The 12 Best Investment Apps for Beginners

So, you’re interested in investing in stocks or funds (or crypto or … you get the point). And you’ve also saved up a little money to put toward your future.

That’s great! Then all that’s really left to get you started is an investment app—preferably one geared toward a beginner like yourself.

But what exactly does that look like?

The best investment apps for beginners don’t fit a single mold, largely because beginners come in different shapes, sizes, and (most importantly) interests. Some want a set-it-and-forget-it account with automated investing so they can plow their money into a few index funds that match their goals. Others want access to as many types of investments as possible, as well as all the learning tools they’ll need to master each one of them. And still others are hands-on learners that just want quick-and-easy access to the stock market sandbox—they’ll figure out the rest from there.

Today, we’re going to evaluate the best investment apps for beginners with all of these various needs in mind. Because while there is no one-size-fits-all-solution, the best investing apps are better than the rest at catering to certain sets of needs.

Below, we’ve looked at a host of investing apps for beginners through various lenses. Among our considerations: breadth of offered investments (stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, etc.), ease of use, robo-investing and other automated investing features, educational resources, intangible features (say, social aspects), and, of course, cost.

One last note: The key word here is “invest.” Many apps can serve multiple groups—in fact, some of the apps below serve both active traders and buy-and-hold investors. For active traders, we’ve evaluated these and other programs as stock trading apps. But if you just want to grow your money over time, with maybe only the occasional trade, keep reading as we evaluate the best investment apps for beginners.

Best Investment Apps for Beginners—Our Top Picks

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The Top Beginner Investment Apps

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App	Apple App Store Rating and "Best For"	Fees	Promotions
Robinhood	☆ 4.3 / 5 Basic stock and ETF investing; options	No-commission stock, ETF, and options trades. Robinhood Gold: Free 30-day trial, then $5/mo. or $50/yr.	Earn $5-$200 in cash to put toward stock when you sign up and fund your account with at least $10.
Plynk	☆ 4.6 / 5 Beginning and intermediate investors	Free to use, no commissions* on stocks and ETFs.	None
SoFi Invest®	☆ 4.8 / 5 Personal finance-focused investors	No-commission stock and ETF trades. SoFi Robo-Investing: 0.25%/yr. AUM advisory fee. SoFi Plus: $10/mo.	Fund a new account with at least $50 within 30 days of opening an account, and get up to $1,000 in stock.*
Betterment	☆ 4.7 / 5 Passive investors seeking tax-loss harvesting capabilities	$5/mo. or AUM fee charged based on balance*; Premium: 0.65% annual AUM fee.**	None
M1 Finance	☆ 4.7 / 5 Passive investors	No-commission stock and ETF trades; $3/mo. for accounts with balances under $10,000	None
Acorns	☆ 4.8 / 5 Automated investing	Bronze: $3/mo. Silver: $6/mo. Gold: $12/mo.	$20 bonus when you set up recurring investments and make your first successful recurring investment
Firstrade	☆ 4.7 / 5 Mutual fund and target date fund investors	Commission-free trades	Free account bonus commensurate with contributed funds
E*Trade	☆ 4.7 / 5 Beginning-to-intermediate traders	No-commission stock and ETF trades	Free account bonus commensurate with contributed funds
Schwab	☆ 4.8 / 5 Investors and traders of all experience levels	No-commission stock and ETF trades	Free account bonus commensurate with contributed funds
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing	☆ 4.8 / 5 Self-directed investors and Chase customers	No-commission stock and ETF trades	Free account bonus commensurate with contributed funds
Public.com	☆ 4.7 / 5 Investors seeking traditional and alternative investments	Public: Zero-commission U.S.-listed stock, ETF, and options trades. Premium: $8/mo. (free w/ balance of $50,000 or more)	None
Note: Apple App Store Rating as of March 4, 2026.

A quick note about these apps. In any of our review articles, we only list products that meet certain quality thresholds—so if a product is listed, regardless of how it ranks, we still believe it’s worth using.

However, this group of products stands out in how close they are in quality to one another. In some product reviews, there can be a stark difference between the best-ranked product and the worst. But in reviewing the best investment apps for beginners, we feel that each product has a significant, unique value proposition to offer novice investors—it’s ultimately a question of what that novice investor is looking for.

A long way of saying: This is a very competitive field. Do we believe the top-listed investment apps are better than those at the bottom? Yes. But based on which features you value, you could easily find your best match later on in the list.

Now, on to the reviews:

1. Robinhood (Best Simple Stock Trading App for Beginners)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Beginner traders
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Robinhood jumped into the investing public’s consciousness in 2013 when they rolled out commission-free trading. They remain a standout option for cost-minded investors thanks to their continued $0 commissions on stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrency; 24/7 trading; and the use of fractional shares, which allow people to invest with as little as $1.

Robinhood has long catered to beginner investors with its gamified interface and growing library of educational content. But Robinhood has grown up, too—from a bare-bones app to a full-featured platform, chock full of tools and capabilities designed to both build up notice investors, and help beginners get the most out of their accounts from the get-go.

For instance, Robinhood now offers traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs via Robinhood Retirement. We love that investors have the option of self-selecting all their investments, having Robinhood recommend a portfolio (made up of five to eight ETFs), or mixing the two by starting with Robinhood’s recs and tweaking to your own preferences. IRA investors can choose from stocks, ETFs, and options, but not crypto.

But Robinhood Retirement has really made a name for itself by offering matching funds. If you open up an IRA with Robinhood Retirement, Robinhood will match 1% of any IRA transfers, 401(k) rollovers, and annual contributions to your account—typically almost immediately after you make your contribution. (Robinhood Gold subscribers get a 3% match on new contributions, though rollovers and transfers are still 1%.) 

Robinhood also has tools for budding traders. Advanced Charts, for instance, provides simple and customizable charts with a variety of technical features. Robinhood’s Options Strategy Builder simplifies the options-trading process by helping you build a strategy based on what you expect your target stock or ETF will do in the future. Robinhood also offers 24/7 commission-free cryptocurrency trading with Robinhood Crypto (though you’ll still have to pay a spread), allows extended-hours trading, and lets users earn interest through stock lending.

If you want to keep your banking and investing close together, you can also add a Robinhood spending account. This FDIC-insured account includes a Robinhood Cash Card issued by Sutton Bank. The Cash Card is a physical card (though you do have the option of having a virtual debit card only) that’s compatible with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, and also provides you with access to fee-free withdrawals from more than 90,000 ATMs. One of our favorite features: Robinhood’s card lets you round up purchases and invest the money into your brokerage or crypto account.

Sign up for a Robinhood brokerage account or Robinhood Retirement account today.

Related: 12 Best Stock Trading Apps + Platforms for Beginners

2. Plynk (Best Investment App for Beginners)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Beginner investors
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Plynk® is an investing app designed to not only help you start putting your money to work, but teach you about the markets and your money along the way. It charges no account opening fees.

With the Plynk app, you can start investing with as little as $1. It offers commission-free trades on 5,000 stocks and nearly 2,000 ETFs, and also provides access to more than 50 mutual funds and four cryptocurrencies. You can use the app as a traditional brokerage account, but if you’d prefer the potential tax advantages of retirement accounts, the Plynk app also allows you to open traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs.

The app is more than appropriate for seasoned investors, but it’s also extremely friendly to beginners. It’s light on jargon and instead uses straightforward, easy-to-understand language to explain investing concepts in its tips and how-tos. The Plynk app also offers expert ratings on stocks and funds that novice and experienced investors alike can use to identify high-quality opportunities.

Want to start building good investing habits right off the bat? The Plynk app offers automatic investing—you choose how much you want to invest, in which securities, and how often, and the app processes the trading from there. Want help building a consistent habit? Plynk’s Steady Start feature is a 52-week ramp-up program that starts your contribution at $1 in the first week, then ups that contribution by a dollar each week—so by the time you’re done, you’ll have contributed $1,378 in a year.

The Plynk app’s educational tools are among the best from the apps we’ve reviewed. Beginners will want to check out Plynk Think—a series of tips and how-to explanations that help you grow as an investor. Curious about how certain investments would’ve worked? Plynk’s virtual portfolios let you “invest” virtual money to see how any portfolio you can think up would have performed depending on when you started investing in its underlying stocks and ETFs. You can even build experience without using real money thanks to the app’s simulated trading feature, which shows you how to buy and sell stocks and funds, and lets you test out your trading strategies.

Plynk’s customer support is staffed by knowledgeable professionals, and your account is backed by encryption, multifactor authentication, and 24/7 fraud monitoring.

Begin today: Sign up with Plynk using our exclusive link to kick-start your investing journey, or read more in our Plynk review.

Related: How to Invest Money: 5 Steps to Start Investing w/Little Money

3. SoFi Invest® (Best for Personal Finance-Focused Investors)

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• Available: iOS, Android, Web
• Best for: Traders looking for an all-in-one personal finance experience
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

SoFi is a multi-faceted financial company that offers everything from credit cards and insurance to student loans and mortgages … and they also allow you to trade and invest through its SoFi Invest app.

With SoFi Invest, you can invest as actively or as passively as you’d like.

The SoFi Active Invest Brokerage Account has no required minimum balance, charges no commissions on stock, ETF, and options trades, and its options trading is free of contract fees, too. Want to put your portfolio on autopilot? SoFi’s robo-advisory services will create a portfolio for you for an annual 0.25% assets under management fee (that can be designed to address one or several goals) and auto-rebalance it for you as necessary over time.

SoFi Invest offers beginner-friendly features such as fractional trading, which means you can buy partial shares in more than 4,000 stocks and ETFs for as little as $5. The interface is very much geared toward younger, less experienced investors, too—everything is focused on simplicity and ease of use, rather than an expanse of sophisticated tools.

Unlike many brokerage companies that might have more limited offerings, SoFi’s app allows you to manage a much wider range of financial services and products, such as banking, student loans, insurance, and mortgages.

While SoFi Invest is free to use, you can also subscribe to SoFi Plus—a $10-per-month subscription tier that can unlock more than $1,000 per year in extra value. SoFi Plus perks include a match on recurring investment deposits, preferred access to initial public offerings, higher cash-back rewards on certain SoFi credit cards, home mortgage discounts, rate discounts on student loan refinancing and new personal loans, and a temporary boost on SoFi Savings APY, among others.

SoFi also occasionally has sign-up bonuses attached to its brokerage accounts, which you can read more about below. You can use our exclusive links to sign up with SoFi Invest, whether that’s on the web, the iOS app, or the Android app.

Related: Best Debit Cards for Kids

4. Betterment (Best Investment App for Tax-Loss Harvesting)

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• Available: Click the “Get Started” button below
• Best for: Investors who prioritize simplicity, tax-loss harvesting
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Betterment is a robo-advisor platform that allows you to invest in pre-built portfolios—with different themes and goals—in taxable accounts as well as individual retirement plans.

Betterment’s primary offering is ETF-only portfolios that provide varying types of exposure depending on your risks and interest. For instance, Core is a stock-and-bond portfolio that keeps you invested in most domestic and international securities, in the ratio of stocks to bonds that’s most appropriate for you. Social Impact buys stocks and bonds of companies with “a demonstrated focus on supporting social equity and minority empowerment.”

There are no self-directed options, however. The portfolios buy fractional shares of ETF index funds tracking benchmarks like the S&P 500 to keep you invested in stocks and bonds. But the service does not allow you to invest in individual stocks or bonds. The app has added crypto portfolios holding digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but again, you can’t buy them individually—only through pre-built portfolios held in separate crypto accounts.

That makes Betterment one of the best investment apps for beginners—especially those who don’t want to be particularly active in selecting what they hold.

One interesting perk that stands out: Betterment’s tax-loss harvesting feature.

If you invest in a taxable account, and you sell an investment for a gain, you’ll owe taxes on those gains. (What you owe differs depending on whether you’ve held that investment for more than a year.) However, if you sell an investment for a loss, you can use that to offset your capital gains, and thus the taxes you’d pay on them, or if your loss is more than your gains (or you don’t have any gains at all), you can even reduce taxes owed on your personal income, subject to a $3,000 annual cap.

It can be a complicated strategy, but Betterment’s Tax Loss Harvesting+ automates the process for you. It will regularly check your portfolio for tax-loss harvesting opportunities, then take the proceeds from selling those investments and reinvest them where it makes sense for you.

Just note that Betterment is different from many traditional brokers in that it’s a subscription-based product. Betterment charges $4 per month to start; however, if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $250, or reach a balance of at least $20,000 across all Betterment accounts, the fee changes to 0.25% of all assets under management. Betterment Premium provides unlimited financial guidance from a Certified Financial Planner™. Premium costs 0.65% annually, and upgrading requires having at least $100,000 in assets with Betterment.

Related: Federal Tax Brackets and Rates [2024 + 2025]

5. Vanguard (Best for Vanguard Fund Investors)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Basic trading options with cheap mutual fund investing
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Vanguard has long been regarded as the low-cost index fund investing service provider. In fact, in 1975, John Bogle launched the first U.S.-listed index fund available to retail investors. Now, Vanguard offers numerous dirt-cheap index products in both its mutual fund and exchange-traded fund lineups.

But Vanguard also offers low-cost investing, and no account minimums, through its brokerage and other accounts. That means commission-free trading not just on Vanguard products like VTI or VTSAX, but also on stocks, all other ETFs, and all no-transaction-fee mutual funds. But investors and traders still shoulder some costs. Unless you have more than $1 million in your account, transaction-fee mutual funds cost $20 per trade. And if you have a higher risk tolerance, you can trade options on Vanguard—but while commission-free, you’ll still incur a $1 contract fee on options trades.

Vanguard’s web and mobile versions are very much geared toward beginning investors, though the latter is better-designed. The web version can be downright clunky at times, and it can be difficult to access some of the features. I used to use the app to manage my work’s 401(k) plan, and I’ll admit to its bloat and lack of clarity on calculating investment returns on a percentage basis. The mobile apps run more smoothly, and I like the secure two-step login. But certain features, such as price alerts, aren’t available on mobile.

My main beef with Vanguard’s apps is that they make it difficult to measure the performance of individual holdings. All that said, Vanguard might have made this by design, incentivizing you to check your funds less often and thus living by their buy-and-hold ethos.

Still, if you’re a beginner who’s not sure if you’ll be more into trading, or more into long-term investing, a Vanguard account is a good place to start.

 

6. Public.com (Stock Investing App With Alternative Assets)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: New investors with limited capital
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Public.com is a commission-free investing app, geared toward Millennials and Gen-Zers, that as of late has built up the types of assets available to its users. On Public, users can invest in not just individual stocks and ETFs, but also more than 25 different cryptocurrencies—and more recently, alternative assets from art to sneakers.

That last point is worth a callout. Alternative assets are a relative rarity among investing apps. They can be difficult to research (and thus difficult to properly invest in), but they can provide uncorrelated returns compared to the stock and bond markets, so many savvy investors like to diversify into these assets.

But while the number of tradable assets on Public.com is growing, it’s still somewhat limited: It doesn’t offer mutual funds, options, bonds, or futures. New users are also limited to individual brokerage accounts—retirement accounts aren’t currently available.

The “Public” part of the name nods at the platform’s social aspect. For one, you can make your portfolio holdings open to other users, and conversely, you can look through other Public users’ portfolios. Investors can also connect with corporate founders and CEOs through live “Town Hall” meetings.

Public also acts as a micro-investing app, allowing you to invest in fractional shares with as little as $1.

Users can upgrade their experience with the Public Premium subscription, which costs $8 per month (or is free if you have an account balance of $50,000 or more).

Public Premium offers some features that are included in some free brokers’ services, but other features help to justify the cost. For instance, Premium offers extended-hours trading (8 to 9:30 a.m., and 4 to 8 p.m. EST) and stock price alerts—several competitors, such as TradeStation and E*Trade, offer these services at no charge. However, Premium also provides:

• Advanced data on companies—Public.com’s examples include Tesla quarterly deliveries by model or Apple’s annual sales by continent
• Institutional-grade research provided by Morningstar
• Members-only analysis about events including major economic report releases, earnings announcements, and more
• Exclusive audio programming by Public.com’s expert analysts

Read more in our Public.com investing app review.

For Public.com disclaimer, please see the fine print at the bottom of this article.

Related: The 7 Best Closed-End Funds (CEFs) to Buy

7. Firstrade (Ideal for Beginner Investors + Traders)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Beginners, traders looking for low options fees
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Firstrade might not have the same name recognition among younger investors as platforms such as Robinhood and Acorns. But it’s easily one of the best investment apps for beginners.

For starters, Firstrade has some of the best trading fees among all investing apps.

On the investing front: $0 commissions on stock and ETF trades are par for the course. But where Firstrade stands out is mutual funds, offering free trading of no-load mutual funds, load mutual funds, and no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds. It’s also pretty friendly to beginner traders: Firstrade goes a step above the zero-commission options trading offered at other apps by also not charging contract fees nor assignment fees.

Firstrade also allows investors to buy and sell roughly 40 digital currencies—a better selection than some other beginner investing apps, though not as robust as some higher-powered platforms. Crypto trading is technically commission-free, too. But like other brokers, it adds a markup (Firstrade charges 1%) on both sides of each crypto trade.

The mobile apps, for iOS and Android, are user-friendly; features include Face ID login, charting, and real-time streaming quotes. Users should know that the mobile experience is pared down compared to the primary web experience, but we view that as a plus for when you start investing.

Meanwhile, Firstrade’s educational resources include primers on many basic investment types, explanatory videos, and an A-to-Z glossary to help you become more familiar with vital investing terms.

Firstrade also frequently offers matching bonuses on account fundings, IRA transfers, 401(k) rollovers, and new contributions. You can check out the current offer in the box below. Use our link to sign up with Firstrade today.

Related: 10 Best Stock Advisor Websites & Services to Seize Alpha

8. M1 (Customizable Robo-Advisor for Passive Investors)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Passive investors
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Automated investing is one of the best solutions for beginner investors because it’s a way that people with very little financial knowledge can still put their money to work effectively and efficiently. Thus, several of our favorite investment apps for beginners have some sort of robo-advisory feature.

M1 provides something similar. We consider it a hybrid between self-directed (you manually choose what to invest in, and determine when to buy and sell) and automated investing (AI helps make decisions for you and manages your account). The result is effectively a highly customizable robo-advisory service—one executed so well that it’s our favorite robo-advisor service.

M1’s investing platform is based around Pies. Your portfolio is represented as a Pie (a pie chart); every stock and ETF you decide to buy becomes a slice of that pie—and because M1 supports fractional shares, you can add virtually any stock or ETF to your portfolio. From there, you set each holding’s “weight”—what percent of your Pie each slice should account for, so, say ETF X will always be 25% of your portfolio, while Stock X should always be just 5%.

After that, whenever you fund your M1 account, it will automatically invest your money based on these targets. And you can take automated investing even further by setting up recurring deposits into your M1 account.

From there, M1 can automatically rebalance your portfolio for you, or you can go in and manually change how small and large each Pie slice is. If you really want to put it on autopilot, you can invest in M1’s Expert Pies—professionally pre-built portfolios designed for different investment goals. (And if you want something in the middle, you can even combine Expert Pies with your own custom choices.)

One major callout before going any further, however, is that while M1 offers pre-made portfolios aligned to several investing goals, the company is not an advisory service.

Also worth noting is that, unlike traditional online brokers, you cannot trade stocks and ETFs throughout the trading day. At 9:30 a.m. every day the New York Stock Exchange is open, M1 processes all of the orders it has received since the previous trading session.

That’s something of a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, on the rare occasion you would need to jettison a position immediately during the trading day, you couldn’t do that with M1. And that single window is an extreme hindrance to people who want to trade stocks. But for beginner investors who want to avoid trading stocks and prefer to simply buy and hold, that single window won’t stop you from achieving your goals—and it could actually prevent you from panic-selling in the middle of the day.

Consider opening an investment account with M1, or read more in our M1 review.

Related: 33 Best Passive Income Ideas [Income Investments to Consider]

9. Acorns (Invest Simply With Pre-Built ETF Portfolios)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Investors looking for simple, automated investing
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Acorns is an investing app geared toward minors, young adults, and millennials by offering “Round-Ups”: The app rounds up purchases made on linked debit and credit cards to the nearest dollar, then invests the difference on your behalf.

For example, if you purchase a coffee for $2.60 on a linked credit card, Acorns automatically rounds this charge up to $3.00 and puts the 40-cent difference aside. Once those Round-Ups reach at least $5, they can be transferred to your Acorns account to be invested.

The Acorns investment offering itself is a simple, automated platform that uses pre-built portfolios of ETFs to keep investors exposed to stocks and bonds, which is similar to many robo-investing offerings. While it doesn’t have much to offer intermediate investors who want variety in their portfolios, Acorns’ basic approach makes it one of the best investment apps for beginners.

Here’s more about what you can expect from Acorns’ varying subscription options:

• Acorns Bronze ($3 per month): Includes an Acorns Invest investment account, as well as Acorns Later for tax-advantaged investment options such as Roth IRAs. Also includes Acorns Checking, a bank account that has no account fees, lets you withdraw fee-free from more than 55,000 ATMs nationwide, and Smart Deposit, which allows you to automatically invest a bit of each paycheck into your Acorns accounts.
• Acorns Silver ($6 per month): Everything in Bronze (Acorns Invest, Later, and Checking), plus Premium Education, which are live onboarding sessions covering account setup, Round-Ups, setting up recurring investments, and more; Emergency Fund; and a 25% bonus on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200 per month).
• Acorns Gold ($12 per month): Everything in Silver plus Acorns Early for up to four children. Gold is also the only way to unlock Acorns Early Invest: a custodial investment account for your child that lets you invest for them while they’re a minor. Additional Gold features include custom portfolios that allow you to hold individual stocks; live Q&As with financial experts; a 50% match on Acorns Earn rewards (up to $200 per month); $10,000 in life insurance; even the ability to set up a will for free.

Silver and Gold subscribers also get access to a powerful way to accelerate their savings: Later Match. While most people are aware that employers will sometimes match funds you contribute to your 401(k), “matches” are virtually unheard of in retirement accounts like IRAs, where there’s no employer to kick in extra cash. However, Acorns itself will match 1% or 3% on new contributions to IRAs for Silver and Gold subscribers, respectively.

Learn more in our Acorns review, or use our link to sign up with Acorns today.

Related: Best Custodial Accounts: How to Start Investing for Kids

10. E*Trade (Ideal for Intermediate Investors + Traders)

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• Available: Click “Open Account” below
• Best for: Intermediate investors
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

E*Trade has long been seen as a leading stock trading app for retail investors. It allows you to invest in a wide array of assets, and it provides educational resources that will help you with investment research, portfolio analysis, and building a diversified set of holdings.

E*Trade, like most of the best stock investing apps, offers zero-commission stock, ETF, and options trading (though options still incur a 50- to 65-cent contract fee). It also has a leg up on some platforms by offering $0 commissions on mutual fund, Treasury, and new-issue bond trading. Investors also have access to futures, micro futures, and futures options, among other investment types.

If you use E*Trade, you’ll do so via one of two platforms—both of which are free, and both of which have web and mobile versions:

Power E*Trade

Power E*Trade is designated for more intermediate-to-advanced traders. Features include:

• Advanced charting that includes intraday and historical options; more than 100 studies; over 100 drawing tools; and the ability to automatically identify technical patterns
• Snapshot Analysis, which lays out risk-reward probabilities in your options trading
• Powerful stock and trade scanner; use preset filters or customize as you wish
• Paper trading to test out strategies without putting your money at risk
• Ability to design exit strategies

Like with the Power E*Trade web platform, the Power E*Trade app is a more powerful version of its basic counterpart. This app allows you to use preset scans, work with interactive charts, place complex options trades, and more.

E*Trade

The “basic” E*Trade web platform might be more suitable for beginning-to-intermediate traders and investors, but that doesn’t mean it’s short on features.

E*Trade’s main web platform includes everything you need to keep up to date on your portfolio, including real-time quotes, charts, market commentary, and stock news. The latter includes free access to Bloomberg TV, Thomson Reuters, and TipRanks research. Meanwhile, you’ll have ample research tools at your disposal, including stock, mutual fund, bond, and ETF screeners; trade optimizers; backtesters; and more.

Other considerations

E*Trade also touts its educational resources, which includes articles, videos, and classes, as well as monthly webinars and live events. While we wish the educational content were a bit easier to sort through, it’s a high-quality collection that will benefit investors who want to learn along the way.

Want to keep it simple? E*Trade also offers an automated investing platform, called Core Portfolios, where you can let E*Trade manage as little as $500. Answer a few questions about yourself, your goals, and your risk tolerance, then E*Trade will provide you with a suggested portfolio that you can either accept or personalize more before putting it to work. From there, E*Trade will automatically invest funds for you and manage the portfolio. Fees are 0.30% annually, or $30 on every $10,000 invested.

Read our review to learn more, or visit E*Trade and sign up by clicking “Open Account” below.

Related: 7 Best Investments for Kids [Investing for Children]

11. Schwab

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Intermediate investors
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

Investors looking for maximum flexibility and low (or no) trading costs should explore a brokerage or retirement account with Schwab.

Schwab offers commission-free stocks, ETFs, thousands of mutual funds (from Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource), and even Treasury trades. Additional investment selections include corporate bonds, options, money market funds, futures, E-mini futures, and foreign exchange (forex), and you can even participate in some initial public offerings (IPOs) through the Schwab platform.

Want to learn more? Check out the review here, and from there, click the “Visit Site” button to visit Schwab and sign up.

Related: 7 Best Stock Portfolio Management Software Tools + Apps

12. J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing (Ideal for Intermediate Investors)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Self-directed investors, Chase customers
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing acts as an investing solution offered from Chase and is accessible through the Chase Mobile^® app or Chase.com.

You can use this investing app to make unlimited commission-free trades in thousands of investment options, including a wide range of stocks, ETFs, fixed income, mutual funds and options.

The investing app allows you to utilize tools to build your portfolio including screeners and watchlists—both useful for building diversified portfolios and staying on top of market activity.

The app provides personalized news and J.P. Morgan research and market analysis to empower informed investment decisions. You can leverage these resources to design your own target allocation for your investments.

Consider using J.P. Morgan’s Self-Directed Investing platform if you’d like the flexibility to invest as much as you want without paying any commissions on equity and options trades. Some regulatory fees and fund expenses may apply.

You can choose an account that’s right for you: an individual taxable account, Traditional IRA or Roth IRA. All carry a $0 minimum.

Open your J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account today and get up to $700 when you open and fund an account with qualifying new money:

• $50 when you fund with $5,000-$24,999
• $150 when you fund with $25,000-$99,999
• $325 when you fund with $100,000-$249,999
• $700 when you fund with $250,000 or more

Learn more by visiting J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing’s website to see if it’s the right fit for your needs.

Related: 15 Best Stock Research & Analysis Apps, Tools and Sites

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About The Best Investment Apps for Beginners

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What are fractional shares and how do they work?

Typically, if you want to invest in a company, you have to buy at least one share of stock, whatever the price—$1, $10, $100, $469,919.81 (no really, that was the price of Berkshire A shares as I wrote this article). The same goes with ETFs—if you want to invest in that fund, you have to buy at least one share, whatever the cost.

However, with fractional shares, you can buy as much of a stock or ETF as you want with however much money you have. If you have just $1 to invest, brokerages with fractional shares can make it happen.

But it’s not just for people with little money to invest. Say you want to invest $1,000 in a stock, but it costs $750 per share. Without fractional shares, your choices are to buy one share and then figure out some other way to use the $250, or find another $500 so you can buy two shares. But with fractional shares, you can spend exactly $1,000 on that stock—hence why the process is often referred to as “dollar-based investing.”

What apps are good for small investments?

Typically, any investment account that allows you to purchase fractional shares will be best if you have only a small amount of money to work with. Depending on your preference, that means SoFi Invest, M1, Robinhood, and Public.com. Betterment and Acorns also have fractional investing, but that’s done automatically through pre-built portfolios—not self-directed investing.

And it goes without saying: Minimal trading fees (or no trading fees whatsoever) matter much more for small-dollar investors. Generally speaking, you’ll also want products with no account minimum.

What types of assets do investment apps offer?

All sorts—it just depends on which platform you choose. Apps that prioritize simplicity and automatic investing typically only allow you to invest in ETFs and/or stocks. However, advanced investing apps that cater to traders offer oodles of possible investments on top of stocks and ETFs, which can include mutual funds, options, bonds, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, futures, and more.

Related:

• Best Investing Apps for Teens
• Stock Market for Teens: Teen Investing

Disclosures

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Plynk

All Plynk disclosures can be viewed here.

Public.com

This does not constitute investment advice. Investing involves the risk of loss, including the potential loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities available on Public are offered by Open to the Public Investing, Inc. (OTTP), a member of FINRA & SIPC, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Public Holdings, Inc. Brokerage services for alternative investments are offered by the Dalmore Group, LLC, a member of FINRA & SIPC. Alternative investments are over-the-counter equity securities that have been issued pursuant to Regulation A of the Securities Act of 1933. Cryptocurrency trading is provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849). Apex Crypto is licensed to engage in the virtual currency business by the New York State Department of Financial Services.