For years, investing apps have been a novelty. Now, they’re synonymous with brokerage accounts. And contemplating how simple they’re to make use of, it is smart that new traders are turning to cell platforms to get into the inventory market.
Beneath, we’ve listed on-line brokerages whose cell apps characteristic the whole lot a brand new investor may want. All of those platforms supply:
Fee-free buying and selling. By now, free buying and selling is the norm within the business. Any dealer or app you think about mustn’t cost commissions. Some brokers wish to flaunt this as a differentiator, however truthfully, it’s a desk stakes providing.
Fractional shares. The flexibility to purchase shares in no matter greenback quantity you need, reasonably than by the variety of shares you need, is a really optimistic growth within the business, particularly for brand spanking new traders. Whereas not each main dealer gives fractional shares, all the apps under do.
Low or no minimums. Minimums are unusual nowadays, however be sure that to keep away from any dealer that requires upfront deposits of a number of hundred (and even a number of thousand) {dollars}. We’ve excluded these from our listing.
So long as the investing app you select gives the above, you’re probably in good fingers. However listed below are our 5 favourite apps, together with the most effective choices they carry to the desk.
Our 2026 listing of the most effective investing apps for newbies
Constancy: One of the best app total
Yearly when Constancy receives an ideal rating in our rubric, we surprise: What did we miss? The place are the issues on this legacy dealer? And invariably we arrive on the similar conclusion that, as soon as once more, Constancy actually does have the whole lot most traders need and little or no they don’t.
What makes Constancy such a powerful alternative
Belief, peace of thoughts and assist. Constancy has been working since 1946, and manages investments that complete round $6 trillion. The variety of prospects they serve is someplace round 50 million, but they nonetheless handle to supply 24/7 telephone assist. It is a family-owned, privately-held firm that way back established itself as a frontrunner within the business, and it’s maintained that repute by to as we speak. After I’m utilizing the app, I don’t really feel like I’m being nudged towards merchandise I don’t want or devices and techniques which can be too superior for me. It simply does what I need it to do, and that’s extraordinarily refreshing in a world the place consideration is very invaluable forex.
Straightforward to make use of, simple to be taught. If you happen to’re new to investing, it’s true that Constancy really has greater than you want. However the great thing about the app is that these additional choices received’t get in your approach if you happen to’re on the lookout for very fundamental buy-and-hold inventory investing. Then while you’re able to broaden your portfolio, be taught extra about investing ideas and techniques or open different kinds of accounts (like a retirement account), that’s all very simply accomplished in-app.
👉 See how we charge Constancy’s charges, options, and minimums
Account charges (annual, switch, closing, inactivity)
Annual price: $0
Inactivity price: $0
Closing price: $0
Rate of interest on uninvested money
Variety of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
Shares, mutual funds, ETFs, choices, bonds and glued revenue, valuable metals, crypto
Three: Constancy.com, cell app, Constancy Dealer+
Accessible for iOS and Android
A number of information suppliers, together with Argus, Zacks, CFRA and S&P World
Buyer assist choices (consists of how simple it’s to seek out key particulars on the web site)
24/7. Hours range by contact technique, however you will get assist by way of telephone, electronic mail, chat, over social media or at a bodily department.
Need to see Constancy in motion? Senior Investing Author Alana Benson reveals us what it seems to be like to purchase an index fund contained in the app:
What Constancy would not do as effectively
As famous earlier, there actually aren’t any downsides for brand spanking new traders simply beginning out and who need a taxable brokerage account. If you happen to’re on the lookout for a really particular providing, different brokers could spike above Constancy in these areas, although. So if that’s you, hold your choices open (and hold studying).
Public: One of the best for constructing a diversified portfolio
I’m excited to speak about Public, as a result of it’s an app that simply two years in the past I’d not have included on this listing. However for a really new app (it’s solely been round since 2019), it’s proven an distinctive means to maintain including options as we speak’s traders arguably want most, reasonably than showy bells and whistles that don’t convey a ton of worth. And all of those additions have made it among the finest apps for simply constructing a diversified portfolio. This is what you may get:
A extremely good index-building AI software
Public’s Generated Belongings characteristic helps you construct your individual customized index (that’s only a listing of shares) based mostly on the factors you enter. I used to be skeptical at first, however after I examined it, I understood the hype. I requested it to create a diversified index of climate-resilient industrials, and it rapidly created a customizable index of twenty-two firms. Furthermore, you’ll be able to direct it to rebalance anyplace from day by day to yearly, and even backtest your index and evaluate it to the S&P 500. Nonetheless, there’s a $1,000 minimal to truly spend money on your customized index.
Straightforward income-focused investing
Public offers traders 3 ways to get excessive yields on zero- or low-risk investments: A diversified company bond account, which presently gives 5.46%; a Treasury account, presently yielding 3.57%, and a high-yield money account, yielding 3.3%. All of those are well-explained and simple to fold into your total portfolio.
Direct indexing
It’s a fairly large achievement for Public to begin providing direct indexing — a method that includes investing in every particular person inventory listed in an index, reasonably than, say, an ETF that tracks the index. Whereas it’s not good (there are funding minimums starting from $1,975 for 100 shares to round $80,000 for 499 shares) the interface is remarkably simple to make use of and perceive — stunning for a extremely technical providing. If you happen to can handle the minimums, this can be a useful gizmo for a technique referred to as tax-loss harvesting, which includes promoting investments at a loss to offset capital positive aspects taxes.
Funding Plans
Public lets customers select both pre-made portfolios or customise their very own of as much as 20 shares, ETFs or cryptocurrencies, choose allocations for every asset, and set common contributions to this portfolio. Every contribution is then distributed in keeping with your set allocation. This kind of basket investing is changing into extra widespread, however Public’s is way from the most effective of the bunch. Nonetheless, it provides to Public’s enchantment as a superb app for constructing diversification.
👉 See how we charge Public’s charges, options, and minimums
$0 ($2.99 per commerce for after-hours trades or OTC shares, for non-Premium members.)
$0. Public pays choices merchants a rebate of $0.06 to $0.18 per choices transaction, as a share of their payment-for-order-flow income, relying on quantity
Account charges (annual, switch, closing, inactivity)
$75 ACAT outgoing switch price (partial or full). No annual price for non-Premium members — Public Premium prices $10 a month or $96 a yr.
$3.99 month-to-month inactivity price for accounts with no exercise for six months and balances under $70. Immediate withdrawals price 3.5% of the quantity withdrawn, with a minimal of $1.
Rate of interest on uninvested money
New customers can choose right into a high-yield money account with yield of over 4% by checking a field at sign-up.
Variety of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
Shares, ETFs, choices, cryptocurrency, American Depositary Receipts, fractional shares and bonds.
Public’s cell and net platforms supply a easy sign-up, funding and buying and selling expertise, however are pretty fundamental in the case of instruments like charts and screeners.
Public’s iOS and Android apps are each well liked by customers and supply nearly the identical options as the net buying and selling platform.
Analysis from Morningstar, TradingView and S&P World. Public gives earnings name playback, in addition to bespoke firm metrics like subscriber numbers.
Buyer assist choices (consists of how simple it’s to seek out key particulars on the web site)
Electronic mail and chat assist obtainable from 9 a.m. to five p.m. Jap, Monday by Friday. Responses prioritized for Premium members. Web site is pretty simple to navigate.
1% match on all rollovers and contributions.
What I do not like about Public
There are two elements of Public’s enroll course of I actually didn’t like: It defaulted to opening a margin account, which new traders ought to keep away from. After which, there was a small field routinely checked that enrolled me of their Securities Lending Program. I’ve no intention of lending out my shares (which Public’s clearing firm Apex sometimes makes use of to facilitate short-selling), so I’d have most popular this wasn’t checked by default. It’s simple sufficient to vary this in your account settings after the actual fact, however it’s the truth that it was the default choice that rubbed me the fallacious approach.
Webull: One of the best paper buying and selling software
Webull has all the time had a really enjoyable (and useful) paper buying and selling platform. If you happen to haven’t heard of paper buying and selling, it’s mainly a inventory market simulator that allows you to observe putting trades with pretend cash. It’s an excellent software for constructing confidence utilizing these highly-technical and sometimes daunting platforms. Webull’s paper dealer:
Helps you to observe buying and selling shares, choices and futures with a pretend $1,000,000.
Consists of all information, charting, evaluation, newsfeeds and the whole lot else you’d see in an actual buying and selling setting.
Can itself be complicated, however that’s why the low-stake setting is so useful.
Within the above pictures, you’ll be able to see how sensible Webull’s paper buying and selling platform is. From left to proper: the inventory/ETF buying and selling platform, the choices chain, and the futures buying and selling interface.
If you have already got a main investing app, Webull may very well be a powerful complementary dealer because of this characteristic. However we must always word Webull, like Constancy, obtained an ideal rating in our rubric, regardless of its barely worse UX. So it actually has a ton going for it past paper buying and selling, too. Learn Webull’s full, detailed evaluation right here and take a look at its fast information under.
👉 See how we charge Webull’s charges, options, and minimums
$0 per commerce and $0 per contract on fairness choices. $0.30 to $0.50 per contract on non-equity choices reminiscent of index choices.
Annual price: $0.
Inactivity price: $0.
Outgoing switch price (partial or full): $75.
Rate of interest on uninvested money
3.6% for Premium customers. 3.25% for non-Premium customers with belongings totaling greater than $25,000, and 0.5% under that.
Variety of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
None; mutual funds not obtainable.
Shares, ETFs, Treasury bonds, Choices, ADRs, Crypto, Futures, Prediction markets
5: Internet, desktop, two cell apps (Webull and Webull Lite), APIs.
Accessible for iOS and Android.
Greater than a dozen suppliers, together with Benzinga, Nasdaq Complete View, S&P, Dow Jones and CBOE.
Buyer assist choices (consists of how simple it’s to seek out key particulars on the web site)
Buyer assist is accessible by telephone from 9:00 a.m. Jap time to 4:15 p.m. Electronic mail and an in-app assist middle can be found 24/7.
1% contribution match without cost accounts, 3.5% for paid accounts.
The place Webull falls brief
As Webull has continued so as to add new choices (retirement accounts, entry to cryptocurrency, IRA matching, superior buying and selling options, and so on.), it feels just like the app is actually filling up. The place there was beforehand ample white house is now cluttered with advertisements for Webull’s many further providers. There’s not lots of respiratory room anymore, and the uncluttered UX is one thing I cherished about Webull within the early days. That mentioned, all the brand new choices are undoubtedly an excellent factor, and sure offset the declining UX. However I’ve to say I miss the tremendous slick expertise of years in the past.
Robinhood: One of the best for an IRA match (and an extremely easy UX)
Robinhood has lengthy been recognized for its mobile-friendly interface, and for good purpose. It’s one of many best-designed apps (of any app, not simply buying and selling apps) I’ve ever used, second solely to maybe Chipotle’s app.
However since Robinhood’s management in UX is firmly established, I wish to heap reward as an alternative for its IRA match program — which Robinhood pioneered, and which most of its opponents have copied. Right here’s the way it works:
With a Robinhood Gold membership ($50/yr or $5/month), Robinhood will match your IRA contributions by 3%. Which means if you happen to max out your IRA in 2026 ($7,500 for these beneath 50 years previous) Robinhood provides you with $225 to place towards your IRA.
A cool twist: that $225 is taken into account curiosity revenue inside your IRA, that means it doesn’t depend towards your annual contribution restrict, successfully letting you contribute $7,725 in 2026.
Robinhood Gold comes with a number of advantages, so it might be tempting to think about it a separate, unrelated price. Nonetheless, it’s value remembering if you happen to get Gold particularly for the IRA match, you web out a match of solely $175, not $225.
The match with out Gold is much less compelling: At 1%, that quantities to $75 additional, which sure, is free cash, however received’t be a gamechanger to your retirement financial savings.
👉 See how we charge Robinhood’s charges, options, and minimums
$0 for brokerage accounts, Robinhood Gold accounts and IRAs.
$0 for fairness choices. $0.50 for index choices, or $0.35 for Gold accounts.
Account charges (annual, switch, closing, inactivity)
No annual or inactivity charges. $100 ACAT outgoing switch price. Robinhood Gold prices $5 a month or $50 per yr. Matching funds in IRAs could also be taken again if cash is withdrawn in lower than 5 years. Immediate withdrawals price 1.75% of the quantity withdrawn, with a minimal price of $1 and a most of $150.
Rate of interest on uninvested money
0.01% without cost accounts, 3.5% for Gold accounts (as of November 2025).
Shares, ETFs, Choices, Cryptocurrency, American Depositary Receipts for over 650 international firms, Futures, Fractional shares. Bonds solely obtainable within the type of bond ETFs.
Variety of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
Not rated; no mutual funds.
Robinhood’s cell and net platforms are recognized for his or her easy sign-up, funding and buying and selling processes. The dealer now additionally gives a desktop platform, Robinhood Legend.
Cell buying and selling platform consists of customizable alerts, information feed, superior charting and talent to pay attention dwell to earnings requires some firms. Opinions are principally optimistic, though the common star score on each iOS and Android is under the 4.5 star line.
Entry to skilled analysis from Morningstar and Stage II market information from the Nasdaq Inventory Change (with Gold subscription).
Buyer assist choices (consists of how simple it’s to seek out key particulars on the web site)
24/7 chat assist. Cellphone assist obtainable from 7:00 a.m. ET to 9:00 p.m. ET, Monday – Friday. Respectable suite of instructional articles and webinar occasions, and an easily-navigable web site.
1% match on IRA contributions without cost accounts, 3% for Gold accounts.
What I nonetheless don’t love about Robinhood
I’ve been reviewing Robinhood for over half a decade. I’ve cherished watching them mature far past what feels just like the wild west days of 2020 and 2021. However they nonetheless make the majority of their income from methods antithetical to confirmed long-term investing practices, they usually push these methods on app customers. Pay attention to this. As a product of Silicon Valley, Robinhood is aware of find out how to get your consideration, and in my view, even affect your habits.
M1: One of the best for constructing customized portfolios
Earlier I discussed Public’s Funding Plans have been good, however not nice. So now let’s take a look at M1’s “Pies” customized portfolio characteristic, which in my view, is the most effective amongst any dealer I’ve reviewed.
M1 makes it tremendous easy to create a basket of belongings (shares and ETFs), set an allocation for every, automate contributions and have these contributions dispersed accordingly amongst all belongings within the basket. So what units M1’s aside from different, related basket buying and selling options, like these supplied by Constancy and Public? Rather a lot.
On excessive balances, it’s free. M1 costs a $3/month platform price, which isn’t nice. Nonetheless, balances of $10,000 or extra see this price waived. Public’s comparable portfolio builder costs a per-transaction price of $1.99 for portfolios with 20 shares in them. Constancy costs $4.99 for his or her model of the service.
Embrace as much as 100 belongings. The standard M1 person can construct a customized portfolio containing as much as 100 shares or ETFs — excess of Constancy’s 50 and Public’s 20. And, just by calling and requesting it, I had my restrict raised to 150.
Flexibility with mannequin portfolios. If you need some skilled assist, M1 additionally gives pre-built pies based mostly on themes. And when you can’t edit these instantly, you might recreate them as a customized pie and regulate accordingly fairly simply. Alternatively, you might embody a pre-built skilled pie as one “slice” of your individual customized pie. There’s lots of mixing and matching that may go on right here.
On this video, Bella Avila from the NerdWallet Investing staff walks us by opening an M1 account for the primary time:
I wish to clarify that M1 just isn’t a inventory buying and selling app, in the identical approach the others on this listing are. In actual fact, M1 solely executes trades throughout two home windows every buying and selling day. It’s designed to assist long-term, hands-off traders create a customized portfolio, then let it run. If that’s what you’re on the lookout for, it’s a superb alternative. If you happen to’re trying to actively commerce shares, it’s not.
👉 See how we charge M1’s charges, options, and minimums
$100 ($500 for retirement accounts).
Choices buying and selling not obtainable.
Account charges (annual, switch, closing, inactivity)
Annual price: $36 (charged month-to-month) on balances beneath $10,000.
Inactivity price: $50 (charged on accounts with balances as much as $50 with no buying and selling or deposit exercise for 90+ days).
Closing price: Full and partial outgoing ACAT: $100; IRA closing price: $100.
Rate of interest on uninvested money
Variety of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
None; mutual funds not obtainable.
Two: M1.com and cell app.
Accessible for iOS and Android.
Buyer assist choices (consists of how simple it’s to seek out key particulars on the web site)
Buyer assist is accessible from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m EST on days when the market is open.
The place M1 fall brief
M1 has a rarely-seen $100 funding minimal to get began, plus that $3 month-to-month platform price and a reasonably excessive steadiness requirement to waive it. I’d argue the providers obtained are value these minimums and charges, however that’s as much as everybody individually.
