IG vs Trading 212: Which Should UK Traders Pick in 2026?
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What we measure:
- Spreads vs advertised rates
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Quick Answer: IG or Trading 212?
Start from the job you need done. IG is the full-service veteran: it came up with the retail spread bet in 1974, advertises 17,000+ markets, and stacks ProRealTime charting and Level 2 share dealing under one login. Trading 212 is the app-first challenger: £1 opens an Invest account, dealing costs no commission, the FX fee on share purchases is 0.15% against IG's 0.5%, and uninvested cash earns interest paid daily. One fact settles the leveraged side before the debate starts, because Trading 212 has no spread betting product at all. So a leveraged trader who wants the tax-free wrapper belongs at IG, while a small monthly investor gets a genuinely cheaper deal from Trading 212. The verdicts below follow one of each through both firms.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Why Does This Comparison Split Into Two Questions?
Because IG and Trading 212 only half overlap. IG's UK stack runs from spread betting through IG Index Ltd and CFDs through IG Markets Ltd to share dealing, ISAs and a spot crypto arm. Trading 212's account menu, per its own help centre on 9 September 2026, reads Invest, Stocks ISA, Cash ISA, CFD, SIPP and Crypto. Spread betting appears nowhere in that list, in the terms, or anywhere in the site menus. Where the two firms do meet, they meet twice: on leveraged trading, and on buying shares.
A Trading 212 quirk needs flagging before anything else. The CFD account and the Invest and ISA accounts are separate products with separate costs. The CFD account charges a 0.5% FX fee, applied to the result when you close a position priced in a currency other than your account's. The Invest side converts currency at 0.15%, and Trading 212 caps it there even at weekends. Plenty of comparisons blur the two figures into one. This page will not.
So meet the two traders the verdict is written for. The first is the Tuesday-night index trader: leveraged positions on indices and forex a few evenings a week, and a strong interest in what the taxman takes. The second is the payday investor: £150 into global shares every month, an ISA wrapper, and a promise, kept or otherwise, to leave it alone for a decade. Each gets walked through both brokers below, and they do not come out at the same door.
How Do the Two Brokers Line Up Where It Matters?
Some rows sit closer than either fan base admits, and others are a chasm. Both firms win rows outright, which tells you this is a real fork rather than a rout.
| Row | IG | Trading 212 |
|---|---|---|
| Pedigree | Invented the retail spread bet in 1974 | Built app-first and grew on zero-commission investing |
| FCA registration | IG Markets Ltd FRN 195355, IG Index Ltd FRN 114059 | Trading 212 UK Ltd, FRN 609146 |
| Spread betting | Yes, the founding product, tax-free for most retail clients under current rules | Not offered on any account |
| Leveraged EUR/USD | From 0.6 pips, spread-only | 1.3 pips on average with zero commission, CFD account |
| FX fee on share deals | 0.5% currency conversion | 0.15%, capped there even at weekends |
| Smallest first step | No minimum by bank transfer; cards carry a higher minimum | £1 in, and fractional shares from £1 |
| Idle cash | Not IG's pitch; no Cash ISA product | Interest earned and paid daily, plus a Cash ISA tracking the BoE base rate minus 0.15 |
| Inactivity fee | Charged after 24 months without dealing | None, however long you leave it |
| Platforms | Own web and apps, plus ProRealTime and an L2 dealer | One proprietary app and web platform; no MT4, no TradingView |
| Range | 17,000+ markets as advertised | 13,000+ global stocks and ETFs at the time of checking, with a narrower CFD list |
Which Broker Should the Index Trader Open?
IG, and not narrowly. The decisive fact is structural rather than a matter of taste: Trading 212 does not sell a spread bet. Its leveraged product is the CFD account, which means every profitable position sits inside capital gains tax territory, while IG Index has been writing spread bets since 1974 and profits on them are currently free of capital gains tax and stamp duty for most UK retail traders. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change, but a wrapper that exists beats one that does not.
Price the trade itself and IG still leads. IG quotes EUR/USD from 0.6 pips, spread-only, and our own month of live IG day trading dealt at exactly that in August 2026. Trading 212's EUR/USD CFD averaged 1.3 pips at the time of checking, with no commission on top, which is respectable for a free app but roughly double the cost per round trip. Close a CFD priced in dollars from a sterling account and the 0.5% FX fee takes its cut of the result too. Then comes depth: ProRealTime at £30 a month, waived in any month IG earns £15 from your trading and free for the first month, Level 2 order book access for the share traders, and weekend markets on indices, gold and GBP/USD that Trading 212 does not run.
Trading 212 does take two rows off IG here. Its CFD account costs £10 to open against a higher card minimum at IG, and it will never charge this trader for going quiet, where IG's inactivity fee arrives after 24 months of silence. A cautious beginner placing tiny, occasional index trades could start there and lose nothing by it. The moment frequency, size or the tax question enters the room, IG wins the seat.
Where Should the Payday Investor Put the £150?
Trading 212 takes this one on cost, and IG should hear that without flinching. Run the £150 through both tills. Buy US shares at IG and the 0.5% currency conversion takes 75p on the way in and 0.5% of whatever comes back on the way out, before any dealing commission or the quarterly custody fee that IG waives only for active clients. The same buy on Trading 212's Invest or Stocks ISA account costs nothing in commission and 22p or so in FX at 0.15%. Small numbers, but the trip repeats every month for years, and fees compound just as returns do.
The rest of the small-account case stacks up cleanly. £1 minimums and £1 fractional shares mean the whole deposit goes to work on payday rather than waiting to afford a full share of anything. Uninvested cash earns interest, paid daily at a variable rate that Trading 212 can move. The Cash ISA runs on a published mechanism rather than a teaser: its rate tracks the Bank of England base rate minus 0.15 percentage points and moves when the Bank moves. There is no inactivity fee on any account. A caveat before the cheerleading gets out of hand: card and Apple Pay deposits are only free up to £2,000 in total, then cost 0.7%, so this investor should fund by bank transfer, which stays free forever.
What does IG answer with? Range across 17,000+ markets, out-of-hours US dealing, a listed company's balance sheet and fifty years of operating history, all covered in our full IG review. Those are real advantages, and the investor with a six-figure portfolio should weigh them properly. At £150 a month they are outweighed by 35 basis points of FX saving on every purchase. This trader walks into Trading 212, and pretending otherwise would flatter our featured broker at the reader's expense.
So Which Should You Actually Open in 2026?
Follow whichever trader you recognised. If you saw yourself in the Tuesday-night index trader, open IG: the spread betting wrapper, the tighter forex pricing, ProRealTime and the weekend markets have no answer at Trading 212, because half that list does not exist there. If you are the payday investor, Trading 212's Invest and ISA accounts are the cheaper home for a small monthly habit, and no affiliate arrangement changes those sums.
Forced to name one firm for a reader who does both jobs, I name IG, for an honest and slightly lopsided reason. IG can hold the investor's shares, at a higher running cost, and still deliver everything the leveraged trader needs. Trading 212 cannot reach the spread betting side at any price. A firm that covers both briefs imperfectly beats a firm that covers one brilliantly and the other not at all. Plenty of readers will land on the tidiest answer of the lot: the ISA at Trading 212, the spread betting account at IG, and a direct debit feeding each.
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References
- Trading 212: Invest terms, trading212.com/terms/invest (0.15% FX fee, £1 minimums, fractional shares, card deposit threshold, daily interest on uninvested cash; checked 9 September 2026)
- Trading 212: CFD terms, trading212.com/terms/cfd (zero commission, 0.5% FX fee on results, £10 minimum deposit, margin rates; checked 9 September 2026)
- Trading 212: Cash ISA terms and rate tracker, trading212.com/terms/cash-isa and helpcentre.trading212.com article 28354646612253 (rate tracks BoE base minus 0.15 percentage points; checked 9 September 2026)
- Trading 212: EUR/USD CFD instrument page, trading212.com/trading-instruments/cfd/EURUSD (average spread; checked 9 September 2026) and account types help article 360018930337 (no spread betting product listed; checked 9 September 2026)
- IG: ig.com/uk market range and forex pricing, and charges (share dealing conversion fee, ProRealTime terms; checked 9 September 2026)
- FCA register: IG Markets Ltd (FRN 195355), IG Index Ltd (FRN 114059), Trading 212 UK Ltd (FRN 609146)
- The Investors Centre: the full IG review and the IG day trading journal (live-account spreads, August 2026)
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