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11 Best Stock Apps of April 2024

The best apps to buy stocks offer free trades, powerful mobile trading platforms and high user ratings. Below are our picks for the best stock apps.

Alana Benson
By Alana Benson 
Edited by Arielle O'Shea

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.


The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

The mobile stock-trading field exploded after Robinhood's early success: Online brokers have clamored to up their game and improve their stock apps to compete with a rise of newcomers.

All of that is good news for consumers: The best stock apps now nearly mirror powerful desktop and web platforms, with advanced functionality, analysis tools, research and watch lists. They also offer completely free stock trades, low or no account fees and no minimum investment. Some, like Webull and SoFi Active Investing, don't charge options contract fees, either.

If you're looking to place trades on the go, review our list of the best apps to buy stocks below. You'll note that many of these come from established online brokers — that's because these companies tend to offer apps with the most well-rounded capabilities for stock and options traders.


Why you can trust NerdWallet's picks: Our writers and editors together have more than 50 years of experience writing about finance, and follow strict guidelines to maintain editorial integrity. We do a deep, independent analysis of dozens of investment firms, sorting through the details to find and evaluate the information investors want when choosing an investing account. To see our full methodology and learn more about our process, read our criteria for evaluating online brokers.
🤓Nerdy Tip

The stock market continues to hit record highs in 2024. As of Feb. 29, 2024, the S&P 500's 1-year total return is over 30%.

Best Stock Apps

NerdWallet rating 

4.1

/5
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing
Learn more

on J.P. Morgan's website

Fees

$0

per trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Get up to $700

when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money.

NerdWallet rating 

4.9

/5
Charles Schwab
Learn more

on Charles Schwab's website

Fees

$0

per online equity trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

None

no promotion available at this time

NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5
Fidelity
Learn more

on Fidelity's website

Fees

$0

per trade for online U.S. stocks and ETFs

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

None

no promotion available at this time

NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5
Webull
Learn more

on Webull's website

Fees

$0

per trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Get up to 75 free fractional shares (valued up to $3,000)

when you open and fund an account with Webull.

NerdWallet rating 

4.3

/5
SoFi Active Investing
Fees

$0

per trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Up to $1,000

in free stock for users who sign up via mobile app

Want to compare more options? Here are our other top picks:

Compare top stock apps

How do the best stock apps compare across the most important categories? Fidelity, Ally and Webull ranked particularly well for customer service and fees.

Best overall

Fidelity

Fidelity offers $0 trading commissions, a selection of more than 3,300 no-transaction-fee mutual funds and top-notch research tools and mobile platform.

Best for customer service

Fidelity

Phone, email and live chat 24/7; more than 200 local branches.

Ally

24/7 by phone, email and chat.

Best for account fees

Fidelity

None.

Webull

None.

Note: These brokers scored five stars in these specific categories, but their overall score above may be different.

Deciding which stock app is best for you

This Nerdy video discusses the key features you should consider when evaluating stock apps, including your trading style.

Video preview image

Frequently asked questions

What is the best stock app for beginners?

Most of the brokers on our list of the best brokers for beginners also show up here, including SoFi Active Investing, E*TRADE, Fidelity and Charles Schwab. In general, mobile trading apps are a good choice for beginners because they're typically easier to navigate than online or desktop platforms.

What's the best app for free stock trading?

Nearly all of the apps above offer commission-free trades of U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds. The best one for you depends largely on your trading needs — for example, active traders often index heavily on the available investment options, and what type of functionality is possible on the go. If you'd prefer more education or a more advanced mobile trading platform, you may want to opt for an app from an online broker.

How does Robinhood compare to other stock apps?

Robinhood is wildly popular in the stock app world, but did not make our list here. We have a full comparison of Robinhood and its alternatives, where you can dive into more details about how Robinhood stacks up to its biggest competition. In general, Robinhood offers a streamlined, clean interface that makes it easy for even beginners to trade. Traditional online brokers tend to provide more bells and whistles, including advanced tools, stronger customer support and educational resources.

Last updated on March 1, 2024

Methodology

NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).

For more details about the categories considered when rating providers and our processes, read our full broker ratings methodology.