Best Investment Apps For Beginners 2021 – There are a lot of investment apps out there, but most of them don’t teach you how to actually make money. In this article you’ll learn about the best investment apps for beginners. I will also show you how to get started with investing without having a large sum of money.
It doesn’t matter if you buy nor sell when the stock price is increasing, due to the fact that when you sell your stock it will be at a higher price because of the market value. However, you can make money modern many consecutive sales because you are selling high. Now, this type of investing method is not appealing because one gets less for selling your shares, but it can be useful if you want to make smaller sales in order to get rid of them quickly.
eToro: Best for Crypto Trading
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play
- Best For: U.S. investors focused on crypto-trading
- Sign up here
If you’d like to invest in more than just stocks or ETFs and also invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, you might want a high-powered, user-friendly app like eToro.
eToro is the world’s leading social investing platform, offering a social trading feature where you can learn and copy the strategies of other traders.
If you are a profitable trader, you can have eToro users follow you and earn income based on how well you perform and how many people follow your trades.
The platform offers multi-asset trading capabilities with over 2,000 instruments available through the brokerage. You can trade crypto and other assets in 14 exchanges worldwide.
eToro can fulfill your needs for crypto investing by offering commission-free trading on 17 cryptocurrencies and other assets. Opening an account is simple and only takes $50 to start.
The bad news is that the forex fees are high and there is a $5 withdrawal fee charged.
Vanguard
Best For: Low Cost Index Fund Investing
Vanguard is consistently known as the low cost investment service provider. They were one of the original mutual fund and ETF companies to lower fees, and they continually advocate a low-fee index fund approach to investing.
At Vanguard, you don’t pay any commissions when you buy and sell Vanguard ETFs. You also pay no account service fees if you sign up to receive your account documents electronically, or if you’re a Voyager, Voyager Select, Flagship, or Flagship Select Services client.
Furthermore, Vanguard recently announced that they won’t charge a commission on a huge amount of competitor’s funds and ETFs as well!
Vanguard also doesn’t have an account minimum, and there is no minimum purchase requirement for mutual funds, but stocks and ETFs it’s the cost of 1 share.
What holds Vanguard back is that their app is a little more clunky that the other apps. It feels a little “old school”, and it seems to be built for the basics only.
However, it is free, so maybe only the basics are needed?
| Vanguard | |
|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $0 |
| Commission | $0 for stocks, ETFs, options |
| Monthly Fees | $0 |
| Account Type | Taxable, IRA, 401k, and More |
| Promotions | None |
M1 Finance: Best Free Stock App to Start Investing
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android
- Best for: Passive Investors
- Sign up here
M1 Finance works as one of the best stock trading apps because it provides self-directed and automated investing options according to your predetermined investment decisions. This high-level of customization makes this stock trading app this site’s top robo-advisor pick.
Robo-advisors, which are almost exactly what they sound like, are automated investment managers who handle administrative investment actions on your behalf. Things like investing contributions, rebalancing your portfolio or making automated withdrawals.
Once you set up your portfolio, you can edit it as you wish or simply let the app handle all the nitty gritty while you learn how to increase your net worth with a growing account balance.
Specifically, clients can create a portfolio of stocks and ETFs tailored to their exact specifications, down to the last dollar thanks to their ability to trade fractional shares.
One major callout before going any further, however, is that while M1 Finance offers pre-made portfolios aligned to several investing goals—the company is not an advisory service.
That said, the firm has attracted billions of dollars in assets under management and has over one million users on the stock trading platform since its founding in 2015. No small feat in today’s competitive brokerage account market.
Robinhood
Best For: 100% Free Stock Trades & Limited Crypto
Robinhood is an app lets you buy and sell stocks for free. Users can buy or sell stocks at market price. The app allows you to make limit orders and stop loss orders too. Unless you’re an active trader, this is plenty of functionality. Plus, the app comes with a clean user interface and basic research tools.
Most serious investors should pair Robinhood with one or more free research tools. This will help them develop a more systematic approach to investing. That said, you can’t beat Robinhood’s free trades, but its shortcomings here make it third.
They also allow options, fractional shares, and cryptocurrency investing, but these are limited as well.
The drawbacks are really limited, but one of the biggest is that the platform has become unreliable in recent months with large outages impacting investors.
If you’re curious how Robinhood makes money, it’s through Robinhood Gold. Robinhood Gold is a margin account that allows you to buy and sell after hours. Buying on margin means you double your expected returns. It also means you double your expected losses. The result (based on the magic of compounding) means that trading on margin tends to eat into your principal.
Check out the other options for trading stocks for free.
Check out our full Robinhood review.
Open a Robinhood account here and get a free share of stock >>
| Robinhood | |
|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $0 |
| Commission | $0 for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto |
| Monthly Fees | $0 |
| Account Type | Taxable |
| Promotions | None |
E*Trade
E*Trade also offers a large selection of commission free ETFs. We are actually big fans of E*Trade for our solo 401k account, but they don’t make the top 5 when it comes to investing apps and free investing.
They just recently announced $0 stock, ETF, and options trades, but we’ll see how they compete with others on this list.
While they do offer IRAs with no minimums, and charge no transaction fees, we didn’t find their app as user friendly as the rest. Similar to their website, it’s just a bit harder to use. However, we still really like E*Trade and they are definitely a runner up.
Acorns
Acorns is an extremely popular investing app, but it’s not free. Acorns charges anywhere from $1 to $3 per month ($5 for a family), but it does make automating your investments easy!
Acorns allows you to round up your spare change and invest it easily in a portfolio that makes sense for you. However, if you don’t have a lot of money invested, that subscription cost can eat up your returns.
Read our full Acorns review here.
Fidelity
Best For: Full Service Investing At $0 Trade Prices
Fidelity is one of our favorite apps that allows you to invest for free. This surprises most people, because most people don’t associate Fidelity with “free”. However, Fidelity offers a range of commission-free ETFs that would allow the majority of investors to build a balanced portfolio. Plus, they now offer $0 commission stock, option, and ETF trades!
The also offer fractional share investing, meaning that you can invest dollar-based, not just share-based. This is a big win for people starting with low dollar amounts.
Fidelity IRAs also have no minimum to open, and no account maintenance fees. That means you could deposit just $5, and invest it for free. That makes this a much better deal compared to companies like Stash Invest.
Furthermore, Fidelity just announced that it now has two 0.00% expense ratio funds – yes free. So, you can not only invest commission free, but these funds don’t charge any management fees. Truly free investing.
But to make it a top app, it has to have a great app, and Fidelity does. Their app is the cleanest and easiest to use out of all of the investing apps we’ve tested. They have a ton of features, but it all works well together.
Plus, you get the benefit of having a full service investing broker should you need more than just free. Check out Fidelity’s app and open an account here.
| Fidelity | |
|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $100 |
| Commission | $0 for stocks, ETFs, options |
| Monthly Fees | $0 |
| Account Type | Taxable, IRA, HSA, 401k, Trust |
| Promotions | None |
TD Ameritrade
Best For: Free Options Trading
If you’re a trader, you may have heard of TD Ameritrade – or maybe one of their platforms, like thinkorswim. With TD Ameritrade’s commission free pricing structure (for stocks, options, and ETFs), they are more compelling than ever to use as an investing app.
TD Ameritrade offers over commission free ETFs from industry giants iShares, Vanguard and more. Because of the diversity of no load ETF funds, TD Ameritrade is my top broker for people who want to consider tax loss harvesting on their own.
Remember, TD Ameritrade also offers $0 commission stock, ETF, and options trades.
Furthermore, TD Ameritrade also have no minimum and no maintenance fee IRAs. That makes it a better pick to options such as Acorns, which charge maintenance fees.
TD Ameritrade’s mobile app also offers research, information and portfolio analysis that makes the free investing that much sweeter. Just remember, TD Ameritrade charges for some ETFs, mutual funds, and equity trades. Filter for no load ETFs before you buy.
It’s app also isn’t as user friendly as Fidelity’s but we put them as a very, very close second.
| TD Ameritrade | |
|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $100 |
| Commission | $0 for stocks, ETFs, options |
| Monthly Fees | $0 |
| Account Type | Taxable, IRA, HSA, 401k, Trust |
| Promotions | None |
Webull
Webull has been gaining a lot of traction in the last year as a competitor to Robinhood. It’s an investment platform that is app-first, and it focuses on trading.
Webull offers powerful in-app investment research tools, with great technical charting. This is a step above what you can find on most other investment apps.
Bonus: WeBull is offering a great bonus of 2 free shares of stock!
Read our full Webull review here.
Get a free share of stock!
J.P. Morgan Self Directed Investing
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is the latest update from Chase when it comes to investing (previously this was known as Chase You Invest). The great thing is that they made their platform truly commission-free. That’s what makes it a runner up on our list of free investing apps.
Read our full J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing review.
The information about J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing has been collected independently by The College Investor. The product details have not been reviewed or approved by the company.
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab also offers commission free stock, options, and ETF trades, similar to Fidelity and TD Ameritrade. In fact, Charles Schwab advertises that they offer more commission-free ETFs that most other companies, and they even offer some commission free mutual funds.
However, what keeps Charles Schwab out of the top is that they have a $1,000 account minimum for some account types.
Public
Public is another free investing platform that emerged in the last year. It’s actually a rebrand of the Matador investing app. Public is one of the few investing apps that allows fractional share investing, and they’ve been growing a solid following.
Read out full Public review here.
Aspiration
If you’re looking for an easy way to do socially-responsible investing, check out Aspiration. For a $10 minimum investment, you can get started. They don’t charge any commissions to invest, and it’s super easy to start a portfolio of companies that are socially and bottom-line focused.
Read out full Aspiration review here.
Conclusion
My little brother thought he was investing big back in middle school when he tried his hand at day trading. But it wasn’t until recently, when I opened my own investing account with Robinhood, that I learned what the real deal is. My brother’s come a long way since then, of course–he’s now a sophomore at college studying Economics. But me? I’m still knee deep in mock interviews trying to convince someone to hire me for this summer.