Pearler vs Stake: Fees Compared for ASX and US Shares

These two are the purest price comparison in this pillar, because the things that normally decide a head-to-head are identical. Both are CHESS sponsored, so your ASX shares sit in your own name under your own HIN. Both charge a flat fee per order. Neither charges an account fee. That leaves exactly two moving parts, the brokerage and the currency conversion rate, and they pull in opposite directions.

The short version

Stake charges A$3 an order where Pearler charges A$6.50, on both markets, at every size priced here. Pearler converts currency at 0.50% where Stake charges 0.55%. Brokerage is a fixed amount but conversion is a percentage, so on a single US purchase the conversion eventually outweighs Pearler's brokerage gap. That point is A$4,580.

Over ten years at A$1,000 a month it is A$780 against A$360 on ASX-only, and A$1,380 against A$1,165 on US-only. Pearler Plus, optional at A$3 a month, adds A$360 to every Pearler figure and is excluded from all of them.

What one purchase costs on each

• Pearler charges A$6.50 flat per order, ASX or US, GST included. The US column adds its 0.50% conversion on top.
• Stake charges A$3 flat on ASX orders up to A$30,000, then 0.01%. On US orders it charges US$3 up to US$30,000, which is about A$4.21 at the 0.7126 rate used here.
• The US columns combine brokerage and conversion so you can compare them directly. Stake bills its US brokerage in US dollars and Pearler bills in Australian dollars, which is why the two headline numbers are not comparable at face value.

Where the two are identical

How your ASX shares are held. Both are CHESS sponsored, so your holdings go on the CHESS register under your own Holder Identification Number rather than into an account the platform owns. Moving brokers later is a transfer of your holdings, buy dates and cost base, not a sale. CHESS sponsorship explained covers the register.

Currency conversion. A conversion fee is a margin built into the exchange rate rather than a line on your contract note. Pearler charges 0.50% and Stake 0.55%, both with no minimum, so there is no floor to catch small conversions at either one. The mechanics are on the full nine-platform comparison.

Account fees. Neither charges one. No monthly fee, no inactivity fee, no minimum balance. Pearler Plus exists, it is optional and priced separately, and it gets its own section below.

On the ASX, Stake is cheaper at every size

On Australian shares there is nothing to calculate. One platform charges A$3 an order and the other A$6.50, at A$500 and at A$20,000, because neither price moves with the size of the trade.

Stake's A$3 applies up to A$30,000 of trade value, where 0.01% takes over, and because 0.01% of A$30,000 is exactly A$3, there is no jump at the threshold. Pearler's A$6.50 is flat with no threshold to track. Run it as a habit, A$1,000 a month for ten years, and Stake totals A$360 of brokerage against Pearler's A$780. That is the whole of the ASX comparison, and brokerage does all of it, because no currency changes hands on an Australian order.

On US shares, the lines cross at A$4,580

The US side is where this pair stops being simple, because the two fee lines point in different directions. Stake's US brokerage is US$3 an order, about A$4.21 at the RBA rate, against Pearler's A$6.50. So Stake starts A$2.29 ahead on every US order. Then conversion runs the other way: Pearler at 0.50% against Stake at 0.55%, a gap of five basis points. On a A$500 purchase that gap is A$0.25. On a A$20,000 purchase it is A$10.00. It grows by A$0.50 for every extra A$1,000 converted, while Stake's A$2.29 head start stays fixed.

Divide A$2.29 by A$0.50 per A$1,000 and you get A$4,580. Below that, on a single US purchase, Stake's all-in figure is lower. Above it, Pearler's is. At A$5,000 it is A$31.50 against A$31.71, and at A$20,000 it is A$106.50 against A$114.21.

One caveat worth stating: A$4,580 is the line for one purchase and one conversion. Place several smaller US orders instead of one larger one and you pay brokerage several times, and the fixed brokerage difference starts to matter again.

What Pearler Plus does to the ASX comparison

Pearler Plus is A$3 a month, which is A$360 over ten years. Add that to Pearler's ASX-only total of A$780 and you get A$1,140 against Stake's A$360. Pearler's ASX-only cost roughly triples, and the gap between the two widens from A$420 to A$780 across the decade.

That deserves saying plainly rather than burying: if automated recurring investing is what you want from Pearler, and it is the feature Pearler is best known for, then subscribing takes its ten-year ASX-only cost from A$780 to A$1,140. It is optional. Pearler's standard A$6.50 brokerage applies with or without it, and plenty of people invest on a schedule without paying it. If you do pay it, add A$360 to every Pearler figure on this page.

Ten years of investing, three ways

A$1,000 a month, 120 purchases, buy and hold, no sales. The middle row splits the purchases rather than the dollars: 60 orders on the ASX and 60 on US shares. All three rows count brokerage plus conversion on the US portion, and Pearler Plus is excluded from all three.

Taken together, the pattern is clear. On the ASX alone the totals are A$780 against A$360 and brokerage is the only thing separating them. Add US shares and the gap narrows as a share of the total, landing at A$1,380 against A$1,165 on US-only. Both US-only rows are dearer than their ASX-only counterparts, because 0.50% or 0.55% applies to every dollar converted and no such charge exists on an Australian order.

Set against the total, none of this is large. You have put A$120,000 in over the decade, and A$360 to A$1,380 of fees sits on top of that, depending on platform and mix. One thing missing from every total above is what happens when you sell, and both platforms charge brokerage there too. Hold your ASX shares for at least 12 months first, and the buy dates recorded against your HIN are what get you to the 50% CGT discount.

What Pearler's case actually is

Strip the fees out and Pearler's case is automation and goal tracking. Recurring investing, automated deposits and splitting money toward named goals are the features it built its reputation on, and they are worth something to people who want the habit handled rather than executed by hand. Pearler Plus is where the subscription version of that lives.

That is a feature argument, not a price argument. On the numbers here, Stake is cheaper on ASX buying and on small to mid-sized US purchases, and Pearler is cheaper only on single US purchases above A$4,580. If your habit is small regular buying, which is Pearler's own target customer, Stake's totals are the lower ones on most of the plans priced above.

Both charge brokerage when you sell, both ask for a W-8BEN form if you hold US shares, and both register ASX shares under your own HIN. Pearler is an authorised representative (1281540) of Sanlam Private Wealth, AFSL 337927. Take the fees off the table and you are left comparing the app, the reporting and how the cash actually moves, which is a how to choose a platform question rather than a fee table.