£5 Free Share

Robinhood has brought its signature commission-free trading to the UK, and for the right type of investor it's a genuinely strong option.

If you want exposure to US companies without paying the £5-£10 per trade that most UK brokers still charge, the maths is hard to argue with. Add in the interest on uninvested cash, the fractional shares, and the option of an ISA wrapper, and you've got a setup that didn't really exist for UK retail investors a couple of years ago.

That said, it's not the right home for everyone. If you mostly want to buy UK-listed shares, you can't (yet). If you want deep research tools, screeners, or a full SIPP alongside an ISA, you'll outgrow Robinhood quickly. And the FSCS picture deserves a careful read: brokerage holdings rely on US-based protections, so the safety story is different to what most UK readers are used to with their bank.

For me, Robinhood works best as a second investing account, sitting alongside an existing UK ISA platform. Use it specifically for US shares, the cash interest, and the option-style trades that traditional UK brokers won't let near you. Used like that, the free-stock sign-up is a useful nudge to actually open the account and try the app properly.