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If you’re new to investing, the best investment apps should offer low fees and access to the types of accounts and investment products you care about most.
The app you choose should suit your investment style and offer the tools you need (such as educational guides and/or courses, human advisor access, and strong customer support) to achieve your financial goals.
Best Investment Apps for Beginners
- Robinhood Investing: Best for beginners with no commission fees
- Acorns Invest: Best automated investment app for beginners
- SoFi Invest: Best overall investment app for beginners
- Ally Invest: Best overall runner-up investment app for beginners
- TD Ameritrade: Best active trading investment app for beginners
- Public Investing: Best socially responsible investment app for beginners
- Stockpile: Best kids investment app for beginners
eToro USA
Account Minimum
$100 (in the USA and UK)
Fees
1% when you buy or sell a crypto asset; 0% stocks and ETFs, $2 monthly fee on uninvested cash if your cash balance is under $5k
- Can trade bitcoin, dogecoin, ethereum, Litecoin, and a dozen other popular virtual assets; stock and ETF trading available
- eToro’s Copy Portfolios let you follow and copy the portfolios of experienced traders to enhance your investment returns
- Several educational resources
- Web and mobile app access
- Not available to residents of New York, Minnesota, Nevada, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Marianas, and the US Virgin Islands (see a full list of its geographic restrictions here)
- Limited selection of cryptocurrencies (eToro USA currently offers over 25)
Product Details
- Earn 4.90% APY on uninvested cash but if your cash balance is under $5k, you’ll pay a $2 monthly fee
- Features: Dogecoin and more cryptocurrencies, CopyTrader system, Copy Portfolios, and eToro Trading Academy
- App store rating: 4.6 iOS/ 4.3 Android
- Cash is FDIC insured for up to $5 million with partner banks
Compare the Top Investment Apps for Beginners
The best investment apps for beginners are easy-to-use platforms with simple trading, helpful tools, personalized portfolios, and commission-free trades on assets like stocks or ETFs. Investment apps for beginners also often offer educational resources like webinars and blog posts.
Here are the best investment apps for beginners as picked by Business Insider editors in 2024.
Robinhood
Robinhood Investing
Account Minimum
$0 ($1 for fractional shares; $2,000 for margin trading)
Fees
0% ($5/month for Robinhood Gold)
- Free stock, option, ETF, and cryptocurrency trades; 1.50% APY on uninvested cash for non-Gold users and 5.00% for Gold members
- IPO investing available
- Cash management accounts available
- Website is easy to navigate; advanced charts for all users
- Lack of investing research and trading tools; can only take advantage of professional research if you’re a Robinhood Gold member
- No joint accounts, education savings accounts, or mutual funds
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.2 iOS/4.0 Android
- Consider it if: You want to trade crypto and invest in a wide range of stocks and ETFs.
Robinhood is a pioneer in the no-commission brokerage model. It remains a solid choice for beginners, as they can invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies with zero commissions. Typical stock and ETF investors will be able to use Robinhood with no costs, though premium accounts are available with more features for a monthly fee starting at $5.
Robinhood offers traditional and Roth IRAs with one-time personalized recommend portfolios and the flexibility to add options for eligible users. All IRAs come with a 1% match for every dollar you contribute. Robinhood Gold members can earn up to a 3% match.
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency trading, Robinhood’s crypto portfolios invest in 15 different digital currencies — like bitcoin, dogecoin, and ether — commission-free. Exchange cryptocurrencies without network fees, and securely store your coins and tokens in Robinhood’s cold storage wallet.
What to look out for: Robinhood doesn’t offer many trading tools or additional trading features. It also doesn’t offer a robo-advisor for automatic trading or rebalancing.
Acorns Invest
Best for Automated Investing
Acorns Invest
Fees
Monthly plans start at $3 for Personal, $5 for Personal Plus, and $9 for Premium
- Low fees
- Helpful automatic saving and investing tools
- Portfolio suggestions built to match your risk level
- “Found money” invests a percentage of your purchases from certain companies
- Flat monthly fee is on the high side, especially for smaller accounts
- The option to choose individual investments requires a Premium plan
Insider’s Take
Acorns is one of the best investment apps for beginners and hand-off investors who want to start investing but are overwhelmed by the choices with other investing apps. This simple and easy-to-use platform offers a low investment minimum, portfolio diversification, and beginner-friendly charting tools. Acorns is more expensive than other zero-fee apps out there, but the ease of use may make it worthwhile for certain users.
Product Details
- Get started in under 5 minutes
- $5/month gets you a full financial wellness system with connected investment, retirement, and saving accounts.
- Invest in a diversified, expert-built portfolio
- No expertise required
- Invest your spare change with Round-Ups (more than $900M invested in 2021 just from RoundUps!)
- Set easy, automatic Recurring Investments
- See your account performance right in the app, and play with our interactive Potential screen
- All you need to start investing is $5
- 18M downloads
Acorns is an investment app for people who know they should be investing but don’t have or want to spend the time to manage it themselves. For $3 per month, Acorns will take care of everything. That includes automatic spare change investing through transaction round-ups, automated transfers, retirement account savings, banking perks, and a fully automated investment plan.
Invest in a diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs based on your risk tolerance, goals, and time horizon. You can choose to invest in Acorn’s Core portfolios or ESG portfolios.
The big upside of Acorns is that it’s so easy to use. The big downside is that there’s a fee no matter what. This is arguably better than asset-based fee deductions, which fluctuate as your balance grows. With the monthly fee, you’ll pay the same amount every year. For additional accounts and features, including investment accounts for children, you’ll have to pay $9 per month.
What to look out for: You won’t be able to choose individual investments with Acorns unless you pay extra.
SoFi Invest
SoFi is a top investment app for beginners thanks to an easy-to-use interface paired with rock-bottom pricing. You can get started at SoFi Invest with just $1, and there are no commissions for trades and no recurring account fees. Even the managed portfolio product, SoFi automated investing, where your ETFs are all picked and managed for you, is free to use.
The app includes stocks and ETFs listed by category, making it easy to browse potential investment opportunities. It doesn’t have the most in-depth investment research, but there is enough to get you started and guide your trading decisions. You can also access investment educational articles from inside the app.
As an added bonus outside of the app, SoFi offers complimentary financial planning sessions for all members, among other benefits. You can work with certified financial planners (CFPs) who can help you reach your goals. If you are a beginner and want help putting an investment strategy together, SoFi is an ideal place to start.
SoFi offers a 2% IRA match to retirement saving contributions until April 15.
What to look out for: SoFi doesn’t offer tax-loss harvesting.
Ally Invest
Ally Invest
Account Minimum
$0 ($100 for Robo Portfolios; $100,000 for Ally Invest Personal Advice)
Fees
0% (up to 0.85% for Ally Invest Personal Advice; bonds, mutual funds, and certain stocks have fees)
- No account minimums or commissions for trading
- Automated portfolios free of advisory or management fees; Ally Invest Personal Advice available
- Options contracts only cost $0.50 per contract
- Bank accounts, mortgage refinancing, car loans, and personal loans available through Ally Bank
- Thousands of mutual funds but no no-transaction-fee mutual funds
- No cryptocurrencies
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.7 iOS/ 3.9 Android
- Consider it if: You want easy-to-use apps paired with excellent investing, checking, and savings accounts.
Beginners often do well with straightforward investment platforms. Ally Invest offers just that through its mobile app investment app best for beginners. You can trade stocks, ETFs, and options with no commissions. Plus, if you prefer the robo-advisor route, Ally Invest Robo Portfolios creates a personalized portfolio of ETFs for you. The app offers two robo-portfolio options: the cash-enhanced portfolio or the market-focused portfolio.
For no advisory fee, cash-enhanced portfolios set aside 30% of your asset allocations as an interest-earning cash buffer. Market-focused portfolios only use about 2% of your portfolio as a cash buffer with a 0.30% advisory fee.
If you prefer a more hands-on approach to investing, beginners can open a self-directed trading account for no account minimum and 24/7 market access. Customize your portfolio with hand-picked stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, mutual funds, and low-priced securities.
Ally Invest’s app is easy to navigate with a handful of accessible investment features like market screeners, performance charts, stock analytics, and a Smart Score ranking.
What to look out for: Ally Invest offers wealth management services, but you’ll need at least $100,000 to get started.
TD Ameritrade
If you are new to the markets and plan to get into active trading, TD Ameritrade is a good place to start. It charges no commissions for stock or ETF trades and offers multiple account platforms that align with various investment styles and goals.
When you’re starting out, you’ll probably feel most comfortable in the main TD Ameritrade app. As your investment skills grow, you can upgrade to thinkorswim, the premier active trading platform from TD Ameritrade. It has tons of useful features for active traders. Important for beginners, there’s a feature to chat with an expert trader inside of thinkorswim.
What to look out for: Charles Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade in 2020. However, Schwab has announced it plans to keep TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim in its product lineup going forward. TD Ameritrade’s managed accounts (Essential Portfolios, Selective Portfolios, and Personalized Portfolios) are also no longer available to new clients. Still, prospective investors can alternatively invest in managed accounts through its partner, Charles Schwab.
Public
Best for Social Investing
Public Investing
Fees
0% stocks and ETFs; Crypto: 1% or 2% markup; Alternative assets: 2.5% per transaction; Public Premium: $10/month
- No minimums and commission-free trading on stocks and ETFs
- Cryptocurrency trading available for over 20 coins and tokens; alternative assets available
- Offers fractional share investing for as little as $1; Premium plan includes advanced market data and insights
- Several community features that allow you to share insights and receive insights from other users; educational resources like live audio events also available
- No mutual funds
- Not the best platform for day traders; it doesn’t allow day trading of stocks
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.7 iOS/4.3 Android
- Consider it if: You value portfolio diversification and want a social component to your investing experience.
When you’re a beginner in the stock market, it can feel intimidating to research and choose stocks and other investments on your own. Public combines features from social networks like Facebook and Twitter with traditional brokerage features. That makes an investment app ideal for beginners learning their way around the markets.
You can learn from the portfolios of other experts by following their posts in the Public feed or create group chats with other users and participate in live investing events and conversations. Invest in over 25 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, dogecoin, and ether.
With fractional shares starting, you can also buy into a huge number of supported companies without putting up enough cash for a full share. Public also recently launched alternative assets on its platform, so you can now exchange art, NFTs, collectibles, and more for 2.5% per transaction.
What to look out for: While it doesn’t offer every popular type of investment, Public covers stocks and ETFs in a great way for newer or experienced investors looking to improve their investment strategy.
Stockpile
Stockpile
Fees
$4.95 monthly subscription fee
- No minimums and no gift card/funding fees
- 1,000+ stocks and ETFs
- Can fund account with bank transfer or stock gift cards
- Fractional shares available
- Investment selection limited to stocks, ETFs, and crypto
Insider’s Take
Stockpile is a newer and smaller brokerage than some others on this list, but it’s perfect for kids
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.7 iOS/4.3 Android
- Consider it if: You want to invest with kids or teens
Stockpile also offers commission-free stock and ETF trades, providing unique features that complement its $o commission fee structure. The platform also recently launched crypto investing. Plus, Stockpile allows fractional share investing and supports the gift of stock through gift cards, which makes it perfect for the youngest investors.
If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or relative who wants to help a child learn how the stock market works, Stockpile is perfect for your needs. It makes it easy to gift stock and keep tabs on the account of a minor. It also makes it fun to navigate through supported stocks while educating users through “mini-lessons” that teach how to invest.
What to look out for: Stockpile only offers stocks, ETFs, and crypto, so you’ll need to consider other platforms if you’d like to invest in additional asset types.
Beginner Investment Apps Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
SoFi Invest is our top pick for the best investment app for beginners. SoFi is a low-cost platform with easy-to-use trading features, portfolio management, and a complimentary financial planning session.
Beginners can start investing through an investment app for beginners or a beginner-friendly brokerage account. Investment apps for novices are generally low-cost, such as robo-advisors, which mainly trade low-cost ETFs.
Investments best for beginners include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), low-cost index funds, and a blend of corporate bonds and other fixed-income securities. The best investments for you can differ depending on your age, proximity to retirement, and risk tolerance.
You can invest $100 in an online brokerage or investment platform that has a minimum investment requirement of $100 or less. Robo-advisors and other investment apps for beginners often have minimum investments between $0 and $100. But some platforms, like Charles Schwab or Vanguard’s robo-advisors, have much higher minimums.
Other Beginner Investment Apps We Considered
- Webull: Webull is a newer commission-free investment platform that may be a good option for beginners. It may be a little more challenging for some newer investors to navigate but offers excellent pricing and investment tools.
- Firstrade: Firstrade’s web and desktop investment apps feel a little lower-tech, but its mobile app is simple and easy to navigate. It offers excellent pricing, including commission-free mutual fund trades.
- Stash Invest: Stash is great for newer investors looking to learn how to invest and build the right mindset, but monthly $1 to $9 fees make it less appealing.
- Investr: This platform offers commission-free stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and ADRs. It also allows for fractional share trading, but it doesn’t support IRAs.
- Uphold: Uphold is a cryptocurrency, multi-asset investing platform that offers cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, environmental assets, and precious metals for trading. But it doesn’t offer stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs.
- Wells Fargo Intuitive Investors: A robo-advisor for low-risk ETFs. It has a wide range of account options and educational tools suitable for beginners. But it has a $500 account minimum.
Why You Should Trust Us: Our Methodology
Choosing an investment app that combines low costs with the features you care about most is important for beginners. Whether you’re looking to build a passive portfolio of funds, an active portfolio of stocks, or any other investment strategy, a brokerage and investment app is designed to meet your needs. Investment platforms are given a rating between 0 and 5.
To make our selections, we used Insider’s methodology for rating investing platforms to focus on costs and fees, app features, types of accounts available, investment products available, and beginner-friendly features to manage your investment account on the go.
