Investment apps come in all shapes and sizes. Some are tailored toward beginners, with an intuitive app design for automated investing and rebalancing; others cater more towards experienced investors with access to multiple types of investments as well as learning tools.
Greenlight helps you save and invest your spare change, while Public provides free trading of stocks and ETFs (and fractional shares) while offering educational resources and market insights.
Betterment
Betterment was among the early robo-advisors to debut and remains one of the go-to options for beginner investors. Offering customized investment portfolios, financial planning tools and cash management accounts to keep an eye on spending, Betterment also offers premium features like tax loss harvesting and rebalancing to help manage risk effectively.
Betterment makes opening an account easy by asking you a series of questions about your goals and investing timeline, before providing a tailored portfolio suggestion based on the answers provided. Betterment invests in low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) covering an array of market sectors as well as socially responsible investments for added diversification.
Betterment provides multiple ways to invest, including retirement accounts and an automatic savings plan. You can link external bank accounts for an overall view of your finances. Plus, their customer support is available around-the-clock and its mobile apps are user friendly – perfect for beginners as well as advanced investors! Betterment makes for an excellent option.
Fidelity
Fidelity’s award-winning app provides an integrated banking, budgeting and investing solution. You’ll have access to an array of investments with expert insights and investing tools, 2-factor authentication, voice biometrics and security text alerts as well as deposit checks directly onto your mobile device, track spending patterns and make payments with your device.
Fidelity provides active investors with a robust desktop platform called Active Trader Pro and an accessible mobile trading app called Fidelity Trader Mobile, each offering excellent research features like options and multi-leg trades with real-time quotes. However, Fidelity could improve by becoming faster and more responsive.
Fidelity offers its customers access to extensive research services, providing financial data and competitor analysis on any stock. This includes reports from third-party research firms like Argus, Zacks and Thomson Reuters StarMine as well as SEC filings and market commentary. In addition, Fidelity boasts an excellent option screener with more than 140 criteria that allows customers to customize searches.
M1 Finance
M1 Finance is an investment platform that marries robo-advising with traditional investing, providing low-cost index investing options in both taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, fractional share investments, customized portfolios based on personal goals and risk tolerance as well as no trading fees or account maintenance charges.
M1 Investment stands out from other investment apps with its customizable Pie feature and expert-curated pies designed to meet various financial goals and investment objectives. Users can use M1 to craft their own investment portfolio or select from 100 pre-baked options designed by experts that help meet specific goals and objectives.
M1 Finance’s dynamic rebalancing feature can automatically reallocate investments to meet your desired asset allocation, making M1 Finance especially helpful for those on their journey toward financial independence as they keep their portfolios stable despite short-term fluctuations. In addition, users have the option to follow and replicate other users’ portfolios created through M1 Finance.
Stash
Stash is an intuitive investment app for novice investors that makes investing affordable with minimum investments of $5/month. Offering personal brokerage accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs as well as custodial investing accounts specifically designed for children as well as banking services including early direct deposit and budgeting tools; its mobile app also includes educational content about investment and finance topics.
Stash is unlike other robo-advisors because it gives users complete freedom in choosing their investments or selecting its Smart Portfolio, while providing excellent educational content tailored specifically for beginner investors. Furthermore, its Stock-Back Card lets you earn stocks when shopping with certain brands; robust security features include encryption and two-factor authentication; multiple currencies are supported as well as having its own dedicated customer support team; however, one downside would be tax loss harvesting which it does not offer.
