Investing apps have made it easier than ever to manage your investments on-the-go right from your smartphone or tablet. These apps allow you to securely buy, sell, and monitor your investments conveniently through a mobile interface.
With so many investing apps out there, how do you choose the right one for your needs? In this post, we’ve compiled the 15 best investing apps based on features, fees, tools, and more.
Best Apps for Beginner Investors
Investing apps in this category are great for those just starting out who want an easy way to dip their toe into investing. They offer intuitive interfaces, educational resources, and fractional share investing.
1. Acorns
Acorns is perfect for beginner investors because you can start by investing your spare change. The app rounds up your everyday credit or debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically invests the difference. This makes growing your money completely hands-off. Acorns offers pre-made ETF portfolios optimized for your risk tolerance. Accounts start at just $5 and monthly fees range from $1-3 depending on the plan.
- Round up purchases and automatically invest the spare change
- Low monthly fee of $1-3
- Easy to use, simple interface
- Low minimums to get started ($5)
- Good for beginner, hands-off investors
2. Stash
Stash allows you to start investing with just $5 and add small amounts of money to your portfolio over time. You can invest in fractional shares of stocks and ETFs across different sectors. Stash really shines with its educational content, guiding beginners on key investing concepts as they use the app. You can learn the basics like dollar cost averaging, diversification, IRAs, and more. Monthly fees range from $1-9 depending on your plan.
- Allows investing small amounts in stocks and ETFs
- Offers investment education and guidance for beginners
- Helps you learn investing concepts as you use the app
- $1-9 monthly fee depending on plan
3. Robinhood
Robinhood has become massively popular, especially with millennial investors, because it offers commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options and cryptocurrency. You can start investing with no minimum deposit and fractional shares make building a portfolio affordable. Robinhood has an intuitive, easy to use interface. While it doesn’t offer many research tools, the basic trading experience is excellent.
- Commission-free trading of stocks, ETFs, options
- Easy start with fractional share investing
- Intuitive, simple interface ideal for new investors
- Popular among millennials due to no trading fees
4. Stockpile
Stockpile makes gifting investments easy by letting you give fractional share gift cards. It’s also a great on-ramp for new investors with $0.99 trades and the ability to set up recurring deposits into your investment account. Stockpile lets you build long-term wealth with fractional shares of stocks and ETFs. The easy gifting feature also makes it one of the top investing apps for kids and teens.
- Invest spare change or set up recurring deposits
- Gift cards let you gift stocks/funds to others
- Low $0.99/trade fee
- Easy way to start investing small amounts
Best Investing Apps for Automated Investing
Prefer a hands-off approach? These apps help you create a diversified portfolio aligned to your goals and automatically invest and rebalance it for you.
5. Betterment
Betterment is the pioneer in automated investing, using algorithms to optimize your ETF portfolio allocation based on your goals and risk tolerance. You can set up regular automated deposits and Betterment handles investing and rebalancing the funds across a diversified selection of ETFs. Betterment offers retirement accounts like traditional and Roth IRAs in addition to taxable investment accounts. Management fees are just 0.25%
- Automated investing in ETFs customized to your goals
- Regular rebalancing and dividend reinvesting
- IRA accounts available
- 0.25% annual fee
- Ideal for passive, long-term investors
6. Wealthfront
Wealthfront also provides automated investing portfolios tailored to your specific risk appetite. The service offers excellent tax-loss harvesting for accounts over $100k, analyzing your holdings for tax saving opportunities. Wealthfront provides periodic investment amount recommendations based on your account balances and goals. Management fees scale from 0.25% down based on investment amount. Overall, great for set-it-and-forget-it, automated investing.
- Automated portfolio with investment amount recommendations
- Strategies tailored to your risk tolerance and goals
- Excellent tax-loss harvesting for accounts over $100k
- 0.25% annual fee on accounts below $10k
7. Ellevest
Ellevest makes automated investing personal with portfolios tailored specifically to women’s salary trajectories and investment goals/needs. Based on your profile, Ellevest generates an investment plan optimized for your unique situation including factors like career breaks and longevity. Management fees start at 0.25% for the digital plan. Ellevest aims to help women confidently invest to reach their financial goals.
- Automated investing portfolios designed for women’s needs
- Accounts optimized based on your salary, goals, and life stages
- 0.25% fee for digital plan
- Good option for hands-off women investors
8. M1 Finance
With M1 Finance you create your own customized portfolio choosing your preferred stocks and funds, while M1 handles automatically investing in your selections along with dividend reinvesting, trades, and rebalancing. M1 supports IRA accounts in addition to taxable accounts. Management is free and you just pay $0.35 per trade. If you want to automate a personalized portfolio, M1 is a great hands-off solution.
- Create a custom portfolio with automated investing
- Customize your own holdings, M1 handles trades/rebalancing
- IRAs and taxable accounts available
- $0 monthly fee, just $0.35/trade
Best Investing Apps for Active Trading
These investing apps offer robust tools, research capabilities, and resources to help active traders make informed investing decisions.
9. E*Trade
ETrade is feature-packed for active traders with a powerful trading platform that includes stock and options trading, research data, charts, news, education content and more. You can analyze the markets using ETrade Pro, their desktop platform. Mobile trading is easy with the E*Trade app, and you can get 24/7 support if any questions arise. Trades for stocks, ETFs and options all start at $0.
- Active trading platform with research, data, education
- Access news, charts, financial data, trading strategies
- $0 stock, ETF, and options trades
- Good for frequent, savvy traders
10. Fidelity
Fidelity offers active investors seamless integration between Fidelity’s retail brokerage services and their versatile mobile app. You get in-depth research from over 20 providers, customizable charts, Level II quotes, earnings analysis reports, and more. You can easily access your full portfolio and trade complex options right from the Fidelity app. Retirement accounts are also available.
- Active trading integrated with Fidelity’s brokerage
- In-depth research from 20+ providers
- Access market data, analytics, customizable charts
- Retirement accounts available
11. thinkorswim
thinkorswim from TD Ameritrade provides sophisticated trading tools, charting, analytics, and screeners for active stock, forex and options traders. The powerful mobile app gives you the ability to analyze and execute trades from anywhere. thinkorswim also offers valuable education, allowing you to sharpen your investing skills. The platform caters to advanced traders with all the data and tools needed.
- Advanced trading platform from TD Ameritrade
- Tools for options, stocks, forex trading
- In-depth charting, analytics, and screeners
- Paper trading and education resources for traders
12. Webull
Webull focuses on helping self-directed investors with free trading of stocks and ETFs. The app provides technical indicators, customizable charts, and level 2 market data. You can trade during extended hours for pre-market and after hours trading. While focused on active trading, Webull also offers investing education content to grow your skills. At just $0.65 per options contract, Webull is an affordable trading solution.
- Technical indicators, customizable charts
- Level 2 market data available
- Pre-market and after hours trading
- $0 stock and ETF trades, $0.65/options contract
Best for IRA Accounts
These apps make it simple to open, manage, and contribute to an IRA retirement investing account.
13. Betterment
Betterment offers both traditional and Roth IRAs to help you save for retirement. Once opened, you can set up recurring contributions which Betterment automatically invests for you based on your portfolio settings. Betterment optimizes your IRA with automated rebalancing and tax-savvy investment strategies. The interface is user-friendly with easy to understand projections and recommendations to boost retirement savings.
- Offers traditional and Roth IRAs
- Automated investing and optimization
- Easy to set up recurring contributions
- $0 account minimum
14. Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple provides automated investing IRAs tailored to your risk tolerance. You can choose a socially responsible investing portfolio option to align investments with your values. Wealthsimple offers simple, low-fee IRAs with no account minimum so you can start growing retirement savings even with a small amount of money initially. The easy-to-use app makes contributing to your IRA simple and accessible.
- Automated IRAs tailored to your risk appetite
- Socially responsible investing options
- Simple, low-fee IRAs with no account minimum
15. Schwab
Charles Schwab gives investors excellent IRA choices. You can use their Intelligent Portfolios option for automated investing or build your own custom IRA portfolio from their extensive selection of commission-free ETFs and no-load mutual funds. Useful retirement planning tools in the app help you project income needs and shortfalls. Overall the IRA investing experience with Schwab is low cost, low stress, and made for long-term savings.
- IRA investment accounts with Intelligent Portfolios
- Large selection of commission-free ETFs
- $0 account minimum and maintenance fees
Key Factors in Choosing an Investing App
When selecting an investing app, consider factors like:
- Fees – Compare commission fees, management expenses, account minimums
- Account types – Make sure the app supports the account you want – IRA, individual, joint
- Assets available – Stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, options, crypto – invest in what you want
- Tools/resources – Robust apps have investment research, data, education content
- Security – Check encryption, biometrics, safeguards to protect your personal data
Final Thoughts
Investing apps make growing your money easy and accessible. With mobile investing, you can manage your portfolio anywhere conveniently from your phone. Just choose the app that best suits your specific needs and investing style.
The apps we covered offer low-cost trading, fractional shares, hands-off automated investing, and valuable tools to help you meet your financial goals. Opening an account is quick and easy to get started investing in minutes.