5 Best SIPP providers and accounts (and cheapest)

Freetrade is one of the cheapest UK trading platforms, and since January 2026 its SIPP is available on the free Basic plan, with no monthly platform fee. Until then, you had to subscribe to the Plus plan at £9.99 a month.

That changes the maths completely: you get a SIPP with no platform fee and no dealing commission, with access to more than 7,000 stocks, ETFs and investment trusts, plus mutual funds and gilts, which were added over the past year.

The catch is the currency conversion fee, which is 0.99% on the Basic plan. If you invest mostly in US stocks, paying for the Standard (£4.99 a month) or Plus (£9.99 a month) plan can work out cheaper, since it brings the fee down to 0.59% or 0.39%. Those plans also pay more interest on uninvested cash.

Freetrade was acquired by IG Group in April 2025, which gave it the backing to expand its product range, and it now has more than £4 billion in assets under administration.

Take a look at our Freetrade review to know more.

Vanguard created the concept of low-cost index funds in the 1970s, and its SIPP remains one of the simplest ways to build a retirement portfolio out of index funds in the UK.

It costs nothing to open, and there’s a 0.15% annual platform fee, capped at £375 a year. Since 2025, however, there’s also a minimum account fee of £4 a month, which applies to portfolios below around £32,000 across all your Vanguard accounts. For a small pension, that makes Vanguard relatively expensive, and a free platform like Freetrade will cost you less.

Investment choice is limited to Vanguard’s own funds and ETFs, but for many investors that’s enough. Its Target Retirement funds let you pick your retirement year and gradually move into lower-risk assets as it approaches, while the LifeStrategy funds let you choose a fixed split, such as 80% equities and 20% bonds, and leave the rest to Vanguard.

There’s also no cost to buy or sell funds, and no currency conversion fee, since everything is priced in pounds.

interactive investor (ii) started in 1995 and is one of the oldest and best-established investing platforms in the UK. Its Pension Essentials plan made its SIPP more affordable for smaller portfolios.

The flat fee of £5.99 a month (for portfolios up to £50,000) is good value for mid-sized pensions, and the £12.99 a month above that works well for large portfolios, since a flat fee stops growing with your pot. It charges £3.99 commission on most investments, but you can avoid this by setting up a regular monthly investment from £25 a month.

Where ii really stands out is choice: more than 40,000 investments, across a wide range of assets, so you can build a properly diversified retirement portfolio. You can also add a stocks and shares ISA and a general investment account for a few pounds more a month.

The downsides are the commissions, which add up if you trade often, and the currency conversion fee of 1.5% on smaller trades, which is high compared with the rest of our list.

AJ Bell is a well-respected UK platform and was the first company to offer an online SIPP, back in 2000. The platform isn’t the slickest, but it’s very functional and it’s a FTSE 250 company with hundreds of thousands of customers.

The account charge is 0.25% a year on funds for the first £250,000, falling to 0.10% between £250,000 and £500,000 and to nothing above that. On shares, which include ETFs, investment trusts, gilts and bonds, the same 0.25% applies but is capped at £10 a month, which helps larger portfolios.

Dealing costs £1.50 on funds and £5.00 on shares and ETFs, dropping to £3.50 if you made 10 or more share deals in the previous month. Better still, the regular investment service is free: if you invest monthly into selected investments, you pay no dealing charge at all. Currency conversion is capped at 0.75%.

Overall, it’s a well-rounded provider: a good choice if you invest in funds or set up monthly contributions, and less so if you trade shares frequently.

Dodl is an investing app launched by AJ Bell in 2022. One of its best features is that you can hold a general investment account, a stocks and shares ISA, a SIPP and a lifetime ISA (LISA) at no extra cost.

We think it’s the best SIPP for beginners because that’s exactly who it was designed for. The app explains basic investing concepts simply, and it offers a small selection of stocks, ETFs and ready-made funds, so you’re not overwhelmed when you start building a retirement portfolio.

The fees are simple: 0.15% a year per account, with a minimum of £1 a month, and no dealing commission.

Experienced investors will find Dodl limiting, but that isn’t who it’s for, and it’s a cheap, straightforward choice for a first pension.