UK D2C market growth is running “much faster” than the adviser platforms market, according to Platforum‘s latest ‘UK D2C: Investor Experience’ report, the final instalment in its 2026 UK D2C series. The findings carry real implications for self-directed investors managing their own ISAs or SIPPs, particularly those watching platform costs erode their long-term returns.
Neo-Brokers Drive UK D2C Market Growth With Mobile-First Appeal
The headline numbers are difficult to ignore. Trading 212 and InvestEngine both recorded customer growth of 50% year-on-year, while Freetrade almost doubled its user base. According to Trust Intelligence, Freetrade has now built a following of 1.6 million users, a scale that puts meaningful competitive pressure on longer-established names.
Jeremy Fawcett, head of Platforum, attributes the neo-brokers’ momentum to the popularity of ‘free’ investing delivered through mobile apps. “The UK D2C market is growing rapidly but the neo-brokers are getting most traction because of the popularity of ‘free’ investing via cutting edge mobile apps,” he said. That pull towards low-cost, app-driven platforms is shaping how the whole market behaves.
Established players have responded accordingly. Hargreaves Lansdown and Barclays Direct Investing have both reduced charges, and the effect is already measurable: the average self-directed investor is now paying 19% less for their investment account than a year ago. Fawcett described this as an industry forced to respond “with more competitive charging and better UX.”
For investors focused on capital preservation and income reliability, this price compression is broadly welcome. Lower platform costs improve net returns over any horizon without requiring a change in risk posture. Over a five-to-ten-year accumulation or drawdown period, a sustained reduction in annual charges compounds into a material difference in portfolio outcomes. The caveat, as ever, is that ‘free’ or very low-cost services may carry trade-offs in functionality, research quality, or the range of assets available, all of which matter when constructing a diversified portfolio.
Targeted Support and the Advice Gap: A ‘Test and Learn’ Moment
Platforum’s report also identifies broad industry interest in targeted support, a mechanism designed to help bridge the advice gap for investors who fall below the threshold for full financial advice. D2C services, pension providers, banks and advice firms are all taking versions of it to market, though Fawcett is careful to frame the current moment as a “test and learn” opportunity rather than a settled solution.
“It’s not an immediate priority, but some larger firms see it as a potential solution for lower-value clients, both those already on their books and new clients they hope to attract and nurture into future candidates for holistic advice,” Fawcett said. Financial advisers, he noted, remain sceptical about targeted support’s relevance to their own businesses.
That scepticism is understandable from a professional-advice standpoint, but for the self-directed investor in or approaching retirement, the question is what targeted support can practically deliver. Sequence-of-returns risk, drawdown planning and tax-wrapper strategy are not straightforward to address through digital prompts alone. Whether the services now entering this space can meaningfully support those decisions remains an open question, and investors should assess any such tool against the complexity of their own circumstances rather than treating it as a substitute for considered planning.
D2C platforms collectively held £530 billion in assets in Q1, a figure that underlines how much of the UK’s self-directed savings is now channelled through these services. As UK D2C market growth continues to outpace the adviser channel, the competitive dynamics shaping platform pricing and service design will matter increasingly to anyone managing their own long-term portfolio.
