Best TFSA South Africa: Why EasyEquities Beats SatrixNOW and Allan Gray

The cheapest-looking TFSA isn't always the cheapest to keep. For most people in South Africa in 2026, EasyEquities holding a low-cost ETF such as the Satrix Top 40 wins, because the account itself has no ongoing fee.

SatrixNOW's trading fee is lower, but it then charges 0.50% of your balance every year. Since 1 March 2026, you can put up to R46,000 a year into any TFSA, capped at R500,000 for life, according to SARS. Checked October 2026.

Quick facts: TFSA limits in South Africa

Source: SARS, Tax Free Investments.

Which TFSA should you open: EasyEquities, SatrixNOW or a managed fund?

There's no single provider that wins for every goal, but for most people building up savings over several years, the ongoing cost matters more than what you pay to buy in. Here's what each option charges, checked against each provider's own published rates in October 2026.

Put R46,000 into an ETF this year and EasyEquities charges about R115 in commission, then nothing more for as long as you hold it. EasyEquities' own cost profile (12 February 2026) lists "No charge" for the monthly platform fee on shares and ETFs in a TFSA, and TFSA accounts are explicitly exempt from its R25-a-month Thrive fee. SatrixNOW charges less upfront, about R46 on the same R46,000, but its own cost profile adds a platform fee of 0.50% a year on balances up to R500,000. That's R230 on a R46,000 balance, charged again every year whether you trade or not. Once you've built up a few years of contributions, the gap compounds: on a R300,000 balance, SatrixNOW's platform fee alone is R1,500 a year, for as long as you hold the account.

The ETF to put inside it

What you hold matters more than which platform you use to hold it. Two cheap options worth knowing:

Both figures come from Satrix's own minimum disclosure documents, dated 30 June 2026. A mix of the two, mostly local with some global exposure, is about as cheap as tax-free investing gets in South Africa, and either ETF is available through EasyEquities or SatrixNOW. Buying either one inside a TFSA uses the same steps as buying any JSE share or ETF, just with your tax-free account selected instead of your ordinary one.

A managed tax-free fund (simplest, costs more)

If you'd rather not pick ETFs yourself, a fund manager will do it for a fee. Allan Gray's Tax-Free Balanced Fund is a common choice: its own factsheet (data to 30 September 2026) shows a 1.25% annual management fee excluding VAT, a total expense ratio (TER) of 1.50%, and a total investment charge, including transaction costs, of 1.58%. That's about 16 times what the Satrix Top 40 ETF costs. You're paying for someone else to manage the mix of shares, bonds and cash and rebalance it for you. This is simply a unit trust wrapped inside a tax-free account: see our guide to unit trusts in South Africa for how the same kind of fund is priced and taxed outside a TFSA.

A cash TFSA at a bank (safest, rate moves with the market)

Banks including Capitec and African Bank offer fixed-term tax-free savings that pay interest instead of following the market, so your money doesn't move with share prices. The downside is that the rate changes whenever the South African Reserve Bank moves the repo rate, so any rate quoted today could be out of date when you read this. Check the current rate on your bank's own tax-free savings page before you commit.

How much can you put into a TFSA in South Africa?

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana raised the yearly TFSA limit from R36,000 to R46,000 in the budget speech on 25 February 2026, from 1 March 2026. It's the first increase since 2021. SARS confirms the yearly limit of R46,000 "with effect from 1 March 2026" and a lifetime limit of R500,000, which hasn't changed.

Work out what you can afford first. Put your salary through our South Africa income tax calculator to see your take-home pay, then decide how much you can put in each month towards the new R46,000 limit.

A few rules catch people out:

• It doesn't roll over. If you only put in R20,000 this tax year, you don't get to carry the unused R26,000 into next year. It's simply gone.
• The R500,000 lifetime cap doesn't move with the annual limit. Even though you can contribute more each year now, the total you can ever put in across your lifetime is still R500,000.
• Every TFSA you hold counts toward the same limit. You can have a TFSA with EasyEquities and another with Allan Gray at the same time (plenty of people do, to mix an ETF account with a managed fund), but your combined contributions across all of them can't exceed R46,000 a year or R500,000 in total. SARS treats this as "an aggregation per every year of assessment."
• Minors get their own allowance. A child's TFSA has the same R46,000/R500,000 limits as an adult's, separate from yours.

What happens if you go over the limit?

SARS charges a 40% penalty (in effect, extra tax) on whatever you contribute above the annual or lifetime limit. There's no warning grace period; it applies to the excess amount itself.

Two mistakes cause most over-contributions:

Taking money out and putting it back. A TFSA isn't a normal savings account. EasyEquities says it plainly on its TFSA page: "any amount you withdraw can't be replaced, and still counts toward your lifetime TFSA limit." If you've put in R500,000 over the years and take out R50,000 for an emergency, you can't top it back up. You've used R500,000 of your lifetime room, whether the money is still in the account or not.

Switching providers the wrong way. If you want to move from, say, a bank's cash TFSA to an ETF platform, don't withdraw the money and open a new account with it, because that counts as a brand-new contribution. Standard Bank's own TFSA guidance explains it: "You will not be able to switch to another financial institution by withdrawing your funds from your TFSA and putting them into a TFSA with a different provider – that would be classified as a new contribution." Ask your new provider for a formal TFSA transfer instead. That way the money keeps its history and doesn't count against your limits again.

TFSA versus a retirement annuity

A retirement annuity (RA) gives you a SARS tax deduction when you pay in, up to 27.5% of your income, capped at R350,000 a year for the 2025/2026 tax year. But you pay tax on most of what comes out at retirement, and the money is locked until then. A TFSA works the other way round: no deduction going in, but nothing is ever taxed coming out, and you can reach it any time.

They don't compete: most people who can afford both use an RA for the tax deduction and retirement savings, and a TFSA for money they want to grow tax-free but still reach if needed. If you're also thinking about a two-pot savings withdrawal, compare how it's taxed with a TFSA's growth in our guide to two-pot withdrawals and tax.

Run a R46,000 annual contribution through our compound interest calculator to see what a decade of maxing out the new limit, growing tax-free, adds up to compared with an ordinary savings account.

Mistakes that waste your TFSA allowance

• A TFSA is yours alone, not your stokvel's. The annual and lifetime limits are per person, so a group's savings can't shelter inside one member's TFSA. If you're saving with others, see how to open a stokvel account instead and keep the group's money separate.
• Don't touch it unless you have to. Every withdrawal permanently shrinks your R500,000 lifetime room, and you can never earn that space back.
• If you need cash now, borrowing might cost less than breaking the TFSA. A withdrawal counts against your R500,000 lifetime limit forever, while an unsecured loan's cost is capped by law and known upfront. Compare the real cost with our South Africa personal loan calculator before you raid your TFSA.
• A TFSA from a comparison list isn't automatically the cheapest. Check the actual TER of the fund or ETF you'll hold and the platform's ongoing fee, not just its brokerage rate.
• If you have TFSAs with two providers, track your total contributions yourself. Providers don't always see what you've put into the other one, and SARS's 40% penalty applies the moment your combined total crosses R46,000 for the year.
• Only what you put in counts towards the limit, not the growth. If your R200,000 of contributions has grown to R350,000, you still have R300,000 of room left, not R150,000.
• Don't wait for March to "start the year" if you have spare cash now. Investing it early, rather than leaving it in a current account, adds up over the decades a TFSA is meant to run.
• Compare it with paying extra into your home loan. Extra money in your bond earns a guaranteed return equal to your interest rate, which sat at prime of 10.75% as of September 2026 after the Reserve Bank's latest rate rise, and that can beat a TFSA after fees once you factor in the risk. Compare both with our South Africa home loan calculator before deciding where spare cash should go.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best TFSA in South Africa?

For most people, EasyEquities, holding a low-cost ETF like the Satrix Top 40 (0.10% TER). It charges 0.25% commission when you buy, then no ongoing platform fee. SatrixNOW's trading fee is lower, but its 0.50%-a-year platform fee on balances up to R500,000 costs more over time once you've built up savings.

Is EasyEquities or SatrixNOW better for a TFSA?

EasyEquities, for most savers. SatrixNOW's brokerage commission (0.10%) is cheaper than EasyEquities' (0.25%), but SatrixNOW then charges 0.50% of your balance every year, while EasyEquities charges nothing ongoing on ETFs or shares held in a TFSA. The lower one-off fee stops mattering within the first year.

What is the TFSA annual contribution limit in South Africa?

R46,000 from 1 March 2026, up from R36,000, according to SARS. The increase was announced in the 25 February 2026 budget speech and applies for the full 2026/2027 tax year.

What is the TFSA lifetime contribution limit?

R500,000 per person, including children. It hasn't changed even though the yearly limit went up. It's the same cap SARS has used since TFSAs started in 2015.

What happens if I withdraw money from my TFSA?

The amount you withdraw is gone from your lifetime limit for good. You can't put it back later without it counting as a brand-new contribution. EasyEquities' own guidance says a withdrawal "still counts toward your lifetime TFSA limit."

Is a TFSA better than a retirement annuity?

Neither is "better", because they do different jobs. An RA gives you a tax deduction now, but locks your money up and taxes most of it later. A TFSA gives no deduction, but it's never taxed and you can take the money whenever you want. Most people who can afford to use both.