Best Investment Apps Of April 2024

Crypto enthusiasts will notice that none of our other picks directly allow for trading digital currencies. Investors who want exposure to what some have called “digital gold” should consider our top choice for best investment app for cryptocurrency, Binance.US.

Binance.US offers the best mix of low fees, wide selection and crypto transfer flexibility among cryptocurrency investment apps.

Certain beginner-friendly investment apps, like Robinhood and Webull, allow you to easily buy crypto along with other more mainstream investments, like stocks and exchange traded funds, or ETFs. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Platforms like Robinhood and Webull offer a relatively limited range of cryptos. Perhaps more importantly, they don’t let you move your cryptos off of their apps.

Some crypto investors like to transfer their coins from the apps where they buy them into so-called cold crypto wallets that are disconnected from the internet to protect their investments from hackers. What’s more, Robinhood and Webull’s “free” trades aren’t really free. Instead, they have fees baked into the prices at which you buy and sell your cryptocurrencies.

That’s why we recommend a pure crypto app, like Binance.US, even for those new to crypto. Binance.US provides access to countless more cryptocurrencies, from mainstays like bitcoin and Ethereum to dozens of lesser-known altcoins. Beginners and advanced traders alike can benefit from the industry-low fees and instant buy on more advanced trading platforms like Binance.US.

One caveat: Binance.US accounts are not available to residents of Alaska, American Samoa, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands and Vermont.

Many top online brokerages offer robo-advisor services. But if you’re looking for a dedicated robo-advisor investment app that can manage a low-cost diversified portfolio of ETFs, you’d be best served by Betterment. It is one of the original robos. And it is the No. 1 pick in our ranking of the best robo-advisors for everyday investors.

Betterment has no account minimum. That makes it easy to get started. And Betterment offers a strong platform that can help you automate your investments in a way that best suits your long-term goals and risk tolerance. Just remember that Betterment hosts only trading in ETFs, not individual securities like stocks and bonds.

Here’s how Betterment’s fees work: If your total Betterment balance is below $20,000 and you do not have a recurring deposit of $250 or more per month, you have to pay Betterment $4 per month. That would be $48 a year.

If your balance is higher than $20,000 or you make combined recurring deposits of $250 more each month, you’ll pay 0.25% per year. Annually, that’s $25 per $10,000 that you invest.

Other leading robos, like SoFi Invest, Acorns, Ellevest and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, charge monthly subscription fees of $0 up to $30 a year. Schwab also charges a one-time planning fee of $300.

Alternatively, some robo-advisors charge a percentage of the assets you have in your account, with yearly rates up to 0.89% by Empower. So, Betterment’s fees effectively penalize small balances. But once your balance exceeds their trigger points, fees tumble.

Instead of starting with a rival platform that seems easier or cheaper, you’d probably be better off starting with Betterment’s app to take advantage of its leading platform and low-fee access to all investment account and goal types.

Note: TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim app has been incorporated into parent company Charles Schwab’s platform.

Many advanced and do-it-yourself traders were—and still are—big fans of TD Ameritrade’s app in large part because of its thinkorswim trading platform. Most traders find its interface easy to use. Users hail its real-time market data, charts and quick trade execution.

Those traits are why thinkorswim is our top choice for Best Online Broker Mobile App. Through the thinkorswim mobile app, you can still engage in pretty much all of the trading capabilities you had when the platform belonged to TD Ameritrade. Plus, eligible customers gain entry to more sophisticated investments like forex.

The thinkorswim platform is still available to customers even after TD Ameritrade’s takeover by Charles Schwab. Customers still have access to the basics—for example, stock, options and futures trading—as well as advanced charting functions, margin trading and the ability to buy and sell securities on the over-the-counter, or OTC, market. Traders can monitor market-breaking news easily in-app and benefit from a wealth of educational resources.

What’s more, you can access the settings you enable on thinkorswim’s powerful desktop platform in-app, meaning your chart drawings and market scans are always with you. thinkorswim also offers chatrooms and paper trading for you to discuss and try out your trading ideas.

Are you a fan of fractional share trading? New parent company Schwab has opened the door to trading partial shares worth at least $5, so long as the companies are in the S&P 500 Index. Fractional shares are not directly available on thinkorswim, but thinkorswim users can access them through Schwab.com and Schwab Mobile. And thinkorswim customers are allowed to access either of those Schwab platforms without needing to create an additional account on those platforms.

Customers of thinkorswim can also access cryptocurrency in various ways, including through spot bitcoin ETFs and ETF-like trusts that the SEC has approved. Spot bitcoin ETFs allow for the institutional trading of bitcoin at its spot, or current, price.

Also fair game for thinkorswim customers: ETFs that invest in cryptocurrency futures and in the stock of companies whose businesses are related to crypto, such as crypto-mining companies and exchanges. And once they are approved by Schwab to trade futures directly, thinkorswim customers can access their futures account to trade crypto futures via their thinkorswim app.

The Fidelity app combines low costs and clean graphics with easy buying and selling of stocks.

One reflection of those traits is that Fidelity requires no account opening minimum for U.S. stock and ETF trades. Also, Fidelity levies no account fees, and your orders aren’t sold to high-frequency trading shops. That practice, called selling order flow, is thought by some to result in customers getting worse prices when they buy or sell investments.

Further, Fidelity permits fractional share investing for as little as $1, allowing you to buy less than one share of a particular security.

The Fidelity mobile app is easy to navigate. It’s also chock-full of useful educational materials that will help fledgling Warren Buffetts learn to invest.

One perk is the ability to coordinate with Fidelity Go, the Boston-based investment firm’s robo-advisor service. As with most leading robos, you’ll be presented with a suite of premade portfolios that aim to match your risk tolerance and are stuffed with low-cost funds.

Generally, you can use the Fidelity mobile app to do anything you would online with a desktop or laptop computer. You can even trade bitcoin and Ethereum through your mobile app. But first you must open a Fidelity Crypto account because you cannot trade cryptocurrencies through your regular brokerage account.

What you can trade via your regular brokerage account with the mobile app are securities such as ETFs that hold cryptocurrencies or crypto futures contracts or companies engaged in crypto-related activities. The last category includes businesses like crypto exchanges and crypto mining companies.

Somewhat ironically, you cannot trade spot bitcoin ETFs like Fidelity’s own Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) through Fidelity Crypto, even with the Fidelity mobile app. That’s because the ETF holds cryptocurrency but is not itself a cryptocurrency. Instead, you can trade it through the regular brokerage on your mobile app if you wish.

You don’t need to commit to short-term buying and selling either. Fidelity offers a variety of account types outside of normal taxable investment accounts, like you find at Robinhood. Fidelity retirement and 529 accounts allow you to invest for your and your children’s futures.

Bolstering the appeal of the Fidelity mobile app are the full capabilities of its parent, investing behemoth Fidelity—which Forbes Advisor selects as the best online broker for everyday investors. Traders desiring more esoteric options, such as commodities—except for certain precious metals—will be disappointed, as they are not offered directly for trading.

While Fidelity stands out as a solid choice for the everyday investor, beginners in particular who are interested in trading should look to E-Trade. The original online-first brokerage boasts an average Apple App Store rating of 4.6 (with 151,000 reviews). And it nabbed the top spot in the ease of use category of our ranking of Best Online Brokerages for Beginners, in no small part because of its investment app.

E-Trade has no trading minimums or commissions for online U.S.-listed stock, ETF, mutual fund and options trades. It also offers a surfeit of investing information, from basic definitions of common terms like diversification to live-streaming of Bloomberg TV. You can also sign up for a wide range of account types, including IRAs and custodial accounts for children, in addition to more typical taxable accounts.

One drawback to the E-Trade app is that you can’t open a 529 plan account to save for children’s college educations.

Another drawback is the absence of most fractional share trading. You’re only allowed to sell fractional shares obtained through dividend reinvestment plans. That can make it harder for investors with less cash to buy the security they want. Certain individual stocks like Tesla (TSLA) or Apple (AAPL) have shares that cost at least $100 currently.

You can also access a robo-like service through E-Trade’s Prebuilt Portfolios, though you’ll need $500 to get started with mutual funds and $2,500 to open an account with exchange-traded funds.

A third limitation is that you can’t directly trade commodities or cryptocurrency. Still, those restrictions can reduce risk for trading newcomers, since those assets tend to be volatile. And you can trade certain crypto-related securities, including futures and ETFs, through the E-Trade app.