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Robinhood is in hot water with its customers after recently stopping trading in GameStop, as well as other stocks many people in the reddit forum Wall Street Bets had their eyes on. Many are now looking for Robinhood Alternatives, and even started the hashtag #DeleteRobinhood. I've even personally noticed an uptick in the views of my Investing Tutorial videos for other investment apps. There are also Apps who are moving away from the Payment for Order Flow model, and/or providing account transfer bonuses, in order to appeal to those who may be disgruntled.
I'll give you a list of brokerage accounts which can provide you with many of the same features as Robinhood. So first I'll talk about what are the main features that attract people to Robinhood, and what other brokerage accounts can offer you some of the same features. User Friendly Mobile App One of the main things that attract users to Robinhood is the easy of use, or user friendliness of the app. Now I would say that what one person considers user friendly will vary, so almost every app in this video is an app that I would personally consider user friendly. That leaves 5 specific features that I want to focus on for this list of alternatives. 1) Free Trading 2) Fractional Shares 3) Automated Share Purchases 4) Options Trading 5) Cryptocurrency These are 5 features Robinhood offers which I believe make it a very attractive app, whether you are a new or seasoned investor. Here are the apps you may want to consider which provide some of these same features. This is not a head to head ranking of which app is the best investment app, I will start off with the apps that provide at least 2 of the 5 features mentioned above, increasing the number of matching features as we go along. Matches 2 of 5 FeaturesPublic Investing App
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: No Options Trading: No Cryptocurrency: No Public Investing App matches 2 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free trading and Fractional Shares. You can buy fractional shares for as little as $1. Automated purchases, options trading, and cryptocurrencies are currently not available. Many brokerages use the Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) model as a way to still get paid without charging their users for each trade they make. With all the hoopla surrounding Robinhood and their perceived conflicts of interest PFOF style for processing trades, Public decided to stop PFOF execution, and instead gives you the option to tip Public each time you make a trade. Also if you transfer your account from another brokerage, Public will cover any fees your old brokerage charges for the transfer. When signing up for Public you will receive a free slice of stock worth up to $15, and you'll have 9 different companies to select. Use my referral link below to get your free slice! Dough App
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: No Automated Share Purchases: No Options Trading: Yes Cryptocurrency: No Dough offers 2 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free Trading and Options Trading. Currently Dough does not offer fractional shares, automated share purchases, or the ability to purchase cryptocurrency. But once you include their podcasts and educational videos to teach you how to invest and trade options, this seems like an app new investors can really grow with, and I think this will end up being one of my favorite apps as they grow. This is a new app to me, but one of the main reasons I included Dough is because they have a team of former TD Ameritrade employees who worked on the Think or Swim app. Think or Swim was the first trading apps I ever used, and while I am new to the Dough app, so far I like what they have to offer. I will do a review of the Dough App in the near future, but if you would like to receive a free share of stock for signing up, use my referral link. Receive a 2nd free share after a minimum $100 deposit. In order to trade options, you will need a minimum of $250 in your account. Matches 3 of 5 FeaturesCharles Schwab and TD Ameritrade
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes* Automated Share Purchases: No Options Trading: Yes Cryptocurrency: No Speaking of TD Ameritrade, they recently merged with Charles Schwab which matches 3 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free Trading, Fractional Shares, and Options trading. You can buy fractional shares in any S&P 500 company for as little as $5. In fact you can buy up to 30 different companies in one transaction using this feature, which they call Stock Slices. Schwab does not currently allow recurring share purchases or the ability to purchase cryptocurrency. Schwab recently acquired TD Ameritrade, which does not currently allow fractional share purchases, but once they are fully merged you may have the same abilities at that time via your TD Account. Deposit at least $1K into your account using my referral link, and receive a $100 Bonus Award, up to a $500 bonus for higher deposits. Interactive Brokers
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: No Options Trading: Yes Cryptocurrency: No Interactive Brokers offers 3 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free trading, fractional share purchases, and Options trading. Fractional shares can be purchased with as little as $1. Currently Interactive Brokers does not offer automated share purchases, or the ability to purchase cryptocurrency. Of all the apps mentioned in this video, Interactive Brokers it is probably the least user friendly, but provides many features that make it popular amongst day traders, as well as people who want to short stock. They provide some of the lowest margin loan rates of any broker I've seen as well. If you want something more advanced this may be the app for you, but if you want a simpler app to use keep scrolling! Webull Investment App
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: No Automated Share Purchases: No Options Trading: Yes Cryptocurrency: Yes Webull matches 3 out of the top 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free trading, Options Trading, and Cryptocurrency. If you're more of an active trader with Robinhood, then this would be a great alternative for you. Unfortunately you don't have the ability to automate your investments, and you can't buy fractional shares. Also Webull gives you at least 2 free shares of stock once you open an account and deposit at least $100 using my referral link. This is twice as many shares as Robinhood, who only offers 1 free share. Out of all of the investment apps mentioned, Webull is usually the app most newer investors gravitate to outside of Robinhood. M1 Finance
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: Yes Options Trading: No Cryptocurrency: No M1 Finance matches 3 out of the top 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free Trading, Fractional Shares, and Automated Share Purchases. Fractional shares can be purchased with as little as $1 per stock, with a minimum of $25 per trade for automated investments, on up to as many as 100 stocks at one time. If you're more of a passive, set it and forget it, dollar cost averaging, longterm investor, then this is the right app for you. There are no advanced features like Options trading or the ability to purchase Cryptocurrency, and you have at most 2 opportunities to buy or sell your stock throughout the day if you sign up for M1 Plus, but with their free account you have one opportunity each day. This is not the option for you if you want to be more of an active day trader. M1 Finance currently provides an account transfer bonus of up to $3500 if you were to transfer funds from any brokerage account. Checkout my most recent M1 Plus Review video for more details. Or deposit at least $100 in a traditional brokerage account, or $500 in a Roth or Traditional IRA within 30 days of signing up, and receive a $30 bonus when using my referral link. Matches 4 of 5 FeaturesCash App
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: Yes Options Trading: No Cryptocurrency: Yes Cash App matches 4 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free trading, Fractional Shares, Automated Share Purchases, and Cryptocurrencies. Currently Cash App does not offer Options trading. You can buy fractional shares for as little as $1 per stock, or you can setup automated investments with as little as $10 per stock. If you don't already use Cash App, you can receive $5 just for signing up for Cash App whether you use it to invest or just to transfer money to and from friends or family. Use code CNNZZKH or click my referral link to open your account today. Fidelity
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: Yes* Options Trading: Yes Cryptocurrency: No Fidelity offers 4 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free Trading, Fractional Shares, Automated Share Purchases, and Options Trading. You can buy as little as $1 in any stock or ETF available within Fidelity. For the Automated Share purchase option, there are a limited set of funds which you can invest on a recurring schedule. This includes Fidelity's own Zero Fee index funds. Fidelity is one of the largest providers of 401K accounts, so many of you may already have at least 1 Fidelity account already. Checkout my review of the Fidelity HSA, which also has all of the same features for a Health Savings Account! SoFi Invest
Free Trading: Yes
Fractional Shares: Yes Automated Share Purchases: Yes Options Trading: No Cryptocurrency: Yes SoFi invest matches 4 of 5 features Robinhood has to offer. Free Trading, Fractional Share Purchases, Automated Share Purchases, and Cryptocurrencies. You can buy fractional shares for as little as $1. Currently SoFi does not provide the ability to trade Options. When signing up for SoFi, if you fund your account with at least $1K you will receive $50 worth of free stock using my referral link. They are also offering a $25 bonus, up to $2500 bonus for account transfers. As you can see, there are no apps that can actually replace all of the features Robinhood which have made them one of the most popular apps amongst younger investors. However not everyone is using all of the features Robinhood has to offer, so one of these alternatives might be the right one for you if that is the case. Keeping Robinhood is also an option, even if it is not your main investment account. I believe you should have more than one investment account, just like you should have more than one checking and/or savings account. Work with the company that allows you to get the most out of the features you use. Having more features isn't as important as getting the most use out of the features you will use. What do you think about my list? Was there an app or brokerage you thought I should have mentioned that I did not? Let us know in the comments below.
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