Top Stock Trading Apps of March 2024
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Stock trading apps allow investors to trade investable securities like stocks, bonds, ETFs, and more from a mobile device. The best stock training apps are accessible with built-in advanced trading features like educational resources, goal planning, real-time market data, and trading strategies.
Featured Stock Trading Apps from Our Partners
SoFi Invest
Account Minimum
$0 ($1 to start investing); $5 fractional shares; $2,000 for margin trading
Fees
0% for active trading and automated investing
- No minimum to start investing
- No account or trading fees, and low fees to own funds
- Access to Certified Financial Planners at no additional charge
- IPOs available
- SoFi 1% IRA match
- No tax-loss harvesting, an advanced investing technique where you sell a stock or mutual fund at a loss for a tax benefit
- No option for stop-loss orders when actively investing. SoFi’s active investing account only uses market orders
- Currently only available to US residents
Product Details
- Promotion: Get up to $1,000 in stock when you fund a new account.
- App store rating: 4.8 iOS/4.1 Android
- Consider it if: You want an easy-to-use platform paired with rock-bottom pricing.
Wealthfront Investing
Account Minimum
$1 ($500 for automated investing)
Fees
$0 for stock trades. 0.25% for automated investing (0.06% to 0.13% for fund fees)
- Low annual fee for investment accounts; crypto trust investments available
- Tax-loss harvesting, portfolio lines of credit, 529 college savings plans available
- Cash account
- Mobile app and investing and retirement tools
- You need at least $100,000 to utilize additional investment strategies
- No human advisor access
Product Details
- Consider it if: You’re balancing several goals and want to streamline your finances.
- Promotion: Fund your first taxable investment account with at least $500 in the first 30 days of account opening and earn a $50 bonus.
Robinhood Investing
Account Minimum
$0 ($1 for fractional shares; $2,000 for margin trading)
Fees
0% ($5/month for Robinhood Gold)
- Free stock, option, ETF, and cryptocurrency trades; 1.50% APY on uninvested cash for non-Gold users and 5.00% for Gold members
- IPO investing available
- Cash management accounts available
- Website is easy to navigate; advanced charts for all users
- Lack of investing research and trading tools; can only take advantage of professional research if you’re a Robinhood Gold member
- No joint accounts, education savings accounts, or mutual funds
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.2 iOS/4.0 Android
- Consider it if: You want to trade crypto and invest in a wide range of stocks and ETFs.
Best Stock Trading Apps of 2024
- Charles Schwab: Best overall stock trading app
- TD Ameritrade: Best stock trading app for active traders
- SoFi Invest: Best stock trading app for beginners
- Vanguard: Best stock trading app for no commission fees
- Fidelity Investments: Best stock trading app for long-term investing
- Interactive Brokers: Best stock trading app for expert traders
- Ally Invest: Best stock trading app for banking and stock trading
Complete Editorial Review of the Top Stock Trading Apps
The best stock trading apps offer flexible trading options, customized portfolios, market research, low fees, various investment options, and access to many investing strategies. If you’re looking for commission-free trades on assets like stock or ETFs, the best free stock trading apps are the way to go.
User-friendly stock trading apps offer the ability to buy and sell shares of stocks and ETFs with no commissions. They also allow you to research investments, track your portfolio, and easily enter orders to buy or sell. Experienced investors can access advanced charting in trading apps designed for hands-on traders.
If you’re looking to invest outside of stock trading, see Insider’s picks for the best online brokerages to help you get money in the market.
Check out the best stock trading apps with low fees as picked by Business Insider’s editors in 2024.
Best overall: Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab’s Schwab Mobile is a strong all-around choice for stock traders. It comes with no account minimums and no recurring fees. You can choose between almost any type of investment account you want and most investments.
And for stock trades, the app is well-rounded for beginners and experts. Charles Schwab also offers a no-fee automated adviser, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, but you’ll need at least $5,000 to get started.
The mobile stock trading app makes viewing your accounts, positions, and balances easy. You can view market indices and news, research stocks, and enter an array of trade types from the app. One of its features, the Schwab Assistant, gives you voice control to make trades, get quotes, set alerts, and get answers to investment questions.
Users also have access to the more advanced StreetSmart Mobile. It works well but isn’t among the best for the most active traders. But Schwab now owns TD Ameritrade and thinkorswim, an industry leader for active traders. More on that in the next section.
Best for active traders: TD Ameritrade thinkorswim trading platform
TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim is a top stock trading app for active traders. TD Ameritrade features accounts with no recurring fees and no minimum balance. It offers various accounts and investments, including some less commonly supported investments, such as futures, forex, and cryptocurrencies.
But the stock trading app stands out for its active trader offering for experts and those looking to become experts in active trading.
The flagship active trading platform at TD Ameritrade is thinkorswim. Thinkorswim gives you a nearly identical experience wherever you log in, including desktop or mobile. It features advanced charting, trade tools, profit and loss calculations, a live CNBC news stream, and chat support where you can get live help from a TD Ameritrade trading specialist inside the app.
Important note: Charles Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade on October 6, 2020. However, Schwab has announced it plans to keep thinkorswim alongside StreetSmart Edge. If you want to set up a managed account, you’ll have to do so through Schwab.
Best for beginners: SoFi Invest
SoFi Invest is one of the best stock market brokerages for new traders. SoFi’s app is less robust than some larger competitors, which makes it easy to navigate and understand if you don’t have as much market experience.
SoFi stock trading app offers taxable accounts, retirement accounts, and limited investment choices. But stocks and ETFs are well represented. SoFi also offers a no-fee automated investing platform, and it lets you invest in fractional shares through a product it calls Stock Bits. In addition, SoFi has now launched options trading.
Beginners will enjoy browsing through groups of stocks by category to get ideas for how to invest. The app also includes educational articles accessible from stock account pages.
If you are brand new to the markets, SoFi offers a way to get started with a small investment and no fees. That’s a good combination for learning how to trade stocks.
Best for no commission fees: Vanguard
Vanguard has investment options for just about every type of investor.
In addition to its Jack Bogle-created index funds, the brokerage offers commission-free trading on several investments, automated investing through Vanguard Digital Advisor (with the additional choice of one-on-one advisor guidance, thanks to Vanguard Personal Advisor Services), IRAs and other retirement resources, and market research and educational resources.
You can trade stocks without commissions here. Vanguard offers margin accounts (these accounts let you borrow money to buy more securities) and commission-free options trading for more advanced investors. You’ll have to apply for margin trading, though.
In addition to its iOS and Android mobile apps, Vanguard offers trusts, 529 plans, custodial accounts, small business retirement plans, and more.
Best for long-term investing: Fidelity
Fidelity offers a wide range of accounts and investments that could meet the needs of virtually any investor, but it stands out as a great choice for stock market inventors looking to buy and hold for long-term goals like retirement. This stock trading app offers a wide range of investing products, including fractional shares.
In addition to common tools that allow you to research and trade stocks, Fidelity offers apps and tools to help you reach retirement goals and other long-term plans. For example, the Fidelity Spire app is a goal-oriented app that encourages good saving and investing habits to reach your specified goals.
Fidelity Investments is best for beginners, but it also suits active traders, passive investors, and long-term-focused investors.
Best for expert traders: Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers is a great choice for expert traders looking for a slick, Wall Street-style trading platform. Sometimes called IBKR for short, Interactive Brokers offers multiple types of accounts, including ones that work well for retail investors and professional and institutional investors. It gives investors access to a very wide range of assets, including, of course, stocks.
Interactive Brokers mobile app, IBKR Mobile, is a fully functioning investment platform with advanced trading tools in your pocket. Advanced quotes and research contain 50 columns of data in a very similar format to the desktop platform. It’s cutting-edge and works best for those with at least some investment experience.
Best for banking and stock trading: Ally Invest
If you’re interested in a straightforward investment platform that goes hand-in-hand with some of the best checking and savings accounts on the market today, Ally could be the right fit. Ally Invest has no minimum and no recurring fees and shares the same login for accounts with Ally Bank.
With Ally Mobile, you can view your investments and enter stock trades with just a few taps. The app includes basic research and charting, recent news, and the ability to enter a trade quickly. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as some stock trading apps, but it covers the basics and makes it easy to trade for a very low cost.
Investors who prefer automated portfolios might be excited to know that the Ally Invest Robo Portfolio has a $100 minimum and no advisory fees. The only catch is that it doesn’t allow for DIY stock trading; it primarily uses ETFs. The account also automatically sets aside 30% of your portfolio as cash to protect you against market volatility.
It also offers a market-focused, automated portfolio that only sets aside 2% of your portfolio as cash, but this option includes a 0.30% fee. However, both of its automated portfolios offer 3% annual interest on the cash held in the account.
Stock Trading Apps Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
In general, stock trading apps are safe to use as FINRA regulates them and are usually equipped with security features like two-factor authentications and encryption. However, remember that there’s always a level of risk involved in investing. Make sure you only invest money that you can afford to lose.
Some of the best stock trading apps offer international stocks either directly through foreign stock exchanges or through American Despitatory Receipts (ADRs). Availability varies by stock app, so make sure to check the platform you’re interested in offers the international stocks you want to invest in.
How quickly you can start trading assets like stocks or ETFs after downloading a stock app depends on the individual platform. Some investment apps may allow trading immediately, while others might be delayed. The sign-up process typically involves verifying your identity.
Some stock trading apps offer cryptocurrency trading as an option, but not all investment apps provide crypto trading. Certain stock trading apps may also require you to open a separate brokerage account for holding and trading crypto assets.
You can fund your brokerage account on a stock trading app with bank transfers and debit card deposits. Some investment apps allow you to use a credit card or e-wallet transfer. How you fund your account varies by platform, so do your research before opening an account.
Why You Should Trust Us: Our Expert Panel on the Best Stock Trading Apps
We consulted financial planners, investing experts, and our own wealth-building reporter to inform our picks for the best stock trading apps.
Insider
We’re focusing on what makes a stock trading app and brokerage account most useful. When weighing different apps, it’s best to consider pricing, investment choices, account types, and investment research resources.
We interviewed the following three investing experts to see what they had to say about stock trading apps:
- Brian Fry, CFP, founder at Safe Landing Financial
- Charlotte Geletka, CFP, CRPC, managing partner at Silver Penny Financial Planning
- Kaysian Gordon, MBA, CFP, CDFA, CPA, wealth manager at Clarus Group
What are the advantages of using an investing app to trade stocks?
Brian Fry, CFP:
Of course, there are going to be different levels of what’s offered through these different apps. Some of them may offer light financial planning, or low-cost or transparent investment options.
[It’s about] drilling down and finding the app that’s going to provide that transparency best and best provide the confidence that one’s looking for in planning one’s financial future.Charlotte Geletka, CFP, CRPC:
Investing apps make it easier than it has ever been for the individuals to trade stocks right on your phone.
Kaysian Gordon, MBA, CFP, CDFA, CPA:
[The advantage] is being able to have the research you need to make that decision. Look for the app that’s going to give you enough of the information that you need to be able to make a wise decision when you’re trading stocks.What are the disadvantages of using an investing app to trade stocks?
Brian Fry:
When you have free trades, you have to realize that these investment companies are making their money one way or another. So just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s better.
Cost is definitely something, but when you’re looking at free trades versus $5 trades or $10 trades, to me it’s all irrelevant. It’s really about what’s going to be the best user experience? What’s going to empower an investor to feel confident?
Charlotte Geletka:
The disadvantage is that [mobile trading access] encourages impulse investing. Numerous studies show that when the retail investor engages in impulse investing and frequent trading he or she ends up with lower than average returns.
Kaysian Gordon:
You want to make sure you [don’t have] all of your eggs in one basket. I can’t stress that enough no matter how good you think a company is.
Is there any other advice you’d offer someone who’s considering using a stock trading app?
Brian Fry:
Most investment platforms offer similar benefits. Choose the platform that best helps you stay on track and identify progress towards your financial goals.
Charlotte Geletka:
Make sure that you have an emergency fund and that you are adequately funding your savings goals. Use your extra money for trading apps.
Kaysian Gordon:
Don’t put too much money in one stock that, if you lose the money, you’re going to be hurting.
Methodology: How we Reviewed The Best Stock Trading Apps
The best stock trading apps come from brokerages that offer low-fee accounts and feature-filled mobile trading platforms. When compiling the best investment platforms for stock trading, we considered pricing, available investments, account types, and investment research resources. We reviewed more than a dozen platforms.
Personal Finance Insider’s rating methodology for investment products considers pricing and fees, investment options, account types, investment platforms, investment research, and educational resources.
