AJ Bell vs Scalable Capital — which broker is better?

Pros

• Custody charge on shares, ETFs and investment trusts capped at GBP 3.50 a month in the Dealing account and ISA, and GBP 10 a month in the SIPP — GBP 42 and GBP 120 a year respectively
• GBP 1.50 online fund dealing is among the cheapest on any UK platform, and regular monthly investing is free from GBP 25
• Share dealing at GBP 5.00, falling to GBP 3.50 in any month following one with 10 or more share deals
• Listed on the London Stock Exchange under AJB as a FTSE 250 constituent, with published audited accounts and FCA regulation
• Which? Recommended Provider for eight consecutive years, 2019 to 2026 — the only investment provider to achieve that run
• Seven-day customer support: phone 08:00–19:00 on weekdays and 10:00–14:00 at weekends, plus live chat and secure message
• Free transfers in and out, free withdrawals, free cash holding with interest paid, and no inactivity fee
• 24 international markets and a deep menu — over 4,000 funds, over 3,500 ETFs, over 400 investment trusts, bonds, gilts, ETCs and warrants

Cons

• The 0.25% custody charge on funds is uncapped up to GBP 250,000, so a GBP 200,000 fund portfolio pays GBP 500 a year where a flat-fee platform charges under GBP 100
• Foreign exchange starts at 0.75% on the first GBP 10,000 of a trade, with a further 0.5% taken when overseas dividends are converted into sterling
• Six of the 24 international markets — Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa — are telephone-only with a GBP 10,000 minimum order, which effectively puts them out of reach for most retail portfolios
• No options, futures, spread betting, CFDs, direct crypto or fractional shares, and no demo account to test the platform first
• In-house research is thinner than Hargreaves Lansdown's: a favourite-funds list and Shares Magazine content rather than a full analyst desk with written coverage of individual holdings
• Sterling is the only cash currency, so a round trip in a US share crosses the FX spread twice with no way to hold dollars between trades

Pros

• Free savings-plan executions from EUR 1 with fractional amounts, across more than 2,700 ETFs, 4,500 shares and 3,800 funds - the deepest catalogue in Europe.
• PRIME+ at EUR 4.99 a month makes trading a fixed cost rather than a variable one; commission-free orders from EUR 250 on EIX break even at roughly five trades a month. Purchases of PRIME ETFs (Amundi, iShares, Vanguard, Xtrackers) from EUR 250 on EIX are free on the FREE Broker as well, so they do not count towards that.
• Holds its own full ECB banking licence since September 2025 and custodies client securities itself, with cash covered to EUR 100,000 and PRIME+ balances spread across partner banks for wider statutory coverage.
• 2.60% p.a. on the Scalable Overnight cash account, paid monthly - on unlimited cash, with or without PRIME+.
• More than 3,800 mutual funds tradable without the front-end load, which is unusual at a flat-fee broker and useful for anyone holding legacy fund positions.
• German residents get Abgeltungsteuer, solidarity surcharge and church tax withheld and remitted automatically, with annual tax certificates issued.
• Broker, cash account, robo-advisor (Scalable Wealth) and a securities-backed credit line all sit behind one login, which is a genuine consolidation argument.

Cons

• Since 1 September 2026 gettex orders cost up to EUR 1.99 on every plan, up from EUR 0.99, which wiped out the PRIME+ commission-free advantage that made the subscription compelling on that venue.
• Only three trading venues - EIX, gettex and Xetra - with no direct access to US or other foreign exchanges, so you buy foreign shares through a German quote rather than on their home market.
• On EIX, Scalable is the single market maker on the venue it routes you to by default, which is the same broker-as-counterparty conflict the post-PFOF industry inherited.
• Euro-only accounts with no multi-currency balances and no itemised FX charge, so the true cost of a foreign share purchase is not visible on the contract note.
• No telephone support: chat and email only, with slow replies and delayed tax documents the most common complaint in user reviews.
• Fractional trading works in savings plans but not in ordinary lump-sum orders, and there is no demo account.