These two are significant players in the direct-to-consumer platform market, but they are very different propositions. While interactive investor is an investment platform that allows you to buy, hold and sell a vast range of investments, Moneyfarm is a digital wealth manager due to its use of technology to select a portfolio of suitable investments for you.
In short, with interactive investor you’ll be making the investment decisions, while Moneyfarm has experts on hand to manage your investments for you.
What is interactive investor?
interactive investor (sometimes referred to as ii) is headquartered in Manchester and owned by Aberdeen, a FTSE250-listed global investment company. Founded in 1995, ii was a relatively small player until 2016, but a series of acquisitions means it now has over 450,000 customers and around £74bn of assets under management. It is perhaps best-known for championing flat fees in pounds and pence in an industry where percentage-based charging is the dominant fee structure.
What is Moneyfarm?
Moneyfarm launched in the UK in 2016, after running a similar service in Italy since 2012. The firm helps customers to get started with investing by harnessing technology. After you spend a few minutes filling out an online questionnaire, it matches you to suitable investments. The firm also has expert investment consultants to advise customers who need extra help, and an asset allocation team who actively manage its portfolios.
Its 2025 acquisition of Willis Owen helped take its assets under management to over £5bn. It has financial backing from big firms including Allianz Global Investors, M&G, Cabot Square Capital, United Ventures, and Poste Italiane.
interactive investor v Moneyfarm – product on offer
Both firms offer the same account options: taxable General Investment Accounts, plus three tax-efficient investment accounts – stocks and shares Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), Junior Individual Savings Accounts (JISAs) and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (Sipps). While interactive investor allows you to get started investing with as little as £25 a month, with Moneyfarm you need a minimum lump sum of £500.
There are key differences in the investment ranges and how these are presented. With interactive investor you choose investments by yourself from a huge range of thousands of active and passive funds, plus UK and overseas shares, corporate and government bonds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and investment trusts. Its international shares offering is particularly good. Sophisticated investors might like the currency conversion option, plus the access to new shares and stock splits.
interactive investor has two Morningstar-curated recommended investment lists for collective investments (such as funds, investment trusts and ETFs): the Super 60 list and the accompanying ACE 40 sustainable funds list. It also offers five model portfolios, put together using funds from these lists, that investors can replicate within their own investment accounts. For beginner investors, it recommends a range of low-cost Quick-Start funds with different risk levels.
In addition, interactive investor encourages shareholder engagement by making free shareholder voting the default setting for customers, who receive notifications informing them when they are eligible to place a vote.
interactive investor has a cash savings service provided by Flagstone that is standalone, meaning it’s not linked to your other ii accounts. This allows you to hold your cash savings in one place and pick the best deal from over 25 UK banks and building societies. You can open an account with a minimum of £10,000. Flagstone takes a 0.25% management fee, which is reflected in the rates offered through the service.
Moneyfarm doesn’t have a cash offering for its customers. However, its smart tech uses your bespoke investor profile, generated using an online questionnaire, to recommend the best portfolios for your investing style and appetite for risk. The Moneyfarm questionnaire is quite detailed, which might be a bit complicated if you’re a complete novice.
However, there is also the option to speak to one of the firm’s designated investment consultants for free, with a 15-minute call back time, or a slot selected at your convenience. This service offers education on products, market conditions and the views of the portfolio management team. You can also receive a free analysis of your external investments covering asset allocation, performance, and risk.
Moneyfarm offers a choice between actively managed, fixed allocation and Liquidity+ portfolios. Its actively managed portfolios benefit from constant monitoring to make sure your investments are working hard, dividends are being reinvested and are performing their best every day. With fixed allocation, your investments follow the markets, meaning there are lower costs for investing. Liquidity+ portfolios are designed for shorter-term investment goals of two years or less. Moneyfarm’s guidance questionnaire process selects one of these but also selects from seven risk levels, with socially responsible and thematic investment options also available.
Moneyfarm also has Share Investing accounts where you can pick your own investments in individual companies’ shares. This option is available within its Stocks and Shares ISA and General Investment account.
interactive investor v Moneyfarm – costs and charges
One of the most significant differences relates to the platforms’ fees for investing. Like most platforms, Moneyfarm charges a percentage of the investments held on its platform, whereas interactive investor charges monthly flat subscription fees.
For investors with up to £50,000, its Investor Essentials plan costs £4.99 a month, while its Pension Essentials plan for Sipps with less than £50,000 has a fee of £5.99 a month. On a portfolio of up to £50,000, these would be £59.88 and £71.88 a year, respectively.
Once your investments go above £50,000, you move to the Investor Plan, at £11.99 a month, and the Pension Builder plan, which is £12.99 monthly. Whatever the size of your portfolio, interactive investor’s annual platform custody fees would be either £143.88 or £155.88, respectively. You can also add a pension to an existing plan for a lower combined fee.
interactive investor charges £3.99 for trading in funds and UK shares, and £9.99 for international shares. Investors in its Investor and Investor + Sipp plans get a monthly credit of £3.99 to use against trading fees. Those in its £19.99-a-month Super Investor plan get monthly trading credit of £15.96 to use towards trading fees and a lower international trading fee of £5.99.
Notably, all interactive investor’s plans offer a free regular investing service that doesn’t charge trading fees for drip-feeding as little as £25 a month into a wide range of funds and popular shares (including the FTSE 350). This means regular monthly investors don’t have to incur further charges beyond the subscription fees. interactive investor also has a Friends and Family service that allows you to give between two and five people a free subscription by adding them to your plan.
Moneyfarm’s actively managed portfolios start at 0.75% for investments under £10,000 and reduce on a sliding scale down to 0.35% for those with more than £500,000 saved. Moneyfarm has lower fees for its Fixed Allocation portfolios, starting at 0.45% on the first £100,000 and reducing to 0.25% for investments over £500,000. The annual custody fee on ISA accounts is 0.35%, capped at £45 a year.
Moneyfarm charges a fee of £3.95 per trade of shares, funds and ETFs, rising to £5.95 for bond trades. If you have an ISA account, a yearly custody fee of 0.35% applies (capped at £45 a year).
interactive investor v Moneyfarm – research, tools and features
Both firms offer market insights and investment education, though interactive investor’s output is more prolific and frequent, particularly in relation to investment ideas.
interactive investor boasts an impressive depth and regularity of information, including newsletters, videos and podcast episodes from its team of financial journalists. The website allows customers to tailor the type of news content that they want to see, depending on product interest and level of expertise. It also has a series of regular educational webinars for customers, and it can provide customers with a picture of how their investments are performing through its quarterly interactive investor Index.
Moneyfarm’s Magazine section has a good blog, with plenty of insights into the investment world provided by its chief investment officer and other writers. Topics include financial markets, economics, financial planning, retirement, pensions and tax. Plus, it has a few guides to help you get started and a pension calculator.
interactive investor v Moneyfarm – user experience
Customer reviews on consumer website Trustpilot give a good idea of overall customer satisfaction.
interactive investor has a TrustScore from consumer website Trustpilot of 4.7 out of 5 (based on more than 26,451 reviews), while Moneyfarm’s 4.2 score is based on almost 6,000 reviews.
Note that Trustpilot states it has no recent records of interactive investor asking their customers to review them, whereas Moneyfarm does. Overall, businesses that regularly invite their customers to write reviews tend to have a higher TrustScore than businesses that don’t. So, the scores imply that interactive investor has better customer service by quite some margin.
interactive investor’s app has a 4.6 out of 5 rating on the app store (based on 23,200 reviews), while the Moneyfarm app has the same score from 1,800 reviews.
interactive investor v Moneyfarm – quickfire advantages & disadvantages
interactive investor advantages
- Flat fee struture is good for larger amounts invested.
- Wider range of investments including US and European shares.
- Cash service.
interactive investor disadvantages
- Cash hub has Flagstone fee.
- More expensive for smaller portfolios.
Moneyfarm advantages
- Good app.
- Technology to help you make investment choices.
- Designated investment consultants.
Moneyfarm disadvantages
- More expensive for larger sums invested.
- No US and European shares.
Our conclusion
Sophisticated or more confident investors might be attracted to interactive investor’s wider choice of funds, UK and international shares, while the firm’s guidance is good enough to help beginners too. However, if you’re lacking investment confidence or a complete beginner, you may find Moneyfarm’s online questionnaire helpful, with its free access to designated investment consultants providing reassurance.
The right choice for you will depend on your own circumstances, experience, objectives and how much you want to invest, among other factors. So try putting various scenarios into our free comparison tools to find out what you’d potentially be charged before making your decision.
