Fee Comparisons for Australians
Compare Australian platforms and instruments on the fees they publish. Every figure is read at the source, dated, and linked, never lifted from someone else's comparison table.
Head to head
Two platforms at a time, on the same published figures, each one carried to the point where the answer actually changes hands.
Stake vs CommSec
Same CHESS custody, same 0.55% conversion, no account fee either side. Nothing left but the shape of the brokerage, and a flat A$3 against a ladder that reaches A$29.95.
moomoo vs Stake
The closest pair here: identical on ASX-only over ten years, to the dollar. Two narrow gaps decide it, and they pull in opposite directions.
Stake vs CMC Invest
CMC is free on ASX buys under A$1,000 and A$11 at A$1,000. One dollar a month changes the ten-year bill by A$1,320.
Pearler vs Stake
Both flat-fee, both CHESS. Stake is cheaper on the ASX outright, then a lower conversion rate puts Pearler ahead on US purchases above A$4,580.
Pearler vs Vanguard
Not a price fight. Free for Vanguard ETFs and A$1,957 over a decade for anything else, with no US market and no HIN in your name.
Pearler vs CommSec
The bank-owned platform is the cheaper one under A$1,000 an order. Above it that reverses, and the ten-year row turns on a single dollar.
Pearler vs Interactive Brokers
Twelve dollars apart over a decade on ASX shares. Then conversion opens a gap, a A$3 subscription closes it again, and only one gives you a HIN.
Next up
Super funds
Built from APRA's quarterly MySuper data, which publishes fees, returns and the annual performance test result for every product. A free, official, machine-readable feed that almost nobody uses well.
ETFs, head to head
VDHG against DHHF, IVV against VGS, hedged against unhedged. Management fees, holdings overlap, and what the difference costs you over a decade.
Budgeting and tracking apps
What each app connects to, what it costs, and whether it survives a bank changing its open banking feed. Because that is the day most of them quietly stop working.
Snowball does not compare credit or insurance products. That is deliberate: this pillar covers platforms and instruments on published fees only.
How to compare anything
Our how-to-compare guides cover credit cards, life insurance, home loans, super funds, health insurance and more. They teach what to weigh before you look at any table, including the products we do not compare.