Coinbase
The cleanest app, free instant Faster Payments both ways, and the strongest regulatory credentials, plus US stocks in the same app.
Kraken
Quarterly audited proof of reserves, no known loss of customer funds since 2011, and the £4.99 Kraken+ subscription for cheap regular buying.
- On price they have converged: pro-tier fees are now near-identical, and each sells a fee-free subscription; Kraken’s is a quarter of the price of Coinbase’s equivalent.
- Both are FCA-registered, both let your coins leave to , and neither carries FSCS protection on crypto. You are choosing a personality, not a category.
Coinbase and Kraken are the two serious full-service exchanges for UK users, and for years the choice was easy to caricature: Coinbase for beginners, Kraken for cheapskates. The second half of that died in July 2026 when Kraken quadrupled its base pro fees, so the comparison now runs on subtler things: transparency, product depth, rails, and what each is like when something goes wrong. We reviewed both in full (Coinbase, Kraken); this page is the head-to-head, checked against both platforms’ published pages in August 2026. No affiliate relationship with either; if that changes it will be disclosed here.
Head to head
| Coinbase | Kraken | |
|---|---|---|
| Simple-interface cost | Variable fee + ~0.5%+ spread; budget 2%+ on small buys | 1% + spread (1.5% custom orders) |
| Pro-interface cost (base) | 0.60% taker / 0.40% maker | 0.80% taker / 0.40% maker; falls faster with volume |
| Fee subscription | Coinbase One from £4.99–£199.99/mo | Kraken+ £4.99/mo, zero app fees to ~£10k/mo |
| GBP rails | Faster Payments free both ways | Deposits free; withdrawals £1.95 |
| Coins (UK) | 250+ | 600+, a few UK-blocked |
| Staking | Big coins; commission ~25–35% of rewards | 30+ coins, flexible and bonded options |
| Security story | ~98% , $320m crime policy, listed-company audits | Quarterly proof-of-reserves, no known customer-fund hack since 2011 |
| The record | £3.5m FCA fine (2024); insider data breach (2025) | US-only regulatory scrapes; no FCA action |
| Beyond crypto | 4,000 US stocks in-app since Aug 2026 | Krak debit card with BTC cashback |
| Coins can leave? | Yes | Yes |
The differences that actually matter
Transparency. This is Kraken’s clearest win. It publishes quarterly proof-of-reserves attestations by an outside accountant (over $21.5bn of client assets shown at over 100% backing in the latest), something Coinbase doesn’t do in that form. Coinbase’s counter is being a listed company with audited public accounts and three FCA permissions. Both are strong answers to “is my money really there?”; Kraken’s is the more direct one.
The record. This is Coinbase’s clearest loss. Its 2024 FCA fine and the 2025 insider breach of 69,461 customers’ data are recent and real; Kraken’s regulatory scrapes are older, smaller and American, with nothing on its UK file. Weigh against that: Coinbase’s breach response (refused the ransom, reimbursed victims) was creditable, and its problems have been about process, never about customer funds going missing.
Price, honestly. At base pro tiers Coinbase is now slightly cheaper (0.60% vs 0.80% taker), a sentence that would have been unprintable a year ago. Kraken claws it back two ways: its tiers fall faster (0.38% from about £8k of monthly volume), and Kraken+ at £4.99 removes app fees outright while Coinbase’s equivalent tier costs £19.99. For a £200-a-month recurring buyer, Kraken+ is the cheapest verified route on either platform.
Range vs reach. Kraken lists more than twice as many coins and staking options. Coinbase’s breadth is horizontal instead: the same app now trades US stocks, which either matters a lot to you or not at all.
So which one?
Pick Coinbase if you’re starting out, you value the smoothest possible GBP rails and cleanest app, you want stocks and crypto in one place, or you’ll trade on Advanced at base volumes where it’s cheapest. Pick Kraken if you hold meaningful balances and rate proof-of-reserves the way we do, you stake, you want the long tail of coins, or you’re a small regular buyer who’ll get more from £4.99 Kraken+ than from any fee schedule. And genuinely reasonable people split the difference: buy where cheap, hold where trusted, and remember both doors open outward; our self-custody guide is where that thought leads.
Common questions
Which is safer?
For funds: no incident on either side has ever cost customers their coins, and both custody seriously. For data: Coinbase’s 2025 breach is the worst event on either record. For verifiability: Kraken’s proof-of-reserves gives you something to check rather than something to trust. Narrow verdict to Kraken; neither would worry us.
Which is cheaper for a £100-a-month buyer?
Kraken, via Kraken+: £4.99 flat beats Coinbase’s simple-buy costs at that volume, and beats Coinbase One Basic’s £500 monthly cap pricing too. Without subscriptions, Coinbase Advanced at 0.60% is the cheapest per-trade route on either.
Can I use both?
Nothing stops you, plenty of people do, and it hedges platform risk. Both are on your bank’s fraud-screening lists as known exchanges either way; the banks guide covers what that means for your transfers.
Checked against both platforms’ published fee schedules and pages in August 2026. Full individual reviews: Coinbase · Kraken. No affiliate relationship with either platform; if that ever changes it will be disclosed here, per our affiliate disclosure.