Trade Republic vs Trading 212 vs Lightyear (2026)
Three popular EU brokers head-to-head for a solopreneur investing the business surplus — savings plans, cash interest, costs and who each one actually suits. Honest, not advice.
Solopreneur (20 years) · marketer & investor · 24 June 2026 · updated 24 June 2026 · 5 min read
When your one-person business finally throws off more than the tax set-aside and buffer need, you reach the same question every solo hits: where does the surplus actually go? Three apps come up again and again in Europe — Trade Republic, Trading 212 and Lightyear. They overlap a lot: all three are low-cost, app-first and built for people who want to invest in diversified ETFs and get back to work, not stare at charts. This is a head-to-head on the things that matter to a business of one — savings plans, cash interest, costs and who each one genuinely suits.
How I compared them
From a solo’s chair, not a day-trader’s. The questions I cared about: can I automate “invest the surplus every month” and forget it; are the costs low and transparent; can the idle tax-and-buffer cash earn something in the same app; and is EU access and regulation clean? Bells and whistles for active trading are not the point — for a time-poor business of one, the best broker is the one you can set up once and stop thinking about.
A word on the numbers below: they’re directional, not a price sheet. Headline costs, savings-plan terms and cash-interest rates move, and they differ by country and currency. I’m honest about the shape of each platform and deliberately won’t quote exact fees or rates — confirm those on each provider’s own page for your residence before you act. One more honest caveat: this is one solo’s read, not a statistically-sampled review.
The three at a glance
| Platform | Best for | Savings plans | Cash on idle money | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Republic | Mobile-first ETF savings plans | Yes (recurring, often free) | Interest on cash | App-only, deliberately minimal |
| Trading 212 | Beginner auto-invest (“Pies”) | Via Pies (auto-invest baskets) | Interest on cash | Has a separate CFD product — avoid it |
| Lightyear | EU all-rounder: ETFs + cash | Yes (recurring) | Money-market funds (MMFs) | Simple by design — no active-trading depth |
The three, head to head
Trade Republic
Trade Republic is the mainstream German mobile broker, and the one I’d hand to a solo who just wants to automate the surplus. The killer feature for a business of one is recurring ETF savings plans — often free — which turn “invest consistently” from a monthly decision into a standing instruction you never touch. Trades are a low flat fee, there’s interest on uninvested cash, and the app is deliberately minimal: no trading cockpit to get lost in. That minimalism is a feature here, not a limitation. The honest caveat is that it’s app-only and pared back — if you want a desktop dashboard or exotic instruments, look elsewhere. Check it covers your country before you commit.
Trading 212
Trading 212 is the most beginner-friendly of the three. Plain stock and ETF investing is commission-free, there’s interest on cash, and the standout is Pies — auto-investing baskets you define once, then drip money into on a schedule, with the split rebalanced for you. For a solo who finds the whole thing intimidating, Pies make “set it and forget it” genuinely easy. One firm caveat, and it matters: Trading 212 also offers a CFD product — leveraged trading where most retail accounts lose money. That’s a different, high-risk activity and not what you’re here for. Stay strictly on the plain Invest side and you have a clean, simple platform; treat the CFD side as a door you don’t open.
Lightyear
Lightyear is the one I’d point most EU solos to as an all-rounder. It’s an Estonian-built, EU-regulated app that keeps investing simple and low cost — stocks and ETFs you can buy and leave alone, with recurring plans to automate it — but its edge for a business of one is money-market funds for cash. That means the idle tax set-aside and emergency buffer can earn interest in the same app, without entering the market, and multi-currency accounts suit anyone invoicing clients abroad. It isn’t built for active traders or niche instruments — which is exactly why it fits a solo who wants the surplus invested and the buffer working, in one place, with minimum fuss.
Which should you choose
The honest answer is that for a buy-and-hold solo investing a modest monthly surplus, all three are defensible — the differences are smaller in practice than the marketing suggests. Pick on how you want to operate:
- You want to automate ETF savings plans and forget them? Trade Republic. Recurring plans in a minimal mobile app is its whole reason to exist.
- You’re a nervous beginner who wants the easiest hands-off setup? Trading 212. Pies make consistent auto-investing genuinely simple — just stay off the CFD side.
- You also want the idle cash buffer to earn something in the same place, EU-wide? Lightyear. The money-market funds for cash are the differentiator for a solo juggling tax money and a buffer.
Two things matter more than the app you land on. First, the order: tax set-aside, then buffer, then surplus — get the sequence right and the broker is the last decision, not the first. Second, regulation protects you against the broker failing, not against the market falling. All three are EU/UK-regulated and typically hold client assets under investor-protection schemes up to a limit — but that’s broker-failure cover. Market risk is always yours, and no app changes that.
If the bigger picture is what you’re really after — robo options, larger sums, global markets — this trio sits inside a wider field; see the full best investing platforms for EU solopreneurs round-up. And if the surplus you’re investing is meant to do long-term work, weigh it against a proper pension for the self-employed too — the wrapper can move the number more than the app does. Confirm your country’s tax treatment before you open anything. The app is the easy part.