Vanguard vs InvestEngine: UK 2026 Comparison

Vanguard and InvestEngine are two of the UK's lowest-cost investment platforms, and in 2026 the gap between them comes down to one number: the platform fee. Vanguard now charges a minimum of £4 a month on smaller self-managed accounts, while InvestEngine charges nothing to hold your investments at all. This comparison weighs the fees, the choice of investments, and who each platform actually suits.

Both platforms are cheap by UK standards, but they price holding your money very differently. Vanguard charges 0.15% a year on your investments, capped at £375 - but from 31 January 2025 it introduced a minimum account fee of £4 a month (£48 a year) on the self-managed Stocks and Shares ISA, SIPP and General Investment Account when your holdings are below £32,000. InvestEngine charges no platform fee at all on its DIY accounts: you pay only the ongoing charge of whichever ETFs you buy, which start from around 0.03% a year.

On top of the platform layer, both pass through the funds' own charges. Vanguard's index funds and ETFs are low-cost; InvestEngine's whole-market ETF menu includes equally cheap options. Tax wrappers matter too - the annual ISA allowance (the tax-free amount you can pay into a Stocks and Shares ISA each year) is the same whichever platform holds it.

For anyone starting out, InvestEngine has the clear cost edge. On a £5,000 ISA, Vanguard's £4/month minimum works out at £48 a year - just under 1% of the pot swallowed by the platform fee alone, before fund charges. The same £5,000 on InvestEngine costs nothing at the platform level; you pay only the ETF's ongoing charge, often £2-£5 a year in total.

The maths only swings towards Vanguard at the other end. Once a self-managed pot passes £32,000 the percentage fee replaces the minimum, and above £250,000 Vanguard's £375 cap means very large portfolios pay a shrinking percentage. InvestEngine's flat zero, though, stays zero at every size.

This is where the platforms genuinely differ, not just on price. Vanguard is a walled garden: you can only buy Vanguard's own funds and ETFs. For many investors that is a feature, not a bug - the LifeStrategy and Target Retirement ranges bundle a diversified portfolio into a single fund you never have to rebalance.

InvestEngine is the opposite. It offers ETFs only - no mutual funds, investment trusts or individual shares - but those ETFs span the whole market and many providers, so you can build a portfolio from iShares, Vanguard, Invesco and others side by side. It adds tools Vanguard lacks, including auto-investing Savings Plans and fractional ETF purchases. The trade-off: you assemble and rebalance the portfolio yourself, since InvestEngine's ready-made Managed Portfolios are currently closed to new clients.

Related: if you want a commission-free trading app rather than a fund platform, see our Trading 212 vs eToro comparison.