InvestEngine

InvestEngine is an online investment platform that specialises in one thing: ETFs, or exchange traded funds. You cannot buy individual company shares, bonds or traditional funds on it. Instead, you either build your own portfolio from its ETF range or you hand the job to InvestEngine's team, which constructs and manages a portfolio for you. Everything is done through its website and app, and it offers four account types: a Stocks and Shares ISA, a personal pension (SIPP), a General Account and a Business Account¹.

The platform's selling point is low cost. It charges no platform fee on DIY portfolios and no separate account fees, with its money coming instead from a management fee on its managed service, the underlying costs of the ETFs themselves, and the interest it retains on cash sitting uninvested in your account². It is a trading name of InvestEngine (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme³.

What InvestEngine offers: ETFs only, built yourself or managed

InvestEngine's platform is built for investing in ETFs only⁸. An ETF is a fund that trades on a stock exchange and typically tracks a market or sector, and InvestEngine offers a choice of more than 870 of them, plus a small number of Exchange Traded Commodities⁷. It does not offer leveraged or short ETFs, which it describes as more complex products typically designed for short-term trading, and every ETF on the platform has UK Reporting Fund Status, which matters for how UK investors are taxed on them⁹.

Because ETFs can be bought fractionally, you can put a small amount into any ETF on the platform regardless of its share price, so a portfolio can be started and topped up in small steps². InvestEngine suggests people typically begin a DIY portfolio with just a handful of ETFs rather than dozens⁷. If choosing investments yourself is not what you want, the managed side of the platform does the choosing, allocating and rebalancing for you, which is covered below.

This is a narrower offering than most investment platforms. Many platforms let you hold investments inside an ISA, SIPP or Junior ISA alongside an ordinary trading account, and also give access to shares, funds and other assets¹¹. InvestEngine's range is deliberately confined to ETFs, so anyone wanting individual shares or actively managed funds would need a different platform or an additional one. For a general introduction to how platforms and investing work, see our guide to investing.

Account types: ISA, SIPP, General and Business accounts

InvestEngine offers four account types, each wrapping the same ETF investing in a different tax wrapper¹.

• Stocks and Shares ISA: invest with no UK income tax on dividends and no capital gains tax on growth. The ISA allowance limits how much you can pay into ISAs across all providers each tax year. InvestEngine's ISA is a flexible ISA, so you can withdraw money and put it back in the same tax year without losing that part of your allowance⁸. See our guide to ISAs.
• Personal pension (SIPP): a self-invested personal pension. Contributions benefit from pension tax relief, and the money is locked away until pension age, as with any pension. See our guide to pensions.
• General Account: a general investment account with no tax wrapper, so there is no annual contribution limit, but dividends and gains may be taxable depending on your allowances¹.
• Business Account: for UK limited companies to invest company money. Investment returns are paid gross, and the business may then need to pay tax on income or capital growth¹⁰. Corporate customers cannot invest without a valid LEI, a company identification number issued for securities transactions³.

Transfers in are supported. InvestEngine does not charge for ISA transfers in, though it advises checking whether your existing provider applies exit fees⁸. For pensions, it can accept transfers of existing SIPPs, and it can only accept in-specie transfers, where investments move across as they are rather than being sold, of ETFs, not individual company shares, funds or other investments¹². Whether an in-specie transfer is possible at all depends on what your current provider holds and supports.

DIY or Managed portfolios: how each one works

Every InvestEngine customer chooses between two services, and the choice shapes both what you do and what you pay¹.

DIY portfolios are for people who want to pick their own ETFs and decide the mix. You choose from the full ETF range, set your own allocation, and can rebalance with a one-click tool when weights drift from where you want them². There is no InvestEngine fee for managing a DIY portfolio, though the ETFs themselves carry their own ongoing charges set by their providers¹⁰.

Managed portfolios hand the decisions to InvestEngine. Its team builds a portfolio from a mix of stocks, bonds and commodities, aligned to a standard risk rating, and handles the day-to-day investment management, asset allocation and rebalancing to keep the portfolio on track⁹. A disciplined rebalancing process adjusts the size of holdings as their prices shift, and you receive a detailed report of your investment returns and activity every quarter¹³. InvestEngine recommends a minimum holding period of five years for managed portfolios¹³.

Two things are worth knowing before choosing. First, changing the risk level of a managed portfolio is not instant: InvestEngine states that your assets will need to be liquidated to adjust the risk level, which may incur charges or crystallise a profit or loss⁷. Second, availability can change: InvestEngine's ISA page states that Managed and LifePlan portfolios were unavailable while updates were made, with DIY portfolios still available, so check the current position on its site before assuming the managed service is open⁸.

How InvestEngine's charges work

InvestEngine's fee structure is simple in outline: no platform fee for doing it yourself, a management fee for having it done for you, and the ETFs' own costs on top in both cases. Its current fee levels, and any promotional fee-free periods, are set out on its own costs page, and that is where to check today's figures¹⁰.

For DIY portfolios, InvestEngine charges no platform fee, no set-up fee, no withdrawal fee, no ISA or SIPP account fee and no dealing commission². The costs you do pay are the ongoing charges of the ETFs you choose, which are set by the ETF providers and vary between funds¹⁰. InvestEngine has committed that it will not introduce new charges such as set-up, withdrawal and trading fees⁷.

For Managed portfolios and LifePlan portfolios, InvestEngine charges an annual management fee on top of the ETFs' own costs¹⁰. The fee is calculated daily and deducted monthly in arrears from your account balance, so you are not paying a lump sum up front¹⁰. InvestEngine does not charge a management fee on the cash element of a managed portfolio, and it does not charge a separate withdrawal or transfer fee¹⁰. New managed customers may qualify for a fee-free introductory period under its promotional terms, which have their own eligibility conditions, such as registering through a specific promotional link when signing up³.

InvestEngine also earns money from two sources that do not appear as a charge on your statement. Some ETF issuers featured on the platform pay InvestEngine a fee for joint marketing activities; InvestEngine states these arrangements do not influence product placement or the portfolio construction decisions made in discretionary portfolios⁷. And it retains the interest on uninvested cash, which is the subject of the next section.

Uninvested cash earns you nothing

Any uninvested cash you hold with InvestEngine will not earn you anything². InvestEngine keeps the interest that this cash generates, and it says this is part of how it is able to offer a commission-free and fee-free service². Some other platforms do pay interest on cash held with them; InvestEngine retains this interest instead¹².

In practice this means money waiting to be invested, or held back from the market, is a cost to you rather than a neutral holding. If you expect to hold a significant cash balance for a long period, that foregone interest is worth weighing against the platform's other low charges. InvestEngine also offers a "cash portfolio" option, where funds are temporarily held as cash while you decide on your portfolio, so money does not have to be invested the moment it arrives⁷.

Regular investing with a Savings Plan

A Savings Plan is InvestEngine's name for automatic recurring investing. You set up a regular payment into your portfolio on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly schedule, and the money is invested automatically without you having to place each order¹³. Contributions can be amended or paused at any time⁷.

The recurring payment is authorised directly with your bank, through Open Banking where your bank supports it, or by Direct Debit where it does not¹⁶. InvestEngine publishes minimum amounts for each payment frequency on its own site, so check the current figures there before setting one up¹⁶. It also provides calculators on its site that project how regular investing could build up over time; these are illustrations rather than promises, and InvestEngine notes its calculator does not include fund fees, only platform and trading fees¹⁶.

Regular investing suits people who want to build a portfolio gradually from income rather than invest a lump sum, and it spreads the prices you pay across many dates rather than one. It does not remove investment risk: the value of what you hold still depends on how the ETFs perform.

How trading and withdrawals work

InvestEngine trades ETFs once per day rather than in real time⁷. This is a meaningful difference from platforms where you can place an order at any moment during market hours and see it filled immediately. Orders placed with InvestEngine are collected and executed at the platform's trading point, so the price you get is the price at execution, not the price when you placed the order. For long-term investors this rarely matters much; for anyone wanting to react quickly to market moves, it is a limitation.

Withdrawals are unrestricted in timing. InvestEngine states that while it recommends investing for a minimum of five years, you can make withdrawals at any time, with no penalties or restrictions¹³. In its ISA, the flexible rules mean you can withdraw and replace money within the same tax year without using up more of your allowance⁸. There is no separate withdrawal fee or transfer fee¹⁰.

This is not universal across the market. As independent guidance on platforms notes, some platforms charge each time you buy or sell a share, investment trust or exchange traded fund, and some charge for transfers out¹¹. InvestEngine's position is that it charges none of these, but exit fees at your receiving or sending provider can still apply, which is why it tells ISA customers to check their existing provider's exit fees before transferring⁸.

Opening an account and getting help

Accounts are opened online through InvestEngine's website or app. The process follows the normal identity checks for a UK investment platform, and the account types are selected during sign-up¹. Business Accounts are for UK limited companies and require a valid LEI before the company can invest³. InvestEngine runs promotional offers from time to time, such as fee-free periods on managed portfolios or tax-year-end bonuses for funding or transferring an ISA or SIPP; these have detailed eligibility rules in its terms, including restrictions on how you sign up and what counts, so read the specific offer terms on its site before relying on one³.

Help is email-based. InvestEngine's client services team can only be contacted via email and contact form, though phone support is available on request by email⁷. There is no branch network and no general phone line, which suits people comfortable with written support and app-based banking, and may not suit anyone who wants to pick up the phone. InvestEngine does not provide tax advice and directs customers with tax questions to their own tax adviser¹.

Reviews, awards and complaints

InvestEngine publishes a strong set of customer ratings: 4.6 stars from 1,043 reviews on Trustpilot, 4.8 stars from 2,200 reviews on the Apple App Store, 4.7 stars from 1,220 reviews on Google Play, and 4.8 stars from 6,150 reviews on Smart Money People⁸. It has also won external recognition: a Which? Recommended Provider award for its Stocks and Shares ISA in March 2026, a win in the Finder Awards 2025 people's choice category, and five stars in the Celebration of Investment Awards 2024¹⁵. These are the provider's own reported figures and awards, so treat them as what the platform says about itself rather than an independent verdict.

If something goes wrong, InvestEngine has a formal complaints process. Complaints can be made by emailing complaints@investengine.com, by raising the issue within an ongoing email conversation with client services, or by post to InvestEngine (UK) Limited, Harling House, 3rd Floor, 47 to 51 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BS¹⁷. The complaint will be acknowledged within three business days; if it can be resolved by the end of the third business day after receipt, that resolution is confirmed in writing, and otherwise a final response is sent within eight weeks¹⁷.

If you are unhappy with the final response, or eight weeks pass without one, you have the right to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, provided you are an eligible complainant under FCA rules¹⁷. The ombudsman is free to use and its decisions can be binding on the firm. For context on how investment complaints fare generally, the ombudsman's data shows investment platforms had 46% of decided complaints upheld against them in 2025/26, and in the third quarter of 2025/26 it recorded 43 new complaints about advisory services relating to mixed investment portfolios¹⁸.

How your money and investments are protected

InvestEngine (UK) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with firm reference number 801128, which you can check on the FCA Register³. It is authorised to manage and safeguard assets on clients' behalf⁶.

Money you pay in that is not yet invested is held on trust for you in a client bank account, an account held by and in the name of InvestEngine (UK) Limited⁶. Your investments themselves are registered in the name of InvestEngine Nominees Limited, a separate nominee company, which is the standard arrangement on investment platforms and keeps your assets identified separately from the firm's own⁶. The firm unconditionally undertakes to pay clients a sum equal to the value of the client money or asset at the time it was liquidated or paid away⁶. Many investment platforms hold customer money in separate client money accounts in this way, usually with UK banks²⁰.

InvestEngine is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)³. The FSCS is the UK's statutory compensation scheme of last resort: if an authorised firm cannot return your money or investments, the scheme may pay compensation up to its limits, which are set by the government and change over time. FSCS cover protects against the failure of the firm, not against your investments falling in value: if the market drops, no compensation is payable, and your returns depend entirely on how the ETFs perform. The current FSCS limits for investments are explained in our guide to consumer protection.

Two further protections apply to you as an investor. You have the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, as described above, and the right to clear information from the firm under FCA rules²⁰. And because investment fraud is common, be alert to it: criminals impersonate legitimate firms and use their names. If you are contacted unexpectedly about an investment, take time to check independently, and if you suspect a scam, report it to the police through reportfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040²¹. Our guide to scams and fraud covers the warning signs in more detail.