New Zealand investors are well-served in 2026. Multiple regulated, low-cost platforms compete for your business — but “best” depends entirely on what you want to invest in and how you invest. This guide breaks it down.
Index funds: InvestNow has the lowest fund fees here (Foundation Series from 0.03%); Kernel charges 0.25% with a $1 minimum and auto-invest. NZX/ASX/US shares: Sharesies covers all three markets from $1. US stocks: Tiger Brokers from USD$1.99 per trade; Stake and Hatch at $3 per trade. Portfolio tracking: Sharesight is a tracking layer, not a platform. Which suits you depends on what you want to hold and how often you trade; many investors use 2–3 platforms for different purposes.
Full Platform Comparison
Platforms are listed alphabetically.
| Platform | Platform fee | Transaction fee | Shares | Funds | Min | Main focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatch | $0 | $3/trade | ✅ US/AU | ❌ | $1 | US and AU shares |
| InvestNow | $0 | $0 | ❌ | 100+ | $250 | Index and managed funds |
| Kernel | $0 | $0 | ❌ | 28 | $1 | Kernel index funds, app |
| Sharesies | $0 ongoing (optional $3/$7/$15 monthly plans) | 1.9% per trade, capped ($25 NZD / $15 AUD / $5 USD) | ✅ NZX/ASX/US | Some | $1 | NZ/AU/US shares |
| Simplicity | $0 | $0 | ❌ | Simplicity only | $1,000 | Simplicity funds (0.10%–0.23%) |
| Smart (formerly Smartshares) | $0 | $0 (regular plan) | ✅ NZX ETFs | ✅ | $50/mo | NZX ETFs |
| Stake | $0 | $3/trade | ✅ US | ❌ | $0.01 | US stocks, USD wallet |
| Tiger Brokers | $0 | 0.3% NZX combined (min $4); from USD$1.99 US | ✅ NZX/US/HK | ❌ | $1 | NZX + US trading |
How Platforms Compare by Category
Lowest index fund fees: InvestNow
What it offers: Zero platform fee, no transaction fee on most funds (the Foundation Series index funds charge 0.50% to buy and 0.50% to sell), and InvestNow’s own Foundation Series from 0.03% p.a., the lowest fund fees in this comparison. Access to 100+ funds from different managers.
Downside: Primarily a web platform, minimum $250 lump sum.
Index funds with an app and auto-invest: Kernel
What it offers: Same $0 platform fee as InvestNow, 0.25% fund fees, a mobile app and auto-invest. KiwiSaver available in the same account. Fund explanation pages.
Downside: Only Kernel’s own funds (28 as at October 2026, including the diversified Conservative, Balanced and High Growth funds), so no access to Vanguard, Nikko, Harbour, or other managers. Slightly pricier than InvestNow Foundation Series.
NZX, ASX and US shares in one app: Sharesies
What it offers: Most NZ investors who own individual NZX shares use Sharesies. Large member community, fractional shares from $1, and company research tools in the app.
Downside: No ongoing platform fee, but a 1.9% per-trade brokerage fee (capped at $25 NZD per NZX order) applies to every trade unless you’re on a paid monthly plan with covered trading allowances (Tiger Brokers is cheaper for frequent traders).
Lowest US trading fees here: Tiger Brokers
What it offers: Tiger Brokers offers US stock trading from USD$1.99 per trade, which costs less than Sharesies (1.9% per trade, capped at $5 USD, plus 0.5% FX) for frequent traders. Also offers NZX trading at 0.3% combined commission + platform fee (min $4). Regulated by the FMA.
Downside: A more complex interface than Sharesies. Relatively new to NZ.
→ Tiger Brokers NZ Review 2026
US stocks at a flat $3 per trade: Hatch and Stake
What they offer: Both offer access to US-listed shares and ETFs. Hatch (part of the FNZ Group) has operated in NZ for longer. Stake offers a USD wallet that avoids repeated FX conversions.
Downside: Both charge $3/trade; Hatch’s FX fee is ~0.5% per conversion, while Stake charges ~1% once on NZD↔USD conversion (then trades freely in USD with no further FX). For very frequent traders, Tiger Brokers or Interactive Brokers is cheaper.
→ Hatch Review NZ 2026 · Stake NZ Review 2026
Lowest entry point: Kernel and Sharesies
Kernel: $1 minimum, $0 platform fee, fund explanation pages, auto-invest from the first session. Its diversified funds (such as High Growth) are single-fund options.
Sharesies: also $1 minimum, with more features (shares as well as funds), but the per-trade brokerage on small orders and the breadth of choice are worth weighing.
→ Starting out: what differs between platforms
Portfolio tracking: Sharesight
What it offers: Sharesight aggregates investments across multiple platforms into one dashboard, calculates performance, tracks dividends, and generates IRD-ready tax reports (including FIF reports for foreign investments). Not an investing platform: a tracking layer on top.
Starting Out: What Differs Between Platforms
For a first investment, the differences between platforms that show up soonest are:
- Minimum to start: from $0.01 (Stake) to $1,000 (Simplicity) across the platforms in the table above.
- Fees on small, regular amounts: a per-trade brokerage fee is charged on every contribution, while a fund’s management fee is a percentage of the balance. Sharesies’ pricing page (checked 14 October 2026) says “There’s no transaction fee on orders for managed funds (funds not listed on an exchange)”. Investment fees shows how each kind of fee adds up over time.
At Sharesies’ 1.9% transaction fee, a $200 monthly auto-invest into shares or exchange-traded funds would cost $3.80 per order, about $46 a year, before any monthly plan.
- How many choices you start with: a platform offering one provider’s funds (Kernel, Simplicity) has a shorter list than one offering 100+ funds from different managers (InvestNow) or individual shares (Hatch, Sharesies, Stake, Tiger Brokers).
- Auto-invest and an app: whether regular contributions can be set up once, and whether the platform is used through a mobile app or mainly on the web.
- Tax setup: each platform holding PIE funds asks for your PIR; shares held directly offshore fall under FIF tax above the threshold.
How much money you need to start investing covers starting amounts, and platform protection covers what happens if a platform fails.
Using More Than One Platform
Some investors use two platforms: a fund platform for regular index fund contributions and a share-trading platform for individual share trades. A portfolio tracker such as Sharesight can pull holdings from several platforms together. KiwiSaver is managed separately through a KiwiSaver provider.
Platform Safety
All platforms listed above are FMA-licensed and use custodial structures that ring-fence your investments from the platform’s own assets. No NZ investor has lost invested funds due to a platform failure. See What Happens If an Investment Platform Goes Bust NZ?
Tax Across Platforms
Whichever platform you use, you need to set your correct PIR rate for PIE funds. For US shares held directly, understand FIF tax before your overseas holdings exceed $50,000. Sharesight can generate FIF reports across all your accounts.
Where to check the latest data
Rates, fees and returns change often. Before deciding, check current figures yourself:
- Sorted Smart Investor: compares fees, returns and risk levels of KiwiSaver and managed funds.
- Disclose register: holds each fund's product disclosure statement and quarterly fund updates.
- Financial Service Providers Register: shows whether a provider is registered to offer financial services in New Zealand.
- The provider's own website: has its current rates, fees and full terms; these change more often than any comparison page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use multiple platforms at the same time? Yes — and many investors do. There’s no limit on how many FMA-licensed investment platforms you can use. Each platform operates independently; you just need to set your PIR on each one.
Which platform has the most users? Sharesies (as a group) has over 1,000,000 investors across New Zealand and Australia combined. InvestNow and Kernel don’t publicly disclose member numbers but are significantly smaller by user count.
How does Simplicity compare? Simplicity’s investment funds have low fees for NZ (0.23% p.a. on diversified funds from 1 October 2026, down from 0.24% since 1 September 2025 and 0.25% before that, with no member fee; as low as 0.10% on single-sector NZ funds). The $1,000 minimum is higher than Kernel or Sharesies. Compared with an active fund, the fee difference on a lump sum is real. Their investment funds are separate from their KiwiSaver.
Summary
| Feature | Platform |
|---|---|
| Lowest index fund fees in this comparison | InvestNow (Foundation Series) |
| Index funds from $1 with auto-invest | Kernel |
| NZX/ASX/US shares | Sharesies |
| Low-cost US stock trading | Tiger Brokers |
| Portfolio tracking | Sharesight |
| KiwiSaver + investments | Kernel |