Best SIPP Provider UK 2026: Full Comparison by Investor Type

If you want the short answer: there isn’t one best SIPP provider, there’s a best one for your situation. AJ Bell suits most people paying in regularly with £20,000 to £250,000 invested. Interactive investor pulls ahead once your pot passes roughly £50,000 to £100,000, because its fee is flat rather than a percentage. Vanguard is the cheapest choice if you’re happy holding only Vanguard funds. Fidelity works well for fund-only investors who trade rarely.

A SIPP (self-invested personal pension) is a personal pension that lets you choose your own investments, funds, shares, ETFs, investment trusts and more, rather than being placed in a default fund by an employer scheme. The best SIPP providers in the UK charge a platform fee, a dealing charge per trade, and sometimes a separate charge when you start taking your pension as income. Get those three numbers wrong for your circumstances and you can lose thousands of pounds over a working lifetime.

This guide compares seven of the UK’s main SIPP providers on exactly those costs, broken down by whether you’re paying in small amounts regularly, moving a large lump sum, or already planning to draw an income.

Best SIPP providers UK: quick comparison table

Figures above are gathered from each provider’s own charges page as of the review date at the bottom of this article. Fees change fairly often, so treat this table as a starting point and check the provider’s site before you commit.

How we compared the best SIPP providers

We looked at five things for each provider: the platform fee structure (percentage of your pot versus a flat monthly charge), dealing charges for both funds and shares, any annual cap on charges for holding shares, what it costs to move into drawdown and take an income, and the general quality of the app and website. We didn’t rank by “best overall,” because the right answer changes completely depending on your pot size and how you invest. Instead we’ve grouped the comparison by investor type below.

Every figure quoted here comes from the provider’s published charges schedule, cross-checked against recent fee announcements. Where a provider has changed its pricing this year, such as Hargreaves Lansdown’s March 2026 overhaul, we’ve used the current rate rather than the old one.

Best SIPP providers for small, regular contributions

If you’re paying in £100 to £500 a month rather than moving a large sum, a flat monthly fee works against you. A percentage-based platform charges next to nothing on a small pot, while a flat fee like ii’s £5.99 a month can feel steep relative to what you’ve actually invested.

AJ Bell is the strongest fit here. Its 0.25% fund charge on a £5,000 pot works out at roughly £12.50 a year, and regular investing into funds carries no dealing charge at all. Vanguard is competitive too, but its £4-a-month minimum fee (roughly £48 a year) applies to any self-managed account under £32,000, which can quietly cost more than AJ Bell’s percentage fee at small pot sizes.

Fidelity also suits regular fund savers: it charges no dealing fee on fund purchases, and its 0.35% platform fee has no minimum monthly charge, only the £90 annual cap for shares and ETFs, which doesn’t apply if you’re buying funds only.

Avoid IG and interactive investors here unless you expect your contributions to grow quickly. A flat fee only pays off once your balance is large enough that a percentage fee would cost more.

Best SIPP providers for large lump sums

Transferring in an old workplace pension or a big lump sum changes the maths completely. Once you’re past roughly £50,000 to £100,000, flat-fee platforms usually beat percentage-based ones, because the fee stops scaling with your pot.

Interactive investor is the standout for large SIPP investors, since its Core plan is capped at £5.99 a month regardless of whether you hold £60,000 or £99,000. On a £200,000 portfolio, that’s roughly £72 a year in platform fees, against £700 a year at Hargreaves Lansdown’s 0.35% rate (before the cap kicks in at £250,000). IG works similarly for share-only investors: a flat £210 a year with free share dealing, though there’s no fund dealing available and the annual charge doesn’t fall as your pot grows further.

AJ Bell still holds up well for large mixed portfolios because its fund fee steps down to 0.10% between £250,000 and £500,000, and drops to nothing above £500,000 for funds, though shares remain capped at £120 a year in a SIPP.

For a purely passive lump sum in Vanguard’s own funds, the 0.15% fee capped at £375 makes Vanguard genuinely hard to beat once you’re over roughly £250,000, since the cap means the effective rate keeps falling as the pot grows. The catch is you’re limited to Vanguard’s own fund range, so there’s no access to individual shares or other fund managers.

Charles Stanley Direct is worth a mention if your combined investments exceed £30,000, since that waives its otherwise punishing £100 + VAT SIPP admin fee, leaving just the 0.30% platform charge (capped at £600 a year).

Best SIPP providers for those planning drawdown

This is the part most comparison guides skip, and it matters. Getting your pension into a SIPP is only half the job; taking an income out of it in retirement can carry its own charges, and these vary far more between providers than the headline platform fee does.

AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, Vanguard and Fidelity all currently charge nothing to set up flexi-access drawdown or take a tax-free lump sum, and nothing for regular income payments. AJ Bell does charge separately if you use the older capped drawdown rules (£25 + VAT for a one-off payment, £100 + VAT a year for regular income), which is only relevant if you started drawdown before pension freedoms in 2015.

IG’s SIPP drawdown charges are handled case by case through its Options Pensions administrator and are worth checking directly before transferring in, since IG’s model is built more around active share dealing than retirement income.

Charles Stanley Direct charges £200 + VAT if you withdraw your entire SIPP within two years of opening it, and £250 + VAT plus £10 per holding to transfer to an overseas scheme, both of which are worth knowing if you might need to move your pension again soon after opening it.

If income drawdown is your main goal, weigh the ongoing platform fee against how the provider’s app or website presents your withdrawals, tax position and remaining pot, since you’ll likely be checking this more often in retirement than you did while contributing.

Platform fee structures explained

There are really two models on the market. A percentage fee (AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Stanley) charges you a proportion of your pot each year, which is cheap when you’re starting out and gets more expensive as your balance grows, unless there’s a cap. A flat fee (interactive investor, IG) charges the same amount regardless of pot size, which is expensive for small balances and increasingly good value as your pot grows.

The crossover point where a flat fee becomes cheaper than a percentage fee depends entirely on the specific rates involved, so it’s worth running your own numbers rather than assuming. As a rough rule of thumb: below £30,000, percentage-based platforms with low caps (AJ Bell, Vanguard) tend to win; above £100,000, flat-fee platforms (interactive investor, IG) usually pull ahead, especially for share-heavy portfolios.

Dealing charges and investment range

A low platform fee doesn’t help much if you’re trading often and paying £7 to £12 per deal on top. AJ Bell and interactive investor both offer some of the lowest per-trade costs (£5 and £3.99 respectively for shares), while Fidelity’s £7.50 and Hargreaves Lansdown’s £6.95 sit in the middle.

On investment range, Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell both offer several thousand funds alongside UK and international shares, ETFs and investment trusts. Fidelity’s range is broad on funds but narrower on individual shares. Vanguard is the outlier: you can only buy Vanguard’s own roughly 85 funds, which is a real limitation if you ever want to hold individual shares or another manager’s fund, but not much of a loss if you’re building a simple index portfolio.

App quality and customer service

Hargreaves Lansdown has the largest customer base and the most developed research tools, which suits investors who want data and analysis alongside their trading. AJ Bell’s app is straightforward and has been recognised by Which? for several years running, without trying to be a full research platform. Interactive investor’s strength is its content and community features rather than a flashy interface. Vanguard’s app is deliberately simple, reflecting its narrow fund range, and that simplicity is arguably a feature rather than a limitation for buy-and-hold investors.

If slick mobile design matters most to you, it’s worth trying each provider’s demo or free trial period where available, since “quality” here is genuinely subjective and changes with app updates more often than fee schedules do.

Cheapest SIPP UK: a worked example

Take a £75,000 SIPP invested in a mix of funds and shares, with 12 trades a year. On AJ Bell, you’d pay roughly £120 in share account charges (hitting the annual cap) plus around £60 in dealing, for about £180 a year. On an interactive investor’s Core plan, you’d pay £71.88 in the flat fee plus £47.88 in dealing (12 trades at £3.99), for about £120 a year. On Hargreaves Lansdown, the 0.35% fee on funds alone could run to over £260 depending on the fund/share split, plus dealing.

This is exactly why “cheapest SIPP UK” doesn’t have one answer: at £75,000 with moderate trading, interactive investor edges ahead; at £15,000 with occasional trading, AJ Bell would be notably cheaper than ii’s flat fee. Use each provider’s own charges calculator with your actual numbers before deciding, since small differences in fund mix or trade frequency shift the result.

FAQs

What is the best SIPP provider in the UK? 

There’s no single best SIPP provider, it depends on your pot size and how you invest. AJ Bell tends to suit contributors with £20,000 to £250,000 who invest regularly, interactive investors suit larger, share-heavy portfolios thanks to its flat monthly fee, and Vanguard suits simple, passive index investors who don’t need individual shares.

What is the cheapest SIPP in the UK? 

For small pots, Vanguard or AJ Bell tend to be cheapest, since both charge low percentage fees with no minimum monthly cost above a certain threshold. For larger pots, interactive investor’s flat £5.99 to £14.99 a month usually undercuts percentage-fee platforms once your balance passes roughly £50,000 to £100,000.

Can I have more than one SIPP? 

Yes. There’s no legal limit on the number of SIPPs you can hold, though your total contributions across all pensions still count towards the same £60,000 annual allowance for 2026/27, according to HMRC. Some people split providers to diversify platform risk or access different fund ranges.

How much can I pay into a SIPP each year? 

The standard annual allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27, or 100% of your UK earnings if that’s lower, according to HMRC. Non-earners can still contribute up to £3,600 a year gross. High earners with adjusted income above £260,000 see this allowance tapered down to as little as £10,000.

When can I access my SIPP? 

You can normally start drawing your SIPP from age 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028. Up to 25% can usually be taken tax-free, subject to the lump sum allowance of £268,275, with the rest taxed as income when withdrawn.

Do SIPP platforms charge exit fees? 

Most of the major providers compared here, including AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity and Vanguard, don’t charge to transfer your SIPP out. Charles Stanley Direct is an exception if you close the account within two years of opening it, so check the small print if you might switch soon.

Is a SIPP better than a workplace pension? 

Not necessarily; they do different jobs. A workplace pension usually comes with employer contributions, which a SIPP doesn’t, so it’s rarely sensible to opt out of one to open a SIPP instead. A SIPP makes most sense as a place for old pensions you’ve consolidated, or for extra saving alongside a workplace scheme, where you want more control over what you invest in.

What happens to my SIPP when I die? 

Your SIPP can normally be passed to your beneficiaries, and pensions generally sit outside your estate for inheritance tax purposes, though the rules around this are under review and can change. Death benefits are usually paid according to a nomination form you complete with your provider, so keep it updated.