The best investment apps of 2022

If you’ve saved up some money and you’d like to try and earn a return by investing it, then you might be looking for the best way to invest money.

Modern devices use Open Banking to safely share financial data 📲 So, for many, the answer to this question of ‘how to invest?’ is an investment app.

Our earlier article looks at some questions to consider when deciding if this is the right time for you to invest, and the pros-and-cons of using a mobile app.

Before we get into comparing the best investment apps in the UK, let’s consider 4 main differences in terms of what they each offer:

1.Types of investment accounts

Stocks & Shares ISA: An investment account that offers relief from dividend tax and capital gains tax. You can select from individual / fractional stocks or bonds, or other asset types. There are limits on the amount you can deposit in the short-term and the number of active ISAs you can use in a tax year.

Lifetime ISA: A LISA is for people saving for their first home or for retirement, with the state adding a capped 25% bonus to contributions each tax year… though there is a charge if you withdraw early, or for a different reason.

Junior Stocks & Shares ISA: A savings account set-up by a parent or guardian for their child's future (only the child can access the money, once they’re 18). As with a regular Stocks & Shares ISA, you won’t pay tax on any capital gains or dividends.

General Investment Account: A useful way to invest in stocks if you’re looking to contribute more than the maximum amount permitted by ISA rules.

Self Invested Personal Pension: A SIPP retirement account allows you to consolidate and manage existing pensions, or create a new Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) and invest to work towards a long-term, specific retirement date.

2.Types of investment options

Investment Funds: A fund is a way for investors to effectively pool resources in order to capitalise on the advantages of operating as a group. The main benefit of funds is that they can be heavily diversified.

Mutual Funds: A professionally managed portfolio typically containing some combination of bonds and shares. They are put together by fund managers, around a theme such as asset class (e.g. technology) or risk-level.

Exchange-Traded Funds: An ETF is a type of ‘Index Fund’, which indexes securities against a particular financial market (e.g. FTSE 100 or S&P 500) in an attempt to mirror its performance. Unlike mutual funds (which are bought and sold at the end of each day), ETFs options are traded on an exchange, like individual stock.

Individual stocks / fractional shares: This is the way to invest in specific companies, or a smaller portion of one full company share.

3.Investment fees & withdrawals

Monthly fee: A rolling subscription charge for using the investment platform.

Management fee: This annual charge, normally expressed as a percentage of your overall investment value, is the fee associated with maintaining the platform and providing the technology to execute trades on your behalf.

Fund Provider fee: This annual charge is paid to the professionals who create and maintain the funds in which your money is invested. It's normally expressed as a percentage of the amount you invest in that fund. When comparing app fees, they are normally shown as a range, encompassing all the funds offered.

Note: management and provider fees are usually automatically reflected in your overall investment portfolio, along with any earnings or losses.

Market spread: The difference between the lowest ask price and the highest bid price on a stock market. When making trades on your behalf, a broker will obtain a more favourable price than the one they offer you, so in this sense it might be considered an indirect trading cost, and a way to offset low commission or fees.

Currency conversion charge: The ‘FX Spot Rate’ is the current price to directly exchange one currency for another. For apps that allow you to trade currency, this fee is the commission for placing the trade on your behalf.

4.Special features

Automated investing: In order to start investing and place a buy or sell order, you’ll need to deposit money from your current account or checking account. All the apps in our comparison let you to deposit manually, but some allow you to automate the process by rounding up the spare changes on your purchases, or to maximising contributions with an automated savings algorithm.

Robo-advice: Whichever investment app you favour, the important thing about all of them is that they make investing accessible for everyone. However, some of them will even seek to mimic the role of a financial advisor by making investment decisions on your behalf. A robo advisor can create and manage a portfolio on your behalf, based on your goals and appetite for risk.

Investing simulators: If you like the idea of investing… but not quite enough to do it with your own money, then you could consider building some confidence and experience by practicing with a virtual sum of money.

Performance tracking: Once you do have money invested, you’re going to want to keep an eye on how your investments are performing.

Each of the apps in our comparison will display your earnings and returns in a slightly different way, but an intuitive and well constructed UI can actually help you understand the performance and subsequently make better decisions.

Here are the best investment apps in the UK for 2022:

Plum

Range of assets:

• 12 Mutual funds
• !! COMING SOON !! US Fractional Stocks

Plum offers a range of mutual funds based around risk level (e.g. ‘Balanced’ or ‘Growth’) or asset class (e.g. ‘Tech Giants’ or ‘Emerging Markets’).

You can invest in either a Stocks & Shares ISA, GIA or a SIPP.

Although you can still deposit manually with Plum, the real power of this platform is provided by the automated saving algorithm. It lets you configure your investments so they still happen, even when you’re not thinking about it.

That, plus the education resources they host on their blog, mean that Plum might be considered to be a good investment app for beginners.

There are even fun ways to gamify the amount you deposit, with additional saving rules like the ‘52 Week Challenge’ or ‘Rainy Days Rule’.

eToro

Range of assets:

• 800+ stocks
• 42 investment funds

eToro offers a range of global stocks, as well as fractional shares. Alternatively, you can invest in one of eToro’s 42 investment portfolios, based on asset class and risk.

eToro offers its stocks under an investment account, so eToro accounts are taxable and there are no ISA or SIPP accounts on offer. Account users will be liable to pay tax on interest and capital gains made on investments made with eToro.

eToro charges a $5 withdrawal fee, as well as a fee if a currency conversion from USD is required. The withdrawal minimum is $30.

Freetrade

Range of assets:

• 850+ UK & US Stocks
• 43 ETFs

Freetrade offers a range of UK and US Stocks and ETFs.

They don’t charge commission on trades or any additional management or provider fees, instead just applying a £3 per month subscription charge.

Freetrade also allows you to buy ‘fractional shares’, which means you can still invest in businesses where the individual whole share price is very high (e.g. Apple shares are traded for over US$100 per share).

You can invest in either a Stocks & Shares ISA, GIA or a SIPP.

Withdrawals are typically paid in 3–5 working days, but Freetrade offer an expedited same-day service for £5 if the request is made by 2pm.

Moneybox

Range of assets:

• 3 Portfolios

Moneybox has 3 different investment portfolios to choose from, based on risk.

You can choose to invest in a GIA / Stocks & Shares ISA, Junior ISA, Lifetime ISA, a Pension or ‘Socially Responsible’ companies, depending on your investing goals.

In addition to manual transfers, you can also deposit funds with Moneybox directly by rounding up your debit card transactions.

Moneyfarm

Range of assets:

• 7 Portfolios

Moneyfarm doesn’t offer individual stocks or even allow you to pick specific funds, instead providing personalised robo-advice and a bespoke portfolio.

By using a questionnaire to establish your investor profile (i.e. your goals, financial knowledge and attitude to risk) Moneyfarm recommends a portfolio of global equities, corporate bonds and commodities.

You can invest in a GIA / Stocks & Shares ISA or pension account, with a Personal Investment Advisor to help guide you and manage your portfolio.

Nutmeg

Range of assets:

• 109 ETFs

Nutmeg selects a portfolio for you from their range of ETFs.

They use a questionnaire to find out about your personal goals and appetite for risk, after which they select funds that most closely match your investment style.

They offer the standard GIA / Stocks & Shares ISA, plus Junior ISAs, Lifetime ISAs or a Pension.

You can specify how closely you’d like Nutmeg to manage your portfolio, and even specifically indicate a preference for Socially Responsible Investments.

Trading 212

Range of assets:

• +6,500 global stocks (incl. +200 ETFs)

Trading212 has a wide variety of global stocks for you to choose from, also offering the choice of fractional shares.

In addition to the standard GIA / Stocks & Shares ISA, they also offer the ability to engage in Contracts for Difference (CFD) trading, meaning the platform might be more suitable for experienced investors.

The Trading212 site also offers investment tutorials, plus you can hone your trading skills by practicing with a virtual sum of £50,000 to begin with.

Wealthify

Range of assets:

• 10 portfolios

Wealthify offers five investment styles to choose from, based on risk, and you can also invest in an ‘ethical’ portfolio. You start by choosing an investment style, and then Wealthify will build you an investment plan based on your preferences.

You can invest in an Investment (aka Stocks and Shares) ISA, a General Investment Account, a Junior ISA or a personal pension.

Wealthsimple

Range of assets:

• 9 Portfolios

Wealthsimple invests your money in a global portfolio of index funds that they suggest for you. They do this by asking you questions about your financial goals and previous experience when you create your account, and then by creating a portfolio that matches your perceived appetite for risk.

You can deposit a pre-decided amount each month using their Overflow Deposit feature via Direct Debits.

You can invest in a GIA / Stocks & Shares ISA, Junior ISA or a Pension.

Wealthsimple offers different tiers, or packages, which are dependent on the amount you deposit with them. Your tier will dictate the fees you pay and also the extent to which the financial advice they provide is bespoke.

However you choose to invest, please remember that your capital is at risk.

To learn more about Plum you can check out our website.

For all the latest Plum news and discussion, head to our Plummunity Forum, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

If you'd like to invest your money for retirement, then you may be able to take advantage of additional tax relief by opening a Plum Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) 🌱 Take a look at our article to see if a SIPP is right for you.