While Moneybox and Moneyfarm have similar names and are both popular with investors who want help choosing investments, there are plenty of differences to weigh up too.
Both services use technology to make it easy for you to choose and manage your investments. This means they tend to fall into the robo-advice bracket. But although they both build a portfolio of suitable investments on your behalf, they have different product and investment ranges. Plus, varying levels of guidance, so your choice may not simply come down to the costs of investing.
What is Moneybox?
Launched in 2016 by co-founders Ben Stanway and Charlie Mortimer, the Moneybox app made waves with its round-ups feature. It has helped thousands of people start investing with their spare change. Today, the app has brought saving, investing, home-buying, and retirement services together, managing over £10bn in assets on behalf of more than a million customers. Moneybox is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the UK. It has raised total funds of more than £100m from investors including Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, Polar Capital, Oxford Capital, CNP, Burda and Breega.
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.
Moneybox v Moneyfarm – product on offer
With both firms you can invest using tax efficient wrappers. Such as stocks and shares individual savings accounts (ISAs), Cash ISAs, Junior ISAs, Self-Invested Personal Pension and General Investment Accounts.
Moneybox also offers 32-day and 95-day notice cash accounts and Cash and stocks and shares Lifetime ISAs, which may give it the edge if you’re aged 18–39 and therefore eligible to have one.
Moneyfarm allows you to get started investing with a minimum lump sum of £500, while Moneybox has a starting amount of £1, appealing to those who are starting from scratch. Moneybox also has an innovative feature that can incrementally boost the amount you invest, by rounding up your spare change when you spend.
Moneybox v Moneyfarm – investment options
The ranges of investments and guidance routes to selecting investments differ.
Moneybox
With Moneybox you have to choose investments by yourself. It offers a choice of three diversified ‘Starting Options’ categorised under Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous. They are made up of a range of diversified tracker funds, with different risk levels and asset allocations for each option. All Starting Options include a global shares fund – you can choose this fund to be socially responsible and invest with an ESG strategy that focuses on environmental, social and governance issues.
Alternatively, it gives the option to build your own portfolio from its range of tracker funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The full fund range includes socially responsible, global, emerging markets, technology and property options from a variety of fund managers.
Moneyfarm
Moneyfarm’s smart tech uses your bespoke investor profile, generated through 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.
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 offers 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.
Comparison
Both firms offer access to direct investments in company shares, with Moneyfarm offering greater choice, albeit restricted to the UK.
Moneybox’s range of stocks is limited to 20 of the biggest and best-known US-listed companies, including tech titans Amazon, Apple, Tesla and Microsoft, plus global brands Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Nike and McDonald’s. With Moneybox, you can buy shares regularly with Weekly Stocks or with a one-off buy. And, if you can’t afford a whole share, you can work up with fractional shares.
Moneybox v Moneyfarm – costs and charges
With both firms you’ll pay a management fee based on the total value of your investments.
Moneybox’s fees start with a £1 monthly subscription fee, which is free for the first 3 months and waived for its pension. On top of this is a platform fee of 0.45% (£45 on an investment of £10,000), reducing to 0.15% on pension balances of over £100,000.
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 down to 0.25% for investments over £500,000. The annual custody fee on ISA accounts is 0.35%, capped at £45 a year.
On top of these management fees, you have to pay the ongoing fees attached to the investments. With Moneyfarm, these average about 0.20%. Moneybox’s are 0.12% to 0.58%.
Moneybox v Moneyfarm – research, tools and features
Moneybox has a wide range of articles and blogs in its Learn Hub, plus educational content that includes a video archive (albeit with nothing added since 2022). In addition, it has an academy structured as lessons to help you get to grips with investments and pensions. It also has house deposit and pension calculators to show you much you’ll likely need to be saving to achieve your goals.
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.
If you’re a beginner, Moneybox has the slight edge for the way its content is structured for easy navigation and the tone of the language used.
Moneybox v Moneyfarm – user experience
Customer reviews on consumer website Trustpilot give a good idea of overall customer satisfaction.
Both have good ratings, with Moneybox scoring 4.3 out of 5 (based on 2,883 reviews) and Moneyfarm’s 4.2 rating being based on almost 6,000 reviews).
Overall, businesses that regularly invite their customers to write reviews tend to have a higher TrustScore than businesses that don’t. Moneyfarm asks its customers for reviews, but Trustpilot states it has no recent records of Moneybox asking their customers to review them. You might therefore reasonably conclude that Moneybox is the firm winner on customer satisfaction.
Meanwhile, if a decent app is important to you, Moneybox may have the slight edge here too. It has an App Store rating of 4.8 (based on over 65,000 ratings), compared with Moneyfarm’s 4.6 (based on 1,800 ratings).
Quickfire pros & cons
Moneybox pros
- Range of savings accounts and Lifetime ISA
- Content designed for beginners
- Access to US shares
Moneybox cons
- Doesn’t offer financial guidance
- Limited range of shares with no access to UK-listed companies
Moneyfarm pros
- Online questionnaire to help you make investment choices
- Designated free investment consultants if you get stuck
- Share investing account
Moneyfarm cons
- Fewer tools and calculators
- No access to US shares
Our conclusion
You may prefer Moneybox for its additional savings accounts and Cash ISA. Also, if you’re under 40 and want to open a Lifetime ISA, you’ll have to go to Moneybox, as Moneyfarm doesn’t offer one. Moneybox customers also love its round-up feature that can incrementally boost investment amounts. Plus, it has slightly better customer service and app ratings.
However, Moneyfarm has a wider range of investments. Their added support of a free investment consultant helps you to choose. If you’re a complete investment beginner, Moneyfarm’s online questionnaire to help choose an investment for you. More experienced or confident investors might also want to take advantage of Moneyfarm’s share investing account.
Moneybox’s base platform fee is much lower than Moneyfarm’s. It’s also difficult to compare fees because of the impact that Moneybox’s monthly £1 subscription has on small investment pots. Use our free comparison tools to find out potential investing charges with each firm before making your final decision.
