InvestEngine review 2026

Overview

Founded in 2019, InvestEngine is a UK-based ETF platform that lets you build a portfolio using only ETFs. ETFs cover most major asset classes and sectors, providing broad diversification without the need to select individual stocks or bonds yourself.

With a minimum deposit of £100, you get access to all of InvestEngine’s products. The platform also supports fractional investing, allowing you to invest as little as £1 in any ETF (with no minimum per-investment amount on recurring contributions).

InvestEngine’s one-click rebalancing feature restores your ETF portfolio to its original target weights. For example, if you initially allocated 30% to ETF A and 70% to ETF B, and over time ETF A has outperformed – shifting the allocation to, say, 35% / 65% – a single tap returns the portfolio to the original 30/70 split. Smart orders let you set the investment amount and define each ETF’s target weight, while AutoInvest automatically deploys any new deposits across your selected ETFs in line with those weights.

InvestEngine is designed exclusively for UK investors and supports a broader range of account types than many alternatives, including the Stocks & Shares ISA, Personal Account, SIPP, Junior ISA, and a Business Account for small and medium enterprises.

The fee structure is genuinely transparent: a 0.25% annual management fee applies to managed portfolios (LifePlans), while DIY portfolios incur no InvestEngine execution or platform fees – you only pay the underlying ETF expense ratios (TERs). This makes InvestEngine one of the cheapest options on the UK market for self-directed ETF investors.

Finally, as detailed in the Safety section, InvestEngine is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), providing protection up to £85,000 per client in the event of platform insolvency.

Highlights

Investment products

InvestEngine offers ETFs only. There are currently more than 830 ETFs available on the platform. You can pre-select the range of ETFs you want to include in your portfolio using the following filters:

Asset class

Equities, bonds, or alternatives (mainly commodities such as gold and broad commodity baskets).

Income distribution

Distributing ETFs pay dividends directly to your account on a periodic basis (typically quarterly or semi-annually), while Accumulating ETFs automatically reinvest dividends within the fund – so the income compounds inside the ETF rather than reaching your cash balance. Accumulating ETFs are often preferred for tax-sheltered accounts like ISAs and SIPPs where you don’t need the income, since they remove the need to manually reinvest dividends.

Type of currency hedge

Currency-hedged to GBP: protects you from exchange rate movements when holding assets denominated in foreign currencies (e.g., USD or EUR), useful when you want pure exposure to the underlying asset without currency risk. Unhedged: leaves you exposed to currency fluctuations – which can either work in your favour or against you, depending on how GBP performs against the underlying currencies.

ESG

Filter for “Yes” or “No” to include or exclude ETFs that follow environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria – these ETFs screen the underlying companies based on a set of standards covering their impact on the environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance practices.

Investments portfolios

Through the “DIY” approach, you will be completely free to use the ETFs as you see fit. You can easily observe the composition of each ETF by asset classes, holdings, regions and sectors, giving you a better idea of how your portfolio might look afterwards.

Additionally, you can set your investment weights to create the right balance for your investment goals.

If you don’t want the hassle of looking for ETFs and building a portfolio, InvestEngine offers what it calls “Managed Portfolios” and “LifePlans”. For a 0.25% annual fee, you get a pre-built portfolio.

The InvestEngine LifePlan Portfolios are adaptations of their managed portfolios. They have varying equity levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%) and are similar to the Vanguard LifeStrategies but with less of a UK bias and safer bonds, making them more diversified! They’re available for a 0.25% fee (plus ETF costs) as any managed portfolio.

As an example, let’s analyse the LifePlan 60% equity:

• Description: It a balanced risk portfolio (risk rated 4/7) designed for medium-risk long‑term investors who are comfortable choosing their own risk tolerance and capacity
• Objective: LifePlan 60 could be suited for those investing for at least 3 – 5 years, with a solid emergency fund and an understanding of ETF or stock market investing.
• Management style: Actively managed by InvestEngine using passive ETFs, including both UK and international markets (including emerging markets).

Account types

InvestEngine offers four account types:

ISA

Stands for “Individual Savings Account”, and it is a tax-efficient investment method. It allows individuals to invest up to £20,000 a year. There’s no income or capital gains tax to pay on any income or profits from your ISA investments. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change.

With InvestEngine, you pay no ISA account fees (nor withdrawal or dealing fees).

SIPP

Short for “Self-Invested Personal Pension,” and it is a tax-efficient way to save for retirement. It allows individuals to manage their pension investments with flexibility, choosing from a wide range of assets. Contributions up to the annual limit benefits from tax relief, with the government adding 20% (and more, up to 45%, for higher-rate taxpayers) to your contributions. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change.

You’ll pay 0.15% for your InvestEngine SIPP, capped at £200 per year, plus the costs of your investments.

Personal account

Contrary to an ISA or SIPP, there is no annual limit on how much you can put in, but depending on your circumstances, you may be subject to tax on interest earned and capital gains.

Business account

Designed to allow small to medium enterprises (SMEs) invest their surplus cash. If you are interested in exploring this topic further, look at other Business Brokerage Accounts.

In these account types, you can choose between a DIY or a Managed Portfolios approach.

Fees

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) portfolios are free of InvestEngine trading commissions and platform fees, while managed portfolios (LifePlans) incur a 0.25% annual management fee. Beyond that, InvestEngine’s core services are free.

However, there are costs that are not set by InvestEngine (and that InvestEngine does not benefit from) which will still apply to your investments:

• ETF Total Expense Ratio (TER): each ETF charges an annual fee that covers the fund manager’s costs. For most ETFs available on InvestEngine, the TER is below 0.30% per year (shown as “Average portfolio charge” in the table below). For low-cost index ETFs, the TER can be as low as 0.03%-0.07% per year (for example, Invesco’s SPYL S&P 500 ETF at 0.03% or Amundi’s WEBN MSCI World ETF at 0.07%).
• Bid-ask spread: when buying or selling an ETF, you’ll notice a small difference between the buy (ask) price and the sell (bid) price. This difference is called the spread (“Average ETF spread costs” in the table below) and is paid implicitly through execution rather than as a separate charge.

These costs are typically minimal and are built directly into the ETF’s performance – they don’t appear as separate line-item charges on your account statement.

Safety and reliability

InvestEngine is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and client assets are covered up to £85,000 per client by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In practical terms, the FSCS protects you against the loss of cash and securities in the unlikely event of InvestEngine becoming insolvent.

As with most regulated investment platforms in the UK, the firm holds client cash in segregated pooled bank accounts at recognised banks, and client investments in a pooled client account at CREST (operated by Euroclear UK and Ireland) – kept legally separate from InvestEngine’s own balance sheet and from any custodian’s assets. This segregation is a key consumer protection mechanism: it means that even if InvestEngine or any of its banking partners were to fail, your assets are identifiable as belonging to you (or, more precisely, to the pool of InvestEngine clients).

As is standard industry practice to reduce administrative complexity and operational costs, the legal registration of your investments is held under InvestEngine Nominees Limited (a “nominee” account structure). This does not change the fact that you remain the beneficial owner of your assets – the nominee has no legal claim to your investments and cannot use them to satisfy any InvestEngine obligations.

Customer support

InvestEngine’s customer support is available through email ([email protected]) and live chat via the platform’s web and mobile apps. Support is available Monday to Friday between 5:30 am and 9:00 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm (UK time). InvestEngine does not currently offer phone support.

Supported countries

InvestEngine only accepts UK residents. To open an ISA, JISA, or SIPP account, you must also be a UK tax resident, and you must be at least 18 years old to open most account types (the Junior ISA is for under-18s, opened by a parent or guardian).

Bottom line

InvestEngine is one of the simplest and most intuitive investment platforms in the UK market. We’re not surprised given that the platform focuses exclusively on ETFs – which are inherently transparent, easy to understand, and well-suited to long-term passive investors.

InvestEngine understands that some investors value the autonomy of managing their own portfolios, while others prefer the convenience of a professionally managed solution. The platform serves both groups well through its DIY portfolios (zero platform fees) and LifePlans managed portfolios (0.25% annual fee).

The combination of a transparent fee structure, a broad range of account types (ISA, SIPP, JISA, Personal Account, and Business Account), fractional investing from £1, and a curated selection of 830+ ETFs from leading providers makes InvestEngine a genuinely competitive option in the UK market. It deserves a place on your shortlist if your primary investment vehicle is ETFs – particularly within tax-sheltered accounts where InvestEngine’s zero-fee DIY structure can save meaningful amounts over decades of compounding.

Worth noting: InvestEngine isn’t the right fit if you’re looking to trade individual stocks, mutual funds, bonds, or other non-ETF assets – for those needs, a multi-asset broker would be more appropriate.

We hope this review has given you a clearer picture of what InvestEngine offers – and how it might fit into your overall investing strategy.