Ever wondered who would come out on top in a battle between Vanguard vs Hargreaves Lansdown (HL)? Well, read on to find out how they compare for features, fees and much more.
If you’re looking to compare Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), you’re in the right place. Check out our summary and comparison of these platforms as we dig into the details of Vanguard vs Hargreaves Lansdown in the ultimate showdown.
We’ll show you how the key features and fees of Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown stack up against each other. So, how do Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown compare?
Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown are pretty close when it comes to their Finder score, with Hargreaves Lansdown scoring a solid 4.2 out of 5, and Vanguard scoring a slightly higher 4.3 out of 5.
Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown were also both reviewed positively in the most recent Finder Investing Customer Satisfaction Awards 2024 results. However, HL was the overall winner with 97% of customers saying they’d recommend the platform to a friend, making it our best trading app for customer satisfaction.
However, where the platforms go different ways is with the fees score. HL has a lowly 2.4 score for fees vs Vanguard’s 4.7 fees score (both out of 5).
Both Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown offer a decent range of account options, including a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). However, Hargreaves Lansdown comes out on top in this category because it offers every type of account you can imagine, ticking every box.
Vanguard is lacking a lifetime ISA (LISA), a Junior SIPP (JSIPP). Whereas Hargreaves Lansdown has full marks across the board for accounts, it even provides a variety of cash saving options (and won the Finder 2024 Saving Innovation Award for its active savings option) alongside all its diverse investment accounts.
Hargreaves Lansdown on the other hand has over 11,000 investments (including Vanguard funds and ETFs), plus loads of other asset types. Unfortunately there’s no fractional shares with HL but if you want lots of choice, HL is the clear winner here.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s fees when it comes to funds aren’t too bad. The platform fee starts off at 0.45% and gets cheaper with large portfolios. Also, it’s free to buy and sell funds with HL. However, if you want to trade anything other than funds, you could get hit with steep fees, for example, buying or selling stocks and shares starts at £11.95 per trade.
Vanguard on the other hand doesn’t even allow you to trade individual stocks. And if you want to buy or sell ETFs, it costs £7.50 if you want a live price deal instead of waiting until the end of the day. However, for funds, Vanguard is hard to beat. It costs just 0.15% to hold funds in your account and it’s also free to buy, sell or switch funds.
On paper, both platforms are pretty similar, but HL comes out on top. Vanguard has only just released its basic app, which was long overdue. And other than extremely basic actions and portfolio insights, there’s not much you can do on Vanguards mobile or desktop apps.
Hargreaves Lansdown on the other hand offers a much more interactive and in-depth experience for its desktop and mobile platforms with plenty of functionality and just a lot more tools to help you research markets and make investments.
Vanguard is extremely basic with the learning resources it provides. There’s some information but not a lot for investors to grow or develop.
As a much more diverse platform with a greater range of investment choice, HL has plenty to offer beginners and those looking to learn about different areas of investing. HL provides a lot more market commentary and insights for investors to stay up to date with things.
Winner: Hargreaves Lansdown
Overall winner: Is Vanguard better than Hargreaves Lansdown?
Vanguard is an excellent platform and it’s hard to beat for fees and value but it does have quite a lot of limitations.
Hargreaves Lansdown is a much more well-rounded investing platform with so much more being offered for slightly more in fees. Yes, HL’s fees are steep for share dealing but Vanguard doesn’t even offer investors the ability to buy or sell individual stocks and shares.
So if we’re judging Vanguard vs Hargreaves Lansdown on what they offer investors as an apples to apples comparison, it’s only really the fees where Vanguard wins. In almost every other area, Hargreaves Lansdown just provides so much more and gives investors much more freedom.
Winner: Hargreaves Lansdown
All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
George is a deputy editor at Finder. He has previously written for The Motley Fool UK, Nasdaq, Freetrade, Investing in the Web, MoneyMagpie, Online Mortgage Advisor, Wealth, and Compare Forex Brokers. He's focused on making personal finance and investing engaging for everyone. To do this he draws from previous work and his Level 4 Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA), sharing what he’s learnt. When he’s not geeking out about money, you’ll find him playing sports and staying active. See full bio
George's expertise
George has written 192 Finder guides across topics including:
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Here’s our methodology for scoring the features that matter, and picking the top share-trading platforms.
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