Trading 212

Assessment

Trading 212 is used by retail investors in the UK and Europe who want a low-cost app for stocks and ETFs. It has more than 5 million clients, and its best use cases are commission-free share dealing, Stocks and Shares ISAs, a Cash ISA, a self-invested pension (SIPP), and a multi-currency card. It charges no commission or custody fee and takes a 0.15% currency conversion fee, which puts it at the low end of the market on price. Its main competitors are Freetrade, eToro, Interactive Brokers, and Lightyear.

Ivan Ashminov and Borislav Nedialkov founded the business in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2004, and it moved its base to London. It launched commission-free UK share dealing in 2017. In 2025 group revenue rose 70% to $463.3M and profit before tax reached $171.1M. It held more than $33.5B of client assets in May 2025.

It fits a cost-conscious investor who wants a simple app and a tax-free wrapper. It is a weaker fit for an investor who wants advice, a wide bond range, or complex orders, and CFD trading carries a high risk of loss for most retail clients.

Rating by criterion

We score each of the eight criteria out of 100.

Sector criteria

Vendor criteria

Against its peers

These are the other companies in wealth and brokerage platforms, with their ratings.

User comments

We read Trading 212’s fee pages, its 2025 results coverage, and its public review summary to see what investors value, and set them against the main limit an investor meets.

• Upside

  “Investors value the zero-commission pricing, the clean app, and the ISA options, which earn a 4.6 Trustpilot rating from more than 107,000 reviews.”

• Downside

  “Investors who want advice, bonds, or advanced order types find the range narrower than a full-service broker.”

Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums and product documentation.

Based on: Trading 212, fees; Trustpilot, Trading 212.

Fact file

Competitive landscape

Retail brokers and investing apps an investor would compare with Trading 212.

• Trading 21281
• Interactive Brokers83
• Lightyear80
• InvestEngine79
• Stake78
• Plum74
• FreetradeNot reviewed
• eToroNot reviewed

InvestEngine competes for UK ETF investors with zero account and trading fees on DIY investing and managed ETF portfolios, but it does not offer individual shares as its core product.

Comparisons

• Lightyear vs Trading 212
• Trading 212 vs InvestEngine

Key leadership

• Ivan Ashminov

Ivan Ashminov co-founded Trading 212 in Sofia in 2004 with Borislav Nedialkov and is its chair.

How this review was created

This profile gives our own assessment of Trading 212 to companies selecting a Wealth & brokerage platforms provider. The Fintech Index receives nothing for featuring a firm, for sponsorship, or for advertising, and Trading 212 gave us no payment for the profile.

The rating equals the average of eight criteria, with every criterion running from 0 to 100. Four address buyer needs in this sector, and four address the company together with its commercial terms.

Ratings are our editorial judgment, made from public information: pricing and legal pages, product documentation, compliance disclosures, public reviews and filings. Fact-checking took place on November 3, 2026. Figures reported in pounds were converted to US dollars at the Federal Reserve H.10 rate of $1.3398 per pound on October 30, 2026.