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UK investing giant Hargreaves Lansdown offers a wide range of accounts from stocks and shares Isas and lifetime Isas to Sipps and annuities.
The minimum investment into each fund on Hargreaves Lansdown is a £100 lump sum, but there's no minimum to open an account. Direct Debits can be set up from £25 a month.
Please note that this article is for information purposes only and does not constitute advice. Please refer to the particular T&Cs of an investment platform before committing to any financial products.
Does Hargreaves Lansdown offer the best stocks and shares Isa?
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown's wide choice of assets earned it a relatively high score of 58%, and it got an average score from customers (71%). But we were less impressed by its fees, scoring it a below-average 33%.
If you're thinking of using Hargreaves Lansdown to take an income from your pension in a drawdown plan, read our comparison of pension drawdown plans and charges.
This applies to each trade of investments denominated in another currency, for example US stocks, on top of fund and trading charges.
0.99% of the value of trades worth up to £10,000
0.5% on £10,000 - £25,000
0.2% on trades over £25,000
Hargreaves Lansdown interest on uninvested cash depends on the amount of cash in your account.
1.51% AER on amounts up to £19,999
1.81% AER on amounts between £20,000 and £99,999
2.02% AER on amounts between £100,000 and £999,999
2.38% AER on amounts £1 million or more
'Great service, but at a premium price'
Megan Thomas, Which? investments writer, says:
Customers rated Hargreaves Lansdown highly for its ease of use, and good for customer service and information on investments. But they were less sure of its value for money, as it received just two stars in this category.
Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the most expensive platforms for fund investors with a portfolio of more than £25,000, but it has average fees for smaller pots.
If you're investing in shares and ETFs and have a larger pot, you'll benefit from the £150 cap on account fees.
In both cases, you'll drive up costs if you're trading semi regularly, as you'll pay £1.95 for every fund trade and £6.95 for every share, ETF or investment trust trade (although you'll get a discount to £3.95 if you traded more than 20 times in the previous month, but you will have spent at least £139 for the privilege).
Hargreaves Lansdown has a broad range of investments – nearly 15,000 assets in total – and in-depth analysis for customers to read on individual funds, shares and other investments.
What do customers say about Hargreaves Lansdown?
Hargreaves Lansdown customers scored it 71%, placing it joint 12th in our survey.
Comments from Hargreaves Lansdown customers who took part in our survey include:
‘May not be the cheapest company to handle investments, but a wealth of investment information is easily available and easy online account management.'
'I would in particular stress the value of their frontline staff in helping non-finance professionals such as myself. Like any human system, they're not perfect, but last week, I was following up on a current activity and was initially given misleading information. However, when I went back to HL, the problem was quickly and politely sorted out to my complete satisfaction. There was no attempt to just protect the organisation.'
'I'm reasonably satisfied, but have reservations after the Woodford debacle. I no longer trust the recommendations blindly and check out other funds and managers myself. I also think that if I do invest more, it will be with another platform purely because I don’t want all my eggs in one basket.'
Visit Hargreaves Lansdown to find out more about its accounts, services and investment options.
Hargreaves Lansdown customer scores in more detail
Aspect of service
Star rating
Customer service
★★★★☆
Ease of use
★★★★★
Information on investments
★★★★☆
Value for money
★★☆☆☆
These results are based on a January 2026 online survey of 3,053 adults – members of the Which? Connect panel and members of the public – who told us about 4,146 experiences with stocks and shares Isas. Hargreaves Lansdown results are based on a sample size of 937.
Is Hargreaves Lansdown safe?
Hargreaves Lansdown is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
If Hargreaves Lansdown went bust and its other arrangements to protect your money failed, the FSCS will cover up to £85,000 of investments per person, per platform. You can claim for free online at fscs.org.uk: there's no reason to use a claims management company.
Our overall score is based on a combination of customer score, fees score, and assets score.
We don't analyse the performance of investments listed by investment platforms, as different investors will opt for different investments.
Customer score and ratings
We surveyed 3,053 investors – members of the Which? Connect panel and of the public – who gave 4,146 reviews of stocks and shares Isas in January 2026.
Each platform must get at least 30 responses to receive a customer score, which is based on overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend.
The customer score makes up 60% of the overall score.
We also ask investors to rate their current platform for customer service, ease of use, information on investments, and value for money.
Fees score
The fees score uses snapshots of account and transaction fees at £5,000, £10,000, £25,000, £50,000, £100,000, £250,000, and £500,000. The fees assume four purchases and four sales in a year, spaced out in across months.
Fees are weighted higher closer to £50,000 as this is close to the average portfolio size, according to HMRC data.
The scores are assigned relative to the cheapest platform which would receive a score of 100%.
The fees score makes up 30% of the overall score.
Assets score
The assets score adds together all of the assets available within a stocks and shares Isa and assigns a score relative to the maximum out of the providers which receives 100%.
The assets score makes up 10% of the overall score.
To be considered to be a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP), the platform needs to have an overall score of 70% or higher.
Companies that reach this score are excluded if they're among the top 25% of the most expensive platforms across our scenarios, based on our fees analysis. Platforms are not eligible for WRP status if they receive a two-star rating or lower in any of our categories.
We also apply statistical tests that place the platforms into ‘bands’. Only the platforms in the highest two bands – the ones that really stand out – can be a WRP.
We will not give Which? Recommended Provider status to platforms that offer CFD trading.
To be eligible for our Great Value recommendation, platforms must be in our top three customer score bands and among the 25% least expensive in the asset categories they offer (any combination of funds, shares, or ETFs).
