BEST OF
11 Best Investment Apps of 2021
You can do just about anything on your phone — including invest, thanks to a variety of investment and stock trading apps.
All of the brokers on our list of best brokers for stock trading have high-quality apps. But if mobile trading is most important to you, these investing apps are NerdWallet’s picks for the best of 2021. (Need more info to get started? Read our primer on how to buy stocks.)
You can do just about anything on your phone — including invest, thanks to a variety of investment and stock trading apps.
All of the brokers on our list of best brokers for stock trading have high-quality apps. But if mobile trading is most important to you, these investing apps are NerdWallet’s picks for the best of 2021. (Need more info to get started? Read our primer on how to buy stocks.)
Summary of Best Investment Apps of 2021
| Broker | NerdWallet Rating | Commissions | Promotion | Account Minimum | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
$0 per trade | Up to $600 cash credit with qualifying deposit | $0 | on Merrill Edge's website | ||
$0 per trade | $50 or more when opening an account, with code: WINTER21 | $0 | on E*TRADE's website | ||
$0 per trade | One free stock for new account owners | $0 | on Robinhood's website | ||
$0 per trade | None no promotion available at this time | $0 | on TD Ameritrade's website | ||
$0 per trade | Free career counseling plus loan discounts with qualifying deposit | $0 | on SoFi Invest's website |
on Merrill Edge's website
Merrill Edge
Fees
per trade
Account Minimum
Promotion
cash credit with qualifying deposit
on Merrill Edge's website
on E*TRADE's website
E*TRADE
Fees
per trade
Account Minimum
Promotion
when opening an account, with code: WINTER21
on E*TRADE's website
on Robinhood's website
Robinhood
Fees
per trade
Account Minimum
Promotion
for new account owners
on Robinhood's website
on TD Ameritrade's website
TD Ameritrade
Fees
per trade
Account Minimum
Promotion
no promotion available at this time
on TD Ameritrade's website
on SoFi Invest's website
SoFi Active Investing
Fees
per trade
Account Minimum
Promotion
career counseling plus loan discounts with qualifying deposit
on SoFi Invest's website
on Acorns's website
Acorns
Fees
per month
Account Minimum
Promotion
on Acorns's website
on Zacks Trade's website
Zacks Trade
Fees
per share
Account Minimum
Promotion
no promotion available at this time
on Zacks Trade's website
Want to compare more options? Here are our other top picks:
Disclosure: The author held no positions in the aforementioned securities at the time of publication.
Last updated on December 22, 2020
Methodology
NerdWallet's ratings for brokers and robo-advisors are weighted averages of several categories, including investment selection, customer support, account fees, account minimum, trading costs and more. Our survey of brokers and robo-advisors includes the largest U.S. providers by assets under management, plus notable and/or emerging players in the industry. Factors we consider, depending on the category, include advisory fees, branch access, user-facing technology, customer service and mobile features. The stars represent ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Ratings are rounded to the nearest half-star.
To recap our selections...
NerdWallet's Best Investment Apps of 2021
Frequently asked questions
Shockingly little. Thanks to micro-investing apps like Acorns and Stash, you can kick-start an investment portfolio with small amounts of money — just your spare change, in fact. Acorns, for example, sweeps a linked credit or debit card account, rounds up purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the change. Stash offers a similar opt-in feature that rounds up purchases to deposit money in a user's account.
Beyond the micro-investing apps, the amount of money you’ll need to begin investing after you open your account depends on the assets you intend to buy. Individual stock shares range from as little as a few dollars to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per share. Mutual funds often have minimums of $1,000 or more, but exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are essentially mutual funds that trade like a stock, and they can often be purchased for less than many mutual funds. Don’t forget, too, that some brokers charge trading fees every time you buy or sell an investment. The good news there is that many brokers now offer free trades.
Many of NerdWallet’s picks for best apps have account minimums of $5 or less, so you can open an account right away and over the internet. Here’s more on what a brokerage account is and how to open one.
In the summary table above we’ve categorized our best investing apps based in part on price (trading costs and account fees), mobile platform features and account minimums.
For new investors, working with a robo-advisor is a nice solution. Robo-advisors, like Acorns, build and manage portfolios for you so you don't have to choose any investments yourself.
While the idea of buying individual stocks might be exciting, building a portfolio of stocks requires a fair amount of research and discipline. ETFs offer instant diversification in that they contain shares of multiple companies (dozens, even) like a mutual fund, but trade like individual stocks. (Check out this full explainer on ETFs.)
If buying individual shares of companies is something you’d like to do, see our guide on How to Buy Stocks.
The mobile trading experience varies by broker — and so do the range of available assets. Among the picks for best apps, Acorns offers only ETFs, while TD Ameritrade’s offerings include individual stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, options and currency (or forex).
Just as FDIC insurance insures bank accounts, SIPC insurance insures the money you have in your brokerage account (or robo-advisor account) up to $500,000. $250,000 of that total can be applied to protect cash that you haven’t yet invested. All of NerdWallet’s picks for best apps are members of the SIPC.
However, it’s important to note that investments you make in your account can potentially fall in value or even decrease to zero, and investment losses are not covered by any type of insurance. (Here’s more on SIPC insurance and what it does and doesn’t protect.)
