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You don't need a full-service stockbroker or financial advisor to help manage your investments these days. In fact, you don't even need a computer. These excellent mobile apps allow customers to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and other investments. There are apps that create and automate investment portfolios for customers. And there are apps that provide additional services. For example, you can track accounts from several financial institutions all in one place. Here's our list of the best investment apps for April 2021:
Robinhood's user-friendly mobile app allows trading in stocks, ETF's, options, cryptocurrencies, and fractional shares, all with $0 commissions.
Read Full Review$0 for stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies
$0
Get a free stock with a new account
On Robinhood's Secure Website.
Betterment helped pioneer the robo-advisors business, and remains one of the best options.
Read Full Review$0 per trade, management fee 0.25%
$0
On Secure Website.
SoFi is a great lending, investing, saving, and personal finance app all rolled into one, making it a good fit for handling your money needs under one roof.
Read Full Review$0 for stocks, 1.25% for cryptocurrencies
$1
On SoFi Active Investing's Secure Website.
Webull offers a user-friendly stock investing platform with more features than some of its rivals, including cheap margin rates.
Read Full Review$0 per trade
$0
On Webull's Secure Website.
TD Ameritrade's mobile platforms -- the standard app and the thinkorswim trading platform -- are among the most feature-packed in the industry.
Read Full Review$0 per options trade, $0.65 per contract
$0
Trade commission-free and get up to $2,500 when you open and fund an account
On TD Ameritrade's Secure Website.
Gemini Exchange's cryptocurrency investing app ease of use is among the best. What makes it stand out further is the trading platform capabilities and access to trade 25 cryptocurrencies on your phone.
Read Full Review$0.99-$2.99 for orders under $200, 1.49% for orders greater than $200
$0
On Gemini Exchange's Secure Website.
A highly customizable and user-friendly mobile app, connected to one of the best brokerages in the U.S. The versatility of Fidelity's offerings makes it a good fit for an array of investing needs.
$0 stock trades
$0
A great budgeting, net worth tracking, and financial advisor platform in one. Users can link all their financial accounts, including banks, brokerages, and even an employer's 401(k). It offers excellent retirement planning tools and other analytical features, all for free.
Free for the app, 0.49% to 0.89% advisory fee, based on balance
$0 for the app, $100,000 for advisor services
Ally combines investment and personal financial accounts in one easy-to-use app.
$0 stock and ETF trades
$0
One of the best robo-advisors for low costs and diverse investing needs, with an excellent mobile app to boot.
Read Full Review$0 per trade, management fee 0.25%, expense ratio 0.06%-0.13%
$500
A solid pick for investors that want to put their savings and investments on cruise control. Acorns' approach to automatically rounding up purchases is a simple way to start investing.
Read Full Review$1-$5 monthly
$0
On Acorns' Secure Website.
Few stock brokers have a mobile app that closely resembles the robust features and capabilities of their online experiences. Schwab bucks that trend. Importantly, accountholders can manage all of their standard accounts via the app, including IRAs, taxable brokerage, and bank accounts.
$0 stock and ETF trades
$0
Tastyworks is laser-focused on options investing and its app is well-suited to options traders. Its feature-rich order entry platform helps is versatile enough on mobile for actions you'd otherwise want to take through its other trading platforms.
$0 for stocks, $1 per option contract (opening trades only)
$0
TIP
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Best for: Stocks, ETF's, options, cryptocurrency, and fractional shares investing
Robinhood has a user-friendly app that can be used to invest in common investment vehicles. The cash management feature pays interest on cash balances. And the $5 per month Robinhood Gold premium version of the platform gives access to Morningstar stock research reports and $1,000 of interest-free margin. That said, it has few educational tools, no advanced trading tools, no mutual funds, and no IRAs. While at face value, the low Android rating could be concerning, but it appears Robinhood's app rating has been hit hard in recent months more related to its handling of the Gamestock frenzy than the quality of the app.
Best for: Hands-off investors putting their investing on cruise control with a robo-advisor
Betterment was one of the pioneers in the robo-advisory space, and it's still one of the best options in the business. Betterment will craft an age and risk-appropriate portfolio to help meet your long-term goals. It charges a low management fee and has no minimum balance. Features like tax-loss harvesting are rare for smaller-balance accounts. Investors' idle cash also earns interest in a high-yield cash management account. The bottom line is that Betterment is a fantastic choice, and its user-friendly app is one of the highest-rated in the business.
Best for: Managing your money needs within one app
SoFi, short for Social Finance, sets out to be an all-in-one financial community. The company is best known for its lending business, which includes mortgages, personal loans, and credit cards. But it also has a high-yield savings platform, as well as an investment app. SoFi Active Invest offers both active investing (stock trading) and automated investing (robo-advisory) services. Users can also trade cryptocurrencies. And unlike several other tech-focused investment apps, SoFi has traditional and Roth IRAs. The best part? All these features are available through a single, highly-rated app.
Best for: Mobile app trading platform
Webull is a mobile-based trading platform with considerably more functionality than most of its rivals. There are no account minimums and customers can trade stocks and options commission free. For investors who use margin, Webull has some of the lowest rates in the industry. New investors can take advantage of Webull's virtual trading "play money" feature as they learn. This makes it one of the best mobile investing apps for beginners.
Best for: Investors who want a feature-packed brokerage and an excellent mobile trading app.
TD Ameritrade actually offers two different mobile apps, and customers can connect their accounts to one or both of them. TD Ameritrade's standard app is the simpler of the two. It has a user-friendly platform for checking accounts and buying and selling stocks. It's the best app to start investing for TD Ameritrade clients. Designed for active traders, thinkorswim has nearly as much functionality as the award-winning desktop platform of the same name.
TD Ameritrade's packed feature set rivals the best stock brokers in the market. Customers can open virtually any type of account and access a vast library of educational resources and stock research. For passive investors, TD Ameritrade has one of the best robo-advisor platforms. It also has nearly 2,000 no-transaction-fee mutual funds. Plus, the thinkorswim platform has an excellent practice "paper money" function.
Standard TD Ameritrade mobile app
thinkorswim mobile app
Best for: Investors who want a great mobile experience with all the features Fidelity has to offer.
Fidelity offers one of the best mobile investing apps available from any brokerage. The platform is user friendly and highly customizable. Through the app, users can set up a customized news feed, view stock research, and even deposit checks and pay their bills. Plus, it's one of only a few brokerage apps to allow trading on international markets.
Best for: Budgeting app for investors
Personal Capital is somewhat different than the other apps in this guide. It doesn't offer a brokerage account, nor is it a robo-advisor. Personal Capital is a budgeting, net worth tracking, and financial advisor platform in one. Users can link all their financial accounts, including banks, brokerages, and even an employer's 401(k). The app gives a single-screen view of their entire financial life. It offers excellent retirement planning tools and other analytical features, all for free. The company makes its money by selling the services of its human financial advisors. But the free side of the business (including the app) is fantastic.
Best for: Investors who want their bank and investment accounts in the same place.
Ally Invest's mobile app combines a few different financial services in one easy-to-use app. You can buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and mutual funds through this investment app. You can also access Ally's Managed Portfolios robo-advisory service, a high-yield savings account, checking accounts, CDs, mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, and more. In short, Ally is a great financial app that also has impressive investing functionality. It's one of the best personal investment apps for people who want to keep their banking and investing in one user-friendly place.
Best for: People who want to automate their investments.
Wealthfront is a robo-advisor platform with one of the highest-rated investment apps. It provides automated investment portfolios with low management fees. It has some excellent features, like Path which analyzes the impact of investment decisions on your long-term financial health. Customers can also contribute to a high-yield savings account with debit card access. It can also be a great choice for college saving, as few robo-advisors offer 529 college savings plan accounts. Plus, there's a unique feature. Customers with $25,000 or more in their accounts can access a low-interest line of credit, using their account as collateral.
Best for: Experienced investors interested in mobile options trading
Tastyworks is one of the brokers that made options trading accessible to retail investors. While it has other types of investments available, including cryptocurrencies, options are still its forte. The Tastyworks app puts all the most popular options trading strategies at your fingertips, with strangles, straddles, and iron condors being just a few notable examples. It also lets you view a trading activity feed and follow traders you like to see what moves they're making.
There is a learning curve to Tastyworks, and it doesn't have as many features as more all-purpose investing apps. For those reasons, new investors will likely want something different. But if your focus is options trading, then Tastyworks is hard to beat.
It depends on which app you're talking about and what your needs are. Some investment apps are completely free and don't actually facilitate investment services, like Personal Capital. Others make their money in different ways. Paying a management fee for a robo-advisor can certainly be worth it if you want to put your investments on autopilot. And free trading apps typically offer commission-free stock trades, but might have other costs (like options commissions) that might be worth paying.
There are some great reasons why you should consider using an investment app (or several). For example, investment apps can help you determine a proper retirement savings strategy. They can allow you to track and manage your investments on the go. And they can provide ways to improve your financial life with as much or as little effort as you desire. Here are some of the things to look for in an investment app:
There are two major downsides to watch out for when choosing an investment app:
No investment app offers all of these (at least, we haven't found one yet) like some of the best stock brokers do. But here are some of the different investments you can buy and sell with investment apps:
Broker/Advisor | Best For | Commissions | Next Steps | |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Robinhood
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
$0 commissions |
Commission:
$0 for stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies |
|
![]() Betterment
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Robo-advisor investing app |
Commission:
$0 per trade, management fee 0.25% |
|
![]() SoFi Active Investing
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Managing your money needs with one app |
Commission:
$0 for stocks, 1.25% for cryptocurrencies |
|
![]() Webull
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Mobile app trading platform |
Commission:
$0 per trade |
|
![]() TD Ameritrade
Rating image, 5.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 5.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Mobile app trading platform |
Commission:
$0 per options trade, $0.65 per contract |
|
![]() Gemini Exchange
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Cryptocurrency investing app |
Commission:
$0.99-$2.99 for orders under $200, 1.49% for orders greater than $200 |
|
![]() Fidelity
Rating image, 5.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 5.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Full-featured broker |
Commission:
$0 stock trades |
|
![]() Personal Capital
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Tracking all your finances in one app |
Commission:
Free for the app, 0.49% to 0.89% advisory fee, based on balance |
|
![]() Ally Invest
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Combined investment and banking needs |
Commission:
$0 stock and ETF trades |
|
![]() Wealthfront
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Robo-advisor app |
Commission:
$0 per trade, management fee 0.25%, expense ratio 0.06%-0.13% |
|
![]() Acorns
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Beginning investors |
Commission:
$1-$5 monthly |
|
![]() Charles Schwab
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Investing app for IRAs |
Commission:
$0 stock and ETF trades |
|
![]() Tastyworks
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
|
Best For:
Options investing app |
Commission:
$0 for stocks, $1 per option contract (opening trades only) |
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