Robinhood Alternatives

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best Robinhood alternatives are Webull, TradeStation and Coinbase.

Robinhood faced scrutiny from it's users in early 2021 relating to the GameStop fiasco (that started on Benzinga Live). This sent many looking for an alternative.

We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite Robinhood alternatives that currently accept new users. Still learning about Robinhood’s low-cost platform? Check out our extensive Robinhood review for a crash course on what makes this broker unique.

Robinhood Alternatives:

• E*Trade
• Webull
• TradeStation
• SoFi
• TD Ameritrade
• Moomoo
• M1 Finance
• Public
• Interactive Brokers
• Tradier

The Best Alternatives to Robinhood

Take a look at the top Robinhood alternatives.

1. E*TRADE

E*TRADE is a unique and powerful discount trader that serves as the best alternative to Robinhood.

This platform works best for advanced traders, active day traders, derivatives traders and those saving for retirement. Trade on mobile, use the website, contact the 24/7 support line and try E*TRADE’s range of trading tools, indicators or charts.

Aside from powerful trading options, E*TRADE keeps your fees low:

• Free stock, ETF and mutual fund trades (except where a $19.99 transaction fee is noted)
• $0.65 per contract on options; you get a discount to $0.50 when you trade 30 contracts a quarter
• $1.50 per side on futures
• $1 per bond
• Free treasuries
• 8.95% margin rates

2. Webull

Webull caters to intermediate and experienced self-directed investors and traders. Short-term and active traders can save a considerable amount on commissions compared to other online brokers.

The Webull platform’s intuitive features and design could be considered advanced for novice traders, but you can still learn the platform.

Webull offers a series of trading courses and a trading simulator or demo trading account with real-time data and advanced charting capabilities for U.S.-listed stocks. These features can suit beginning traders who want to learn more about the market and develop a trading plan.

The Webull trading platform is available as a mobile web-based and desktop app with features useful for experienced and intermediate traders. The tools incorporated in the platform provide information and insights to help you make more profitable trades.

The platform features tools to help you perform both fundamental and technical analysis.

3. TradeStation

TradeStation offers commission-free stock and options trading coupled with a technically advanced but easy to use trading platform. TradeStation beats Robinhood in the number of investable classes it offers. In addition to stocks and options, TradeStation users can trade futures, mutual funds, bonds and even cryptocurrency.

TradeStation has 2 offerings, TS GO and TS Select. We rate TS GO among the best as an exclusively mobile-only platform. Furthermore, TradeStation offers a plethora of educational materials to make users better and smarter investors.

Read our full TradeStation Review

4. SoFi Active Investing

SoFi Active Investing was designed for young investors. The platform boasts free trades of stocks and exchange-traded funds, the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and fractional shares of big-time companies such as Amazon and Netflix.

Young investors can also gain from its members benefits, including free educational seminars and meetings with financial advisors. And SoFi has no account minimum, so it's easy to get started today.

5. TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade is one of the best overall online brokerages and a great alternative to Robinhood. After going commission-free in 2019, it instantly became a robust platform that offers far more trading options than Robinhood.

TD Ameritrade has one of the easiest to use platforms available on both mobile and desktop. They make researching stocks and investment opportunities easy with its suite of available tools. You can become a better investor with its multitude of available tools.

Read our full TD Ameritrade Review

6. Moomoo

Moomoo was designed as a platform for smart trading, and you'll love the benefits of low fees.

This mobile trading platform built their advanced tools well organized in 1 app. It’s free and easy to use for both beginners and experienced traders. A host of research tools can help you make smart investment decisions. There’s also a paper trading feature with real-time data if you want to simulate the investment experience before going all in. 

Moomoo allows you to invest when it’s convenient for you. You can initiate trades on-the-go or at home, with your customized set-ups synced on different devices. There’s no minimum deposit to open an account. 

Read our full Moomoo Review

7. M1 Finance

M1 Finance is a free automated investing service that offers you a hybrid platform that’s a cross between a traditional investment management service and a robo-advisor. Unlike other robo-advisors (that take your money and automatically dictate where it will be spent), M1 Finance gives you control over where you’d like to invest using a unique “pie” system. 

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to complete an interview about your savings goals and financial situation; you will then be offered a suggested “pie,” what M1 Finance calls its division of assets and symbolizes using a pie graph. Each pie can have up to 100 different investment “slices,” which makes it easy to build a diverse portfolio without doing a ton of research. You can then add stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ to your pie. 

M1 Finance places a large emphasis on regular and consistent investing, so you’ll be encouraged to set up automatic contributions; M1 will take care of distribution and rebalancing after your deposit has cleared. M1 is not for day traders and the platform does not allow you to buy and sell stocks as quickly as Robinhood, but it does provide a clean, simple way to get started long-term investing. With IRA options and no fee or commission charges, M1 Finance offers a simple solution to long-term saving. 

Read Benzinga’s full M1 Finance

8. Public

Public offers a social network where you can own fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, follow others and share ideas inside a community of investors. Public makes the stock market relatable and inclusive so it's easy to collaborate as you build your confidence when you just start out with investing. Public offers:

• Stocks: You can buy stock with any amount of money, commission-free. You can own small portions of stock (fractional shares) with as little as $5.
• ETFs from Vanguard, BlackRock and others: You can own ETFs by the slice as well, without commission fees.

The bottom line: You can choose how you want to invest. Build a portfolio on your own terms by investing in fractional shares of stock or buy full shares.

You can also start or join group chats to talk about companies and trends, a really unique part of Public.

Sign up with Public today.

9. Interactive Brokers

If you’re a frequent trader who loves Robinhood’s cost-saving structure but who also needs more in the way of research tools and functionality, chances are, you’ll love Interactive Brokers.

Interactive Brokers offers some of the lowest trading fees on the market. Most users can expect to pay $0.005 per share when buying and selling, which is significantly lower than most other brokerage firms. 

Interactive Brokers’ Trader Workstation is an in-depth and comprehensive trading platform and its candlestick charts are easy to view and analyze. Interactive Brokers also offers an equally impressive mobile app, which is streamlined to mimic the functionality of the desktop Workstation. You’ll find a massive host of asset classes available, including stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, futures contracts and even forex (though this option is limited to users who hold over $10 million in assets). 

Unlike Robinhood, Interactive Brokers has been designed with the frequent, professional trader in mind with fees for inactivity and a per-share fee, Interactive Brokers isn’t the brokerage platform for traders who are looking to dip their toes into investing. However, if you’ve been day trading on Robinhood and you’re looking to take your career to the next level with better research and analysis tools, Interactive Brokers may have what you need to up your game. 

Read Benzinga’s full Interactive Brokers Review.

10. Tradier

Tradier provides financial platforms with trading, account management and market data for Tradier Brokerage accounts. Tradier Brokerage also works with platforms to identify customer offers that provide a compelling value proposition to current and future customers. This solution offers value to a wide array of equity and option platforms and traders.

Tradier also allows you to explore a rapidly expanding list of intergrated trading platforms developed by motivated third parties. You can select the one that works best for you or modify or create new features and platforms.

You can tap into streaming APIs at your fingertips which help you build both simple and complex equity and option orders with an easy-to-use interface. Tradier connects with renowned tool and platform providers to give investors many options.

What is Robinhood?

Robinhood is a free stock trading mobile app and desktop platform that’s notable because it offers no-commission trading. Robinhood lacks the full-service trading platform and desktop offered by most major brokers but offers an easy-to-understand and aesthetically pleasing free alternative to larger brokerage firms. Robinhood’s paid account, Robinhood Gold, gives you access to pre- and post-market trading as well as options to trade on margin in exchange for an account maintenance fee.

Robinhood Gold requires a minimum account balance of $2,000. With a $0 account minimum for regular taxable accounts and over 3 million brokerage accounts that currently operate from its platform, Robinhood has proven itself to be a powerful new force in the investing sphere. Read Benzinga’s full Robinhood Review

Why Robinhood Might Not Be Right for You

Consider opening an account with a Robinhood alternative if you’re looking for any of the following features Robinhood lacks:

Analytics and Tools

The best online brokerages want their traders to succeed, so they often offer a large library of trading resources and educational tools to help newcomers make profitable trades. Robinhood’s straightforward and simple platform comes at a price — it lacks a large number of trading analysis tools. Robinhood allows you to create watchlists and view real-time market data but offers very little in the way of trading education, which is an interesting choice considering that Robinhood’s target audience is young investors, many of whom are eager to learn.

Candlestick Charting Options

Though Robinhood’s interface focuses on clean design and aesthetics, its candlestick charting options are difficult to view on mobile. Robinhood uses the standard green and red candle scheme similar to other brokers, but shadows are difficult to see on Robinhood’s white mobile background. Additionally, you cannot adjust candle periods to minutes or hours like on most other platforms.

Tax-Efficient Accounts

If you want to save for retirement or open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), start saving with a different broker. Robinhood offers only individual taxable accounts, and you cannot open an IRA or solo 401(k) through Robinhood.

Mutual Fund Purchasing Options

You cannot purchase mutual funds through Robinhood’s platform.

What to Look For in a Robinhood Alternative

If you enjoy Robinhood’s basic functionality but are looking for a little more substance from your brokerage platform, consider looking for the following features:

Low Trading Fees

Though it’s hard to beat Robinhood’s $0 trades, there are a number of brokerages that allow you to buy and sell stocks, bonds, and ETFs for less than $7 a trade. Some brokerages also allow you to invest in mutual funds or index funds with no commission.

An Easy-To-Understand Platform

The best brokerage account in the world is useless if you can’t operate it. Before you commit to a broker, check out a few YouTube tutorials detailing how to use the app or online trading platform to make sure that you’re comfortable with its format. The best investing apps don’t limit functionality to their mobile platform; they offer complete desktop services in an easy-to-understand mobile format.

IRA Compatibility

If you’re looking to purchase stocks for long-term holding, you’ll want to minimize your tax liability by opening a traditional or Roth IRA instead of a taxable brokerage account like the ones that Robinhood offers as its only account type.

Automated Investing

Are you the type of investor who knows you want to save for retirement but aren’t sure where you should be putting your money? Robo-advisors offer low fees and commissions and are an inexpensive way to begin saving for retirement, your first home purchase, a child’s college fund or any other future financial goal.

Invest Online Today

For simple stock trading, few apps are able to fully mimic the free structure that Robinhood offers; if you’re trying to get serious about your trading, you’ll want to choose a more fleshed-out broker who offers market news, data, and analysis tools so you can continue to make informed trades. These features usually come along with a price tag in the form of commissions and fees, so make sure you do your research before you choose an account and brokerage firm. If you’re only interested in low-cost investing, choosing a robo-advisor or automated trading platform can be a simple and low-cost way to introduce yourself to various savings options.

Frequently Asked Questions