.35% Hargreaves Lansdown charge. This applies to accounts under £250,000.
As portfolio sizes start to grow, the difference in charges becomes more material. AJ Bell reduce platform charges to 0.10% on accounts between £250k - £500k, and charge no platform fees on amounts invested above £500,000, making it cheaper than Hargreaves on larger portfolios invested in funds who lower their platform charge to 0.25% for amounts of £250,000 - £1m and 0.10% for amounts between £1m and £2m.
AJ Bell are also cheaper for share traders. Both providers cap the annual platform charge on listed securities, however, AJ Bell apply this maximum at £42, whilst Hargreaves Lansdown raised its upper limit in its recent pricing change, from £45 to £150. AJ Bell are also cheaper when it comes to actually trading, charging £5 to buy and sell shares, compared to £6.95 at Hargreaves. For frequent share traders, both companies are probably too expensive, but AJ Bell edges it if you're picking between the two.
So when it comes to investing with a Stocks & Shares ISA, if price is a significant factor AJ Bell will probably come out on top. Having said that, if quality of service and user experience is the most important thing, and you're happy to pay a pretty hefty premium in some cases, Hargreaves Lansdown edges it.
You can read more about Stocks & Shares ISAs in our guide and see what we think of AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown's ISAs here and here, respectively.
Retirement
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Which is the best SIPP provider?
If you're looking for a straightforward SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension), then AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown are popular options, and both offer access to thousands of investments, from UK and international shares to Investment Trusts.
AJ Bell charge a 0.25% platform fee, which drops to 0.10% on portfolio values between £250k - £500k. There are no additional fees incurred for holding over £500,000. Platform charges applied to holding shares in your portfolio are capped at £10 per month (£120 per year).
Hargreaves Lansdown, on the other hand, charge a 0.35% platform fee on the first £250,000, dropping to 0.25% between £250,000 and £1m. The platform charge is reduced to 0.10% between £1m and £2m, and is removed completely on amounts above £2m. The charges for holding shares in a pension are capped at £150 per year.
Pension balances tend to be larger than ISAs, especially as investors approach retirement, so purely for cost-effectiveness we think AJ Bell comes out on top.
For those who want to leave their SIPPs in a ready-made plan managed by their provider and avoid most the hassle that comes with picking/managing investments, AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown both offer competitively priced options for a reduced price, with clients paying an annual fee of roughly £4.50 per £1,000 invested on both platforms!
Buying your first home
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Which is the best Lifetime ISA provider?
LISAs (Lifetime ISAs) are increasingly popular as a vehicle for first-time buyers to save up to purchase their first property. LISAs have a restriction which stipulates a maximum annual contribution of £4,000, which WILL restrict most portfolio sizes and makes it unlikely for portfolios to go into the hundreds of thousands.
Hargreaves Lansdown have a reduced 0.25% platform charge for LISAs, which is the same as AJ Bell’s. Hargreaves charge £1.95 for fund trades, whilst AJ Bell charge £1.50, and Hargreaves' share dealing charges are also slightly higher at £6.95 per trade, compared to AJ Bell's £5 charge.
From a cost perspective, both providers are pretty much even unless a client is trading very frequently. Other things to take into account when selecting a platform could be ease of access, user experience, slickness of the app, and/or which provider you hold your everyday ISA with.
Hargreaves Lansdown score better for its app and user experience in Boring Money testing. However, there is no clear winner in this category and you can’t really go wrong with either option.
Saving for the kids
AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown: Which is the best Junior ISA provider?
When it comes to JISAs (Junior ISAs), charges and non-guardian contributions are two key features. Both AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown make it fairly easy for family and friends to contribute towards a child’s JISA, so there’s no real distinction here.
On the charges side however, Hargreaves Lansdown have removed all fees for JISAs, making it completely free to purchase and hold any investments. There are no hidden fees and users still get access to all the tools and research offered by the platform. This makes Hargreaves the clear winner when it comes to JISAs.
