While Vanguard is an investment platform that offers its own funds, Nutmeg is sometimes called a robo-adviser because it harnesses technology to select a portfolio of suitable investments for you. They charge differently, but as the product and investment choices, tools and guidance differ, your choice may not simply come down to the costs of investing.
What is Vanguard?
Vanguard is popular with investors who want to keep their investments simple, passive and low cost. Vanguard started in the US in 1975, becoming one of the world’s largest fund groups known for its low-cost passive funds. Vanguard’s US founder John C. Bogle was a pioneer of index funds in the US and a proponent of low-cost investing by individuals. Vanguard entered the UK market in 2009 and as of July 2024 had 640,000 UK customers (up from 575,000 a year earlier), with some £24 billion in assets on the platform.
What is Nutmeg?
London-based Nutmeg was founded in 2012 and is an online discretionary investment manager (sometimes known as a robo-adviser). Discretionary means that it makes investment decisions on behalf of its customers, building and managing diversified portfolios for them, rather than providing a platform for people to buy and sell investments.
Nutmeg claims to set up your portfolio in under 10 minutes and uses technology to keep charges low and show where you’re invested. The company was bought by US bank JPMorgan Chase in 2021 in a deal valuing it at £700m. It now has around £5.6bn in assets under management on behalf of some 250,000 investors.
Vanguard v Nutmeg – products on offer
With both firms you can invest using a broad range of different accounts, from taxable General Accounts, to tax efficient wrappers such as Individual Savings Accounts (ISA), Junior Individual Savings Accounts (JISA) and Pension. Nutmeg also offers a Lifetime ISA, which allows you to save for a first home or retirement, which may give it the edge if you’re aged 18–39 and therefore eligible to open one.
Both firms let you get started with a minimum lump sum investment of £500. Nutmeg lowers this to £100 for Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs, which you may find helpful if you’re under 40 or a parent. Vanguard allows monthly investments starting at £100 a month.
The investment range is one of the biggest differences between the firms.
Vanguard gives access to a limited range of own-branded investments. This comprises more than 80 Vanguard funds, including index and active funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). It also offers the popular LifeStrategy and Target Retirement Fund ranges, which operate like ready-made portfolios. The LifeStrategy funds come with five different risk levels, while the firm also has a tool to select across its range from seven risk levels, supported by another tool to help you understand your risk appetite. The Target Retirement funds start switching you out of higher-risk, higher-reward investments and into more stable ones as you get closer to retirement. You can choose from 11 retirement dates, going up to 2065.
Vanguard also offers a Managed ISA and a Managed Pension with guidance from real human experts for investors who don’t want to make their own decisions. These charge 0.20% and 0.30% respectively on top of the Vanguard platform custody fee.
With Nutmeg, it’s more accurate to say your money is managed by a mix of technology and human decision-making. Nutmeg has a greater number of risk levels and investment options. Its range is based on five investment styles that also use ETFs to diversify across stocks, bonds, industries and countries. But you have to choose the style and risk level by yourself.
Nutmeg’s Fully managed and Socially Responsible portfolios are monitored on a daily basis, while its cheaper Fixed Allocation portfolios are rebalanced automatically and not actively managed. Nutmeg also offers five Smart Alpha portfolios, managed by parent company JP Morgan Asset Management using a unique set of ETFs, and Thematic investments.
Within the Fully Managed and Socially Responsible options you choose from 10 risk levels. Thematic investing is only available for risk level five and above. Fixed Allocation and Smart Alpha both offer five risk levels. In June 2025 it launched a new range of five risk-rated income investing portfolios, again in partnership with JP Morgan. The new range is based on a number of JP Morgan’s actively managed ETFs.
Nutmeg also offers a financial advice service for a one-off fee of £575 (including VAT), that will create a financial plan to help meet your goals. However, this is Restricted Advice on its own range of portfolio services and investment and pension products, rather than full advice that looks across the whole investment market. Nutmeg’s financial advice service is designed to identify which Nutmeg products and investments might be appropriate for you given your financial circumstances and goals.
Vanguard v Nutmeg – charges
With both firms you’ll pay a management or custody fee based on the total value of your investments.
Vanguard charges a platform custody fee of 0.15% per year, capped at £375 a year for accounts with investments over £250,000. But Sipp, ISA and general account holders with Vanguard now pay £4 a month – £48 a year – if they have less than £32,000 invested. The 0.15% a year charge kicks in for customers with £32,000 or more invested.
In February 2025 it reduced the charge on its Managed ISA from 0.60% to 0.51% a year, with the management fee cut from 0.3% to 0.2%. Frequent traders should also note that Vanguard has no dealing charges for buying or selling funds.
Nutmeg’s management fee is 0.75% on investments up to £100,000, reducing to 0.35% on the portion above that amount. But if you choose its Fixed allocation investment style, the management fee starts at 0.45% on the first £100,000 and is 0.25% on the amount above that.
On top of these management fees, you have to pay the ongoing fees attached to the funds. The fees vary depending on the investments you choose, with Vanguard’s ranging from 0.06% to 0.79% and Nutmeg’s starting at 0.16% for Fixed Allocation, rising to 0.32% for Smart Alpha.
Vanguard v Nutmeg – research, tools and features
Vanguard offers daily market insights and investment education, plus guidance to help investors narrow down their investment choices. It has a tool to help you choose funds, which starts by asking six questions to help us understand your attitude to risk. The fund selection tool allows you to filter funds by seven risk levels. Vanguard also has a good pension calculator to help you find out if you’re on target for the retirement you want. It also offers some educational resources to help customers navigate the investment world, but they are not as regular or as prolific as the Nutmeg output.
Nutmeg has a very active blog covering a range of economic and financial topics, including guides for beginners. Compared to Vanguard, it has a broader range of tools and calculators that allow you to calculate compound investment returns and see how tax affects your investments.
Vanguard v Nutmeg – user experience
Customer reviews on consumer website Trustpilot give a good idea of overall customer satisfaction. Both platforms currently have a TrustScore of 4 out of 5, with Vanguard’s based on almost 3,500 reviews and Nutmeg’s on just under 2,300 reviews.
Apps are increasingly important to investors, so the score that each receives from customers reviews on the app store is worth noting. The Vanguard app was only launched in late 2024, so its low 3.8 rating is based on just 270 reviews. By contrast, the Nutmeg app has an impressive 4.8 out of 5 rating on the app store (based on 18,000 ratings).
Vanguard v Nutmeg – quickfire advantages & disadvantages
Vanguard advantages
- Lower fees
- Tools to help investors choose funds
- Target retirement date funds
Vanguard disadvantages
- No Lifetime
- Only offers Vanguard funds
- No access to financial advice
Nutmeg advantages
- Clear, simple fee structure
- Access to restricted financial advice
- Lifetime ISA
Nutmeg disadvantages
- Higher fees
- Investment choice potentially difficult
- No access to shares or active funds investing
Our conclusion
Both firms have a good product range and plenty of investment options to suit beginners to more confident investors. If you specifically want a Lifetime ISA, portfolios that select funds from a range of providers, or an investment app, then you’ll be drawn to Nutmeg. Others may be attracted to Vanguard’s Lifestrategy funds, which have delivered good performance, or its Target Date retirement funds which tie in with a specific retirement date.
If you’re undecided between the product and investment ranges, a fees comparison should swing your choice in favour of Vanguard, which has a significantly cheaper custody fee, plus low-cost funds. But the February 2025 increase in charges for those with less than £32,000 across Vanguard accounts means there are now cheaper alternatives available for smaller investors.
Use our free comparison tools to find out what you’d potentially be charged for investing with each of these firms before making your final decision.
