AJ Bell vs Hargreaves Lansdown 2024 (2024)

You can invest in an extensive range of investments through AJ Bell. Charges are on the high side for those with large portfolios in mutual funds and those looking to execute one-off share deals; but its new app, called Dodl, offers much lower fees and also offers a more slim-lined and user-friendly service. Educational and research materials are strong, too.

As the U.K.’s biggest investment platform for individual investors, Hargreaves Lansdown offers a wide range of investment choices for either beginners or seasoned investors. However, its fees are generally more expensive than rival brokers, which can become an issue for large investment pots.

Alongside the cost per trade, most UK online brokers also charge a monthly, quarterly, or annual management fee, which varies based on the account type and balance. Based on our thorough review, AJ Bell offers better pricing than Hargreaves Lansdown for share dealing.

Assuming a £30,000 portfolio size, here are the total annual costs for share dealing with both brokers, given different monthly activity scenarios.

5 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £67 per year, while Hargreaves Lansdown would cost £59.75 per year.

12 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £102 per year, while Hargreaves Lansdown would cost £143.4 per year.

36 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £222 per year, while Hargreaves Lansdown would cost £430.2 per year.

120 trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £462 per year, while Hargreaves Lansdown would cost £1074 per year.

3 fund trades per year - AJ Bell would cost £0 per year, while Hargreaves Lansdown would cost £1 per year.

AJ Bell requires a minimum deposit of £0, while Hargreaves Lansdown requires a minimum deposit of £1. From our testing we found for accounts between £0 - £250,000 AJ Bell charges annual custody fees of £0 - £625, while Hargreaves Lansdown charges annual custody fees of Up to £1,125.

AJ Bell offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts) and Investment Trusts, while Hargreaves Lansdown offers investors access to ISA, SIPP, Share Trading, Funds, ETFs, Bonds - Corporate, Bonds - Government (Gilts), Investment Trusts and Advisor Services. Neither have CFD Trading, Spread Betting and Crypto Trading. Investing encompasses a wide variety of asset classes, so finding a broker that offers every investment type you are interested in is important.

Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and individual savings accounts (ISAs) are tax-advantaged savings accounts that are an important tool for many individual investors. You can read more about how these accounts operate at Gov.UK: Click here for SIPP information and here for ISA information. Our analysis finds that Both AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown offer SIPP and ISA accounts.

In our analysis of top brokers for share dealing in the U.K., we research whether each broker offers the ability to trade cash cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin and ethereum, which is still a somewhat rare offering amongst major U.K. brokers. Our review finds that neither AJ Bell nor Hargreaves Lansdown offer crypto investing.

Our testing concluded that the website of AJ Bell is better than the website of Hargreaves Lansdown. AJ Bell offers more functionality, is cleanly designed, and is, overall, easier to use for beginners and casual investors.

To compare the trading platforms of both AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown, we tested each broker's stock trading app. All features compared, our analysis finds that AJ Bell offers a better mobile app. Dive deeper: Best Stock Trading Apps UK.

Educational offerings are of particular importance to those who are newer to investing, and we examine the availability of several different types of educational materials in our analysis. Our research finds that AJ Bell offers traders access to Client Webinars, Client Webinars (Archived), Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement), while Hargreaves Lansdown offers access to Client Webinars, Education (Share Trading), Education (Funds) and Education (Retirement).