Hargreaves Lansdown may be the most dominant retail-focused investment platform provider in the UK but it is by no means the only one available to investors.
Yet with others including Bestinvest, Interactive Investor, Charles Stanley Direct, The Share Centre and Fidelity FundsNetwork among a much larger number of providers all vying for investors’ cash on the grounds of lower fees, better customer service and larger fund choice, it can be hard to know which to choose.
Having already looked at how to identify which fund or trust you would like to invest in, the next step is to choose which platform you are going to use to purchase it.
A platform is an online supermarket, of sorts, where you can hold all of your investments in one basket including funds, trusts, shares and even your pension. 
However, the wide variety of platforms to choose from can sometimes seem quite daunting, so in this article FE Trustnet speaks to some industry professionals to see what advice they would give to first-time investors to help narrow down the choice.
Selecting the right one is an important decision for first-time investors because it will make the difference between a positive or not so positive investing experience, according to Informed Choice managing director Martin Bamford (pictured).
This is the fourth article in an ongoing series in which we address the basic principles of investing and help equip those who are new to the world of investments with the knowledge they need to make their first investment.
Does the platform have access to the right funds for you?
Platforms don’t all offer the same funds that you can invest in. Some will only offer a small number of funds, while others will offer thousands of funds and investments to choose from.
Bamford said that for first-time investors, it might be a good idea to keep it simple and choose a platform that only has the funds you want to invest in rather than those platforms that have thousands of choices.
“For many first-time investors, the right approach is to select just one or maybe a handful of low-cost index tracker funds,” he said.
“These can be used to start building a portfolio over time, by making regular investments and holding the funds for the long-term.
“Once a larger portfolio is accumulated, access to a wider range of funds in order to diversify the portfolio is more important.”
Costs: Percentage or set fee?
Cost is an important difference between the platforms available to choose from and the different fees charged can include administration, fund dealing, trust and share dealing, regular investing and dividend reinvestment fees.
Across these different charges, platforms will either charge a percentage of the value of your investments or they will charge a set fee.
Bamford said: “We recommend new investors choose a platform which charges a percentage of investments held with them, rather than a fixed annual amount. Paying a percentage charge will be lower cost for smaller investment portfolios.”
Costs: How many extras are you willing to pay for?
One thing all platforms should offer access to is essential reporting tools that allow investors to do their tax returns and monitor the performance of their investments, Bamford said.
He added that being able to access the right ISA tax wrapper is also important because this removes the need to declare income tax on your investments - something we will cover in more detail next week.
Some of the more expensive platforms come with lots of extras, so Pharon Independent Financial Advisers head of investments Andy O’Shea advised to make a list of all the tools, assets and investment vehicles you plan on using.
“There are many platforms offering multiple tax calculation, portfolio asset allocation tools etc, and the ability to invest in direct assets and a vast array of offshore assets and, the real doozies, inaccurate geographic and asset allocation pie charts,” he said.
“These tools and abilities do not come for free and they cost, therefore if you have no need for them why pay for them.”
O’Shea added that if you’re just looking for a platform to be an administration tool to hold some mainstream funds or trusts in an ISA, Bond, or Pension wrapper, then this can be achieved in a cost-effective way without having to pay higher charges for unnecessary extras.
He said: “Think of a platform as a car insurance policy, do you need a policy to provide you with sufficient legal cover to drive your vehicle, or do you want to add all the bolt on bits such as a personal claims handler as these come with added costs.”
Choose an established platform
Finally, O’Shea said first-time investors should choose a well-established and financially stable platform because this will reduce the chance of having to move assets over to another platform in the future, should your first choice prove financially unsustainable.
Choosing a platform for your investment trust 
One thing to bear in mind when choosing a platform if you’re planning on investing in investment trusts is that they do not cost the same as funds to buy and sell.
While funds are generally cheaper to deal, trusts cost the same as shares and are therefore typically more expensive to trade.
Because of this there are some different factors an investor may want to consider before choosing a platform through which to buy closed-ended funds.
As a shareholder of a trust, one of these differences is the ability to vote.
Table of platforms for investment trusts
Source: AIC
Ian Sayers (pictured), chief executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “Investors may also want to be able to vote with their shares easily and conveniently.
“Not all platforms offer shareholder voting and, even those that do, the ease sometimes varies a lot. Some platforms also charge to vote shares, though this is quite rare.”
He added: “It can be hard for investment company investors to decide which is the best platform for them, particularly when it comes to comparing costs and voting.”