In this comparison, I’ll be looking at Nutmeg vs Moneybox, two leading digital investment platforms in the UK.

I’ll be putting Nutmeg and Moneybox head-to-head on a number of metrics to see which comes out on top. This includes portfolio performance, ethical offerings, products and, of course, fees.

Most people want to get the best possible return on their money for the least cost. As an experienced investor and a Chartered Accountant, I know how important it is to balance costs against returns!

Read on for my full Nutmeg vs Moneybox comparison, or use the links below to jump straight to a particular section.

• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: At A Glance
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Fees
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Products
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Portfolios
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Ethical Portfolios
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Performance
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Research, Tools & Advice
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Which Has The Better App?
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Is My Money Safe?
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Pros & Cons
• Nutmeg vs Moneybox: The Winner

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Nutmeg vs Moneybox: At A Glance

Here’s my overview of Nutmeg vs Moneybox in case you don’t want to read the whole comparison. The table below looks at the key features compared against each other:

Nutmeg is a robo-advisor investment platform that offers a wide range of portfolios to choose from. This includes its 10 core actively managed portfolios, 10 ethical portfolio options, 5 lower-cost fixed allocation portfolios and 5 Smart Alpha portfolios. 

Moneybox doesn’t come close to this choice of ready-made portfolios to choose from with only 3 on offer. Each of these has an ethical option too.

However, with Moneybox you can create your own investment portfolio by picking which funds to allocate your investment to. If you’re a more experienced investor you may like this option. 

You can also invest in individual US stocks and shares rather than picking funds, and it’s commission-free with Moneybox’s Stocks & Shares ISA. There is, however, a 0.45% currency conversion fee from GBP into USD when purchasing US shares. 

If you want more input over your investments then you’ll prefer Moneybox, as you’re unable to buy individual stocks or customise your portfolio with Nutmeg beyond choosing a risk level.

However, Nutmeg offers what it calls Smart Alpha portfolios. These are actively managed investment portfolios put together with the knowledge and experience of JP Morgan Asset Management, which owns Nutmeg.

These have been shown to often outperform Nutmeg’s standard actively managed portfolios. The management fee is the same for Smart Alpha portfolios but they have slightly higher fund costs.

In addition, Nutmeg offers personal financial advice. You can speak to a regulated professional financial advisor who will give you personalised advice based on your specific financial situation and goals. 

You may prefer Nutmeg if you feel you would benefit from professional advice to suit your individual needs. It costs £575 plus VAT.

On the other hand, Moneybox is more than just an investment app. It has a wide range of personal finance features and services, including money management and round-up and automated savings tools.

There’s also a greater product range with Moneybox. You can open savings accounts if you don’t want to invest your money into the market. It also provides Lifetime ISAs in both cash and stocks & shares, whereas Nutmeg only offers a Stocks & Shares LISA.

Overall, Moneybox offers a broader range of personal finance and investing options than Nutmeg, but does not offer as extensive a range of ready-made portfolios to invest in. 

With Nutmeg you also have the option of speaking to a professional financial advisor, which Moneybox does not offer.

What is Nutmeg?

Nutmeg is a robo-advisor investment platform, founded in 2011. It offers a wide range of ready-made investment portfolios backed by algorithms that observe the market and seek to optimise performance over time. JP Morgan Chase acquired Nutmeg in 2021, so you’re backed by that additional expertise.

Nutmeg claims to be the largest digital wealth manager in the UK and it has over 150,000 clients. It markets itself as a transparent and jargon-free way of investing.

Like other robo-advisors, it invests primarily in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which keeps its costs relatively low, and allows you to invest based on the level of risk you prefer. 

Unlike other robo-advisors, Nutmeg offers personalised financial advice which will benefit you if you want guidance on your investing journey.

Check out my in-depth Nutmeg review for more.

What is Moneybox?

Moneybox is a personal finance and investing app that was founded in 2016. Its aim was to allow more people to access wealth building and financial planning services and knowledge.

In 2023 it now has more than half a million users and offers a wide range of personal finance and investing features

This includes a robo-advisor investment offering, similar to Nutmeg, as well as savings accounts and home buying services.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Fees

Let’s look in more detail at the all-important costs for Moneybox vs Nutmeg. It’s common for investors to stick with one provider for a number of years and end up paying much higher fees and charges than necessary.

Moneybox has a simple fee structure – it charges 0.45% on all investments (except for over £100k in a SIPP), no matter how much you have invested. There’s also a £1 per month subscription fee, but this is waived for your first 3 months.

Nutmeg has a tiered fee structure, charging 0.75% on investments under £100k and 0.35% on any portion of investments above £100k:

Due to Moneybox’s subscription fee of £1 per month, or £12 per year, it means that the more you invest the lower the fee becomes in percentage terms. For small investment amounts, the £1 per month fee can eat into your account balance.

For example, over 12 months the annual fee of £12 with £1,000 invested works out to a charge of 1.2%. Added to Moneybox’s platform charge of 0.45%, this is a total fee (before fund costs) of 1.65%.

But if you have £10,000 invested for a year the subscription fee equates to a charge of 0.12%. Combined with the platform fee, this comes to a total of 0.57%. 

You won’t be charged any fees if your investment account balance with Moneybox is zero.

Nutmeg has two tiers for management fees. If you invest less than £100k, it charges 0.75%. Above £100k it charges 0.35% on the portion beyond £100k. It’s not straightforward to compare fees for Moneybox vs Nutmeg because of Moneybox’s monthly subscription fee.

However, when it comes to management fees, investing up to around £5k is cheaper with Nutmeg. If you’re investing more than around £5k, Moneybox is cheaper.

Nutmeg’s fixed allocation portfolios, which are rebalanced only once per year, are equal on cost to Moneybox up to £100k. Above £100k, Nutmeg’s fixed allocation is cheaper. But as fixed allocation portfolios are not actively managed, returns may be lower. Moneybox does not currently offer fixed allocation portfolios.

Ethical investing has the same management charges as standard actively managed portfolios with both Nutmeg and Moneybox. Fund costs are slightly higher with both when it comes to ethical portfolios, though.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Products

Nutmeg and Moneybox both offer stocks and shares ISAs, General Investment Accounts (GIAs), Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and Junior ISAs (JISAs).

They both also offer Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISAs (LISAs), but Moneybox also provides a cash LISA. Overall, Moneybox offers a wider range of products than Nutmeg as it also offers Super Saver and Notice savings accounts.

Moneybox also now offers home-buying products, including mortgage advice and a broker service. You can integrate your saving and investing goals with your house buying goals in the Moneybox app. 

For example, you’re able to set a deposit goal in the app and it will track how much you need to save or invest and how long it will take to reach it.

The integration of these wider personal finance features with saving and investing products make the Moneybox app one of the most innovative on the market at the moment. 

However, one service that Nutmeg offers but Moneybox doesn’t is personalised financial advice. 

For a fee of £575 plus VAT, you can speak to a professional, regulated financial advisor who will go through your financial needs and goals with you. If you’re an inexperienced investor, or think that you would like the guidance of a professional, you may prefer Nutmeg for this reason.

While Nutmeg doesn’t have as many products as Moneybox, it’s a specialist robo-advisor with a wider range of portfolios to choose from. More below under Portfolios.

Another Moneybox feature is that it allows you to invest in individual US stocks and shares through its commission free trading feature. Although there’s no commission on buying and selling shares, there is a 0.45% currency conversion fee when converting your money from GBP into USD to purchase the shares.

Offering the ability to buy and sell US stocks without commission allows Moneybox to compete with other investment apps in the UK that allow you to do this too. You can also invest in fractional shares from just £1 if you cannot afford to buy a whole share outright. 

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Portfolios

Moneybox offers 3 ready-made portfolios to choose from, each with differing risk levels: Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous. 

Nutmeg’s fully managed offering has more portfolios to choose from with 10, each also with a different risk level. Although Nutmeg doesn’t have the product range of Moneybox, it does offer more investment portfolio options.

As Nutmeg is owned by JP Morgan, it also offers Smart Alpha portfolios which have been put together with expertise and knowledge from JP Morgan Asset Management. Historically, these portfolios have shown higher returns than Nutmeg’s standard fully managed portfolios.

This is perhaps one of the main benefits of Nutmeg vs Moneybox, as Nutmeg has a deep pool of investment expertise behind it thanks to its association with JP Morgan.

Although Moneybox lacks the range of portfolios of Nutmeg, it does allow you to create your own investment portfolio. You can choose from a range of mutual funds to build your own portfolio. If you’re a more experienced investor you may prefer this option.

Overall though, Nutmeg has a far more extensive choice of ready-made portfolios for you to choose from, catering for a wide range of risk levels.

Both Nutmeg and Moneybox offer ethical/socially responsible investing options. Read on for more on ethical investing.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Ethical Portfolios

Most robo-advisors offer some method of ethical investing as investors increasingly want to ensure that their money is invested into companies and industries that align with their values.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, is a growing area. So it’s no surprise that both Moneybox and Weathify offer a range of SRI options.

Both Nutmeg and Moneybox use the term Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). Each of their offerings are created using Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the same way as Nutmeg and Moneybox’s standard actively managed portfolios. 

The difference is that the specific ETFs chosen for SRI portfolios must comply with socially responsible investment criteria as defined by the fund provider.

Nutmeg offers 10 ethical portfolios to choose from, each representing different risk levels in the same way its regular fully managed portfolios are arranged. This is also the case for Moneybox which has an SRI option for each of its 3 portfolios: Cautious, Balanced and Adventurous.

You can customise your ethical portfolio with Moneybox by picking which ETFs you want to invest in. So if you want to pick your own ESG funds from those on offer, you may prefer Moneybox to Nutmeg.

When it comes to cost, both Nutmeg and Moneybox charge their usual management fees for SRI investments.

However, ESG fund costs tend to be higher across the market. With Moneybox, its SRI funds have the same cost range of 0.12%-0.58% as its regular funds. However you can expect its ESG funds to be closer to the upper end of this range, e.g. L&G’s Clean Water ETF has a fund charge of 0.54%.

Nutmeg’s ethical fund charges are slightly higher than non-ethical funds at 0.30%, which in many cases is a bit lower than Moneybox’s.

Overall, Nutmeg has the greater range to choose from when it comes to ethical investing, but Moneybox allows you to customise your portfolio.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Performance

Given that Nutmeg offers 10 portfolios and Moneybox has 3, a direct comparison of performance is a little difficult. Nutmeg also has 5 Smart Alpha portfolios.

So let’s look at how the lowest risk, medium risk and highest risk portfolios with each provider compared against each other for 2022, including Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha:

It’s important to note that 2022 was not a good time for investors. Energy prices, a cost-of-living crisis, high inflation and rising interest rates, particularly in Western economies, caused sell-offs in many major stock markets.

For context, the S&P500 in the US lost 18% during 2022 and the pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 12.5%. The UK’s FTSE100 fared better, posting a small 0.9% return for 2022. With that in mind, comparing Moneybox’s returns to Nutmeg for 2022 is about which lost the least value.

Compared to the table above, this shows that simple index fund investing does not always deliver a higher return than actively managed funds. 

If you’d invested in an index fund tracking the S&P500 in 2022, you’d have lost 18% (including dividends) compared to a loss of just over 9% in the higher risk portfolios of Nutmeg or Moneybox.

For more on how Nutmeg’s returns compared to simple index investing, read my Nutmeg review.

On the face of it, comparing actively managed portfolios of Moneybox vs Nutmeg’s, Moneybox performed better at the medium risk level. Performance was broadly similar at the lowest and highest risk levels. 

Interestingly, Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha portfolios performed worse than Moneybox in 2022 at the lowest and medium risk levels. They were again broadly similar at the highest risk level. 

However, this is not a scientific analysis and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

For added context, let’s also look at performance for 2019 for Nutmeg vs Moneybox, which was the last full-year before the covid pandemic:

Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha portfolios launched in 2021, so we don’t have as much historical data to compare. Here’s how they fared in 2021 vs Moneybox:

In 2019, Moneybox appears to have outperformed Nutmeg at all risk levels. However, Nutmeg has a greater range of portfolios. 

For example, Nutmeg’s fully managed portfolio Risk Level 2 achieved a return of 5.4% in 2019, which was closer to Moneybox’s Cautious performance, albeit still lower.

In 2021, Moneybox was still able to outperform Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha portfolios at the low and medium risk levels. They were on par at the highest risk level.

Which portfolio you fall into with Nutmeg or Moneybox is down to your own personal circumstances and risk appetite. 

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Research, Tools and Advice

Nutmeg is a robo-advisor, so it’s no surprise that it doesn’t have the level of research options and tools that more traditional investment platforms have.

However, Nutmeg offers a range of tools such as calculators for pensions, compound returns, ISAs and self-employed tax. It also has a range of investing guides on its website as well as breakdowns of the past performance of its portfolios. 

You can also get personal financial advice from a regulated professional advisor through Nutmeg. It costs £575 plus VAT and you will get a bespoke financial plan for your own individual circumstances and goals. If you have more complex financial needs, or simply want professional guidance, Nutmeg could be a good option for you.

Although it doesn’t have a huge amount of investing tools compared to some trading platforms, Moneybox offers more personal finance features. The Moneybox app has a range of money management tools, including a round-up feature which can help to automate your investing. 

Moneybox also offers home-buying tools and mortgage advice, but does not provide regulated financial advice. But if you want a more well-rounded personal finance app then you may prefer Moneybox vs Nutmeg.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Which Has The Better App?

Nutmeg’s app has a clean interface and is easy to navigate. On the home screen you can clearly see your investments and portfolios, including how they’ve performed over time.

You can also contact support through the app using Nutmeg’s chat feature. This is useful if you have any questions or if something goes wrong as you can be quickly connected to customer service.

Nutmeg’s app is useful for checking your investments but it doesn’t offer too much else. With Moneybox you get a more comprehensive personal finance app, with money management features which you may be familiar with from digital banking apps.

This includes round-up spending, savings goals & budgeting and automated investing features. You can also browse individual US stocks and shares if you have a Stocks & Shares ISA with Moneybox.

Another difference with Moneybox vs Nutmeg is that you can log in to your account through Nutmeg’s website. With Moneybox, it’s completely app-only so you’ll need to be comfortable with just using the app if you sign up.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Is My Money Safe?

Both Nutmeg and Moneybox are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and have Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection.

This means that if either company were to go bust, your money would be protected up to the value of £85,000 by the regulator. 

It should be noted that some of the funds offered by Moneybox are located outside of the UK and therefore are not covered by FSCS protection. For example, the Global Shares ESG fund is based in Ireland.

Both Nutmeg and Moneybox say that they use sophisticated encryption to keep your data safe. 

Nutmeg is owned by JP Morgan, one of the largest financial institutions in the world. You may get more peace of mind knowing that your investments with Nutmeg have the backing of a much larger and more experienced investment company.

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: Pros & Cons

To summarise my comparison of Nutmeg vs Moneybox, I’ve outlined below what the main pros and cons of each investment platform:

Nutmeg Pros & Cons

Nutmeg Pros

• Lower cost investing vs Moneybox if you invest under £5k
• No monthly fee
• Extensive range of ready-made portfolios compared to Moneybox
• Low-cost fixed allocation portfolios
• Access to Smart Alpha portfolios put together with JP Morgan Asset Management
• Personal regulated finance advice for your individual needs
• Intuitive and easy-to-use app
• Regular market updates through its website and in the app
• Backed by JP Morgan, one the largest financial institutions in the world

Nutmeg Cons

• On the flip side, it’s a more expensive option compared to Moneybox if you have more than £5k to invest
• Unable to customise your portfolio
• Underperformed Moneybox in 2022 for medium risk portfolios. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance, though
• Lack of wider products (e.g. savings accounts) and features vs Moneybox

Moneybox Pros & Cons

Moneybox Pros

• Lower platform/management fees than Nutmeg when investing more than £5,000
• Start investing from just £1
• Low platform fee of 0.15% if investing over £100k in a pension (SIPP)
• Wider range of products to choose from including multiple savings accounts
• Customisable portfolios
• Home-buying features, including mortgage broker
• More comprehensive personal finance app
• Access to commission free US stocks and shares trading with a Stocks & Shares ISA
• Better 2022 performance vs Nutmeg in the medium risk categories, but past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance

Moneybox Cons

• On the flip side, it has higher fees than Nutmeg if you’re investing under £5,000 thanks to its monthly £1 subscription fee
• Has fewer portfolios to choose from (only 3 vs Nutmeg’s 10 portfolios)
• No low-cost fixed allocation portfolios
• Does not offer regulated financial advice

Nutmeg vs Moneybox: The Winner

If it’s a robo-advisor that you want, then Nutmeg offers the widest choice of ready-made portfolios to choose from. 

Nutmeg is owned by JP Morgan, which may give you more peace of mind knowing that your investments are backed by one of the largest financial institutions in the world. 

As it’s owned by JP Morgan, you also get access to its Smart Alpha portfolios put together by experts from JP Morgan Asset Management. 

Moneybox doesn’t offer nearly as much choice when it comes to ready-made portfolios, with only 3 vs Nutmeg’s 10. 

But you can build your own investment portfolio by choosing which ETFs you want to invest in, therefore giving you more input over your investments with Moneybox vs Nutmeg. 

You’ll also get a wider range of products and features with Moneybox than with Nutmeg. This includes various savings accounts and both cash and stocks & shares Lifetime ISAs. With Nutmeg you can open a Stocks & Shares LISA but not a cash LISA.

On top of this, you can invest in individual US stocks and shares with a Moneybox investment ISA account, including fractional shares from just £1.

Beyond investing, Moneybox also offers home-buying services. This includes auto-investing features which you can use to help build your deposit on a property, as well as a mortgage broker service.

Overall, Nutmeg has a much greater choice for a pure robo-investment platform, and is generally cheaper if investing under £5k.

Although Moneybox lacks the choice of ready-made portfolios, it has a much wider range of features beyond just robo-investing. If you want a more comprehensive personal finance and investing app then you’ll prefer Moneybox. It’s also cheaper if investing more than £5k.

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