Best online brokers and trading platforms for July 2024

While it’s true that interest rates on certificates of deposit and other fixed-income investments are up in recent years, stocks have proven to be the best way to grow your portfolio over the long term. To do that effectively, you’ll need to choose one of the best online brokers and trading platforms. We are providing 10 in this guide to help you find the best broker for you.

Best online brokers and trading platform of 2024

Robinhood: Best for IRA accounts

Robinhood takes our top spot because it offers commission-free trading in stocks, options and ETFs. It also offers commission-free trading in cryptocurrencies, eliminating the need to maintain a separate account with a crypto exchange. In addition, if you sign up for a Robinhood Gold membership (at a monthly fee of $6.99, or $75 annually), you can earn 5% APY on cash balances.

Another major factor favoring Robinhood is its IRA matching contribution. They will match your IRA contribution, traditional or Roth, at 1%. If you sign up for a Gold membership, the matching contribution increases to 3%. That’s found money, much like an employer matching contribution of 401(k) plans.

M1 Finance: Best for the self-directed investor

M1 Finance is not a broker, but we’ve assigned it a prominent position on this list because it’s a platform that enables you to select your own investments, which are then automatically managed by the service. It works on a unit it refers to as “pies.” Each pie is a portfolio that you can fill with up to 100 stocks and ETFs. M1 Finance provides 60 prebuilt pies, or you can choose to build your own. You can also create as many pies as you like. From there, M1 Finance will provide complete automated investment management at no fee. That includes no commissions on the stocks and funds you add to your pies.

Even though you can choose the stocks and funds in your pies, M1 Finance is designed to be a long-term investment, not a trading platform.

Acorns: Best for saving money to invest

Acorns isn’t an investment broker, but an automated online investment service, commonly known as a roboadvisor. But it’s worth a place on any list of the best online brokers and trading platforms because it gives participants the ability to accumulate the funds needed to invest. That’s the single biggest obstacle preventing so many from even beginning to invest, and Acorns has that covered.

Acorns works with a process known as Round-Ups. You can link credit and debit cards to the Acorns app, and your purchases will automatically be rounded up to the nearest dollar. The change will accumulate until it reaches $5, at which point it will be transferred into the Acorns investment account. Once there, it will be invested in a mix of ETFs invested in stocks and bonds. In that way, both investing and saving for investing will be fully automated processes.

Acorns can accommodate taxable investment accounts, as well as IRAs. They also offer high-interest checking in savings, covering all the investment bases in your life.

SoFi Invest: Best for access to certified financial planners (CFPs)

We like SoFi Invest for the fact that it gives participants unlimited access to Certified Financial Planners (CFPs). Though they don’t provide specific investment advice, they can help advise you on portfolio construction and other financial management issues. Best of all, there’s no extra charge for their services.

But that’s just the beginning with SoFi. The platform has turned into a comprehensive financial shop, providing investing, banking, insurance, student loans, personal loans, student loans, mortgages and credit cards. If it’s related to finance, you can find it on SoFi. It also attempted to match Robinhood by providing a 2% matching contribution on IRA accounts.

While Sofi Invest is for self-directed investing, it also offers a roboadvisor, SoFi Automated Investing, if you prefer a managed option. If you open an account with SoFi, be aware that while it does accommodate fractional shares, they are set at a minimum of $5 denominations.

Charles Schwab: Best for investment selection

Schwab is the largest retail broker in the world and for good reason. With the exception of cryptocurrencies, just about every investment possible is available on the platform. That makes Schwab a good choice if you are a long-term investor, an active trader, a veteran investor or a newbie. The company is also strong on customer service, investor education and investment tools.

Not to be outdone by the competition, Schwab has its own roboadvisor. Intelligent Portfolios is available to provide automated investment management, at no annual advisory fee, with a minimum investment of $5,000.

Fidelity: Best for customer service

Fidelity parallels Schwab in most respects, being one of the largest retail brokers in the world. They offer all types of investments and account types, but Fidelity is particularly strong in customer service. They offer 24/7 live phone support, as well as a network of more than 200 branch locations around the country.

Fidelity also offers its own roboadvisor. Fidelity Go is available with an investment of as little as $10. There is an annual advisory fee of 0.35%, but Fidelity is currently offering the program with the first $25,000 managed free of charge.

Webull: Best for frequent trading

Webull is an investment app designed specifically for investing on-the-fly. It focuses on very specific investments, like stocks, ETFs, options and futures, while excluding others, like bonds and fixed-income securities. The idea is to have a streamlined investment platform for fast, frequent trading.

Webull also functions as an investment community. You can interact and swap investment ideas with other users on the platform. In effect, Webull has blended investing with social media, giving users access to their peers.

Webull provides advanced charting tools, more than 50 indicators and 60 technical signals, as well as a “paper trading” feature, which is a trade simulator, so you can test investment strategies without risking real money.

E*TRADE: Best for options trading

E*TRADE gets our vote as the best broker for options trading. If you make more than 30 trades per quarter, the per-contract fee falls from $0.65 to $0.50 per trade. Meanwhile, E*TRADE offers plenty of top-level options tools. These include risk/reward probabilities, customizable option chains, earnings move analyzer, preset scans, spectral analysis, Strategy Seek and Risk Slide. It also offers more than 6,000 mutual funds, making it one of the best choices for mutual fund investing.

Not to be outdone by the competition, E*TRADE also offers Core Portfolios, its own roboadvisor service. With a minimum investment of $500, the annual advisory fee is 0.30%.

One area where E*TRADE is noticeably weak is interest on uninvested cash. The APY tops out at 0.15%, but only if you have in excess of $1 million. However, you can take advantage of higher-yielding savings vehicles through accounts offered with Morgan Stanley Private Bank.

Ally Invest: Best for mutual fund investing

It was a toss-up whether Ally Invest is best for mutual fund investing or for investing with online banking because the platform does both in abundance. On the mutual fund side, Ally offers more than 17,000 no-load, commission-free funds. That makes it ideal as a platform to invest in mutual funds, either as a trader or a long-term investor.

But because of its connection with Ally Bank, one of the top online banks in the industry, you can also take advantage of full-service online banking, along with online investing. Ally Bank offers a full range of deposit account products, as well as mortgages, auto loans, personal loans and credit cards.

Not surprisingly, Ally Invest offers its own Robo Portfolios: four of them to be exact. With a minimum investment of $100, the annual fee ranges between 0% and 0.30% per year.

TradeStation: Best for advanced investors

TradeStation is our top choice for advanced investors because the platform was specifically designed for brokers and professional traders. This makes it ideal for high-frequency traders, whether you trade stocks, options, futures or other asset classes. You can even trade futures in an IRA account.

The one downside with TradeStation is the lack of a true high-yield savings or cash sweep account. But that may not matter, given the wealth of investment tools and resources available on this platform.

TradeStation offers one of the most sophisticated trading platforms in the industry. That includes a simulated investment capability, so you can test trading ideas in real time without risking real money. You can also scan and monitor up to 1,000 symbols in real time, identifying unique trading opportunities with the RadarScreen tool. It includes over 180 customizable technical and fundamental indicators to help you up your trading game.

Summary: Our recommended online brokers and trading platforms

How we found the best online brokers of 2024

We based our ranking of the 10 best online brokers and trading platforms of 2024 on the following criteria:

• What each provider is best for.
• Fee structure.
• Minimum initial investment required.
• Mobile users’ ratings on The App Store and Google Play.
• The number of available account types offered.
• The selection of investments offered.
• High-interest savings option offered, if any.
• The availability of a sign-up bonus.
• The availability of margin trading.
• Quality of customer service.
• Availability of a managed portfolio option (with self-directed brokers).

How to find the best online brokers of 2024

To find the best online broker, we recommend evaluating each against the criteria we’ve used above to rate the 10 best online brokers in this guide. Carefully consider each of the criteria and match it against your own personal investment preferences and style.

Be careful not to give too much weight to any single category. Investing is a diverse undertaking, so you’ll need to look beyond a single feature, especially fees. Most brokers today offer commission-free trades for very low commissions, so fee structure largely cancels out. Against that background, what’s more important is that a broker offers the types of accounts and investments that will be a good fit for you.

You should also familiarize yourself with the educational resources and investment tools each broker offers. No matter what investor level you’re at — new, intermediate or advanced — new strategies and tools are always an important way to improve your investment performance.

Related: How to invest in stocks

Alternatives to online brokers

If you’re not interested in an online broker, there are three potential choices where you can buy and sell stock.

Direct stock purchase plans (DSPPs)

These are stock purchase plans that enable you to buy stock directly from the issuing company. Since the transactions are handled by a transfer agent, you can bypass a broker. DSPPs are usually offered by larger, publicly traded companies only.

Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs)

These plans are usually offered in conjunction with a DSPP. They have the added twist that you can automatically reinvest dividends earned into more of the same company stock.

Employee stock purchase plans (ESPP)

These are plans set up by employers to encourage employees to purchase company stock. Employees must contribute to the plan with payroll savings, and can usually purchase stock at a discount. That discount holds the potential for a profit on the immediate sale of the stock.

The advantage of all three plans is that stock can usually be purchased without paying any fees. The disadvantage is that it will require having multiple plans with each company you want to invest in.

The AP Byline roundup: Is it time to choose a new online broker?

Even if you already have an online broker, it pays to periodically investigate the competition. Online brokers and trading platforms are evolving quickly as technology improves, but they’re not all moving forward at the same pace. Check out one or more of the online brokers in this guide, and see if one may be a better fit for your current investing style.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How much money do I need to start trading?

As you can see from the brokers listed in this guide, you can usually open an account with no money at all, and begin trading with just a few dollars. That can be as little as $1, or as much as $100, depending on the broker.

Can you invest a small amount of money?

Because of a trading feature known as fractional shares, it’s possible to purchase slices of stock and ETF shares. For example, if a stock is trading at $50, you can purchase 1/50 of a share at just $1. That will enable you to spread a $10 investment across 10 different stocks or funds.

How quickly can you start trading?

It varies by broker, so you’ll need to read the fine print when you sign up for an account. Most will allow you to begin trading within five business days after funds transferred into the account have settled. This number of days varies and can be faster or slower depending on the broker.

Should I just go with the cheapest broker?

No. It’s more important to work with a broker that offers a combination of low fees with the types of accounts you need with any investments you typically make. You should also be sure the broker has adequate educational resources and investment tools to help you become a better investor. Customer service is another factor that should never be ignored. The cheapest brokers often have the weakest customer service.

Is my money insured at a brokerage firm?

Yes, as long as the broker is a member of the Security Investors Protection Corporation, or SIPC. If so, your investments will be protected for up to $500,000 in cash and securities, including up to $250,000 in cash. The coverage protects against broker failure and does not extend to losses due to market factors.