Trading 212’s AutoInvest Pies work fully inside the Stocks & Shares ISA. You can set up a recurring automated split across multiple ETFs — all sheltered from capital gains and income tax.

Lightyear’s Plans feature — its equivalent — is currently available in the GIA and business accounts only. It does not yet work inside the ISA. For UK investors who specifically want automated, goal-based investing inside an ISA, this is a meaningful advantage for Trading 212 right now. Lightyear has indicated ISA support for Plans is planned in a future update.

Lightyear’s Savings Vault is an investment in a money market fund — not a deposit. This means higher potential yield (especially on GBP and USD at 4.0% APY), but it is categorically not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme. In practice, AAA-rated BlackRock money market funds are extremely low risk, but the regulatory structure is different from a bank deposit.

Trading 212’s cash interest is closer to a bank-like model — though Trading 212 is not a bank either, and does not carry €100,000 deposit insurance the way Trade Republic does. For most retail investors the practical risk difference is very small. But it is worth knowing before you choose.

If you’ve already decided on 1–2 UCITS ETFs (e.g. a MSCI World acc tracker and perhaps a global bond ETF), Lightyear’s catalogue covers everything you need and the FX savings on UK accounts or the Savings Vault rates on GBP/USD may well tip the balance.

If you’re still in the research phase — comparing TERs across equivalent ETFs, exploring factor strategies, or building a more complex multi-asset allocation — Trading 212’s broader catalogue is the better environment to work in. You can always move later. See our guide to how to choose a world ETF for the selection framework.

Lightyear holds EUR, GBP, and USD as separate wallets within your account. If you fund the relevant currency wallet directly via bank transfer — depositing euros into your EUR wallet, pounds into your GBP wallet — you bypass the FX conversion fee entirely on any trade denominated in that same currency.

In practice, for an EU investor buying EUR-denominated UCITS ETFs: deposit euros directly, buy the ETF. All-in execution cost is zero — no FX conversion, no commission. For a UK investor buying USD-denominated assets: deposit GBP, buy GBP-priced ETFs, or convert once to USD at 0.1% and hold the USD wallet for future US purchases.

Trading 212 does not have equivalent multi-currency wallets in the same structural sense. FX is applied at the point of each trade and cannot be sidestepped by pre-funding in the trade currency. Over time — especially for higher-volume investors — this structural difference adds up.

In practice, for a buy-and-hold investor making monthly contributions into broad UCITS ETFs, the execution quality difference between PFOF and direct routing is usually very small — measured in fractions of a penny per unit. It is not a dealbreaker on its own.

Where it becomes more meaningful: high-frequency trading, large single orders, or assets with wider bid-ask spreads. For someone investing €300/month into a MSCI World ETF, the impact is negligible. For someone placing €50,000 in a single order, the difference between market maker and direct exchange routing starts to matter. At that scale, consider Interactive Brokers instead of either platform.

For EU-based investors, Trading 212 wins on headline FX cost: 0.15% versus Lightyear’s 0.35% for EU accounts. On regular EUR-to-USD conversions for buying USD-priced assets, that’s more than double the FX drag. Over a decade of monthly investing, it compounds meaningfully.

Trading 212 also has a far wider ETF catalogue (12,000+ vs ~360) and generally better automation features. For EU investors, it is the more complete platform today.

Where Lightyear still wins for EU investors: the Savings Vault delivers 1.9% APY on EUR uninvested cash (versus Trading 212’s lower EUR rate), and the multi-currency wallet structure lets you bypass FX entirely by funding your EUR wallet directly via SEPA. If you invest exclusively in EUR-priced UCITS ETFs and deposit via bank transfer, your all-in Lightyear FX cost is zero. The Plans feature is also genuinely useful for goal-based investing. But as a default pick for EU investors making regular EUR→USD conversions, Trading 212 is cheaper.

For UK investors, Lightyear’s 0.1% FX rate is the lowest at any neobroker — lower than Trading 212’s 0.15% and significantly lower than most alternatives. If you regularly buy international stocks or USD-priced ETFs inside your ISA, that difference adds up over time.

Lightyear also pays 4.0% APY on GBP uninvested cash via the Savings Vault — one of the highest rates available at any UK investment platform. The UK ISA is available, with free ETF trading and the same 0.1% FX rate inside.

Where Trading 212 wins for UK investors: AutoInvest Pies work inside the ISA (Lightyear’s Plans don’t yet), the Cash ISA pays more (4.51% AER vs 3.75%), it has a much wider ETF catalogue, and it has live chat support. If your priority is automated investing inside an ISA with one-click rebalancing, Trading 212 is the more complete tool right now.