Investing and trading tools are more accessible than ever, and as technology has changed the way we invest, traditional brokers have largely been replaced by commission-free trading apps that anyone can download and use, regardless of their wealth or experience level.

Since 2020, there has been a massive boom in casual investing among non-professionals. As more working people have entered the equities, options, and crypto markets, new trading platforms have emerged to serve this growing pool of retail investors.

For the younger generation of retail investors — and anyone newer to stocks, for that matter — the growing number of free-to-use brokerages can make deciding where to park one’s investment dollars difficult. By comparing each brokerage app’s offerings side-by-side, however, budding investors can more easily choose a trading platform that suits their needs.

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Those with little expendable income, for instance, may want to select a platform that allows fractional share trading (like Robinhood) so they can start investing with just their spare change, regardless of the per-share price of their favorite stocks. Those looking to diversify their portfolios with cryptocurrency might veer toward a platform that offers a broad array of digital currencies (like Public).

Here’s how some of today’s most popular digital brokerages stack up in terms of their features and access to different types of assets.

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How we ranked these brokerages

This list of brokerages includes 12 providers, each of which offers both mobile and desktop trading platforms that allow users to buy and sell stocks and ETFs without commission fees.

These trading apps are ranked based on how useful they are likely to be to newer, more casual investors who want the ability to buy and sell a wide variety of equities, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, ideally for free or at the lowest cost possible.

To this end, the brokerages below are ranked based on access to features that would benefit this sort of investor, including low barriers to entry, user-friendliness, fractional share trading, free and low-cost options trading, and access to a broad array of assets, including cryptocurrencies and ADRs.

What wasn’t considered in this ranked list?

Since this list is oriented toward average retail investors without professional experience, a number of features that could be important to more advanced traders with more specific needs were not considered, including the following:

• Access to advanced technical trading tools and market data
• Access to bonds, commodities, and futures contracts
• Access to professional investment advice
• Margin trading access/rates
• Social features

The 12 best digital brokerages for average retail investors

Each of the brokerages listed here offers myriad benefits, but the first three have the following important features in common: fractional share trading, free options contract trading, and access to 25+ of the most popular crypto assets, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. 

Robinhood tops this list as the most accessible, beginner-friendly free investing app. 

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1. Robinhood 

For the average retail investor, Robinhood is hard to beat. Sure, Public and Moomoo both offer a few more cryptocurrencies, but if trading more obscure digital tokens is your priority, it’s probably a good idea to use a separate, crypto-specific platform like Coinbase for that.

For a typical investor who mostly buys, holds, and sells stocks but also likes to diversify their portfolio with some well-known crypto assets and foreign stocks, Robinhood offers an excellent platform. Easy-to-use mobile and desktop interfaces make researching and buying stocks and ETFs a breeze.

Users can easily examine the performance of individual assets they’ve purchased — or their portfolio at large — as line graphs. Candlestick charts are also available for individual assets for more technically oriented traders, who may also want to upgrade to Robinhood Gold for access to more specific market data.

Speaking of Gold, Robinhood’s premium tier (which costs less than $5 per month when paid for annually) also offers 4.5% interest on uninvested cash (as of this article’s last update), which is a far better rate than you’re likely to get from your bank’s savings account.

In addition to a traditional investment account, Robinhood users can also open an IRA or Roth IRA within the app, allowing them to invest pre or post-tax dollars in a retirement account. Robinhood matches all IRA contributions at a rate of 1%, meaning that for every $100 you deposit, they’ll deposit $1. (This match jumps to 3% for Robinhood Gold members.) For folks whose employers don’t offer a 401(k) with matching contributions, this is a huge benefit.

Perhaps the most important feature offered by Robinhood is fractional share investing with no minimum dollar amount per buy. This means that anyone can get started investing in whatever mix of assets they choose without needing to save up to afford whole shares.

All of this comes packaged in an intuitive, easy-to-navigate app that makes learning about the market, buying and selling stocks, and learning about basic options trading strategies fun and easy.

Robinhood also does not charge fees to buy and sell options contracts, which is somewhat uncommon. And while not all foreign stocks are available on Robinhood as ADRs (American depository receipts), many major non-American equities — like Toyota and Alibaba — are available for trading.

2. Public

Public is fairly similar to Robinhood in that it allows for fractional share trading, doesn’t charge fees for buying or selling options contracts, and has access to an array of ADRs and cryptocurrencies. In fact, Public (as of this article’s last update) offers access to more cryptocurrencies than Robinhood.

We ranked Public below Robinhood for a few simple reasons. First, Public has a minimum cash deposit requirement of $20, which can be annoying for folks trying to invest frequently but with a small amount of disposable income. Public’s minimum fractional share purchase of $5 is similarly prohibitive, especially for those who like invest in a large mix of assets each time they add to their investment account.

Additionally, those with low account balances who haven’t bought or sold something in a while may incur a $3.99 account inactivity fee. Robinhood does not have any of these restrictions.

It is worth mentioning, however, that Public offers a high-yield savings account that (as of this article’s last update) offers a 4.1% interest rate.

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3. Moomoo

Moomoo, like Robinood and Public, gives its users access to a broad array of stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and ADRs. It also offers free options contract trading and fractional share trading. Like Public, Moomoo has a $5 minimum for fractional share purchases.

Moomoo’s platform is a bit less intuitive and beginner-friendly than Public’s and Robinhood’s, and frequent pop-up ads and promotional offers give it a somewhat over-gamified feel. That being said, it still offers free access to everything an ordinary investor would likely want from a brokerage.

4. Interactive Brokers

5. WeBull

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6. Fidelity Investments

7. SoFi

8. E-Trade

9. Vanguard

10. Charles Schwab

11. JP Morgan

12. Merrill

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