I think that the summer Crowdfunding campaign will generate a lot of new users for the company due to the marketing/PR buzzâŠ
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Should be going pass the 666 666 mark next week 
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This is an important point. Triodos bank for example make more money and profit on their 60,000 or so loyal (and most likely middle-class) customers than Monzo do on their 5 million. The mission to bring low-cost investing to the masses is exciting but it only works if their is a profitable core to the business.
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Exactly 
QUALITY not quantity customers is what makes a good business. I donât think it will hurt much here as I think FT have a very solid and exciting plan but there will be an exodus of customers in the investment world soon after the GME craze and lockdowns end. This will no doubt leave some looking bigger than they actually are.
In other words the number game is a fun marker but probably the worst indicator of how well a business is actually doing. Especially when gaining new customers at a premium of free shares is taken into account 
Like I said I 100% believe in FT but not due to the latest customer number and more to do with the overall vision.
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As long as FT can make money in their current business model (which is presumably heavily skewed towards FX fees and presumably money from the brokers for giving them trades [EDIT: this is not true, see later posts]), thereâs no reason why it shouldnât just scale up well.
That said, probably the only growth strategy is by increasing number of users, because if the fees increase too much, people would be tempted to leave and move to other platforms.
FT certainly donât do this and have made it very clear. FT want to be very transparent with their fees and not hide them like most of the other brokers. Donât confuse FT with the rest.
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Donât forget that new products can be added and that boosts revenue flows.
- crypto
- stock borrow
- etc
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I just googled and found this thread which seems to confirm that: How does Freetrade make money? and Freetrade Review - can you trade stocks for free? - Money To The Masses
I didnât realise it was illegal for them in the UK to receive money from the brokers for giving them business, TBH I donât see why they shouldnât be entitled to make commercial agreements for x% of the profit from the spread, as long as the spread is the same as for every customer.
But anyway, seems youâre right.
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I think thatâs probably why Robinhood pulled out of their UK launch, thatâs how they make money and itâs illegal here
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Interesting, I checked both those links and neither talk about being paid for order flow but note there is a lot of confusion given the recent Robinhood headlines!
It has been discussed at length on this community and itâs something Freetrade have said they wonât ever do, but glad this is all cleared up 
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Whilst the increasing numbers are good for business, once the meme stock euphoria disappears when the world gets back to normal and everyone is not sitting at home bored out of their minds, and playing at being millionaires, the actual number of regular use accounts will fall dramatically.
FTâs business model of aiming for long term customers who make long term profits rather than short term customers who make short term losses, should bode well for the future.
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Triodos have ~900,000 customer accounts with a loan book at ~âŹ9bn (vs. ~ÂŁ125m at Monzo)
Monzoâs original model was to be a âbalance sheet lightâ bank, collecting fee income from interchange, referrals from third party financial services providers, and premium customer accounts. It was untested and frankly remains unproven, hence why Monzo seems quite keen to expand its lending business to drive revenue.
On that basis, seems like an unfair comparison with Triodos, who despite their triple bottom line approach, are very much a bank in the traditional sense. Iâm keen to see Monzoâs 2020 accounts. That lending has been opened up again is very encouraging.
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Sure, although I wasnt particularly trying to make a specific point about Monzo or Triodos. More that scale on its own isnt a guarantee of success and you need to measure progress against a number of metrics to assess how well a start up is performing and whether the business model is viable. Both are privately listed banks so you have to look at their most recent annual reports. Triodosâ can be found here https://www.annual-report-triodos.co.uk/2020/triodos-bank-uk/triodos-bank-in-the-uk (income of ÂŁ39.9M, net profit ÂŁ5.1M, 84,000 accounts). Monzoâs 2021 report will be out later in the summer as you say but their 2020 report (up to Feb last year) had income of ÂŁ37M, net loss of ÂŁ114M, 3.1M customers.
Triodos report is here: https://www.annual-report-triodos.co.uk/2020/triodos-bank-uk/triodos-bank-in-the-uk
Monzo is here: https://monzo.com/static/docs/monzo-annual-report-2020.pdf
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I was looking at their UK operations which as things stand is a reasonable comparison until Monzo properly launch internationally. Both are banks so I think its fair to compare them. Also Im also not having a dig at Monzo here - Im a shareholder and loyal customer of theirs but was just making the point that businesses doing similar things (i.e. banking in the UK) can make very different levels of profit per customer depending on their strategy. Customer numbers on its own doesnt show the full picture.
This is also getting off topic from Freetrade so I wont post any further on this.
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The point still stands The comparison was only used as an example for me saying quality over quantity. Another and maybe more relevant example is all those on these forums laughing at Etorro the other week for actually having a very high number of inactive accounts when they were boasting to show growth size.
It was almost universal in people saying no point having inflated numbers and stats left, right and centre about fake growth etc but when the shoe is on the other foot it is SUPER
My point again was, and always would be, not to judge a company on itâs sign up to a free shares offer during a lockdown with a GME fantasy happening. The exodus and reality check could be rather humbling later although I have super faith in FT doing things the correct way in the fundamentals.
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You are taking me totally wrong. I think FT have done a great job and WILL succeed but my point is still customer numbers doesnât make a successful company alone
I agree, but sadly there isnât another measure that us users can look at to measure
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Anyone have an update? 
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My guess is we might have passed the 2/3 million mark.
It seemed to be about 1000 signups per day and 7 days ago we were over 658k.