Best Buy Awards 2023

We launched the Boring Money Best Buy Awards in 2019 to honour the industry’s leading providers for DIY investors. ​

Now in their fifth year, the Boring Money Best Buy Awards are increasingly used by our growing audience – and the media - who seek our impartial perspective, our deep dives into technical information, and the voice of consumers to inform their choices. ​

They are designed to give consumers the ability to make better choices and to validate decisions. We've been using test accounts, crunching the numbers and collecting over 6,000 consumer reviews to find the best providers in the field.

We award Best Buy and Best For Awards based on a combination of these factors, through a review process last over two months in which our analysts review all of the major DIY investment providers active in the UK market. It is the most comprehensive review of the DIY investment market offering for customers, and the findings form a crucial component of our annual Online Investing Report. To be among the first to receive insights from the report, join our in person presentation on Wednesday 1st March at The Storey Club.

So, who won this year’s awards?

A total of 25 different providers have picked up an Awards across a one or more of the 12 different Best Buy and Best For categories.

The overall Best Buys ISA providers for 2023 are:

• AJ Bell

• Bestinvest

• Fidelity

• Hargreaves Lansdown

• Interactive Investor

• Moneyfarm

• Nutmeg

• Vanguard

• Wealthify

The overall Best Buys Pension providers for 2023 are:

• AJ Bell

• Aviva

• Fidelity

• Hargreaves Lansdown

• Interactive Investor

• Nutmeg

• PensionBee

• Vanguard

Best Buy LISA: AJ Bell; Dodl; Hargreaves Lansdown ; Moneybox; Nutmeg

Best Buy JISA: AJ Bell; Fidelity; Nutmeg; Vanguard; Wealthify

Best For Beginners: Bestinvest; Dodl; Moneybox; Nutmeg; PensionBee; Wealthify

Best For Low cost ISA under £50k: Dodl; InvestEngine; Vanguard

Best For Low cost ISA over £50k: Interactive Investor; InvestEngine; Freetrade; Halifax Share Dealing; IG Smart Portfolios; iWeb

Best For Low cost SIPP under £50k: AJ Bell; Dodl; PensionBee; Vanguard

Best For Low cost SIPP over £50k: AJ Bell; Interactive Investor; Moneyfarm; Vanguard

Best For Share Traders: Freetrade; ii; iWeb

Best App: Freetrade; Hargreaves Lansdown; Moneybox

Best for Sustainable Investing: CIRCA5000; The Big Exchange

How do we choose the Best Buys?

Our Best Buys are based on a methodology designed by Boring Money’s analysts to reflect a range of critical factors, including customer review scores, customer service scores, charges and Boring Money’s own analysis.

Customer Reviews: Reviews posted to boringmoney.co.uk. Every customer rating is manually reviewed by the Boring Money team to exclude false review scores.

Charges: Our analysis of a range of different pricing scenarios. We scrutinise provider charge structures by exploring a range of different pricing scenarios spanning different portfolio sizes, share and fund trading frequencies.

Customer Service: Our team of analysts conduct rigorous call centre testing, contacting each customer service centre on multiple occasions over a two month period. Call answer times are recorded, with a score attributed to each provider.

Test Accounts: Boring Money holds test accounts with all the leading providers in the UK and uses these to explore first-hand the features and service levels offered by each provider.

Holly’s view: Finally, the view of our CEO, Holly Mackay. Her score for each provider is dependent on her own independent, impartial view on the overall attractiveness of each provider’s offering.